Product Hunt
Platform · this deep dive is built from the official pages of the platform itself and of the tools that support it.
Overview
Product Hunt is a platform where new products are posted and discussed every day. It describes itself this way: "a community-driven platform where people discover, showcase and discuss the best new products in tech"; the count runs from November 2013.
For this directory it is a special case. Almost everywhere else, promoting a product is an activity on the edge of the rules. Here it is the opposite: launching a product is the platform's core action, legal and encouraged. The restrictions concern not the promotion itself but the ways of collecting votes.
How it works: a product is posted (someone "hunts" it), it lands in the daily leaderboard and competes for the title of Product of the Day. The platform describes the mechanics like this: posts compete for the top places in the leaderboard for the title of Product of the Day, Month or Week; the leaderboards run on Pacific time. The yearly wrap-up is the Golden Kitty Awards, where editorial selection is combined with a community vote.
Who's here
The platform's language is English. The roles are named outright: "Makers — the creators and developers of products, Hunters — the users who post products".
You can judge the topical mix from the sections: among its main categories the platform lists vibe coding tools, AI coding agents, AI chatbots, AI infrastructure, meeting note-taking, teamwork, lead generation, marketing automation, video editing, design resources. That is a tilt towards AI tools and SaaS.
Getting started
Accounts are personal only. Sign-in is via X (Twitter), Facebook, Gmail, Apple or LinkedIn; the same page states outright that company accounts cannot post, vote or comment. The launch guide repeats it: company accounts are prohibited.
Profile requirements are stated together with their consequences: a profile must represent a person rather than an organisation and must carry a real first and last name, a genuine photo, a headline or description and a unique username; incomplete or misleading profiles increase the chance your posts will be reviewed, limit their visibility and may lead to your material being removed from the site.
How a connection to the product is disclosed
This is where the platform requires you to disclose affiliation. The roles are separated: "Hunters post launches, Makers build them". Posting your own product is both allowed and expected: "Product Hunt is a place where makers show what they've built, get feedback and meet other passionate people".
The disclosure mechanism is tagging the makers in the launch. A tagged person gets special rights in the comments and a badge that shows the community their involvement in building the product and lets them talk directly; the list of makers and the hunter is changed in the launch panel, in the "Hunter & makers" section.
What this means in practice: if you are connected to the product, your obligation is not to "mention it in a comment" but to be tagged in the post itself. Then every message you write carries the badge automatically.
What you can publish
The help page names the fields and their limits precisely: the name — the product name only, with no description and no emoji; the tagline — a very short description; the description — within 260 characters; the thumbnail — square, recommended size 240×240, a GIF is allowed if it is under 3 MB; the gallery — at least 2 images for the launch to become visible, recommended size 1270×760; video — only a YouTube link as a full address. Also required are the product address, the topics, the makers, a pricing tag (free, paid, paid with a trial or free plan) and the first comment.
The selection rules are a separate document. What is expected is digital products, and only working ("live") ones. What does not get featured: products with a waitlist (if access is not granted straight away), directories, lists, templates and boilerplates, podcasts, courses, reports, events and books, services, deal and discount sites, anything non-technical, Kickstarter projects (unless they are fully functional) and hardware without a notable digital component. Separately: no vapourware — the product must be ready or have a clear release date. What is assessed: usefulness, novelty, execution quality, creativity — not necessarily all at once.
How to grow
The launch procedure
A day on the platform is a 24-hour period on Pacific time: "the site runs in 24-hour periods on PST, and your post will go live on the site at 00:01 PST". The guide advises the same: "00:01 Pacific time is the best launch time for makers who plan ahead" — and adds a sensible caveat: "the best day to launch is the one you are most ready for".
The steps: sign in, press the Post button, enter the product address, fill in the required fields, look at the preview, then save a draft or schedule a launch date. Re-submitting is allowed after 6 months, but the decision to feature remains with the platform; launches by the same company scheduled for the same day may be rescheduled.
How placement is calculated
The platform names the factors but not the formula: "the leaderboard on the homepage changes during the day depending on the number of votes, comments, time since submission and other factors". And it explains outright why it does not disclose more: "we can't share the exact details of how our algorithm works, because that would make it easier to game".
Plus editorial selection: the help centre calls the homepage team-curated and stresses that it is not just about the most upvoted products.
The rules on self-promotion and votes
The core of the community document: "mass-messaging users, asking for votes, using bots, incentivising votes and any other form of artificially inflating activity on your post are unacceptable". And in the same place: "self-promotion in comments will also be removed. Only genuine activity is accepted on the site". The document is marked with an update date — 11 April 2025.
A separate prohibition in the launch guide: "don't pay anyone to hunt you or to drive traffic to your product — this goes against our rules and will lead to us removing your product".
The consequences are named: "attempting to game our systems may lead to your posts being removed and to losing posting access", and failure to follow the rules may lead to the account and products being removed or suspended.
The practical conclusion: you may not ask for a vote, but you may announce the launch and invite people to look and discuss. The rules prohibit exactly the request to vote, the incentivising and the paying for activity; there are no ways around that restriction in this guide, and there never will be.
Comments
A separate document dated 28 July 2025. The key part: "Product Hunt is about human-to-human conversation. Our community wants to talk to real people and hear them. No language models and no browser extensions, please". Then it argues against bulk and emptiness: "we value quality, not quantity"; a plain "congrats" "adds little to the conversation and gives makers no feedback"; criticism should be phrased constructively and focused on the product rather than the person. The measures escalate: removing the comment, an explanation, permanent loss of posting access, restriction of the account.
Path to monetization
Product Hunt does not pay makers: there is no revenue share, no subscriptions and no payouts for posts. The platform's value is traffic and attention on launch day. That is worth planning for in advance: a launch gives a spike, and after that what works is whatever you built on top of it.
There is no self-service advertising panel: the page producthunt.com/advertise does not exist (a 404 response), and neither does a separate advertising subdomain. The reverse case is commercial use of the platform's data: the Product Hunt API may not be used for commercial purposes without express permission.
Tools and automation
The official interface is Product Hunt API v2 built on GraphQL; its purpose is to give access to Product Hunt's data through a simple GraphQL interface.
Authorisation: OAuth2 on behalf of a user; client-only OAuth2 — an application-level token for reading public data; a developer token that never expires, issued in the API panel; PKCE for public clients. Restrictions: applications are read-only by default with the public scope, and write access has to be requested from support. The platform may limit the request rate if it considers that you are not observing fair use.
There is a requirement for anyone retelling the platform's data: state "Data sourced from Product Hunt" with a link to the site and give the product's name and tagline ahead of the rest of the information.
The robots.txt file closes off the service sections: /auth/*, /search*, /my/*, /yours*, /notifications, profile pages /@*/*, /login, creation forms and addresses with comment and review parameters; the sitemaps and the short links to posts are open.
The launch format is a one-off event — scheduling tools are not what it needs.
Limits and rules
- Account. Personal only; company accounts do not post, vote or comment.
- Profile. A real name, a real photo, a unique username.
- Votes. Asking for votes, bots, incentives, mass messaging and any artificial activity are prohibited; you may not pay for a "hunt" or for traffic.
- Self-promotion in comments. Removed.
- Comments from language models. Not allowed.
- What does not get featured. Directories, templates, courses, books, events, services, deal and discount sites, products with a waitlist, hardware without a digital part.
- Schedule. A 24-hour day on PST, going live at 00:01; re-submission after 6 months.
- API. Non-commercial use, read-only by default.
Who it's for
It suits digital products at the ready-to-launch stage, especially in AI tooling, development and SaaS. It suits founders ready to take part personally: the account is personal, the maker badge is tied to a human, and commenting as a brand is prohibited.
It does not suit services, shops, courses, books, events and directories — they are excluded from the featured selection outright. It does not suit projects at the waitlist stage. It does not suit anyone counting on buying the result: paying for a "hunt" or for traffic gets the product taken down. And it does not suit as a permanent channel: a launch is an event, not a feed.
Verified data
The checked data this deep dive rests on.
About the platform
the platform describes itself as follows: «Product Hunt is a curation of the best new products, every day. Discover the latest mobile apps, websites, and technology products that everyone's talking about.»
Self-description: this is the platform's claim about itself, not an independent assessment
source, checked 2026-07-28
the platform describes itself as follows: «A community-driven platform where people discover, share, and discuss the best new products in tech»
The platform's claim about itself
source, checked 2026-07-28
the platform counts its posts from November 2013
source, checked 2026-07-28
posts compete for the titles Product of the Day, Week and Month; the leaderboards run on Pacific time; the yearly wrap-up is the Golden Kitty Awards (editorial selection plus a community vote)
source, checked 2026-07-28
Account and access
company accounts can neither post nor vote nor comment; a personal account is required
Confirmed by the launch guide at producthunt.com/launch as well
source, checked 2026-07-28
sign-in via X (Twitter), Facebook, Gmail, Apple or LinkedIn
source, checked 2026-07-28
the profile must represent a person rather than an organisation: a real first and last name, a genuine photo, a headline or description, a unique username; incomplete or misleading profiles increase the chance of review, limit visibility and may lead to material being removed · the source is dated 2025-04-11
The document is marked with the update date 11 April 2025
source, checked 2026-07-28
a connection to the product is disclosed by tagging the makers in the launch: a tagged person gets special rights in the comments and a badge showing the community their involvement in building the product
The roles are separated: Hunters post launches, Makers build them; the list is changed in the launch panel, the Hunter & makers section
source, checked 2026-07-28
Content
the product description — within 260 characters
source, checked 2026-07-28
the thumbnail — square, recommended size 240x240; a GIF is allowed if it is under 3 MB
source, checked 2026-07-28
the gallery — at least 2 images for the launch to become visible; recommended size 1270x760
source, checked 2026-07-28
video — only a YouTube link as a full address, shortened links are not accepted
source, checked 2026-07-28
the product address, the name without emoji, the tagline, the topics, the makers, a pricing tag and the first comment are required
The tagline length limit is not given as a number
source, checked 2026-07-28
what does not get featured: products with a waitlist (if access is not granted straight away), directories, lists, templates and boilerplates, podcasts, courses, reports, events and books, services, deal and discount sites, non-technical submissions, Kickstarter projects without a working product, hardware without a notable digital component
Digital and working products are expected; usefulness, novelty, execution quality and creativity are assessed
source, checked 2026-07-28
Promotion
the site runs in 24-hour periods on PST; a post goes live at 00:01 PST
The launch guide calls 00:01 PT the best time for those who plan ahead
source, checked 2026-07-28
re-submitting a product is allowed after 6 months, and the decision to feature remains with the platform
source, checked 2026-07-28
the leaderboard changes during the day according to the number of votes, comments, time since submission and other factors; the platform does not disclose the exact details of the algorithm so that it is not gamed
There are no factor weights; the home page is additionally curated by the team
source, checked 2026-07-28
How the money works here
Nothing is said about affiliate links in the terms of use or in the help centre articles that were read. The closest in meaning is the ban on commercial use: "You will only use the Services for your own internal, personal, non-commercial use, and not on behalf of or for the benefit of any third party". The commenting guidelines forbid template comments ("Generic Comments" of the kind "congrats!"), comments written by AI, and mass commenting
The commenting guidelines are https://help.producthunt.com/en/articles/10030102-commenting-guidelines. The word "affiliate" is neither in the terms nor in these guidelines
source, checked 2026-08-04
Limits and restrictions
robots.txt closes off /auth/*, /search*, /my/*, /yours*, /notifications, profile pages /@*/*, /login, creation forms and addresses with comment and review parameters; the sitemaps and the short links /r/p/* are open
The file was read through a page downloader: an ordinary curl request runs into a Cloudflare check, which we do not bypass
source, checked 2026-07-28
Restrictions
mass-messaging users, asking for votes, using bots, incentivising votes and any other form of artificially inflating activity are declared unacceptable · the source is dated 2025-04-11
Consequences: removal of posts, loss of posting access, suspension or deletion of the account. Updated 11 April 2025
source, checked 2026-07-28
self-promotion in comments is removed; only genuine activity is accepted
source, checked 2026-07-28
paying anyone to «hunt» a product or to drive traffic to it is prohibited; the platform will remove the product
source, checked 2026-07-28
comments written by language models and browser extensions are not allowed · the source is dated 2025-07-28
The document is dated 28 July 2025; the measures range from removing a comment to a permanent account restriction
source, checked 2026-07-28
API access
the official interface is Product Hunt API v2 on GraphQL; authorisation via OAuth2 on behalf of a user, client-only OAuth2, a developer token that never expires, PKCE for public clients
source, checked 2026-07-28
commercial use of the API is prohibited without express permission; by default applications are read-only with the public scope
Write access and a commercial licence are requested from support
source, checked 2026-07-28
6250 complexity points for every 15 minutes on requests to /v2/api/graphql (complexity is calculated from the fields requested) and up to 450 requests every 15 minutes on all other /v2/* paths; once exhausted, 429 is returned until the window resets
Found on 12 August 2026 during a re-read. The numeric quotas stand not on the first page of the documentation but on a separate one — /v2/docs/rate_limits/headers; the earlier record said the documentation gives no quotas, and that was our mistake. Every response carries three headers: X-Rate-Limit-Limit (the limit for the 15-minute window), X-Rate-Limit-Remaining (what is left), X-Rate-Limit-Reset (seconds until reset). The platform states: «We may on occasion adjust the rate limit depending on API traffic»
source, checked 2026-08-12
Languages
the interface language of the home page: en
The language is taken from the markup attribute, the versions from hreflang
source, checked 2026-07-28
Catalogue section: all similar See also: catalogue index · region: USA and Canada · scheduler comparison · find by situation · platform restrictions