If you want to launch on Hacker News, use Show HN only when you have something you personally built that other people can try. Submit it with a clear "Show HN:" title, explain what you made and why in your own words, remove unnecessary friction, stay available for discussion, and do not ask anyone to manufacture votes or comments.
That is the short version. The harder part is understanding the culture around the format. Hacker News is not a launch calendar or a marketing directory. It is a discussion community with a strong preference for real work, technical substance, and honest conversation.
This guide explains the official Show HN rules, the current account restriction, how to write a title, what to include in your explanation, when timing matters, what to do afterward, and how Show HN fits into a wider launch plan.
How to launch on Hacker News
To launch on Hacker News, create an HN account, make sure your project qualifies for Show HN, submit the working product URL with a title that begins with "Show HN:", and be ready to answer questions. The project should be yours, usable by readers, and substantial enough to discuss.
The practical process looks like this:
- Confirm that the project is something you personally built.
- Make it possible for a stranger to try the core experience.
- Read the official Show HN guidelines and HN Guidelines.
- Write a factual title that starts with "Show HN:".
- Write the explanatory text yourself, not with generated or AI-edited prose.
- Submit when you can monitor the thread.
- Respond to comments, bug reports, and criticism without asking for votes.
You cannot control whether the post reaches the main Show page or gets broad attention. You can control whether the submission is clear, honest, usable, and worth discussing.
What Show HN actually is
Show HN is Hacker News's format for showing the community something you made. The official guidance is narrow on purpose: it is for work that people can try, not for general announcements, signup-only teasers, fundraising pages, or content marketing.
Official HN rule: Show HN is for something you made and can show. Other people should be able to try it, inspect it, watch it, or otherwise experience the work directly.
The official Show HN page also makes room for early-stage work. A project does not need to be a polished company launch. A prototype, open-source library, command-line utility, hardware build, browser experiment, or rough tool can be appropriate if there is enough substance for people to use and discuss.
Where founders get into trouble is treating Show HN as a promotion slot. A landing page that only collects emails is not a Show HN. A newsletter is not a Show HN. A blog post belongs as a regular Hacker News submission if it is worth discussing. A curated list or directory is generally not a Show HN unless there is a non-trivial product behind it that users can meaningfully try.
The spirit is simple: show the work, not the pitch.
Show HN vs Ask HN vs regular submissions vs Launch HN
Different Hacker News formats exist for different jobs. Choosing the wrong one makes the post feel off before anyone reads it.
| Format | Best used for | Not appropriate for | Typical example |
|---|---|---|---|
| Show HN | A thing you personally built that people can try | Waitlists, newsletters, fundraisers, ordinary blog posts, pure landing pages | "Show HN: I built a local-first invoice app for freelancers" |
| Ask HN | Asking the community a genuine question | Promoting your product under the shape of a question | "Ask HN: How are you handling SOC 2 evidence collection?" |
| Regular HN submission | Articles, essays, technical writeups, research, news, documentation | A product launch that should be a Show HN | A deep technical post about how your database migration system works |
| Launch HN | YC startup launches on the separate Launch HN surface | A public option anyone can simply choose instead of Show HN | A YC company launch thread on Launch HN |
Show HN is not better or worse than the other formats. It is just specific. If the main thing you want to share is a working product, use Show HN. If the main thing is a question, use Ask HN. If the main thing is an article, submit the article normally.
Should your product be a Show HN?
Use this decision framework before you post.
| Project type | Show HN fit? | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Working SaaS | Potentially yes | People should be able to try the core product or a demo without excessive friction. |
| Open-source library | Yes, if usable | Link to the repo, docs, examples, and what problem it solves. |
| CLI or developer tool | Yes | Make install, demo, and examples obvious. |
| Browser extension | Yes | Explain what it does and how to try it safely. |
| AI tool | Potentially yes | It still needs to be usable and specific; "AI wrapper" hype is not enough. |
| Hardware project | Potentially yes | Official guidance allows video or detailed material when hands-on trial is not practical. |
| Waitlist | No | A signup page is not something readers can try. |
| Newsletter | No | Official Show HN guidance excludes newsletters. |
| Blog article | No as Show HN | Submit it normally if it is a strong article. |
| Curated list or directory | Usually no | Official guidance excludes lists unless there is a substantial usable project behind it. |
| Fundraising page | No | Official guidance excludes fundraisers. |
If you are unsure, ask a stricter question: what can an HN reader do five minutes after clicking? If the answer is only "enter an email," it is probably not a Show HN.
New Hacker News account? Understand the current restriction
Hacker News currently displays a temporary notice saying Show HNs are restricted because of a large influx, especially from users who are not yet familiar with HN or its culture.
HN does not publicly state a minimum account age, karma score, or comment count for Show HN eligibility. Do not plan around invented numbers such as "two weeks old" or "X karma." If HN changes the restriction, the official notice is the source to trust.
The practical takeaway is not to create an account five minutes before launch and treat HN as a distribution machine. Read discussions. Learn what gets thoughtful responses. Comment when you have something useful to add. Understand the guidelines before posting. A founder who understands the community is more likely to write a submission that belongs there.
This is not a hack. It is basic respect for the place where you want attention.
Prepare your product before posting
A Show HN does not need a perfect product, but it does need a tryable one. Use the 24-48 hours before posting to reduce avoidable friction.
Readiness scorecard
Do not assume Hacker News will send a massive traffic spike. Many Show HNs receive little attention. Prepare for extra visitors, but judge the launch by useful feedback and qualified users, not by a fantasy graph.
How to write a Show HN title
A good Show HN title is factual, specific, and easy to understand. It starts with "Show HN:" and says what the thing is. It does not need a slogan, superlative, or keyword stack.
Strong patterns:
- "Show HN: A browser extension that turns messy tabs into named workspaces"
- "Show HN: An open-source CLI for replaying webhook payloads locally"
- "Show HN: I built a small CRM for freelancers who sell one-off projects"
- "Show HN: A local AI tool for searching long PDF collections"
- "Show HN: A mobile app for practicing piano sight-reading with MIDI feedback"
- "Show HN: A hardware desk clock that shows calendar load without a screen"
Bad vs better:
| Weak title | Better title |
|---|---|
| "Show HN: The future of productivity is here" | "Show HN: A keyboard-first task manager for recurring client work" |
| "Show HN: Revolutionary AI agent platform" | "Show HN: An AI agent runner that executes GitHub issue workflows locally" |
| "Show HN: Please support my startup" | "Show HN: A simple uptime page builder for solo SaaS founders" |
| "Show HN: My SaaS" | "Show HN: A no-login invoice tracker for small service businesses" |
Specific does not mean long. If the title lets the right reader know whether to click, it is doing its job.
Write your Hacker News text yourself
This is now one of the most important parts of a Show HN.
The current HN Guidelines tell users not to post generated or AI-edited text because HN is intended for conversation between humans. In a long-running Show HN guidance comment originally posted in 2020 and updated in March 2026, HN moderator dang added related guidance that founders should write their Hacker News submission text themselves rather than using LLM-generated or polished prose.
Use this guide to plan. Do not paste an AI-written launch paragraph into Hacker News.
Instead, answer these questions in your own words:
- What did you build?
- What caused you to build it?
- What was technically difficult or interesting?
- What tradeoff did you make?
- What still needs work?
- What feedback would genuinely help?
Then write the submission as a human note from the builder. It can be plain. It can have rough edges. That is better than sounding like a launch page wearing a comment box.
What should your Show HN explanation contain?
Your explanation should give readers enough context to try the product and ask useful questions. Depending on the submission flow and how the text appears, this may be text associated with the submission or a normal follow-up comment if needed. Do not treat "first comment" as a universal rule.
Useful ingredients:
- What it does in one or two sentences.
- Why you built it.
- Who it is for.
- What is technically interesting.
- What constraints shaped the design.
- What is incomplete or experimental.
- Links to docs, repo, demo, or relevant prior HN threads when appropriate.
- One real feedback question.
Example feedback questions:
- "Is the install path clear enough from the README?"
- "Does the pricing model make sense for a solo developer tool?"
- "Where would you expect this to fail in a larger team?"
- "What would you need to see before trusting this with production data?"
Avoid a long feature dump. The goal is to start a useful conversation, not to empty your product page into HN.
What not to do on Hacker News
Some mistakes are official rule problems. Others are practical culture problems. Both can hurt the launch.
Officially important:
- Do not ask friends, users, or communities to upvote.
- Do not coordinate comments or fake discussion.
- Do not post generated or AI-edited HN text.
- Do not use Show HN for waitlists, newsletters, blog posts, lists, landing pages, or fundraising pages.
- Do not repeatedly submit small changes as new Show HNs.
Practical advice:
- Do not write like a press release.
- Do not hide the product behind unnecessary signup.
- Do not make exaggerated claims that the product cannot support.
- Do not argue defensively with people who criticize it.
- Do not treat every comment as a conversion opportunity.
The best posture is direct and calm: here is what I built, here is why, here is what I learned, and I would like useful feedback.
What happens after you submit a Show HN?
Every Show HN appears first on shownew. Official documentation says a small points threshold is required before it appears on the main Show HN page, but HN does not publish a threshold number.
After submission, watch the thread and your product at the same time. People may find bugs, ask hard questions, compare you with existing tools, or challenge the premise. That is part of the value.
Respond well:
- Thank people for specific bug reports.
- Fix small issues quickly when you can.
- Explain tradeoffs plainly.
- Admit what is unfinished.
- Answer technical questions with enough detail to be useful.
- Let some comments pass if replying would only create heat.
You are not trying to win every exchange. You are trying to learn from technically demanding readers while showing that a real builder is behind the project.
Is there a best time to post a Show HN?
There is no official Hacker News best posting time. Hacker News does not have a Product Hunt-style daily launch reset, and HN does not publish a recommended hour for Show HN submissions.
Practical timing still matters in a softer way. You want enough relevant readers awake to see the post, and you want enough time to participate after posting. That usually matters more than chasing a magic weekday.
Recent Show HN timing sample
For this guide, I pulled a recent sample from the public Hacker News Algolia API on September 24, 2026. The query used tags=show_hn, sorted by date, and collected the first 1,000 records available through the API pages. The sample covered submissions from September 15 to September 23, 2026. Times were grouped by UTC hour. I looked at points, comments, and per-hour sample counts.
The result was noisy. Median points were low across almost every UTC hour. A few stronger threads moved averages, but medians showed that most Show HNs in the sample received modest attention regardless of posting hour. The busiest posting period in this sample was roughly 13:00-17:00 UTC, but busy hours also mean more competing posts.
Limitations:
- The sample is recent but short.
- It uses Algolia's public HN index, not private HN ranking data.
- It does not prove causation.
- It does not account for product quality, title clarity, author history, dead/flagged status, or later ranking changes.
- It should not be used as a prediction model.
The useful conclusion is boring but honest: post when your likely audience is awake and when you can stay around. Timing alone is a weak lever.
What if your Show HN gets little attention?
Low attention is normal. Many Show HNs receive a handful of points, few comments, or no meaningful discussion. That does not mean the product is dead.
Do not immediately delete and repost. First inspect what you can learn:
- Was the title understandable?
- Could people try the product without friction?
- Did the page explain who it was for?
- Was the project interesting to HN's technical audience?
- Did any comment reveal a bug, missing explanation, or trust issue?
- Did the submission happen when you were unavailable to respond?
Then improve the product or explanation. Continue with other appropriate launch channels, direct outreach, communities, content, directories, customer conversations, or your own audience. A quiet HN thread can still produce useful feedback, and a loud one can still fail to produce durable users.
Can you repost a Show HN?
There are two different policies to keep separate.
The general HN FAQ says reposts can be okay when a story did not receive significant attention and enough time has passed, often roughly a year. That is general story guidance, not a special Show HN launch calendar.
Show HN-specific moderator guidance is different: another Show HN should represent a significant new version or major overhaul, link to the previous Show HN, and avoid becoming a pattern of frequent repeat launches. Small incremental changes usually do not justify a new Show HN.
So the answer is not "repost every 12 months." The better question is whether you have meaningfully new work to show and whether the previous thread context should be linked.
Hacker News vs other launch channels
Hacker News is one piece of a launch system, not the whole system.
| Channel | Useful for | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|
| Hacker News / Show HN | Technical discussion, early feedback, testing whether builders understand the product | Not a guaranteed traffic source; not a marketing list |
| Product Hunt | Product-launch discovery, early-adopter attention, launch-day presentation | Competitive launch-day dynamics; visibility is not guaranteed |
| Product/startup directories | Longer-lived discovery surfaces and additional distribution paths | Quality and relevance vary; do not copy-paste the same pitch everywhere |
| ShipNLaunch | Permanent product pages, weekly discovery, categories, search, maker profiles, and product discovery for software makers | It is not a replacement for participating well in technical communities |
For a broader comparison of launch surfaces, see Best Product Hunt Alternatives and ShipNLaunch vs Product Hunt.
After Show HN: keep the product discoverable
A Hacker News thread can be valuable, but it eventually becomes quiet. The work after Show HN is to turn the feedback into product improvements and keep the product findable for people who were not online during the thread.
That can mean improving docs, publishing a technical writeup, following up with people who gave useful feedback, submitting to relevant directories, and creating a durable product page. If you want another discovery surface after the HN discussion slows down, you can submit your product to ShipNLaunch so it has a permanent page and can appear in weekly discovery, categories, and search.
Do not treat any single launch channel as the plan. Treat it as one useful moment in a longer distribution system. For more on that mindset, read What to Do After Launch Day and How to Launch Your SaaS When Nobody Knows You Yet.
Complete Hacker News launch checklist
Before posting
During the thread
After the thread
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I launch a startup on Hacker News?
Use Show HN if the startup has something you personally built that readers can try. Submit the product URL with a factual "Show HN:" title, explain the project in your own words, and stay available to discuss it.
What is Show HN?
Show HN is Hacker News's format for showing the community something you made. It is for tryable projects, prototypes, tools, hardware demonstrations, and substantial work, not for generic promotion.
Who can post Show HN?
HN does not present Show HN as a paid or application-only format, but current temporary restrictions may limit users who are not familiar with the community. Read the current notice and guidelines before planning a launch.
Can a new Hacker News account post Show HN?
Maybe, but HN currently has temporary restrictions aimed especially at users who are not yet familiar with HN culture. HN does not publish a numeric account-age threshold. A new founder should spend time understanding and participating before posting.
Does Show HN have a minimum karma requirement?
HN does not publicly state a minimum karma requirement for Show HN. Do not rely on unofficial numbers. Follow the official restriction notice and guidelines.
What is the best time to post on Hacker News?
There is no official best time. Post when relevant readers are likely to be awake and when you can respond. Recent Show HN data is noisy enough that timing should not be treated as a success formula.
Should I ask friends to upvote my Show HN?
No. Coordinated voting is against Hacker News norms and rules. Share the work where relevant if you must, but do not ask people to upvote or manufacture comments.
Can I post a waitlist as Show HN?
No. Official Show HN guidance excludes signup pages. Wait until people can try the product or show the work in another appropriate format.
Can I launch a SaaS on Hacker News?
Yes, if the SaaS is something you built and people can try it. Reduce unnecessary signup friction and be ready to answer questions about the problem, implementation, pricing, and tradeoffs.
Can I launch an AI tool on Hacker News?
Yes, if it is a real, usable project and not just a vague AI landing page. Be specific about what it does, how it works, limitations, and why it is useful.
Can I use ChatGPT to write my Show HN submission?
Do not use generated or AI-edited text for the Hacker News submission. HN's current guidelines discourage generated/AI-edited text, and moderator guidance for Show HN recommends writing the submission yourself.
What should a Show HN title say?
It should start with "Show HN:" and plainly describe the thing you built. Use specific nouns and avoid slogans, superlatives, and vague claims.
Can I repost a Show HN?
Only with care. General HN repost guidance and Show HN repeat-launch guidance are different. A new Show HN should usually involve a significant new version or overhaul, link the previous Show HN, and avoid frequent repetition.
What is the difference between Show HN and Ask HN?
Show HN is for presenting something you made. Ask HN is for asking the community a genuine question. Do not disguise product promotion as an Ask HN.
What should I do after a Hacker News launch?
Respond to useful comments, fix concrete issues, update your docs or product page, continue distribution through relevant channels, and decide whether any future HN post is justified by meaningful new work.
