Show HN: What It Is and What Qualifies as a Show HN Post
Show HN is the part of Hacker News for something you have made that other people can try. A post is a normal submission whose title begins with “Show HN”. The guidelines ask for a non-trivial project you worked on yourself, that is easy to use without signing up and that you will be around to discuss. Sign-up pages, newsletters and landing pages do not qualify.
What does Show HN mean on Hacker News?
Hacker News is a community site run by Y Combinator, where members submit links and vote on them. Show HN is its label for work you made yourself. You post by submitting a story whose title begins with “Show HN”, and every such post appears on the shownew page. Once it clears a small points threshold, it also appears on the show page in the top bar. The guidelines do not give the number, so do not plan around it.
Everything here comes from the Show HN guidelines page, read on 13 November 2026, and from the general Hacker News guidelines. The community changes its rules from time to time, so reread the page the day you post.
What qualifies, and what does not?
| It is a fit if | It is not a fit if |
|---|---|
| People can run it on their computers or hold it in their hands | It is a blog post, a sign-up page, a newsletter or a list |
| It is non-trivial and personal to you, and you explain how and why | It is a quickly generated one-off that anybody can make |
| You worked on it yourself and will be around to discuss it | You are not around to answer questions, or you plan to ask friends to upvote or comment |
| It is easy to try, ideally with no signup or email | It is a landing page or a fundraiser |
| It is a major overhaul of something you shared before | It is a small upgrade, such as “Foo 1.3.1 is out” |
Hardware gets a different rule: post a video or a detailed article, since readers cannot hold it. Books can offer a sample chapter. The guidelines also say a Show HN does not need to be complicated or look slick, and that the community is comfortable with work at an early stage.
Example: preparing a Show HN for a small command-line tool
Take an invented tool that repairs messy CSV files. The title the guidelines point toward is plain: “Show HN: Tidycsv, a command that fixes dates and encodings in CSV files”. It names the product and says what it does. It avoids capital-letter emphasis, exclamation points and a gratuitous number, which the general guidelines ask posters to cut from titles.
- Make it runnable without an account. A one-line install and a sample file beats a signup wall, because the guidelines say you get more feedback that way.
- Write the text yourself. The guidelines ask for human-written text in posts and comments, so skip generated blurbs.
- Clear your afternoon. Being around to discuss is a condition, so schedule the post for when you can answer for several hours.
- Do not ask anyone to vote. Tell people the project exists if you like, but the guidelines forbid soliciting upvotes and comments.
The Show HN post templates page has wording you can adapt, and the launch on Show HN playbook walks through the day.
How do you measure a Show HN?
Look at three things in your own analytics: visits from the site on the day, how many of those reached the page where the product can be used, and how many used it. Then read the thread, since a Show HN pays back in comments. A single sharp reply about a failure you had not noticed can be worth more than the visit count, and the community expects you to reply to it politely.
Do not read a quiet result as a verdict on the product. Nothing on the guidelines page sells a better position, which is fair, and also the reason a post can pass unnoticed. Posting again immediately is the wrong response: the guidelines ask people not to delete and repost, and a new post only makes sense when you have changed something substantial.
What do people get wrong about Show HN?
- Posting a landing page. A page that only collects emails is off topic, so a waitlist is a poor Show HN. Wait until a person can use something.
- Treating it as pure promotion. The general guidelines say not to use the site primarily for promotion, though it is fine to post your own work some of the time.
- Posting and leaving. The thread is where the value is, so stay.
- Expecting it to be the only plan. It is one channel with its own audience, which is technical and direct.
If Hacker News does not fit your product, the Show HN alternatives page lists other places to share work, and you can always launch your product free on this board while you decide. For fresh ideas to build and then show, browse the developer tool ideas.
Related terms: a maker comment is the first reply you write in the thread, an upvote is what you must not solicit, and a waitlist is exactly the kind of page that does not qualify.
Frequently asked questions
What is Show HN?
It is the part of Hacker News for things you have made that other people can try. You post it as a normal submission with a title that begins with “Show HN”. The guidelines ask for a non-trivial project, easy to try, that you will be around to discuss.
Can I post a landing page or waitlist as a Show HN?
No. The guidelines list sign-up pages, newsletters and lists as off topic and say not to post landing pages or fundraisers, because they cannot be tried. If your work is not ready for people to use, wait until it is, then post it.
Can I ask friends to upvote my Show HN?
No. The Show HN page says not to ask friends to upvote or comment, and the general guidelines say not to solicit upvotes, comments or submissions. Tell people about the project if you wish, and let them decide whether to vote when they find it interesting.
Is a new version of my project a valid Show HN?
Only if the change is big. The guidelines say small upgrades such as a point release are not substantive enough, while a major overhaul is probably fine. If you are unsure, ask whether a visitor who saw the last post would find this one a new thing to try.
Do I need an account to post a Show HN?
Yes, you need a Hacker News account to submit a story. The community prefers accounts that have an identity others can relate to, and its guidelines discourage throwaway accounts except for sensitive information. Set it up before the day you plan to post.
Written by Post your build ideas with AI assistance and edited for this site. Where a page names another product, the facts came from that product’s own pages on the date shown above; terms change, so check them before you rely on them. About the publisher.