Complete Founder Launch Playbook: 125+ Platforms (2026)

Launch Tue–Thu. Build your hunter network 2 weeks prior. Get upvotes in first hour — that's what ranks you.

Submit pre-launch for waitlist signups. Paid tier gets faster review (~48hrs vs weeks).

Strong dev community. Best for B2D or technical products. Engage with comments after launch.

Daily launches — submit early in the week. Write a punchy one-liner, it drives clicks.

Multi-day exposure is rare. Great for sustained visibility, not just a one-day spike.

Set-and-forget permanent listing. Takes 10 mins — dofollow backlink worth the effort.

One of the oldest directories — high domain authority. Good for evergreen SEO value.

Editorial features possible. Write a compelling, non-spammy description to get picked.

Unique — can also find collaborators or list your project for sale. Good community.

Curated and selective — getting listed adds credibility. Focus on product description quality.

Forces you to nail your one-liner. Treat this as a positioning exercise, not just a listing.

Fast-growing community. Early mover advantage while DR is still building — submit now.

Good for investor visibility too. Paid tier adds featured placement and extra exposure.

Low effort, permanent dofollow backlink. Worth 10 minutes of your time — just do it.

Build your maker profile before launch day. Voters follow makers they recognise — be active.

Share your revenue journey and build story, not just your product. Storytelling drives traffic here.

Highest risk, highest reward. Lead with genuine utility and be in the comments for 2 hours post-launch.

Write a technical launch post, not a sales pitch. Devs hate ads — teach something useful.

Posts get indexed fast and rank well. Write a technical article around your product's problem space.

Read subreddit rules carefully. Lead with value, mention your product second. r/SaaS and r/startups are best.

Featured to 65,000 founders every Tuesday. Submit your tool free — one of the best free launch platforms.

Hardest to get traction but highest ROI. Ask your first 10 customers to leave reviews — that unlocks visibility.

Gartner-owned — high authority. Optimise your listing copy for buyer intent keywords.

Part of Gartner network. Same listing as Capterra often syncs — submit both separately.

Also Gartner-owned. Focuses on enterprise buyers — good if you have a sales motion.

Great SEO traffic via alternative searches. List your competitors and appear as an alternative to them.

Good for product comparisons. Helps when prospects are evaluating alternatives.

Includes user reviews. Getting a few early reviews here can build credibility fast.

Tech buyer focused. Requires real user reviews — reach out to beta users to get started.

Used by tech companies listing their stack. Add your tool and engage with the community.

Popular for alternatives traffic. List all competitors so you appear in their alternative lists.

Long-running, high DR directory. Easy submission — good evergreen backlink.

Old but high authority. Editorial review process adds credibility to the listing.

Growing SaaS marketplace. Good if targeting European market — less competition than G2.

Editorial review possible — write a strong product description for best results.

Long-running directory. Low effort for a permanent dofollow backlink.

Curated tool list — clean submission, well-designed directory. Good for productivity-adjacent tools.

Comparison format — great for appearing when people search 'best X tools'.

Comparison-focused. Helps when prospects are in the evaluation stage.

Popular in dev community. Submit your GitHub repo — integrates well with open source tools.

Startup-focused curated list. Quick submission, good for founder audience discovery.

Share revenue milestones, not just product features. Milestone posts ('We hit $1k MRR') consistently go viral here.

Post on a weekday morning US time. Be in the comments immediately. One good HN day can change everything.

Best for feedback and validation posts. Don't pitch — ask for honest feedback. Much higher engagement.

Highly engaged SaaS builders. Share learnings and case studies — direct pitching gets downvoted fast.

Large general audience. Works well for business lessons and milestone posts with your product context.

Very welcoming of new launches. One of the friendliest communities for first-time founders.

Viral traffic potential if your product is genuinely novel. Hard to predict but can be huge.

Write a technical article solving a real problem — mention your tool as the solution at the end.

Posts rank quickly on Google. Publish technical content consistently to build SEO authority.

Growing dev network. Post your launch and engage with comments — team is very supportive of founders.

Be active for 30 days before your launch. Comment on other products, build reciprocal relationships.

Build-in-public daily logging. Great for accountability and getting organic followers before launch.

Active founder community. Great if your product targets no-code builders or non-technical founders.

Large YC founder community. Completing the course builds credibility — alumni network is valuable.

Write a product-focused article for publication. Gets your product in front of PM and founder audiences.

Best used to find cofounders or advisors. Secondary benefit of networking and product visibility.

Global startup community with local chapters. Good for networking and regional visibility.

Paid but worth it for growth advice. Also a good place to be listed as a mentor once you have traction.

Private network — harder to get in but strong signal for credibility with other founders.

Global reach with local chapters. Good for speaking opportunities and community visibility.

Open source your core or a related tool. Stars and forks are social proof that drives trial signups.

Needs strong organic repo traction. Focus on a compelling README and getting early stars from your network.

Great for dev integrations. List your GitHub Action or App here for direct developer discovery.

Answer questions genuinely in your product's category. Build reputation before mentioning your tool.

Used by tech teams listing their stack. Add your tool and join the discussion threads around it.

Technical content performs well here. Publish tutorials that naturally feature your product as the solution.

Fast SEO indexing. Consistent technical blogging here can drive meaningful organic traffic over 3–6 months.

Show HN posts must be genuine and useful. Be ready to engage in comments for hours after posting.

Large audience but very anti-self-promotion. Only works if you lead with genuinely useful technical content.

Massive JS developer reach. If you have a JS package, being on NPM is non-negotiable.

Python developer audience. If you have a Python library, list it here and link back to your main product.

Container distribution. Publish an official Docker image — devs trust products with good Docker support.

Marketplace for APIs. If you have an API, list it here to reach developers actively looking for integrations.

GitHub integrations — popular for library discovery. Add your repo and keep it well-maintained.

Long-running developer platform with high DR. Easy submission — good permanent backlink.

Showcase frontend projects or demos. Good for driving awareness of frontend-focused products.

Alternative to GitHub. Host a mirror repo or project here to reach the GitLab developer community.

Good for frontend and web development tools. Share tutorials that demonstrate your product in context.

Developer community on PH is active. Tag your product correctly as a dev tool to reach the right voters.

Code demo sharing. Create a live demo of your JS tool — gives developers immediate hands-on experience.

Huge merchant ecosystem. Must have a Shopify-specific use case. Reviews are critical — get 10+ before launching.

Massive user base. Optimise your store listing for search. Good reviews are essential for conversion.

Millions of WP users. Free listing with freemium model is the standard path to traction here.

Jira & Confluence integrations. Enterprise-friendly — focus on security and compliance messaging.

Slack integrations drive daily usage. Build a genuinely useful Slack integration as a growth channel.

Being on Zapier is table stakes for SaaS. It signals legitimacy and unlocks a huge automation-focused audience.

CRM integrations get in front of active buyers. Good if your product enhances marketing or sales workflows.

Huge enterprise audience but high barrier. Worth pursuing once you have enterprise customers and compliance.

Growing Notion ecosystem. Build a genuine integration — Notion users are loyal and share tools widely.

Microsoft ecosystem — large enterprise buyer audience. Requires more technical compliance but high intent traffic.

Gmail & Docs integrations. 3 billion+ Workspace users — even small conversion rates mean real volume.

Templates & plugins. Figma community is very active — publish a free template to drive product awareness.

Templates & integrations for Webflow users. Growing platform — good early mover opportunity.

Popular no-code ecosystem. If your tool can be used as a Bubble plugin, the audience is loyal and large.

Cloud solutions for enterprise. High effort but gives access to teams with pre-approved AWS budgets.

Canva integrations reach 150M+ users. Build a Canva app if there's a natural design workflow fit.

ASO (App Store Optimisation) is essential. Invest in screenshots, description and getting early reviews.

Largest Android marketplace. Lower barrier than Apple — good for getting first mobile traction quickly.

Zapier alternative. Smaller audience but easier to get featured. Good secondary automation channel.

Microsoft cloud buyers — high enterprise intent. Worth pursuing if you have enterprise compliance in place.

One of the biggest AI directories. Write a clear, jargon-free description focusing on the use case, not the tech.

Huge SEO traffic. Submit and optimise your listing for keywords like 'best AI tool for [your use case]'.

Massive AI database with strong search traffic. Categorise your tool clearly — drives high-intent clicks.

Curated by Matt Wolfe — high credibility. Being listed here is a quality signal to prospects.

Fast approvals. Submit immediately — every day without a listing is traffic you're leaving behind.

Growing directory with clean UX. Good early mover opportunity while the community is building.

Community-driven discovery. Engage with the platform after submitting to increase visibility.

Simple submission process. Takes 5 minutes — good for accumulating backlinks from multiple AI directories.

Clean, well-organised directory. Easy to browse — good UX means better discovery for your listing.

Popular with indie hackers. Good community overlap with Product Hunt — cross-promote your listing.

Large database. Submit with a strong use-case description — generic descriptions get lost here.

AI-focused site. Good for reaching early adopters who actively track new AI tools.

Emerging directory with growing SEO. Getting in early is an advantage as DR builds over time.

Good SEO traffic potential. Write a detailed description to stand out from generic tool listings.

Good backlink value. Low effort submission — part of your standard AI directory blitz strategy.

Community-driven discovery. Share your listing on social when live to drive initial engagement.

Curated AI tools. Quality matters here — ensure your product page is polished before submitting.

Growing platform. Good opportunity to get a listing while competition is still relatively low.

SEO-driven directory. Use keyword-rich descriptions to maximise the SEO value of your listing.

Part of Futurepedia ecosystem. If already listed on main site, this is a quick second backlink from same domain group.

Growing AI listing site. Part of your standard directory submission batch — takes minutes.

Small niche directory. Minimal traffic but adds to your backlink count — include in batch submissions.

General AI listing. Ensure consistent NAP (name, URL, description) across all directory submissions.

AI discovery site. Include your best use-case screenshot — visual listings get more clicks.