Hacker News vs Product Hunt
The two biggest stages a product can walk onto. Different crowds, different rules. Here is the side-by-side, sources included.
| Detail | Hacker News | Product Hunt |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | Show HN is the section of Hacker News where people share things they have made that others can try. | A daily launch community where products are submitted (hunted), upvoted and ranked on a homepage leaderboard. |
| How launches work | Posts appear on the Show HN new page, then on the Show page after a small points threshold Source: Hacker News, checked 2026-10-03, opens in a new tab | Daily launches ranked on a homepage leaderboard, with Product of the Day Source: Product Hunt, checked 2026-10-03, opens in a new tab |
| Free option | Not published | Yes: launching is free ("100% free to use") Source: Product Hunt, checked 2026-10-03, opens in a new tab |
| Voting | Community upvotes; asking friends to upvote is not allowed Source: Hacker News, checked 2026-10-03, opens in a new tab | Community upvotes and comments Source: Product Hunt, checked 2026-10-03, opens in a new tab |
| Audience | The Hacker News community (makers, developers) Source: Hacker News, checked 2026-10-03, opens in a new tab | Makers, product people, entrepreneurs, investors and early adopters Source: Product Hunt, checked 2026-10-03, opens in a new tab |
| Rules | Must be something people can try; not blog posts, sign-up pages, newsletters or lists Source: Hacker News, checked 2026-10-03, opens in a new tab | Personal accounts only; makers are encouraged to hunt their own products Source: Product Hunt, checked 2026-10-03, opens in a new tab |
| Pricing model | Free | Freemium |
| Link type | Dofollow | Nofollow |
| DR (Ahrefs) | 91 | 91 |
| Search traffic (est. monthly) | 3,177,413 | 450,630 |
| AI cited | 42,235 | 4,900 |
Questions
- How do launches work on Hacker News and Product Hunt?
- Hacker News: Posts appear on the Show HN new page, then on the Show page after a small points threshold. Product Hunt: Daily launches ranked on a homepage leaderboard, with Product of the Day.
How these figures are measured
DR is Domain Rating by Ahrefs. Search traffic is an estimate of monthly organic search visits. AI cited counts answers from Google's AI features and ChatGPT (US, English) that name or cite the site; it is refreshed on the 1st of each month. ▲ / ▼ show the change since the previous check. Pricing model and link type are as each platform publishes them. Blank means not measured yet: we never estimate a missing figure.