The six cost buckets
A free form can still be expensive when every product starts with fresh research and repeated data entry.
Route research
Finding a current submission path and distinguishing it from ads, paid placement, or a closed form.
Eligibility review
Checking product type, stage, geography, pricing, category, and duplicate rules.
Listing kit
Preparing truthful descriptions, assets, categories, contacts, and public source URLs.
Account work
Creating accounts, confirming email, and completing owner-controlled security or identity steps.
Destination fee
Mandatory listing price, optional promotion, or a paid-only route.
Evidence and follow-up
Tracking moderation, public listing state, link presence, and later durability.
Managed service versus reusable agent
A managed service includes operator labor and is often priced per project or campaign. A reusable agent shifts browser work into the founder's environment and spreads profile preparation across owned products.
The agent still needs a maintained destination catalog and a private coordination backend. Local execution reduces account-handling cost, but it does not make route research or product support free.
Keep paid routes explicit
Do not mix a submission service price with external directory fees. Paid-only routes should be excluded from a free campaign or surfaced for separate owner authorization.
Optional featured placement is an advertising decision. It should never be purchased silently because the basic form was eligible.