Launch on Hacker News (Show HN)
Post a working thing with a plain title, tell the story in your first comment, be present for six hours, and accept that the front page is a lottery you can only buy tickets for.
Show HN is the opposite of Product Hunt: no runway, no supporters to queue, no images, and an audience that will read your source, find the bug, and tell you. It rewards exactly one thing — a working, interesting thing described plainly — and punishes everything that looks like marketing.
Make sure it qualifies
Write the title
Write the first comment before you post
Post and stay
Capture the day
Questions
- When should I post?
- Weekdays, roughly 7–10 am US Eastern, when US and European readers overlap. Weekends are quieter with less competition; either can work.
- Can I repost if it flops?
- HN allows a resubmission after some time if the post got little attention; moderators also run a second-chance pool for good posts that missed. Do not repost the same day.
- What counts as a Show HN?
- Something you made that people can try. Blog posts, landing pages with a waitlist, and 'coming soon' do not qualify under the Show HN rules.
Sources
The numbers above come from these pages. If a fee or date here disagrees with the source, the source wins.
See also
Launch on Product Hunt
A live Product Hunt listing with real comments, a traffic spike you captured, and a badge you can use for a year
6 weeks of preparation · $0 · 6 stepsBuild a landing page that converts
A live page with a single call to action, analytics goal tracking, and a first-week conversion baseline
1–2 days · $0–$20/month for hosting and forms · 6 steps