How to Launch on DevHunt: Free vs $19 Launch, Weekly Voting and the Dofollow Link

DevHunt is a weekly launchpad for developer tools only. Listing is free, but free listings get a nofollow link and a launch week assigned from the queue. A one-time $19 paid launch lets you pick the week, adds you to the newsletter and makes your link dofollow. For $49, your tool is also boosted above $19 and free launches when votes are tied, and gets its own post on X.

For a dev tool, $19 is one of the cheapest dofollow links from an active launch platform. Below is how DevHunt works, how voting runs, and what it takes to win a week. Checked on DevHunt's site and FAQ in October 2026.

DevHunt at a glance

	DevHunt
Submit	devhunt.org → Submit (sign in first)
Who it's for	Developer tools only: open-source projects, APIs and SDKs, frameworks, CLIs, IDEs, testing, DevOps, databases, auth, AI agents and MCP servers
Launch cycle	Weekly. Each week a new batch launches on the homepage
Free option	Yes. Launch week assigned from the queue, nofollow link
Paid	$19 once: choose your week, newsletter spot, dofollow link. $49: boosted on ties, plus an X post
Voting	Sign in with GitHub or Google to vote or comment
Domain Rating	65 (Ahrefs figure shown on DevHunt's homepage)
Audience	476,804 unique visitors since launch, 7,065 tools launched, 40,897 developers (DevHunt's own counters)
Winners get	Newsletter feature, social mention, winner badge
What we saw	9 of 20 tool pages followed, 11 nofollow (matches paid vs free)
Run by	John Rush and a small group of developers; the code is open source on GitHub
Ads	Homepage and newsletter sponsor slots at $149/week

What DevHunt is

DevHunt is a launchpad for developer tools, started by John Rush and a small group of developers. The platform itself is open source on GitHub, which tells you something about its audience: developers who read READMEs, try CLIs and vote with GitHub accounts. Each week a new batch of tools launches on the homepage and competes for votes until the week ends.

It's narrower than Product Hunt on purpose. Only developer tools are accepted: open-source projects, APIs and SDKs, frameworks, IDEs and editors, CLIs, testing, monitoring, DevOps, databases, auth, AI agents and MCP servers. Every tool gets a permanent page, a category listing and a place in the "best by month" archives.

How DevHunt works

The weekly queue

Free tools are assigned a launch week from the queue. Paid launches ($19 or $49) pick their week. Each week's tools appear together on the homepage, and voting runs until the end of the week.

Voting

Only signed-in developers (GitHub or Google) can vote or comment. That keeps vote counts small and real. At the end of the week the top tools are named winners and go into the Tuesday newsletter.

Sponsored slots

The sidebar and newsletter carry paid ads ("OPEN SLOT, $149/week"). They're marked as sponsored and sit outside the vote rankings.

Free vs $19 vs $49

	Free	$19 launch	$49 boosted
Launch week	Assigned from the queue	You choose	You choose
Link to your site	Nofollow	Dofollow, permanent	Dofollow, permanent
Newsletter	Winners only	Spot in the newsletter	Listed above $19 and free launches on equal votes
X post	Winners only	–	Its own post

If SEO is part of the reason you're listing, the free route doesn't give you a followed link at all, so $19 is the real entry price. The permanent tool page is useful either way: it ranks for "[your tool] alternatives" style searches, and developers browse by category.

How to submit

1. Sign in (GitHub or Google) and open your account.
2. Submit the tool with its name, website, description, logo and screenshots. DevHunt's FAQ lists exactly those fields.
3. Choose the launch: free (queue) or paid (pick your week).

What works with a developer audience:

• Lead with what it does in one line, technically. Recent launches used "Frontend freedom, without the rewrite" and "Keep terminals, agents, and your attention organized". Short, concrete, no marketing words.
• Show the code or the terminal. A screenshot of the CLI or API call beats a dashboard hero shot.
• Link the GitHub repo if it's open source. DevHunt is open source itself, and its voters reward that.
• Be clear about pricing. Each card shows Free, Subscription and so on, and developers filter on it.

How voting works and what it takes to win

Voting runs for the whole week, and only signed-in developers (GitHub or Google) can vote or comment. That keeps the counts small and honest. In the week we captured, with about 20 hours of voting left, first place had 30 votes and second and third had 4 and 3. Every card also shows impressions (2,000–3,800 for the top three).

So the bar to win a week is low if you bring your own developer audience:

• Post the DevHunt link in your project's GitHub README, Discord or Slack on launch Monday.
• Answer comments quickly and technically. Comment threads show on the card ("Pressing Ctrl+C halfway through a CLI setup should not leave the terminal broken…").
• 20–30 genuine developer votes is usually enough for the podium.

Winners are featured in the weekly email (sent every Tuesday), mentioned on DevHunt's social accounts, and get a badge for their site.

What we found on 20 tool pages

We opened 20 tool pages linked from DevHunt's homepage on 5 October 2026 and inspected the Visit website button.

Main link	Tool pages
Followed (rel="noopener")	9
nofollow noopener	11

That split matches DevHunt's own rule: free listings are nofollow, paid launches get a permanent dofollow link. GitHub repository links on tool pages were usually followed, even on free listings, but they point to GitHub, not your site.

Is DevHunt worth it?

For a developer tool, yes. The $19 launch is the one we'd pick: a permanent dofollow link from a 65-DR site, a newsletter placement and a launch week you control, for less than most directories charge for a basic listing. The $49 boost only matters if you expect a close race.

If your product isn't for developers, DevHunt will reject it. Its FAQ excludes non-developer tools, NSFW tools and fake-engagement services. Use general launch platforms instead.

Pros and cons

Pros

• A developer-only audience that tries tools.
• $19 for a permanent dofollow link and a chosen week.
• Signed-in voting keeps counts honest and small, so a week is winnable.
• Open-source platform with a public codebase.

Cons

• Free listings get a nofollow link.
• Only developer tools are accepted.
• Traffic per tool is modest outside the winners.
• The free queue doesn't say how long you'll wait.

Common mistakes on DevHunt

• Submitting a non-developer product. It gets rejected. A marketing SaaS with an API is a stretch; a developer-facing SDK is not.
• Marketing copy. Developers skip "revolutionary". Say what it does, technically, in one line.
• No repo or docs link. Developers want to see code or docs before voting.
• Launching free and expecting SEO value. The free link is nofollow.

DevHunt vs other places to launch a dev tool

Platform	Format	Cost	Followed link	Best for
DevHunt	Weekly, developer votes	Free or $19 / $49	Paid launches	Any developer tool
Show HN	Hacker News submission	Free	Not reliable	Technical products with a good story
Product Hunt	Daily, all products	Free	See guide	Broad launches
Smithery	MCP registry	Free	See guide	MCP servers
Glama	MCP directory	Free	nofollow on README links	MCP servers
SourceForge	Software directory	Free	See guide	Open source and downloads

Pair DevHunt with

• Hacker News (Show HN): the other place developers judge launches. Same week works well.
• Product Hunt: bigger and broader, daily.
• SourceForge: for open-source projects and downloadable software.
• MCP server? Also list it on Smithery, mcp.so and Glama.

After launch, tag your URL (?utm_source=devhunt), confirm the dofollow link on your tool page, and track your Domain Rating with our DR checker. AgentLaunch's catalog lists the developer-focused directories worth submitting to next.

FAQ

Is DevHunt free? Yes. Listing and a queued launch week are free, but free listings get a nofollow link.

How much does a DevHunt launch cost? $19 once to pick your week, get a newsletter spot and a dofollow link. $49 adds a tie-break boost and a dedicated X post.

How long does a DevHunt launch last? One week. Voting closes at the end of the week and the top tools are named winners.

Who can vote on DevHunt? Anyone signed in with GitHub or Google.

Who runs DevHunt? John Rush and a small group of developers. The code is public on GitHub.

Is DevHunt worth it? For a developer tool, yes. Pay the $19 if you want the dofollow link and to choose your week. Free is fine if you only want the listing and the audience.