Where to launch a startup: Product Hunt, Show HN, BetaList and more (2026)

Launch where your buyers already spend time, pick one or two places rather than ten, and have a way to keep the people who turn up (an email list or a community) before launch day. A launch is a burst of attention, not a channel. What you keep afterwards is the list of people who signed up and what you learned from them.

This guide compares the main launch sites on their own published rules and prices, all checked on 26 October 2026, then gives a day-by-day launch-week checklist, what to do after, and the mistakes that get launches removed.

A launch is a burst, not a channel

A launch gets you attention for a short window, so its job is to start relationships, not to be your growth plan. Y Combinator's essential startup advice says "launching a mediocre product as soon as possible, and then talking to customers and iterating, is much better than waiting to build the 'perfect' product." YC also has a whole talk by Kat Manalac on how to launch (again and again), on why startups should launch repeatedly rather than betting on one big day.

That changes how you choose. Don't ask which site gets the most traffic. Ask where the people who'd pay for this already hang out. A tool for accountants won't find its buyers on a leaderboard full of AI apps; a developer tool might find them in one Show HN thread.

The work before launch day matters more than the day itself. If you haven't started customer conversations yet, read getting your first customers without ads first. Its directories section covers the Product Hunt basics; this guide goes further.

The launch sites compared

Each site rewards a different kind of product and has rules that catch people out. The table is the short version; the sections below have the detail.

Product Hunt

Product Hunt suits products people can use today, aimed at early adopters. Its guide to how Product Hunt works says its community is "made up of early adopters, makers, tech people, entrepreneurs, investors", and that "Product Hunt is free for everyone to use."

The rules that matter:

• Personal accounts only. "We don't allow company or brand accounts to post products or comment." The Launch Guide puts it more bluntly: "Company accounts are prohibited."
• Sign up early. Newly created accounts must wait 1 week before posting a product, and Product Hunt recommends joining "three months or more" ahead.
• Hunt it yourself. Product Hunt says it actively encourages self-hunting, reports that 79% of featured posts were by makers who self-hunted, and says "paying people to hunt your product goes against our guidelines."
• No asking for upvotes. "The only real rule here is that you cannot ask people directly to upvote your product. Instead, ask them to visit and comment." A maker found paying for upvotes will have the product removed, and running giveaways for upvotes or using bots can get products unfeatured or removed and makers permanently banned.
• Fit. Closed betas are "usually not a good fit" if the community can't take part.

For preparation, Prepare for your Product Hunt launch gives the exact limits: a tagline of up to 60 characters, a description of up to 500, a square thumbnail under 3MB, at least 2 gallery images (1270x760 recommended), up to 3 launch tags, and YouTube-only video. "Shortened links (e.g. bit.ly) and track links (e.g. Google UTMs) are not accepted." It also says 70% of products that reached Product of the Day, Week or Month had a first comment by the maker, so write yours in advance.

Timing: the homepage runs on a 24-hour Pacific Time cycle, the rule of thumb is to schedule for 12:01 am, and "you can schedule your launch up to 1 month in advance." For remote founders, midnight Pacific lands mid-afternoon in Bali, Singapore or Perth and early evening in Sydney, which means your busiest comment hours fall in your night. Split the shift with a co-founder. Product Hunt itself says the best day is the one you're most prepared for.

Hacker News: Show HN

Show HN suits things developers and technical readers can try immediately. The Show HN Guidelines open with: "Show HN is for something you've made that other people can play with."

What trips people up:

• Off topic: "blog posts, sign-up pages, newsletters, lists, and other reading material", and "Don't post landing pages or fundraisers." A waitlist page isn't a Show HN.
• Make it easy to try, "ideally without barriers such as signups or emails." If it isn't ready for people to try, the guidelines say don't post yet.
• It must be yours and you must be around. The project must be something you've worked on personally "and which you're around to discuss." It should be non-trivial: "Don't post quickly-generated one-offs."
• Title format. Start the title with "Show HN". Every Show HN appears on the shownew page, and once it clears "a small points threshold" it appears on the show page.
• No vote or comment requests. "Please don't ask friends to upvote or comment. That's not ok on HN."

The wider Hacker News Guidelines add: don't use HN primarily for promotion, don't post generated text and don't automate posting. The Hacker News FAQ says YC-funded startups get their launches placed on the front page, which is why you see "Launch HN" posts. If you're not in YC, Show HN is your route.

Write your opening comment yourself, explain how and why you built it, and spend the day answering questions.

BetaList

BetaList suits pre-launch and just-launched technology startups that want early adopters on a waitlist. Its Help page is clear on cost: "All submissions are paid. There is no free submission option." Prices are shown at the end of the submission form, and "If your startup isn't selected, you get a full refund automatically."

Plans differ mainly by speed and whether newsletter inclusion is guaranteed. BetaList's submission plan notes describe Lite as featured within about 14 days, Standard within about 3 days and Premium within about 1 day, and say BetaList features around 20 startups a day to a newsletter with 70,000+ subscribers. The pitch is limited to 75 characters and the description to 700, and paying requires an icon and a screenshot. Featured startups can also buy promotion from US$99 a week.

The submission criteria are where most rejections come from:

• Timing: pre-launch, private beta, or launched "ideally within the last few weeks." Products launched months or years ago are a common pitfall.
• Twice at most: each startup gets up to two features, "once pre-launch and once at launch", a few weeks apart.
• Your own landing page: hosted builders such as LaunchRock, Unbounce, KickoffLabs and Carrd, untouched templates, and free subdomains like yourapp.vercel.app are listed as pitfalls.
• A way to sign up: an email form, download button or sign-in. "Follow us on X to get notified" as the only opt-in doesn't count.

BetaList fits the "capture them first" rule well, because it's built around getting people onto your waitlist.

Uneed

Uneed suits indie and SaaS tools that want a launch day, a leaderboard and a do-follow backlink. Its pricing page lists three ways in: join the free waiting line, Fast-track for US$14.99, or Skip the line for US$39.99 to choose your own date. A relaunch costs US$15.

How It Works spells out the catch with the free route. Uneed assigns a date "at least 30 days out", and your launch needs an upvote score of 10 on launch day to stay published and 20 to keep a do-follow backlink. Below 10, the product goes back to your dashboard and can't join the free line again. Fast-track stays published whatever happens; Skip the line has no minimum score. Free submissions are moderated and can be declined; paid launches are never declined.

Launches go live daily at 12:00 am Pacific. Upvotes are weighted by each voter's multiplier, and Uneed's paid Pro plan adds to that multiplier. On cheating, Uneed says votes from batches of accounts created at once, or from a single IP address, are flagged and removed, and: "Don't buy votes: we detect it, the votes get removed, and repeat offenders get banned."

Peerlist Launchpad

Peerlist suits builders with a personal Peerlist profile who want a week-long launch. Its guide to launching on Launchpad says you need a verified profile, your project must be 100% complete or the launch will fail, and "Monday is a launch day." You can schedule for a later week if you miss one.

The Launchpad FAQ says the launch runs for a week, projects appear in random order on Monday and Tuesday, ranking combines upvotes, comments, views and link visits, "only qualitative comments are considered", and votes from verified profiles weigh more. Only individual profiles may launch, projects reported by multiple users for spam can be removed, and only the top 5 projects each week get a backlink. We couldn't find a price on these help pages.

Indie Hackers

Indie Hackers suits bootstrapped founders whose story is part of the product. Its Products page lists products and runs a daily vote called the Build Board, marked as a beta. We couldn't find published listing rules or prices, so treat it as a place to share a useful post about what you built and learned.

Subreddits

Subreddits can reach a niche audience directly, but each one sets its own rules on self-promotion, so we don't summarise any here. Read each subreddit's rules before you post and contribute well before you mention your product.

Niche directories and marketplaces

For B2B products, the best launch site is often your buyer's own corner of the internet: an industry directory, a software marketplace, a plugin repository or a partner's app listing. These rarely give you a spike, but visitors are already looking for a tool like yours. Write the listing in your buyers' words.

How to choose your one or two

Match the platform to who buys and what you can show today:

• People can try it now, and they're developers: Show HN.
• People can try it now, and they're early adopters or tech workers: Product Hunt, maybe Uneed or Peerlist as a second.
• Not open yet, but you have a real landing page: BetaList for the waitlist, then Product Hunt or Show HN when it opens.
• Your buyers work in one industry: that industry's communities and directories first, launch sites second.

Stagger them. Show HN and Product Hunt on the same day splits your attention, and both reward founders who answer every comment.

Launch-week checklist, day by day

Plan backwards from launch day, because some platforms need weeks of lead time. This assumes a Product Hunt launch as the main event; adjust for your own mix.

1. Day -30: Choose your one or two platforms. Create your personal Product Hunt account if you haven't (new accounts wait 1 week before posting). If you want Uneed's free line, join now, because its dates are at least 30 days out.
2. Day -21: Set up capture: an email signup on your site, an onboarding email, and somewhere for early users to talk to you. Check your landing page against BetaList's criteria even if you're not using BetaList; they're a good test of whether a stranger can sign up.
3. Day -14: Submit to BetaList if you're pre-launch (Lite features within about 14 days). Draft your Product Hunt assets: a tagline of up to 60 characters, a description of up to 500, a square thumbnail, at least 2 gallery images and your first comment.
4. Day -7: Schedule your Product Hunt launch (up to 1 month ahead is allowed). Tell your email list and community the date, and ask them to visit and comment, not to upvote. For Show HN, make sure people can try the product without a signup wall.
5. Day -1: Test signup on a phone and a laptop. Check that your Product Hunt link has no UTM tags or shortened URLs. Block your calendar for launch day.
6. Day 0: Go live (12:01 am Pacific is Product Hunt's rule of thumb). Post your first comment, then answer every comment and question through the day.
7. Day 1: Email everyone who signed up with a short personal note and one question. Log every piece of feedback.
8. Days 2 to 7: Book calls with the most engaged signups, fix the top two complaints, and decide whether a second platform is worth doing.

A note on votes: you can't buy or trade them under Product Hunt's, Hacker News's or Uneed's own rules. Product Hunt says you cannot ask people directly to upvote and removes products whose makers pay for upvotes. Hacker News says "Don't solicit upvotes, comments, or submissions" and penalises or bans accounts and sites that do. Uneed removes bought votes and bans repeat offenders. Upvote-swap groups and paid launch services risk your listing for a one-day rank.

What results to expect

There's no reliable benchmark for launch-day traffic, signups or conversion. Numbers you'll see quoted come from individual founders' launches, and they vary widely with the product, the audience, the day and how much groundwork came first. Product Hunt itself says many products that don't reach Product of the Day still meet their goals.

So set your own goal before launch day: signups from your target buyer, calls booked or trials started. Track signups by source. Product Hunt's before-launch guide says the same: set "measurable goals that you can work towards and evaluate your launch against."

After the launch: follow up with everyone

The launch is only worth what you do with the people it brought. Within a day or two, email every signup personally, ask what made them try it and what they hoped it would do, and offer a short call. The conversations are the point; our guide to validating a startup idea covers how to run them without leading people, and the first customers guide covers turning interest into paying customers.

Then plan the next launch. Product Hunt says you can launch "as often as you have new significant product iterations available," and its post-launch guide says that if you resubmit within 2 months you'll be asked whether it's a major update. BetaList allows a second feature at launch if your first was pre-launch, and Hacker News allows "a small number of reposts" if a story hasn't had significant attention in the last year or so. A steady drumbeat of real updates beats one big day.

If you'd like other founders to sanity-check your launch plan, request an invite to Remote Builders.

Common mistakes

• Launching everywhere at once. You can't answer comments on five sites in one day.
• No way to capture visitors. A launch without an email signup or onboarding flow is traffic you can't contact again.
• Asking for upvotes. Product Hunt and Hacker News both prohibit it; ask for comments and feedback instead.
• Buying votes or joining swap groups. Product Hunt, Hacker News and Uneed all prohibit it.
• Posting a landing page as a Show HN. Show HN needs something people can try, ideally without signing up.
• Expecting BetaList to be free. Every submission is now paid, with a refund if you're not selected.
• Letting Uneed's free launch fall below the line. An upvote score under 10 sends it back to your dashboard, and it can't rejoin the free line.
• Going quiet afterwards. Following up with every signup is where the launch pays off.