How to Launch on Hacker News: A Show HN Guide That Follows the Rules

To launch on Hacker News, submit a story whose title starts with "Show HN:" and links to something people can try right now: a working product, a repo, a demo. HN's Show HN guidelines rule out blog posts, sign-up pages, landing pages, newsletters and fundraisers, and say a version bump ("Foo 1.3.1 is out") usually isn't enough. Every Show HN appears on the "show new" page, and once it clears a small points threshold it's listed on the Show page in the top bar.

Most Show HNs go nowhere: the 30 newest ones we checked had between 1 and 4 points each. The ones that break out get dozens or hundreds of points, a followed link and a day of developer traffic. This guide covers what counts as a Show HN, how to write the title and first comment, what launch day looks like, and what our check of 228 HN posts showed about the link. Based on HN's guidelines and live pages, checked on 5 October 2026.

Show HN at a glance

	Show HN
Submit	news.ycombinator.com/submit, title starting with "Show HN:"
Cost	Free. There is no paid option
On topic	Things people can run or hold: software, hardware (a video or detailed article is OK), books (a sample chapter is OK)
Off topic	Blog posts, sign-up pages, newsletters, lists, landing pages, fundraisers
Barriers	Make it easy to try, "ideally without barriers such as signups or emails"
Updates	Minor versions aren't Show HNs. A major overhaul probably is
Votes	Never ask friends to upvote or comment
Where it shows	Show New immediately; the Show page after a small points threshold
Link	nofollow while a post is new. In our check, every post with 20+ points had a followed link
Typical result	The 30 newest Show HNs had 1–4 points; the Show page's breakouts had 32 to 384

What Hacker News is (for a launch)

Hacker News is Y Combinator's link-sharing site for programmers, founders and technical readers. Stories are ranked by points and age, and the front page turns over through the day. Show HN is the section where people post things they made.

For a launch it's unusual in three ways:

• There's nothing to buy. No paid tier, no featured slot, no badge. Everything rides on whether readers vote for it.
• The audience is technical and blunt. Readers try the product, read the code and say what they think in public.
• Moderators are active. They edit titles, merge duplicates, penalise vote rings and sometimes give good posts a second chance.

That makes it a poor fit for consumer apps or marketing tools, and an excellent one for developer tools, open-source projects, technical products and anything with an interesting build story.

What counts as a Show HN

HN's guidelines say Show HN "is for something you've made that other people can play with". Three tests:

1. Can someone try it in the next five minutes? If it needs a waitlist or a sales call, it's not ready.
2. Did you build it, and are you around to discuss it? HN wants the maker in the thread.
3. Is it non-trivial? The guidelines now say: "Don't post quickly-generated one-offs; anybody can do that now. Share something that is deeply personal and interesting to you. Explain how and why."

If your post is really an article about something you built, submit it as a normal story instead. If your product isn't ready to try, wait.

How Show HN posts move

Show New

Every Show HN appears on shownew, newest first. When we looked, it covered about the last 11 hours: 30 posts, with 1 to 4 points each. That's the queue every launch starts in, and where most stay.

The Show page

Once a post clears "a small points threshold", it moves to the Show page. The page we captured was split in two: 17 posts with 2–5 points, and 13 breakouts with 32 to 384 points. There was nothing in between. A Show HN either catches or it doesn't, and the first hour or two decides which.

The front page

Show HNs that keep gathering points reach the main front page, which is where real traffic comes from. A front-page post can send thousands of visitors in a day.

Second chances

Moderators sometimes put good posts that slipped through into a "second-chance pool" so they get another look. You can't request it, but it's another reason not to delete and repost.

Does a Show HN give you a backlink?

HN marks new links nofollow and removes it once a post earns enough points. We checked 228 stories across the front page, newest, Show and Show New pages on 5 October 2026:

Points	nofollow	Followed
0–2	62	3
3–5	41	0
6–9	8	0
10–19	4	8
20–49	0	17
50+	0	84

Page	Titles	nofollow
Newest	30	30
Show New	30	29
Show	30	16
Front page	30	2

The switch happens somewhere between 10 and 20 points. Every post with 20 or more points had a followed link, and almost every post under 10 was nofollow. So a successful Show HN does give you a link from one of the strongest domains on the web. An unsuccessful one doesn't.

Don't launch on HN for the link, though. The traffic, the feedback and the people who find you through it are worth far more, and you can't game your way to 20 points without breaking HN's rules.

Write the title

The format is Show HN: [Name] – [what it does, plainly]. What works on HN:

• A concrete technical description: "a local-first notes app that syncs over Git".
• First-person framing for genuine projects: "I built a…".
• A sign it's tryable: "try it in the browser, no signup".

Avoid superlatives, "AI-powered" as the main hook, and anything that sounds like an ad. Moderators edit clickbait titles, and readers skip them.

Link to the right page

Link to the thing itself: the app with a demo mode, the GitHub repo, or a page with a working playground. Not a marketing landing page with a "Request access" button.

• If it needs an account, provide a demo account or a guest mode for launch day.
• If it's open source, linking the repo is fine and often better received than a website.
• If it's hardware or a book, link a detailed video, article or sample chapter, as the guidelines allow.

The first comment

Post a comment as soon as the submission is live. It's the closest thing HN has to a product description, and readers look for it.

• Who you are, and why you built it (the real story).
• What's technically interesting: architecture, trade-offs, what was hard.
• What it doesn't do yet.
• What feedback you want.

HN readers respond to candour and technical depth. They respond badly to pitches, pricing tables and "we're excited to announce".

Launch day

Timing

Weekday mornings, US time, are a common choice, since that's when the most readers are on. More readers also means more competition, so there's no magic hour. Pick a time you can spend the next six hours in the thread.

Stay in the thread

Stay for the first 4–6 hours and answer every comment specifically. HN's guidelines ask commenters to be respectful and curious, and the best launches answer critics the same way. Thank people for bug reports, and say what you'll change.

Fix things live

If people find bugs, fix them and say so in the thread. A maker shipping fixes during the discussion is one of the most-liked things you can do on HN.

Don't solicit votes

Share the post with your community if you like, but don't ask anyone to upvote or comment. HN detects vote rings, and posts that get votes from a link (rather than from people browsing HN) can be penalised.

Common mistakes on Show HN

• Posting a landing page. If people can't try it, it's not a Show HN.
• A signup wall. Every required field loses readers. Add a demo mode.
• Marketing language in the title or first comment.
• Disappearing after posting. A thread with no maker replies dies fast.
• Arguing with critics. Answer the substance, concede where they're right.
• Reposting the next day. If it doesn't take off, ship something substantial and come back later.
• Asking for upvotes in Slack or on X. It can get the post flagged.

Pros and cons

Pros

• Free, with no pay-to-win option.
• The most technical audience you can launch to.
• A front-page post brings thousands of visitors and a followed link.
• Honest, detailed feedback.

Cons

• Most posts get 1–4 points and no traffic.
• No control over outcome, and no second try for the same thing soon after.
• Harsh comments are public and stay public.
• Poor fit for non-technical products.

Show HN vs other places to launch a technical product

Platform	Cost	Format	Followed link	Best for
Show HN	Free	Ranked by points and age	At ~20+ points (our check)	Technical products with a story
DevHunt	Free or $19	Weekly, developer votes	Paid launches	Developer tools
Product Hunt	Free	Daily, all products	See guide	Broad launches
Peerlist	Free	Weekly launchpad	See guide	Makers with a profile
Reddit	Free	Subreddit rules vary	nofollow	Niche communities

Many developer-tool founders do HN and DevHunt in the same week, and Product Hunt on a separate day.

What to expect

If it catches, you'll see a spike of visitors over a day or two, mostly developers and technical founders, a long comment thread full of feature requests and objections, and a followed link from news.ycombinator.com. If it doesn't, you'll get a few points and maybe one useful comment. Both are normal.

Either way, write down what people asked about. HN comments are a free list of the objections your landing page needs to answer.

Related

• DevHunt: weekly launches for developer tools ($19 for a dofollow link)
• How to launch on Product Hunt and is Product Hunt worth it?
• How to promote your SaaS on Reddit, the other community where self-promotion has rules
• AgentLaunch's catalog for the directories to submit to after the launch

FAQ

What can I post as a Show HN? Something you made that people can try: software, a repo, a demo, hardware with a video. Not blog posts, landing pages or sign-up pages.

Can I ask friends to upvote my Show HN? No. HN's guidelines say asking friends to upvote or comment is not OK.

How do I get on the Show HN page? Every Show HN appears on Show New. After a small points threshold, it appears on the Show page.

Is a Hacker News link dofollow? Not at first. In our check of 228 posts, links were nofollow under about 10 points and followed on every post with 20 or more.

How many points does a Show HN need to reach the front page? There's no fixed number, because ranking also depends on age. The Show page breakouts we saw had 32 to 384 points.

What's the best time to post a Show HN? Weekday mornings, US time, are common. More important is being free for the next six hours to answer comments.

Is a new version of my product a Show HN? Usually not. Minor updates aren't. A major overhaul probably is.