Product Hunt Alternatives: 13 Launch Platforms Compared on Links, Price and Wait Times

Product Hunt is still the biggest launch day on the internet for new tech products. It's also free, crowded, and its links to your site are nofollow. That's why most founders now launch in more than one place, and why "Product Hunt alternatives" lists are everywhere. Most of those lists are names and logos. This one is a comparison: for each platform we checked the domain rating, the link a listing actually gets, the price, and how long the free queue really is.

We track 15 launch platforms on DirPilot. One has closed submissions and has no data worth comparing, which leaves Product Hunt plus 13 alternatives. Here's how they stack up, which ones fit which kind of product, and how to combine a few of them into one launch.

How we compared them

Everything below comes from the records behind our launch platform pages, last verified on 9 October 2026:

• DR is Ahrefs' Domain Rating, a 0 to 100 score for the strength of a site's backlinks. It describes the platform, not the page your product gets.
• Link is the rel attribute on the link from a real listing back to the product, checked on live listing pages between 6 and 8 October 2026 where we could. Where we couldn't, we say whose claim it is.
• Price and wait come from each platform's own pricing, FAQ and submit pages at the same time. Prices change often, so check before you pay.

Disclosure: one of the platforms, LaunchIt, is DirPilot's sister site and shares its founder. We've held it to the same checks as the others.

The comparison at a glance

Two patterns stand out. First, most platforms now tie the followed link to something: upvotes, a ranking, a badge on your site, or a paid tier. Second, the free queues are long. If you want to launch on several platforms in the same month, you need to book the free ones months ahead, or pay.

Is Product Hunt still worth it?

For most tech products, yes. Nothing else on this list brings the same launch-day audience of founders, investors, early adopters and journalists, and a good placement still carries weight in a pitch deck. Launching is free, you can schedule it up to 30 days ahead for 12:01 AM Pacific time, and the official launch guide and help center are worth reading in full.

What it won't give you is link equity. The visit links on product pages carry rel="ugc", which Google treats like nofollow (see Google's guide to qualifying outbound links). It also rewards preparation: a 240×240 thumbnail, at least two 1270×760 gallery images, a description of up to 260 characters, and someone from the team in the comments all day. Featuring on the homepage is at the team's discretion, though unfeatured posts still appear in the All feed.

So treat Product Hunt as your audience day, and use the platforms below for the parts it doesn't cover: more days in front of people, niche audiences, and followed links.

If you want a free followed link

What Launched Today (DR 70) is the most generous on paper: its pricing says the free Standard Launch includes a lifetime do-follow backlink once you're through the standard queue. A Premium Launch (27 euros, about $30) only buys you an immediate date. We haven't confirmed the link on a live listing yet, so check yours once it's up.

Uneed (DR 76) gives a do-follow link to free launches that reach an upvote score of 20 on launch day; below 10, the launch is unpublished. The free line assigns a date up to five months out. Fast-track ($14.99) gets a slot in about two weeks with a lower threshold of 10, and Skip the line ($29.99) lets you pick the date and guarantees the link. We confirmed the followed link on a sample of recent launches.

Fazier (DR 84) has the highest DR among the alternatives. The free Basic launch is reviewed and listed within 30 days and requires a link back to Fazier from your homepage or footer. The listing we checked linked dofollow, but Fazier's own pricing only promises the backlink on paid tiers: Lite ($29) for the top 3 products of the day, Premium ($49) guaranteed.

LaunchIt (DR 54), our sister site, gives every listing a permanent page and, by its own account, a permanent dofollow link. The free launch requires LaunchIt's badge on your site and the earliest free slot is about two months out; Premium ($14.99, once per product) launches as soon as the next day without the badge.

If your audience is developers

Dev Hunt (DR 66) is an open-source launchpad for developer tools: APIs, SDKs, CLIs, open-source projects and the like. A new batch launches each week and developers vote with a GitHub or Google login. Free listings get a queued week and a nofollow link; a $19 launch lets you pick the week and adds a newsletter spot and a dofollow link.

Peerlist (DR 77) is a professional network for people in tech, and its Launchpad runs weekly from Monday. Projects are ranked on upvotes, comments, views and traction, and shown in random order on Monday and Tuesday. Launching is free with a verified personal profile, but only the top 5 of the week get a backlink, so treat it as an audience play. Launch from a personal profile, not a company page.

Earlyhunt (DR 66) is a weekly launch board for AI tools and early-stage products, live from Monday 8:00 UTC for seven days. Free launches need a link to Earlyhunt on your site and get a nofollow link unless they finish in the weekly top 3; the $19 Premium launch guarantees a dofollow link and skips the queue. Reviews take one to two days.

If you're early and want signups

BetaList (DR 77) is built for pre-launch and newly launched startups looking for early adopters. Every submission is paid and reviewed by an editorial team; startups that aren't selected get a full refund, and plan prices appear at the end of the submission form. Accepted startups are featured on the timeline for a day, with a do-follow link that goes through a redirect. If you're pre-launch, submitting now means you can be featured again when you launch.

Launching Next (DR 55) has published new startups and side projects since 2013 and says it has featured more than 45,000. Submitting is free and reviewed by people every day; a $99 upgrade gets you considered within one business day. Our records list the link as dofollow, but we haven't confirmed it on a live listing yet.

If you'd rather pay to skip the queue

TinyLaunch (DR 74) calls itself a Product Hunt alternative for indie makers. Free launches wait about four weeks and get a nofollow link unless they finish in the top 3 and embed TinyLaunch's badge; the $39 Premium launch skips the queue and guarantees a followed link.

BetaPage (DR 53) now redirects to PitchWall, a daily launch board for AI and tech products. Free launches wait 30 days or more for one day on the homepage; Pro ($49) waits about two weeks for two days, and Premium ($99) lets you pick the date. Its submit page promises a do-follow backlink on every tier, but the free listings we checked linked through a nofollow redirect, while featured listings linked directly.

Today Launches (DR 25) is a small daily directory of new SaaS tools. The free queue is two to three months; Instant Launch ($35) skips it. Its pricing page says free launches get a no-follow link, yet the listings we sampled linked without nofollow, so we can't say which you'll get. At DR 25, it's a low-cost extra rather than a priority.

If you want feedback more than links

LaunchLog (DR 19) is a "roast and build in public" site: you add an idea or product, get a deliberately harsh AI review and an analysis of your audience and pricing, and join a vote-ranked leaderboard that can show revenue if you connect Stripe. Every link we checked was nofollow and there's no way to get a followed one, so use it for the feedback.

A word on paying for "dofollow backlinks"

Many of these platforms sell a followed link as part of a paid tier. Google asks sites to mark paid placements with rel="sponsored", and its spam policies treat buying links meant to pass ranking credit as link spam. In practice, a paid launch is a placement: you're paying for a date, homepage time and an audience, and you can't count on the link carrying weight with Google. Judge a paid tier by the visibility it buys, and treat any link as a bonus. Our guide to submitting to directories without hurting your SEO goes into where the line sits.

How to combine several platforms into one launch

You don't need all 14. Four to six that fit your product, spread over a few weeks, will usually do more than a scattered month of submissions. A workable plan:

1. Three to five months out: join the long free queues you care about. Uneed's free line can take five months, Today Launches two to three, LaunchIt about two.
2. Four to six weeks out: submit to the shorter queues, such as Fazier (up to 30 days), TinyLaunch (about four weeks) and PitchWall (30 days or more). Add the badges or links that Fazier, Earlyhunt and LaunchIt require for free launches, and check that they still work after any site redesign.
3. Two weeks out: prepare one set of assets in every size you'll need. Our free launch asset kit turns your logo and screenshots into Product Hunt's thumbnail and gallery sizes, plus the other sizes directory forms ask for, in one go. Write a short description and a longer one you can adapt.
4. Launch week: schedule Product Hunt for your strongest day, and line up the weekly boards (Peerlist, Earlyhunt, Dev Hunt) for the same or the following week, so each audience gets your full attention.
5. After the launch: check that every listing is live and links where you expect. Our free dofollow link checker reads the link on any listing page. Then look again after a month to see which listing pages Google has indexed.

If launch platforms are one part of a wider plan, our directory shortlist builder picks the directories that fit your product, and our article on dofollow and nofollow across 246 directories explains which link types to expect elsewhere.

We also run a launch board of our own, the Hangar: free with a badge on your site, with your launch 30 days after check-in, or $9.99 to pick your date. Its links are nofollow, so it's for visibility rather than SEO.

Questions founders ask

Are Product Hunt links dofollow?

No. The visit links on Product Hunt product pages carry rel="ugc", which Google treats as a hint not to pass ranking credit, much like nofollow. Product Hunt is worth it for the audience, not the link.

Which Product Hunt alternative gives a free dofollow link?

What Launched Today says its free launch includes a lifetime do-follow link. Uneed gives one to free launches that reach 20 upvotes, and LaunchIt to every listing with its badge in place. Several others link dofollow only for top-ranked or paid launches. Always check the link on your own listing once it's live.

How many launch platforms should I use?

Four to six that match your product and audience is plenty for most launches, timed over a few weeks. More platforms means more forms and badges for diminishing returns.

Do launch platforms help SEO?

A little, when the link is followed and the listing page gets indexed. Their bigger value is the launch-day visitors, the feedback and being found later by people browsing the platform.

Is BetaPage still running?

Its domain now redirects to PitchWall, which runs a similar daily launch board with free and paid tiers. Our BetaPage page tracks what changed.