How do I post my product on Hacker News?
Post it as a Show HN, a story whose title begins with "Show HN", once people can try what you made. The Show HN rules say it is for something you have made that other people can play with, and rule out landing pages, sign up pages, blog posts and fundraisers. The guidelines say not to solicit upvotes or comments, and not to use the site primarily for promotion. The FAQ says submissions, accounts and sites that ask for votes are penalised or banned, and allows a small number of reposts only when a story has had no significant attention in the last year or so. None of the three pages names a fee.
What Hacker News says, in its own words
Three short pages hold the rules, and none of them carries a date.
Show HN is for something you've made that other people can play with. HN users can try it out, give you feedback, and ask questions in the thread.
Please make it easy for users to try your thing out, ideally without barriers such as signups or emails. You'll get more feedback that way.
If your work isn't ready for users to try out, please don't do a Show HN. Once it's ready, come back and do it then. Don't post landing pages or fundraisers.
The same page lists blog posts, sign up pages, newsletters, lists and other reading material as off topic, because they cannot be tried out. It says to make a regular submission instead.
Please don't use HN primarily for promotion. It's ok to post your own stuff part of the time, but the primary use of the site should be for curiosity.
Don't solicit upvotes, comments, or submissions.
No. Users should vote for a story because they personally find it intellectually interesting, not because someone has content to promote. We penalize or ban submissions, accounts, and sites that break this rule, so please don't.
What that means if you have just launched
- You may post your own work, part of the time. One Show HN for a product that works is within the rules. Posting nothing but your own product is not.
- It must be yours, and you must be there. The Show HN rules ask for something you worked on personally and are around to discuss.
- Say plainly what it is. The tips the Show HN rules link to, written by a moderator, say to state what the project does, give the backstory in the text or a first comment, and drop any language that sounds like marketing or sales. They also say not to use your company or product name as your username.
- Write it yourself. The guidelines say not to put generated text in posts and not to automate posting.
- Do not ask for votes or comments, friends included. This is the rule with a stated penalty: the FAQ says submissions, accounts and sites are penalised or banned. The tips add that readers spot booster comments from friends and treat them as spam.
- Do not delete and repost. The guidelines say deletion is for things that should not have been submitted in the first place.
- Leave the title plain. The guidelines ask for no uppercase, no exclamation points and no saying how great something is.
Which products fit a Show HN, and which do not
Read from the Show HN rules, row by row. One row is this page's own reading, and says so.
| What you have | Show HN? | What the rules say |
|---|---|---|
| Something people can run on their computers or hold in their hands, open to try today | Yes | This is the on topic case. |
| Hardware, or a book | Yes | A video or a detailed article for hardware. A sample chapter for a book. |
| An early version that already works | Yes | It need not be complicated or look slick. |
| A product that needs an account or an email address first | Allowed, and a poor fit | The rules ask for no barriers such as signups or emails. |
| A product nobody can try before paying | A poor fit | Payment is not named. This page reads it as a barrier of the same kind. |
| A landing page, a sign up page or a fundraiser | No | Named as off topic. Come back when people can try it. |
| A blog post, a newsletter or a list | No | Reading material cannot be tried out. Make a regular submission. |
| A new feature or a version update | Generally no | Not substantive enough. A major overhaul is probably ok. |
| Something generated quickly as a one off | No | The project should not be trivial. |
If your product sits behind an account or a price, give readers a way to try it that needs neither before you post.
The numbers
Hacker News publishes few figures. These bear on a launch.
- Fee: none named. None of the three pages mentions a price for posting. Startup launches placed on the front page are one of three features the FAQ says Hacker News gives to Y Combinator, which owns it.
- Points threshold: not published. The rules say a Show HN reaches the main Show page once it clears a small points threshold, and give no number.
- Ranking. The same FAQ says the basic algorithm divides points by a power of the time since the story was submitted, and that posts by users with more karma do not rank higher. User flags and moderator action are among the other factors it lists.
- Two weeks. The FAQ says threads close to new comments after two weeks.
- Once or twice a year. How often the moderator's tips say a significantly different new version may go up as a Show HN again.
Reposts and the second chance pool
If a story has not had significant attention in the last year or so, a small number of reposts is ok. Otherwise we bury reposts as duplicates.
The FAQ does not mention the second chance pool. A moderator's post of 30 April 2021 does. Moderators and a small number of reviewers go through old submissions for ones in the spirit of the site, and software picks one at random and puts it on the lower part of the front page. The post asked readers to send in overlooked submissions, and said your own is fine but less welcome than one you came across. The choice is theirs, so do not plan a launch around it.
The tips add one step: put an email address in your profile, because the moderators sometimes send an invitation to repost.
How Sami uses it
Sami ranks Hacker News against the other channels for your product, such as Reddit, Product Hunt and directories, and says why it is in or out. No fee is named for posting, so it is weighed with the free methods, which the plan puts before paid ones.
AskSami never posts anywhere for you, never spends your money and never writes to your code. You do those things yourself. The numbers you bring back, such as points, comments and signups, become dated records. Signups and payments are tied to their source where the snippet in your product recorded one.
Questions people ask
Can I ask my friends to upvote my Show HN?
No. The Show HN rules say not to ask friends to upvote or comment, and the FAQ says submissions, accounts and sites that break the rule are penalised or banned.
Can I post a landing page or a waitlist on Show HN?
No. The Show HN rules say not to post landing pages or fundraisers, and list sign up pages as off topic because they cannot be tried out. A waitlist is a sign up page.
Is Show HN a good fit if my product needs an account or a payment?
It is allowed and it is a poor fit. The Show HN rules ask you to make the product easy to try, ideally without barriers such as signups or emails. Payment is not named, but a product nobody can try before paying fails the same test.
Can I repost my Show HN if nobody saw it?
Yes, a small number of times. The FAQ allows reposts when a story has not had significant attention in the last year or so, and buries the rest as duplicates. Do not delete the old post and submit again: the guidelines rule that out.
Can I use ChatGPT to write my Show HN post?
No. The guidelines say not to put generated text in posts. The tips the Show HN rules link to say to write the text by hand, and not to use an AI assistant for any of it, editing included.
Read next
- How do I launch on Product Hunt, and what are the rules?
- What are Reddit's rules on promoting your own product?
- Which directories should I list my new product in, and what do they charge?
- What goes in a launch plan, and in what order?
- How do I market an app with no money?
- Which distribution channel should I use for a product I just launched?
AskSami reads what you give it, all of it optional: your GitHub repository, up to 40 pages of your live site, and the screenshots, ad exports and payment exports. From that it writes an honest read of why the product does or does not sell, and a ranked plan of up to ten ways to get customers, free methods before paid ones.
Sources
- Hacker News, Show HN Guidelines. Read on 8 October 2026.
- Hacker News, Hacker News Guidelines. Read on 8 October 2026.
- Hacker News, Hacker News FAQ. Read on 8 October 2026.
- Hacker News, Tips on presenting your work in a Show HN, a comment by the moderator dang, posted 15 February 2020, edited 28 March 2026. Read on 8 October 2026.
- Hacker News, Show HN: Second Chance Pool, a post by the moderator dang, posted 30 April 2021. Read on 8 October 2026.
Checked on 17 October 2026. Every rule, price and figure on this page was read on the page it links to, on the day shown beside it above. They change, so open the source before you rely on one.