State of Free Launch Platforms 2026: What a Free Launch Costs on 15 Sites

What did the 2026 readings show?

This page is a reference, built to be quoted: every claim about another site is tied to a page we opened on 13 November 2026, and the ones we could not open are marked. It extends our free launch platforms comparison, which records the first readings of 12 November, with three additions: a fuller look at what each free route costs, the platforms whose pages have changed since, and three sites the earlier page did not cover. Where a finding is ours and not theirs, we say so.

• Free usually has conditions. Nine of the 15 sites describe a free route on pages we read. Seven of those nine attach a stated condition or sell a faster path: a queue, a badge, a vote threshold, a visibility limit or a rule about what you may post. Ours and Fazier’s state none, and Fazier’s rules were not readable.
• Two sites list no free route. BetaList’s help page says plainly that all submissions are paid and that a startup that is not selected is refunded. PeerPush’s pricing page lists a one-time paid launch and no free tier.
• Queues are the most expensive free cost. Uneed assigns free launches a date at least 50 days out. OpenHunts’ pricing page showed a current queue of about 60 weeks on the day we read it.
• Links come with conditions. DevHunt marks links on free listings nofollow. Uneed, TinyLaunch and OpenHunts tie their followed backlinks to a score, a top-three finish or a badge.
• Three sites could not be read. Product Hunt, Peerlist and Indie Hackers refused our automated requests (HTTP 403). Two more, Fazier and Microlaunch, were read only in part.
• Show HN changed its wording. Its guidelines now say not to post quickly generated one-offs, because anybody can do that now, and ask for something personal and non-trivial.

How was this checked, and where are its limits?

We requested each platform’s home page and, where it existed, its pricing, FAQ, help or submission page with a plain automated fetch on 13 November 2026, stripped the markup and read what remained. We signed in nowhere, submitted nothing and paid nothing, so anything behind a login is outside this review. We quote no prices, since prices change; each platform’s own page is linked at the end.

• What we count as free: a route the platform itself describes as free or costing nothing, on a page we read. We do not count free trials of paid plans.
• What we did not measure: traffic, signups, backlink value or how long a launch lasts in practice. No platform’s own numbers are repeated here as fact; where a site quotes its own audience or authority score, we say it is the site’s claim.
• Blocked sites: for Product Hunt, Peerlist and Indie Hackers we repeat only the basics from our 12 November notes and mark the row “could not read”.
• Bias: this board is one of the 15 and competes with several of them. It is listed first and described from our own product facts, with its weakness stated. Order below that follows how directly a route is described, not quality.

What does each free route look like side by side?

“Not stated” means the pages we read do not say, not that the answer is no. A site may publish the detail behind its login.

What changed since 12 November?

• BetaList moved from “not confirmed” to “paid”. Our first pass could not find a free route and said so. Its help page now answers it directly: there is no free submission, payment is taken at checkout and refunded automatically if the startup is not selected. Its plans differ mainly in how fast you are featured and whether the newsletter is guaranteed.
• Smol Launch’s free route has a capacity. Its pricing page says free verified launches have 50 places a week shared across all makers, so a free launch can wait for a later week.
• Three sites joined the review: OpenHunts, Launching Next and PeerPush, with a second look at Microlaunch’s premium page and Fazier’s home page.
• Show HN’s guidelines tightened around generated one-offs, as noted above, and still say that once a Show HN clears a small points threshold it appears on the Show page.

Platform terms move quickly. A reading from a few weeks ago can be wrong, which is why each row is dated and why this page will be re-read before it is updated.

What does “free” cost across these platforms?

Read the costs together and a picture forms. The platforms that sell a way around the wait or the badge are selling time, and the paid steps are priced for that. For a maker with more time than money, the free routes are fair trades, so long as the trade is understood in advance. The are paid launch platforms worth it answer works through when paying makes sense, and free vs paid launch platforms compares the two routes.

What should a maker do with this?

1. Publish where nothing is held back first. A public page with no queue and no required badge means you have something to link on day one. Launch your product free here with one emailed link.
2. Join the queues the same day. Free lines such as Uneed’s start counting when you apply, and 50 days or more is long enough to forget about it. Put the date in your calendar and keep the listing accurate meanwhile.
3. Use Show HN only if the product can be tried at once. Its guidelines ask for something people can run or hold, preferably without sign-ups, and for you to be there to answer.
4. Pick by audience before cost. A developer tool fits DevHunt, a polished consumer product may fit an editorial list, and a tool for makers fits a board for makers. The where to launch a side project guide orders them by product type.
5. Do not pay only for the link attribute. A paid dofollow link on a site nobody visits buys a hope. Measure first with tagged links.
6. Keep the platform list short. Three or four places you can answer comments on beat fifteen submissions you cannot follow up.

Which pages did we read?

• Hacker News: Show HN guidelines.
• Uneed: pricing page and home page.
• TinyLaunch: pricing page and home page.
• DevHunt: FAQ.
• Smol Launch: pricing page.
• OpenHunts: pricing page.
• Launching Next: submission page.
• BetaList: help page and agent submission page.
• PeerPush: pricing page.
• Fazier: home page. Microlaunch: premium page.
• Not read: Product Hunt, Peerlist, Indie Hackers (HTTP 403 to automated requests).

If you represent one of these platforms and a row is wrong, tell us the page that says otherwise and we will correct it, with the date. The matching one-table view is the launch platform comparison table, and the places beyond launch boards are in the free launch directories list.