Square Town vs Link for a Dollar: two $1 squares, one with rules

The nearest thing to a twin at the $1 price. The differences are all in what happens after you pay.

Link for a Dollar (linkforadollar.com) is a permanent public grid of 1,000,000 squares at $1 each: you place a logo or your initials with a brand name and link, browse by category, and verify ownership with an email on your domain. Square Town (square.pov.town) is a favicon wall: $1 buys one 1×1 square on a live 3D grid, Square Town fetches the favicon from your URL, and anyone can evict you for double. The difference is a permanent, verified directory versus a wall with a game loop.

At a glance#

Link for a Dollar facts are as of August 2026 from our competitor snapshot.

What Link for a Dollar does well#

Verification. Proving you own the domain via an email at that domain is a real feature. It means the brand on the square is the brand that bought it, and nobody can list your company before you do. Square Town has nothing like it: anyone can buy a square for any URL, and the only proof of ownership is a secret deed URL.

Bigger blocks and bundles. $4 for a 2×2, $10 for ten squares, $25 for a 5×5. If you want a larger presence, or a bundle for a portfolio, the pricing exists. Square Town sells one size — 1×1 — at one price.

Categories. You can browse the grid by category, which turns it into a small directory. Square Town's wall is spatial only; the closest thing to browsing is the leaderboards in the side panel.

Permanent. Nobody can evict you and nothing fades. If you want to list once and forget, that is a strength.

Initials as a fallback. No logo? Use your initials. On Square Town, no favicon means a clown emoji.

What Square Town does differently#

Favicon from the URL, zero input. Paste a URL and Square Town fetches the favicon via Google's favicon service. There is no logo upload and no brand-name field. If your site has no favicon it gets a clown emoji and a public place in the Hall of Clowns until you add one — see How to add a favicon to your site in 2026 (and stop being a clown).

Every square can be taken. Anyone can evict any square by paying double its last price: $1 → $2 → $4 → $8. The Throne (the 4×4 centre) starts at $100 and doubles on each eviction. Location has a price because location can be contested.

Decay unless kissed. An icon nobody has kissed for 90 days fades to grayscale. Anyone can kiss any icon, free; kisses are public and counted. Dead sites don't get kissed, so they fade and stay cheap to evict. The wall cleans itself instead of accumulating dead links.

The wall never looks empty. Link for a Dollar had 5 of 1,000,000 squares claimed in our August 2026 check — a million-square grid with five squares on it looks empty because it is. Square Town only shows the live area: the central 16×16 at launch, growing by 8 cells in every direction each time it is 70 % full. Density is designed in.

Live and 3D. Every buy, eviction, kiss and unlock is pushed to all open browsers over WebSockets. Ctrl+drag tilts the wall into 3D, where each favicon is a tower whose height is its click count.

Analytics beyond clicks. Both count clicks. Square Town also counts views (someone opened your square's card) and kisses, per deed, and $5 one-time unlocks per-day charts. There is a public read API at /api/state for the whole wall — see Square Town API — read the wall, buy a square.

Who should pick Link for a Dollar#

• You want your brand verified so nobody can squat on it.
• You want a 2×2 or 5×5 presence, or a 10-square bundle at $10.
• You want a permanent listing with categories, and no chance of eviction.
• You'd rather show initials than fix a favicon.

Who should pick Square Town#

• You want to spend $1 and be done, without email verification or a form.
• You have several URLs and want each one visible for $1 with zero design — Square Town for indie hackers: a $1 square for every side project.
• You want a wall that is visibly full and visibly alive rather than a mostly-empty million-square grid.
• You want the position to be worth something — and are fine that someone might pay double for it.
• You want views, clicks and kisses per square, and per-day charts for $5.

Can you use both?#

Yes — $2. Link for a Dollar gives you a verified, permanent, categorised listing; Square Town gives you a live spot with a click count and a game around it. Neither excludes the other. The full field of $1 walls is ranked at Every pixel wall you can still buy a spot on, ranked (August 2026); Link for a Dollar's alternatives are at The best Link for a Dollar alternatives in 2026.

FAQ#

What does Link for a Dollar cost?#

$1 per square, with $4 for a 2×2, $10 for ten squares and $25 for a 5×5, on a permanent 1,000,000-square grid, as of August 2026.

What does Square Town cost?#

$1 per 1×1 square, one-time. There are no bigger sizes or bundles. An optional $5 one-time unlock adds per-day analytics to a deed.

Does Square Town verify that I own the domain?#

No. Square Town has no accounts and no verification; you paste a URL, pay $1 and receive a secret deed URL as the only proof of ownership. Link for a Dollar verifies via an email at your domain.

Can I be evicted from Link for a Dollar?#

No; squares are permanent. On Square Town anyone can evict you by paying double what you paid, and the Throne doubles on every eviction.

How full is each grid?#

As of August 2026 Link for a Dollar had 5 of 1,000,000 squares claimed. Square Town only shows its live area, which starts at 16×16 and grows by 8 cells in every direction each time it is 70 % full, up to 1,048,576 squares — so it never displays empty space it hasn't unlocked.

Do either of them sell backlinks?#

Square Town does not: the wall is a WebGL canvas and clicks go through a counted redirect, so there is no link equity. Buy a square for visibility, the game and the analytics. We make no claim about Link for a Dollar's markup.