Where to Launch a Startup for Free: Eight Places That Suit a Young Company
Launch a startup in layers: a free public page that exists today, a curated directory or newsletter that reaches early adopters, and one community where your customers already talk. Show HN, BetaList, Launching Next, SaaSHub’s startup directory and a free launch board each fit a different stage. None of them can promise visitors, so choose by what they ask of you, not by what they advertise.
What changes when you launch a startup instead of a product?
A product page answers one question: what does it do? A startup is read as a company, so the visitor also wonders who is behind it, whether it will still exist in a year and why this team is working on the problem. That changes what you put on the page you submit and which places make sense. A weekend tool can go anywhere. A company with a name, a founder and a plan needs a trail a curious stranger can follow in a few minutes.
The practical consequence is small but easy to miss. Write one two-sentence description of the company and use it everywhere, so a reader who meets you in two places sees the same company. Keep an about page on your own domain with the founder’s name and a way to write to you. Several places below publish a short blurb and one link, and the link is the only thing that can carry the rest of the story.
| The reader’s question | Where you answer it | What to avoid |
|---|---|---|
| What is it, in one line? | Tagline on every listing, identical wording | Three different taglines in three places |
| Who is behind it? | An about page with a real name and contact | A contact form that goes nowhere |
| Can I try it today? | A working link, or a clear “not yet, join the list” | Hiding that the product is a waitlist |
| Is anyone using it? | One concrete sentence about early use, if true | Invented counts or testimonials |
Which free places are worth your time?
The list starts with our own board because we wrote this page; the facts for every other entry come from the site’s own pages, read on 13 November 2026, except where a site refused an automated check and we say so.
01 Post your build ideas (our launch board)
A free launch board, ours, where a launch goes live when you press Publish on the link in one verification email.
- Cost
- Free; no paid placement and no ads
- Account
- None; one verified email
- Fits
- The first public page, on day one
- Catch
- New and small, so you bring your own readers
For a startup the value is speed and permanence: you can launch it here for free before anything else is ready, then link to the page from every later submission. Verified launches are listed first, then the newest, with Today, Week and All-time feeds, and visitors can comment in threads.
It will not move a company by itself. The outbound link to your site is a normal followed link, a published launch is final and the same website cannot launch again within seven days, so get the description right before you press Publish.
02 Hacker News (Show HN)
The Show HN section of Hacker News, for something you made that other people can try.
- Cost
- Free to post
- Account
- Yes
- Fits
- A startup whose product runs today
- Catch
- Landing pages and sign-up pages are off topic
Its own guidelines say not to post landing pages or fundraisers, and they list sign-up pages and newsletters as off topic. A startup that has only a waiting list therefore has nothing to show there yet. A startup with a working product, reachable without an email wall, does.
The strength is readers who will question your assumptions in public. The rule that matters most to founders: you must be around to discuss it, so schedule a free afternoon before you post. The Show HN playbook covers the post itself.
03 BetaList
A curated directory of new startups, with a newsletter, reviewed by a person.
- Stage
- Pre-launch or live
- Route
- Submit a URL, confirm your email, pick a plan; nothing publishes before that
- Catch
- We could not confirm a free route; check its submit page
BetaList is one of the few places that takes startups before they have launched, which is why it comes up in every startup search. Its submit page lets you paste a URL, and says it creates your account as you go and that nothing is published until you confirm your email and choose a plan.
Its agent-submission page describes plans that differ by how soon you are featured, about 1, 3 or 14 days, with a refund if a submission is declined. That is a real service, but it is a paid decision, so treat it as optional on a zero budget. See BetaList alternatives.
04 Launching Next
A long-running site that publishes new startups and side projects, with a Friday newsletter.
- Cost
- Free to submit; a paid upgrade asks for review within one business day
- Review
- Submissions are reviewed every day; you are emailed if yours is published
- Catch
- Publication is not guaranteed
The submission form is written for companies. Beside a name, a URL and a five-to-eight-word headline it asks for up to 2,500 characters of description, five to ten tags, whether you are a side project, a bootstrapped startup or an investor-funded one, and what you plan to spend on marketing in the next 90 days. Answering “$0” is allowed.
Because the headline is capped at a handful of words, write it as a noun phrase a stranger could repeat. Expect a wait for a free decision, and do not buy the upgrade until you have seen what a listing did for another product of your size.
05 SaaSHub’s startup directory
A software marketplace whose startup directory lists young products beside the established ones they replace.
- Cost
- Submission tool described as free
- Review
- Every product goes through approval
- Not accepted
- Unreleased products, waiting-list landing pages, free subdomains
The submit page is blunt about who is turned away: products that are not released yet are rejected immediately, as are landing pages with a waiting-list form and sites on a free subdomain such as one from a hosting provider. It also says products that list competitors, and ones verified with an email address on the product’s own domain, are handled sooner.
That makes it a poor first stop and a good fourth one: register a real domain, ship a version, then list. Buyers there compare alternatives, so the page works best for a startup with a clear incumbent to be measured against.
06 Startup Stash
A curated directory of tools and resources for startups, with a weekly newsletter.
- Audience
- Founders looking for tools
- Route
- A “List A Product” link leads to an add-listing page
- Catch
- We could not read a form or a fee on that page; confirm both
Startup Stash only helps a startup that sells to other startups: a billing tool, an analytics tool, a founder utility. Its “How we review tools” page describes editorial lists built by checking first-party pages and asking people who have used the tools, which is slower than a form and more selective.
If your customer is a consumer or a plumber, skip it. If your customer is a founder, it is a place where your buyer is already shopping.
07 Product Hunt
The best-known launch site for software, with a daily ranking.
- Cost
- Free to submit; sign-in required
- Format
- A daily ranking
- Catch
- Our automated check could not read its pages
Its audience is the largest on this list, and its daily format rewards a founder who can bring people to vote early. A startup without a following should treat it as a later, optional step. The pages refused our check, so read its current launch guidelines before planning a date.
08 Indie Hackers
A founder community with a forum and product pages.
- Cost
- Not known to carry a fee; confirm on the site
- Account
- Yes, to post
- Catch
- Our automated check could not read its pages
Readers are people running their own small companies, so a post about a decision you made, such as why you charged from day one, tends to land better than an announcement. Treat it as the place to explain the company, and the directories as the place to point at it.
Which one should come first for your stage?
- Idea and a landing page only: the launch board and BetaList accept that stage; Show HN and SaaSHub do not. Post the idea itself on the ideas board if you want reactions before building.
- Working product, no revenue: Show HN, then the launch board. Add Launching Next with the free route.
- Revenue, a pricing page and a few customers: SaaSHub and, if you sell to founders, Startup Stash, because buyers compare there.
- A team and a story to tell: write a post for Indie Hackers about one decision, and link it from the launch page.
Do not announce in all of these on one day. Reactions arrive in different shapes and you will answer them better one at a time. The answers page on launching on several platforms gives the reasoning.
What does a three-week order look like?
- Days one to two: write the two-sentence description, the about page and a tagged link for each place, using the UTM tagging checklist.
- Day three: publish on the launch board and send that page to ten people you actually know, asking one question about the tagline.
- Second week: post Show HN if the product runs without a sign-up, and submit to Launching Next on the free route.
- Third week: submit to SaaSHub once the product is released, and write the Indie Hackers post about what the first fortnight taught you.
Afterwards compare the places by conversations, not raw visits, with the launch directory traffic calculator. The pre-launch checklist lists what the destination page needs before any of this starts.
Frequently asked questions
Where should a brand-new startup launch first?
Start with the place that asks for the least and is live soonest, such as a free launch board with no account and no queue, so there is a public page to link from everywhere else. Then add a directory that fits your stage and one community where your customers already talk. Keep paid routes for later.
Can a startup launch before the product is finished?
Yes, on some places and not on others. BetaList and this site’s launch board accept early-stage startups, while Show HN and SaaSHub say landing pages, sign-up pages and unreleased products do not belong. Say clearly in your description what works today so nobody expects more than exists.
Do I need Product Hunt to launch a startup?
No. It has the largest audience on this list, but its daily format favours founders who can bring people to vote early. A startup with no following can build a public record elsewhere first, then decide whether a Product Hunt day is worth the preparation.
Is it worth paying to be listed on a startup directory?
Not before you know what a free listing does for you. Several directories sell faster review or featured spots, and none can promise visitors. Take the free route, tag the link, and compare the visits and replies it produced before you pay for anything.
How many places should a startup submit to?
Three or four over a month is enough: a public page, one directory or newsletter, and one community. Each needs its own tagged link and an answer to every comment. Submitting to twelve sites in one afternoon produces twelve listings you cannot learn from.
Post your build ideas publishes this page and runs a free launch board that competes with some of the sites it names. Facts about other sites came from their own pages on the date shown above; terms, queues and prices change, so confirm on their sites before you decide. About the publisher.