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How to submit to Hacker News (Show HN): cost, link and review time

Posting a Show HN is free: you submit a story whose title starts with "Show HN" and there is no review queue. The outbound title link is conditional. On the shownew list 29 of 30 links carried rel="nofollow", while the ranked Show page showed 12 of 30. The front page showed none. It suits technical products people can try immediately, and it takes minutes to post.

Last updated November 2026

Hacker News (Show HN) at a glance

Every value below was read on 2026-11-01 from Hacker News (Show HN)’s own pages or from the HTML of a live listing; a dash means we could not verify it.

Hacker News (Show HN) launch facts: format, cost, link attribute, review time and requirements, verified 2026-11-01.
Submit pagenews.ycombinator.com/submit
Formatcommunity thread
Free optionYes: posting is free, with no approval step and no account fee, though you need a Hacker News account.
Paid optionsNone published
Website linkConditionalSeen: rel="nofollow" on 29 of 30 links on /shownew and 12 of 30 on /show; no rel attribute on any of 30 links on /frontObserved on 2026-11-01 and not documented by Hacker News: new submissions carry nofollow and ranked ones appear without it, so the rule looks tied to ranking, not to the submitter.
Review timeNone stated: a Show HN appears on shownew immediately and reaches the Show page after clearing a small points threshold.
RequirementsA Hacker News account; Title begins with "Show HN"; Something visitors can run or try, not a landing page or sign-up page; The submitter personally worked on the project and is around to discuss it; No requests to friends to upvote or comment
Best forTechnical products that people can try without a sign-up

How to submit to Hacker News (Show HN)

  1. Create or log in to a Hacker News account.
  2. Read the Show HN guidelines at news.ycombinator.com/showhn.html and check your project is something people can run or hold, with no sign-up barrier.
  3. Open the submit page and enter a title that begins with "Show HN", followed by a plain description of what the project is.
  4. Paste the URL of the working project, preferably a page where visitors can try it straight away.
  5. Submit, then confirm the post appears on shownew.
  6. Stay available to answer questions in the thread, and do not ask friends to upvote or comment.

Is Show HN worth it?

Show HN is worth it when the product is technical, works today and can be tried in seconds. The format exists so visitors can play with what you made and give feedback in the thread, and that feedback is the main return. Outcomes vary widely: most posts disappear from shownew quietly, while a few reach the Show page and draw sustained traffic.

Do not treat it as a link source. The link that matters for rankings is only partly decided by you, because the rel attribute observed on outbound titles changed with how far a post had risen. Count traffic and feedback as the prize, and any link value as a possible side effect.

What to prepare before you submit to Hacker News

Prepare something that runs. The guidelines say on-topic work is what people can run on their computers or hold in their hands, and that blog posts, sign-up pages, newsletters and lists are off topic. They also ask you not to post landing pages or fundraisers, and to make the project easy to try, ideally without signups or emails.

Prepare to be present. The guidelines require that you have worked on the project personally and are around to discuss it. A short first comment explaining why you built it and what was hard tends to help, and the guidelines suggest explaining how and why you made it. Do not ask friends to vote, which the rules call not ok.

Hacker News trade-offs

The main trade-off is control. You cannot buy placement, schedule a slot or be sure a post clears the points threshold for the Show page. The guidelines also say the project should be non-trivial and that generated one-offs are unwelcome, so a thin product can be ignored or flagged.

Reposting is discouraged: the general guidelines ask users not to delete and repost, and minor releases such as a version bump generally do not qualify as new Show HNs. If your pitch depends on a marketing page, this is the wrong venue.

How we checked

We read Hacker News (Show HN)’s own submission, pricing and policy pages on 2026-11-01, and for the link attribute we read the raw HTML of a live public listing rather than relying on the platform’s description. Listing checked: news.ycombinator.com/show. Prices and rules change; the date at the top is the last time each fact on this page was checked. Sources:

Toolfound publishes this page and runs its own launch board, so we are not neutral about launching. No platform paid to be profiled here. The rules we apply to ourselves are on the methodology page.

Common questions

Is the Hacker News backlink dofollow?

It depends on the post. On 2026-11-01, 29 of 30 outbound title links on the newest Show HN list carried rel="nofollow", 12 of 30 did on the ranked Show page, and none of 30 did on the front page. Hacker News does not document this, so treat any link value as incidental.

How much does a Show HN cost?

Nothing. Submitting is free and there is no paid placement on the pages we read. You do need a Hacker News account.

How long does it take for a Show HN to go live?

It appears on shownew once submitted. The guidelines say it moves to the Show page after it clears a small points threshold, which is not published as a number.

What can I not post as a Show HN?

Landing pages, sign-up pages, newsletters, blog posts and lists are off topic, as are fundraisers. New versions such as a point release generally do not count either, though a major overhaul is probably fine.

Does Hacker News let me edit or reuse a Show HN title?

The guidelines ask for a plain title that begins with Show HN, without uppercase or exclamation points, and without the site name. They also ask users not to delete and repost, so prepare the title and the link before you submit.

Other launch platforms we checked

Compare Hacker News (Show HN) with every other platform in the launch guide, see which ones give a followed link in the dofollow directories guide, or browse all launch platform profiles. Toolfound also gives every product a free launch date and a permanent dofollow listing: submit a product.