How to Launch on Indie Hackers: Posts That Get Real Replies

What is Indie Hackers, and what could we not check?

Indie Hackers is a community of people who build and run their own products, with a forum where members post updates and questions, and pages for products. Its pages refused our automated check on 13 November 2026, so this page limits itself to how the site is generally understood and to craft that works on any founder forum. Read its own guidelines and look at what recent posts do well before you write anything, and confirm that posting carries no fee for the kind of post you plan.

One structural point holds for any forum like it. There is no ranked launch day: a post appears, gets attention for a while and sinks as newer posts arrive. That favours posts that start a conversation and shows up poorly for a pure announcement, which gives readers nothing to answer.

Are its members your users, or your advisors?

This is the question that decides what you write. A community of founders contains people who will use a tool built for founders, and a larger group who would never use your product but have seen similar things go right and wrong. Both are useful, in different ways.

If you are in the second or third row, do not post a plea for users. Post a request for advice. You will get more useful replies and nobody will feel sold to. A founder who says what they want from readers gets better answers than one who says only what they made.

What kind of post earns replies?

A story with a specific problem and a specific outcome. Our comparison of free launch platforms says a post about what you learned often does better there than an announcement, and the reason is simple: a lesson gives a reader something to agree with, argue with or add to.

1. A title that says what happened. For example: “I sent 40 emails to find my first three users, and here is what the replies said”. Use only numbers that are true for you.
2. The starting point. Who you are, what you were building and what you thought was true.
3. What you did, in order, with the dull details. Communities of builders read the dull details.
4. What happened, including what did not work.
5. A link to the product, in one place, near the end, so it reads as context and not as the point.
6. A specific question, such as which step of sign-up you would cut, or whether you would pay for this at that price.

Share only figures you can stand behind, because a founder audience tends to ask follow-up questions about them. If you do not have revenue yet, say so; honest early posts are common there. The maker first comment template has a pattern for the comment under your own post.

How do you earn standing before you post?

By being useful to other people for a couple of weeks. Reply to posts where you have first-hand experience, answer questions from people at an earlier stage and say something specific, not “great job”. When you post your own, people recognise your name, and an account with a history of helping is read more kindly than one that appears only to promote.

Follow the same logic as any forum. Do not paste one post into several groups. Do not ask readers to vote it up. Do not send private messages that only pitch. The guide on what indie hacking is describes the culture you are joining, and the list of indie maker communities names other places that work this way.

How do you reply, and what comes after?

Treat each reply as a free consultation. Thank the person, answer what they asked and, if they gave advice, say whether you will act on it and why. When someone points out a real hole, say so in the thread; it costs nothing and earns trust. Keep a note of every suggestion, grouped by theme, and look for the ones that several people made.

Then close the loop. A second post a few weeks later, titled with what you changed because of the first thread, is often a better post than the original: you are now reporting results and the people who helped can see their effect. It also gives you a natural reason to link the product again without repeating yourself.

What gets a post ignored?

• A bare announcement, such as “I launched, please check it out”. It asks a reader to do work and gives nothing back.
• A vague request, like “feedback welcome”. Ask a question someone can answer in a sentence.
• Inflated numbers or claims you cannot support. Readers who build for a living can often tell.
• Hard-sell language and a link in the first line.
• The same post in several places on the same day.

Measure the post by the number of replies from people who match your target user, and the number of conversations that turned into a trial, not by views. If you are still deciding where to post first, you can launch your product free on this board with no account and no queue and link it from your Indie Hackers post, and the comparison with Product Hunt sets out how the two differ. For what builders say they want built, see the ideas board.