Product Hunt alternatives: launch spike vs lasting listing

• A spike

  A launch board puts you in front of its audience for a day or a week, ranked by votes. You get visits, feedback and sometimes a first customer. When the week ends, newer launches push you down and the visits stop. Every launch board in the table below is spike-first.

• A lasting listing

  A listing is a page that stays up and gets found while people search, compare tools or ask an assistant. It sends less on day one and keeps sending. Most launch boards leave a page behind too, but the link on it is often nofollow unless you pay, which is why the table below has a column for it.

• You can do both

  They are not competing for the same slot. A launch is an event; a listing is a page. The full list of lasting places, in the order to do them, is in where to submit your startup.

• Your Product Hunt launch went badly

  Do not relaunch there straight away: a second launch starts with everyone who saw the first, so save it for a real update. Put the product somewhere lasting first, so search keeps finding it, then pick one smaller board whose audience matches the product. Show HN if it is technical and ready to try, DevHunt if it is a developer tool.

• You are indie and have no network to rally

  Avoid boards where the link or the placing depends on votes you cannot bring. Show HN rewards a product people can try right now, not a following, and Peerlist Launchpad is a weekly room of other builders. Then add listings, which need no votes at all.

• You want lasting SEO, and pages AI assistants can cite

  Pick places where the page lasts and the link is do-follow without a fee or a badge. In the table that is one row, this directory. BetaList is paid and its link goes through its own redirect; DevHunt’s and MicroLaunch’s are do-follow on a paid launch. For assistants, a page that renders without JavaScript and a catalogue they can query beat a busy launch day.

• It has to be free, with no badge toll

  Show HN, Peerlist Launchpad, Launching Next, SaaSHub and this directory ask for nothing on your site. Uneed’s free line asks for upvotes instead: a score of 10 to stay published and 20 for the do-follow link. Fazier’s free tier requires a backlink to Fazier on your homepage or footer.

Checked by hand on 30 September 2026, against each site’s own pricing, FAQ and submit pages, and by reading the rel attribute on real listing links. Show HN’s figure is the first 30 links on its Show page that day. AlternativeTo is left out because its pages refused our checks that day, so its link could not be read; we will re-check it and add the row once its link can be read. Prices and link rules change without notice: check the rel yourself before you pay anyone.

• What it is

  A free, worldwide directory of indie products and the people building them, organised by country, category and funding stage rather than by launch date. A product listed a year ago is as findable as one listed this morning.

• What a listing gets you

  A permanent page of its own with a do-follow link to your site. No fee, now or later. No badge asked for: the badge exists after you are listed, is optional, and changes nothing about your listing. Every submission is reviewed before it appears.

• Readable by AI assistants

  The same catalogue is queryable over MCP and an open JSON API that needs no key, and the site publishes an llms.txt. A listing is something an assistant can fetch and cite, not only a page a person browses. Nobody can promise you a mention, including us.

• When not to use it

  When you need a crowd this week: this is a lasting listing, not a spike. When you want to buy a position: rank comes from what visitors do, and sponsorship sits beside the listings, never in them. And when the product is not yours or not independent: it is for independent builders and their own products.

• WhatAreYouBuilding.AITHIS SITE

  Use it if you build independently and want one lasting page with a do-follow link, found by people browsing your category or country and by assistants over MCP.

  Skip it if you need a crowd this week, or the product is not yours to list.

  List your product
• Show HN

  Use it if the product is technical, works without a signup wall, and you can stay in the thread all day answering questions.

  Skip it if it is a waitlist, a landing page, or a consumer app with nothing for engineers to poke at.

  Show HN guidelines
• DevHunt

  Use it if you built a developer tool and can either wait for the free queue or spend $49 for a chosen week and a do-follow link.

  Skip it if your users are not developers, or you need the link to count and will not pay.

  Visit the site
• Uneed

  Use it if the product shows its value in seconds and you can pull in upvotes on the day: the do-follow link on the free line needs a score of 20.

  Skip it if you have no one to ask for votes and will not pay $14.99 or $29.99 to change the terms.

  Visit the site
• Peerlist Launchpad

  Use it if you want other builders to see the work, and a project that stays on your professional profile afterwards.

  Skip it if SEO is the goal: the link is ugc, and launching needs a verified profile first.

  Visit the site
• MicroLaunch

  Use it if a 30-day window of exposure suits you better than one day, and $49 is in the budget.

  Skip it if you are looking for a free launch: none is listed.

  Visit the site
• Fazier

  Use it if you are paying anyway: Premium guarantees the do-follow link and asks for nothing on your site.

  Skip it if you wanted the free tier without strings: it requires a backlink to Fazier on your homepage or footer, which is a badge toll.

  Visit the site
• BetaList

  Use it if you are close to launch, want early adopters on a waitlist, and are happy to pay for a chance at a feature (refunded if not selected).

  Skip it if you need a free option: there is none, and each startup is generally featured once.

  Visit the site
• Launching Next

  Use it if you want one more free place a new startup is recorded, and you are fine waiting for review.

  Skip it if you are after the link: it is nofollow.

  Visit the site
• SaaSHub

  Use it if the product is released and you can name the competitors buyers compare it with: that is how SaaSHub files you.

  Skip it if you are pre-launch (waitlists are rejected) or you need the link to be do-follow.

  Visit the site

• Do Product Hunt alternatives help with AI search?

  A launch day, on its own, barely does. Assistants answer broad questions from what they learned in training and narrow ones from pages they fetch, and a launch page one week later is one of thousands. What helps is a page that stays up, says plainly what the product does, renders without JavaScript, and sits in a catalogue an agent can query. More in how AI assistants find your product.

• Should I launch and list?

  Yes. A launch is an event and a listing is a page, so they do not compete for the same slot. Do the listing first: the launch sends people looking for you, and a lasting page is where they land after the week ends.

• Do links from these sites help SEO?

  Only do-follow links pass ranking value. Product Hunt marks the maker’s link ugc, which search engines treat much like nofollow, and so does Peerlist. Several boards make the link do-follow only when you pay or collect enough votes; the "SEO link" column says which. Here is how to check any site yourself.

• Is a smaller launch board worth it?

  Usually, if its audience is yours. A smaller board sends fewer visitors than a good Product Hunt day but a more specific crowd: developers on DevHunt and Show HN, other builders on Peerlist. Pick one that matches the product rather than doing all of them in a week.

• What is a badge toll?

  A "free" listing that goes live, or becomes do-follow, only after you put the site’s badge or link on your own homepage. It is a link swap presented as a gift. Ask one question: would the listing be any different if you never added the badge? If yes, the badge is the price.

• When should I skip this directory?

  When the goal is a launch-day crowd, when you want paid placement inside a ranking, or when the product is not independent. It is a lasting listing for independent builders, and it says so.

• Where to submit your startupThe full list of lasting places, doable in one afternoon.
• How to check if a link is do-followA 2-minute check before you submit anywhere.
• Indie Builder Launch PlaybookThe whole sequence: prep, launch week, and the 30 days after.
• How to launch a SaaS productThe order to do things in for a product you charge for.
• How to launch an appThe six weeks around shipping a mobile app.
• How AI assistants find your productGetting recommended by ChatGPT, Claude and others.
• Marketing for appsWhat to do once the launch day is over.
• How to validate a product ideaThe step before any of this, if you are not sure yet.
• What an indie builders directory isWhat these places are for, and what a listing is worth.
• All guidesThe rest of the writing about getting found.