What Is Product Hunt, and Is It Worth Launching There?

Product Hunt is a free website where makers post new tech products and the community upvotes, comments on and shares them. Each day has its own leaderboard, and the launches at the top win Product of the Day, then Product of the Week and Month.

Ryan Hoover started it in 2013, first as an email list of new products. AngelList bought it in 2016, and it still runs as its own site. Most launches are software (AI tools, developer tools, productivity apps, design tools, SaaS), and the people browsing are largely early adopters and other makers looking for what's new.

• The day runs on Pacific time. The homepage resets at midnight PT, so posting at 12:01 AM PT gives a launch the full 24 hours.
• You can schedule it. Launches can be scheduled up to a month ahead.
• The community ranks it.Launches compete on the daily leaderboard through upvotes, comments and shares. Product Hunt doesn't publish its ranking formula.
• It's free. Product Hunt's launch guidesays the site is 100% free to use; advertising is sold separately and isn't needed to launch.

Not every launch reaches the homepage. Product Hunt's team chooses which launches are Featured, and the homepage shows Featured launches by default; everything else sits behind the “All” tab.

Its featuring guidelineslook for live digital products that are useful, novel, well crafted or creative, and they rule out directories, templates, courses and waitlist-only products. Even a launch that fits isn't guaranteed a feature.

A hunter is just the account that posts the product. Product Hunt encourages makers to post their own and says a third-party hunter gives no discernible advantage. The Product Hunt hunters guide has the numbers and what paying a hunter really buys.

What does matter on the day is the maker's first comment: Product Hunt says 70% of products that won Product of the Day, Week or Month posted one.

From Product Hunt's preparing for launch guide:

• Tagline: Up to 60 characters
• Description: Up to 500 characters
• Thumbnail: Square, 240×240 recommended, under 3MB (GIFs allowed)
• Gallery: 1270×760 images; at least 2 before the gallery shows
• First comment: Posted by the maker as soon as the launch is live

The launch assets page covers how to make each one.

For a first public day, early adopters and honest feedback, often yes. As a growth channel on its own, rarely. There are more featured launches each year and fewer upvotes to go around: the median featured launch got 123 upvotes in the last 12 months, down from 180, and 32.4% finished under 100.

Launches that do well tend to arrive with people ready to try the product on the day and to say what they think in the comments. Treat the launch as one day in a longer plan, and measure it by signups and feedback, not rank. The launch strategy guide and how to launch on Product Hunt go step by step.

Product Hunt is one launch site among many. The Product Hunt alternatives page compares the main ones, and the launch directories list has nearly 200 more, with what each one asks for.

LaunchPact is a network of founders who are launching on Product Hunt. You list your launch date, find founders launching near you, and agree to back each other's launches, with a screenshot to prove every upvote. It's free to join, and nobody pays for votes.