Product Hunt

What is Product Hunt

Product Hunt is an online community and discovery platform that allows users to share and find new technology products. Founded by Ryan Hoover in 2013, it has become a go-to destination for tech enthusiasts, investors, and makers to see the latest creations in software, hardware, and mobile apps. The core of the platform is a daily leaderboard where new products are submitted and ranked by the community through upvotes. This system helps the best products gain visibility. The company was acquired by AngelList in 2016 and continues to operate as a key hub for product launches and tech discussions. Its main purpose is to surface great products and connect the people who build them with the people who use them.

Product Hunt Features

• Daily Product Listings: Every day, a new list of products is featured on the homepage. Users can browse, discover, and learn about new tools and technologies.
• Upvoting and Commenting: The community drives discovery. Users can upvote products they like, pushing them higher on the daily rankings, and leave comments to provide feedback or ask questions directly to the founders.
• Product Launches: For makers and startups, Product Hunt is a powerful platform to launch a new product. A successful launch can bring significant traffic, user feedback, and media attention.
• Collections: Users can create and share curated lists of their favorite products. This is useful for organizing tools by category, such as 'Best Marketing Tools' or 'Productivity Apps'.
• Discussions: A forum-like section where the community can ask questions, share knowledge, and discuss topics related to technology, startups, and product development.
• Jobs Board: A dedicated section for finding job opportunities within the tech industry, often at the same companies that launch on the platform.
• Founder Club: A premium membership program for founders and makers that provides deals on software, mentorship opportunities, and access to a private community.

Product Hunt Pricing Plans

Product Hunt's core features for discovering and discussing products are free for all users. The platform's revenue comes from services aimed at makers and companies. There are promotional packages available for companies that want to increase the visibility of their launch, such as featured spots on the homepage or in the newsletter. Additionally, there is a premium subscription called Founder Club, which is a paid membership for entrepreneurs. This plan offers access to a private community, mentorship, and significant discounts on various SaaS tools.

Product Hunt Free Plan

Yes, Product Hunt offers a robust free plan. In fact, the primary experience of the platform is completely free. With a free account, you can browse and discover all products, upvote, comment, create collections, and participate in discussions. You can also submit a product for consideration to be featured on the platform at no cost. The limitations are mainly for makers who want additional promotional tools or access to the exclusive Founder Club benefits.

How to use Product Hunt

For Discovering Products:

1. Create an Account: Sign up for free using your email, Google, or social media account.
2. Browse the Homepage: Visit the homepage daily to see the top-ranking new products.
3. Explore Categories: Use the category filters to find products in specific areas like AI, Productivity, or Marketing.
4. Engage with the Community: Upvote products you find interesting. Read the comments to see what others think and ask the makers questions.
5. Create Collections: Save and organize your favorite products into personal lists called Collections to refer back to later.

For Launching a Product:

1. Prepare Your Launch Assets: Create high-quality images, a compelling tagline, a good description, and a video for your product page.
2. Submit Your Product: Go to the 'Submit' page and fill out all the details about your product. You can schedule your launch for a future date.
3. Engage on Launch Day: Once your product is live, be active in the comments section. Answer questions, thank users for their feedback, and share insights about your product.
4. Promote Your Launch: Share your Product Hunt page on your social media channels and with your email list to drive traffic and encourage upvotes.

Pros and Cons of Product Hunt

Pros:

• High Visibility: A successful launch can result in massive exposure to an engaged tech audience.
• Valuable Feedback: Direct access to early adopters provides honest and immediate feedback.
• Strong Community: It's a great place to connect with other makers, investors, and tech enthusiasts.
• Free to Use: The core features for both discovery and launching are free.
• Great for Discovery: An excellent resource for finding new and innovative tools.

Cons:

• Competitive Environment: It can be difficult for new products to stand out among the many launches each day.
• Launch Success is Not Guaranteed: The outcome of a launch can be unpredictable and depends on many factors.
• Requires Significant Effort: A successful launch requires careful planning and active engagement throughout the day.
• Traffic Can Be Temporary: The spike in traffic from a launch day may not always convert into long-term users.

Product Hunt integrations

Product Hunt itself is a destination platform, but it offers ways to connect its data and activities with other tools, primarily through its API and webhooks.

• Slack: You can set up notifications to get alerts in a Slack channel for new products in specific categories or mentions of your own product.
• Zapier: By using Zapier, you can connect Product Hunt to thousands of other apps. For example, you can create a new row in a Google Sheet for every new top product or post a tweet when your product reaches a certain number of upvotes.
• IFTTT: Similar to Zapier, IFTTT (If This Then That) can be used to create automations based on Product Hunt activity.
• RSS Feeds: Product Hunt provides RSS feeds for various categories and products, which can be integrated into feed readers or other content aggregation tools.

Product Hunt Alternatives

• BetaList: Focuses specifically on pre-launch startups. It is a place to discover and get early access to new internet startups before they launch.
• Hacker News (Show HN): A section within the popular Hacker News forum where users can share their projects. It has a highly technical audience and can provide very insightful feedback.
• Indie Hackers: A community of independent entrepreneurs ('indie hackers'). While it's more focused on the business side of projects, its product section is a great place to discover new tools built by solo founders and small teams.
• AlternativeTo: A platform for finding alternatives to existing software. While not a launch platform, it is a massive directory for discovering tools based on what you already use.
• SaaSHub: A marketplace for discovering new SaaS products. It helps users find the right software based on objective data and community recommendations.

Product Hunt API

Yes, Product Hunt provides a public API that allows developers to access the data on the platform. You can use it to build applications that feature Product Hunt listings, user data, and more. To get started, you need to register your application in the developer dashboard to receive an API key and secret. Access to the API is free for developers.

You can find more information on their developer portal. Here is a simple example of how to fetch the posts for a day using the API v2 with a personal developer token:

curl 'https://api.producthunt.com/v2/api/graphql' \
  -X POST \
  -H 'Authorization: Bearer YOUR_DEVELOPER_TOKEN' \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  --data-binary '{"query":"query { posts { edges { node { id name tagline } } } }"}'

Product Hunt Affiliate program

Product Hunt does not have a traditional affiliate program where you earn a commission for referring users. Its business model is not based on user subscriptions for its core discovery features. However, they may have partnership opportunities for influencers or companies who align with their brand. For such inquiries, it is best to contact their partnerships or marketing team directly through their official website to discuss potential collaborations.