Product Hunt alternatives where upvotes come from real people
Where to launch besides Product Hunt, what each place is good for, and why it matters who's behind the upvotes.
Eric Solodev@ericsolodev on X (opens in a new tab)· Founder of FollowX
3 min readUpdated
On this page 9 sections
Product Hunt is still the best-known place to launch. It's also crowded, and plenty of launches there lean on upvote-swap groups and "please upvote" DMs. If you've ever wondered how many of those upvotes came from people who actually tried the product, you're not alone.
So where else can you launch, and where are the upvotes real?
Why it matters who upvotes
An upvote is supposed to mean "a real person looked at this and liked it". When upvotes can be bought or traded, they stop meaning that, and three things break.
- Rankings: they stop telling anyone anything, so people pay less attention to them.
- Learning: you can't tell which support was real, so you can't learn from your launch.
- Risk: most big launch sites try to catch vote rings and paid upvotes, and can bury or remove launches that use them.
The best launch is one where every upvote is a person you could reply to.
Product Hunt
Still worth it for many products, especially consumer apps and tools with broad appeal. Go in prepared: a good gallery, a clear tagline, and people who already know your product. Don't ask for upvotes. Ask people to check it out and leave honest feedback.
Hacker News (Show HN)
Great for developer tools, technical products, and anything with an interesting build story. The audience is sharp and honest, sometimes painfully so. Friends who only show up to upvote can trip the site's voting ring detection, so post it and be there to answer questions.
Subreddits about side projects, startups or your niche can send real users. Each one has its own rules about self-promotion. Read them, take part before you post, and lead with something useful rather than a link.
Indie Hackers
Good for products built by small teams, especially if you share the story and the numbers. People there value honesty over polish.
Smaller launch boards
There's a long list of smaller launch boards and directories: BetaList for early-stage products, DevHunt for developer tools, and newer boards like Uneed, Peerlist and Microlaunch. Each can bring some traffic and a link. Quality varies, so look at recent launches before you submit. Are the comments real conversations, or the same three words under every product?
FollowX
FollowX has a public launch board where every upvote comes from a verified X profile. Not bots, not throwaway accounts. Anyone can browse it, and the people upvoting and commenting do it with their own X accounts.
That changes a few things.
- Real support: every upvote is a verified person, so a good result actually means something.
- Useful feedback: from people who build and post on X, which is often where your next users are.
- A page that lasts: your launch page stays up after the day ends. A dofollow link to your site, free while we're in early access.
Launching is free. Add our small badge to your site.
How to pick
You don't have to pick just one. A good launch stretch often looks like this.
- Launch on FollowX and share it on X, where your audience already is.
- Post a Show HN if your product is technical.
- Share the story on Indie Hackers or a relevant subreddit, following their rules.
- Save Product Hunt for when you have people ready to show up for it.
Spread them over a few days or weeks. Each launch gives you feedback you can use before the next one.
The common thread
Wherever you launch, one thing decides how it goes: people who know about your product before launch day. Build that on X first, then launch in front of people who are real.
Found this useful? Share it with someone who's growing on X.