How to launch on Product Hunt: submission, first hour and the rules

Launching on Product Hunt is free: sign in with a personal account, click Submit in the top right, paste your product's link, fill in the listing and schedule a date; the launch goes live at 12:01 am Pacific and gets the full day. Hunt it yourself, share the link on the day, and never ask anyone to upvote; that rule, and the ban on company accounts, are the ones that get launches flagged.

Before any of that, make sure your site can take the visitors. A Product Hunt launch sends people to your homepage all day, so the link preview, the page speed and the signup flow need to work before 12:01 am. This guide walks the submission field by field, then the day, then the rules.

How much does it cost to launch on Product Hunt?

Nothing. Product Hunt's launch FAQ answers "Is Product Hunt free?" with "Yes. Submitting a launch, commenting, and reaching Product of the Day are all free." You need a personal account with a verified email address. There is no paid launch tier, and Product Hunt treats paying for upvotes as a violation.

Its guide is explicit: "Never pay for upvotes or use services that promise them. Inauthentic upvotes are easy for us to spot, and they can get your launch removed and your account banned." Product Hunt does sell advertising, but its guide says ads are separate from the leaderboard.

How do you submit a product to Product Hunt?

Sign in with your personal account, click Submit in the top right, and paste the product's link. Product Hunt then asks for the listing details. Prepare them before you start so the form takes minutes.

1. Create your account at least a week ahead and verify its email. Product Hunt says your account "must be at least one week old" to launch a product, and that "The best launches start weeks before launch day."
2. Sign in and click Submit in the top-right corner of any page.
3. Paste the link and click Get started. Product Hunt asks for "a direct link to where people can use or download it: your homepage, an app store page, or a GitHub repo," with no link shorteners.
4. Fill in the fields below, choose your role (I made this, or I'm hunting it), add your co-makers, and choose a pricing option: Free, Paid, or Free options.
5. Save a draft, or schedule the launch from tomorrow up to 30 days ahead; it goes live at 12:01 am Pacific on that date. Scheduled launches are reviewed before they go live, so schedule only when every field is done.
6. Write your first comment in the editor's First comment box now; it is posted and pinned when the launch goes live.

The full asset list, with what to write in each field, is in the Product Hunt launch checklist.

Do you need a hunter?

No. Product Hunt's launch FAQ says "You can, and should, hunt your own product. Hunting just means posting. There's no advantage to having someone else post it for you." It also lists needing a famous hunter as a myth: "Who posts it doesn't affect ranking."

Paying for engagement, on the other hand, breaks the rules. Product Hunt's guide says "Don't pay for upvotes or comments," because bought engagement "can get your launch removed and your account banned."

When should your launch go live?

At 12:01 am Pacific Time, which is when every launch goes live: Product Hunt's guide says a launch "runs for that full day, until midnight Pacific." As for the day, Product Hunt's view is that "The best day to launch is the day you're most prepared for."

Weekdays are more competitive than weekends on the leaderboard. The guide to the best time to launch on Product Hunt converts 12:01 am Pacific to other time zones and compares two weeks of daily leaderboards.

What happens on launch day?

Your launch appears at 12:01 am, and the homepage leaderboard "moves throughout the day based on upvotes, comments, time since launch, and other signals." Not every launch is featured on the homepage; one that isn't is still live and can be found through its link and the "See all of today's products" button, where it can still collect comments and upvotes.

Spend the day on three things:

1. Check that your Maker comment went live with the launch; Product Hunt posts it and pins it at the top of the discussion. Say why you built it, who it is for and what feedback you want; its guide says "Ask for feedback, never for upvotes."
2. Share the link with your list, co-makers and your own social accounts, asking people to try it, comment and share feedback.
3. Reply to every comment. Product Hunt's launch day dashboard shows your position, points and comments through the day.

The day does not end at midnight. Product Hunt says people keep finding a launch "for days afterward," so keep replying, and if you earn an award such as Product of the Day, it emails you a badge you can add to your website.

If your launch does not reach the homepage at all, the guide to a Product Hunt launch that was not featured walks through the featuring guidelines.

Which rules get Product Hunt launches flagged?

Asking for upvotes, posting from a company account, paying for hunts or traffic, and anything that artificially inflates activity. Product Hunt's guide says "Never ask for upvotes," and its community guidelines spell out the rest along with the penalties.

The line between sharing and asking is the one people cross by accident. "We launched on Product Hunt today, we'd love your feedback" is sharing. "Please upvote us" is asking, and so is a message to a group chat with a direct request to vote. Buying votes is the extreme case, covered in buying Product Hunt upvotes.

If someone else hunts your product before you, Product Hunt's launch guide gives two options: ride the wave and relaunch later with a major update, or email hello@producthunt.com right away for help.

Is your site ready for Product Hunt traffic?

Check three things the day before: the link preview, the page speed, and the signup flow. Every visitor arrives through your launch link, so a broken card, a slow first page or a signup form that fails costs you the one visit Product Hunt sends.

1. The link preview. Paste your URL into a private chat and look at the card. It is built from your Open Graph tags; the protocol's required four are og:title, og:type, og:image and og:url.
2. The speed. Run PageSpeed Insights on the homepage and the page your Product Hunt link points to, and read the mobile result.
3. The signup flow. Click every call to action with the mouse and the keyboard, submit the signup form with test data, and put a test payment through checkout.

The wider list, including caching and error alerts for a traffic spike, is in the guide to a website ready for launch traffic.

Check your site before 12:01 am

A day before launch, run the free scan on the URL you are submitting. LaunchScaler needs only the URL and no account, and runs 156 checks across 6 of its 7 categories, including a primary call to action that does nothing, a form with no submit path, a noindex left on a live page, slow Largest Contentful Paint and Interaction to Next Paint, and missing security headers. Fix what it flags, then check the link preview by hand, since the scan does not read it.