Product Hunt alternatives, tested: queues, prices, and catches

What I tried, and what I didn't

The 14 are 10words, AlternativeTo, Awesome Indie, BetaList, Indie Hackers, LaunchIgniter, Launch Llama, Launching Next, Open Launch, PeerPush, Pitchwall (formerly Betapage), Side Projectors, StartupBase, and Uneed. Most of them come up again and again on the launch lists founders share, and all of them are on my public list with what I found: https://github.com/mmmmingos/where-to-submit-your-startup

I submitted my own project, SubmitMyStartup, a free website that lists places to submit a startup. I took the free path every time, bought nothing, and kept screenshots of each confirmation, queue position, and price. Prices below are what each site showed on the day I was there. They change, so check before relying on one.

I haven't launched on Product Hunt itself yet, so this isn't a comparison with Product Hunt. It's what a free launch on the alternatives actually involved. When I counted these 14, sites people often suggest, such as Peerlist, Fazier, and DevHunt, weren't on my list yet. I've tried them since, and their rows are on the list now; Hacker News isn't yet.

Why the free launch is usually a wait

Most of these are launch boards. Each day or week they feature a limited set of new products, and many rank them by upvotes. A limited number of launch slots means a free launch gets a date from a waiting line, and a paid one gets an earlier date or one you choose. Open Launch showed the mechanism most plainly: on 2 October its free launches were fully booked into 2027, while a $12 Premium Launch could start the next day and be booked up to 60 days ahead.

The longest waits ran from months to years. 10words estimated my feature date at 2,519 days away, about 7 years (25 September); skipping the line cost $19. Awesome Indie had 2,766 products ahead of me and estimated my launch for 11 to 18 February 2027 (25 September); Skip the Line was $9.99. LaunchIgniter gave my free launch a slot in the week of 1 February 2027 (25 September); its paid Basic ($12) and Pro ($15) launches get a guaranteed date with no badge. Launching Next quoted about 4 months (25 September), with Fast-Track at $99. Uneed assigned my launch to 10 January 2027, about 100 days out (3 October); a Fast-track slot in about 14 days was $14.99, and choosing your own date $29.99.

The shorter ones were measured in weeks. PeerPush put me at position #4,318, about 2 months out (2 October); its Standard Launch, live right away, was $39. Pitchwall's status page said: "It will take more than 30 days to be published. If you are in a hurry, you can get a quick review." (2 October). Its Pro launch at $49 has about a 2-week wait, and Premium at $99 lets you choose the date. StartupBase showed 1,587 startups ahead of me and said free launches take about 4 to 5 weeks (2 October); Launch now was $39. Launch Llama said free listings are published in about 4 weeks, with 702 in its free queue (2 October); Instant Launch was $39.

AlternativeTo gave no date at all. Its normal review queue holds several thousand apps, and the site says most won't be looked at for a very long time; a priority review for $5 is usually done in 1 to 2 business days (3 October). It also wants a clean website link with no tracking tags, and no links in the description.

Put together, the cheapest paid way past the wait ran from $5 at AlternativeTo to $99 at Launching Next. Of the 11 sites with a wait, 6 charged $19 or less for it.

Conditions beyond the wait

A product waiting in a queue isn't always visible. PeerPush hides a product in its free queue from its community, AI assistants, and crawlers. Uneed's page for my product was public but marked noindex, which asks search engines not to list it, until launch day. Side Projectors marks a project page noindex and nofollow while it's under review.

Some sites want work from you first. Launch Llama asked me to upvote 5 tools, visit one, and leave a star rating with at least 20 characters of feedback before it took my free submission. StartupBase asked for 3 upvotes and 1 comment on other products.

Two want a badge on your own homepage for the free path. LaunchIgniter's confirmation page warned that if the badge is removed before launch, they can't approve it. StartupBase's free launch said "Badge required on your site", while its $39 launch said "No badge required".

And launch day itself can be a test. On Uneed, a free launch needs an upvote score of 10 on the day to stay published. Below that, the product goes back to your dashboard and can't rejoin the free line, so you get one free try.

BetaList is paid now

BetaList is on most of the alternatives lists I've read, often as a free option. When I tried it on 2 October there was no free choice at the submit step, only one-time plans: Lite at $39 (featured on a random day within roughly 2 weeks), Standard at $99, and Premium at $299, with a full refund if a product isn't selected. Its support page said the same day: "All submissions are paid. There is no free submission option." The same page says BetaList used to offer free submissions, which is why older lists still call it free.

I wrote up the other sites on my list that have gone, broken, or started charging in a separate post: https://submitmystartup.com/blog/startup-directories-dead-or-no-longer-free/

A wait can still end in a no

A place in a free queue is not a promise of a listing. StartupBase reviewed my free launch on 2 October and turned it down: it doesn't feature free online tools or single-purpose utilities, and it offered a paid listing from $15 instead. AlternativeTo says it declines a lot of submissions too. Read each site's eligibility rules before you spend your free attempt; my list quotes them where I found them.

The two that were quick

Indie Hackers was the only one that put my product up the same day. I signed in with Google on 25 September, and the product page was live straight away, with no paid options shown. One catch showed up later: on 29 September, four days after signing up, the same account still couldn't create community posts ("You can't create posts yet"). Listing was free and immediate; posting wasn't.

Side Projectors was the quickest of the reviewed ones, on paper. The site says review typically takes 2 to 3 business days, or about 2 hours for $20. I submitted on 3 October, so I can't say yet whether it kept to that. If you're not selling your project, untick the "open to discussing a sale" box; it was ticked by default when I submitted.

How I would use these

If your launch is this month, the free lines on most of these sites won't reach you in time. Indie Hackers and Side Projectors can. Beyond those, it comes down to whether one of the paid options above is worth it to you. I haven't paid for any of them, so I can't tell you what a paid launch delivers.

If you can wait, join the long free lines early. The wait is the cost, and it runs while you keep building. The exception is Uneed: you get one free try and Uneed picks the date, so join when a launch about 100 days out suits you. Whatever you join, check what the free launch includes when it arrives: Pitchwall's free plan, for example, gives 1 day of homepage visibility.

The sites with a catch are in the Free* bundle with their current notes, and Indie Hackers and Side Projectors are in the Free bundle: https://submitmystartup.com/bundles/free-startup-directories-with-catches/

What I don't know yet

None of these launch boards has launched my product yet. By their own estimates, the first should be Launch Llama and Pitchwall, around a month after 2 October, then PeerPush about 2 months after, Uneed on 10 January 2027, Launching Next in late January, LaunchIgniter in the week of 1 February 2027, and Awesome Indie in mid-February 2027. 10words, at 2,519 days, comes last.

When each one goes live, I'll measure the sessions it sends over the first 7, 30, and 90 days and add them here. Until then the traffic from each is unknown, not zero. I also can't tell you what any of them does for search rankings. Several advertise their domain rating or the kind of link they give; I haven't checked those claims, and what I record is visits.