What Counts as a Show HN
Show HN is a post format on Hacker News for sharing something you built that other people can try. You submit it like any other story, with a title that starts with Show HN:, and readers can try it, ask questions and give you feedback in the thread.
The rules are specific, and they're worth reading in full on Hacker News' Show HN guidelines page before you post. The short version: it has to be something people can actually use or play with. These don't qualify:
- landing pages and sign-up or waitlist pages;
- blog posts, newsletters, lists and other things to read;
- fundraisers.
Projects that do qualify include an app or tool people can try, an open-source library or command-line tool, a game, a hardware project with real details, or a technical demo. It doesn't need to be big or polished. It should be real and interesting, and you should be the person who made it.
Show HN is free, nothing about it is for sale, and it works best for developer tools, open source, technical infrastructure and small, well-made utilities. See our Show HN profile for how its pages and links work.
Make It Easy to Try
The single biggest factor you control is how fast someone can go from the link to using the thing. Hacker News readers will click, look for a moment, and judge. Every barrier costs you readers:
- No sign-up wall if you can avoid it. Let people try a demo, a sandbox or a read-only example first. The guidelines ask for this too: make it easy to try, ideally without sign-ups or emails.
- For open source, a good README. What it does, a short example, how to install it, and its license, all on the first screen.
- For developer tools, a copy-paste start. One install command and one example that works.
- A page that loads fast and works on a phone. Plenty of readers open Hacker News on mobile.
- Be ready for traffic. If a post reaches the front page, a small server can fall over. A static demo, caching, or a hosted free tier helps.
Writing the Title
The title is almost all a reader sees before deciding to click. A plain, specific description works best. A common format is:
Show HN: [Name] – [what it does, in plain words]
Some examples of the difference:
| Weak | Better |
|---|---|
| Show HN: The future of note-taking | Show HN: A note-taking app that stores everything as plain Markdown files |
| Show HN: My new AI startup! | Show HN: A CLI that writes commit messages from your staged diff |
| Show HN: Revolutionary database tool | Show HN: A Postgres extension for versioning rows like Git |
Hacker News' general guidelines also ask titles not to use tricks to stand out, like capital letters or exclamation marks. Hype in a title tends to hurt. Say what it is, and let the reader decide whether it's interesting.
The First Comment
After you submit, add a comment of your own straight away. This is where you talk to readers in your own voice. A good first comment covers:
- Who you are and why you built it: the problem you had, in a few sentences.
- How it works, with the technical details people will ask about anyway: the stack, an interesting decision, a trade-off you made.
- What's different about it compared with what already exists, stated honestly.
- What it can't do yet, and what you're unsure about.
- The feedback you want, as a specific question.
Keep it modest and concrete. Readers respond well to a builder explaining their work, and badly to a sales pitch. If there's a business model, say what it is plainly: "It's free for personal use; teams pay $8 a month" is better than leaving people to guess.
Handling the Comments
Post when you can stay for several hours. The discussion is as important as the product, and replies from the maker keep a thread alive.
- Answer questions directly and technically. If you don't know, say so.
- Take criticism calmly. Hacker News comments can be blunt. Thank people, ask follow-up questions, and don't get defensive. Readers watch how you respond.
- Concede good points. "You're right, the pricing page doesn't say what happens after the trial. Fixing it today." earns real goodwill.
- Don't argue with every critic. Reply once, well, and move on.
- Note every bug report and feature request. A thread can be the best user research you'll ever get for free.
What Not to Do
- Don't ask anyone to upvote or comment. Not friends, not colleagues, not your newsletter. Hacker News doesn't allow it, it can detect voting rings, and it can bury or penalize the post.
- Don't post a landing page. If people can't try it yet, it isn't a Show HN. Wait until they can.
- Don't use marketing language in the title, the page or the comments.
- Don't post the same thing again and again. Repeated submissions of the same project look like promotion.
- Don't use Hacker News only to promote. An account that only ever posts its own projects is treated with suspicion. Take part in other discussions too.
If Your Post Sinks
Most Show HN posts get little attention. It's normal, and it usually says more about timing and the title than about the product. New Show HN posts appear on the "shownew" page first. Once a post has a few points, it moves to the main Show page, and popular posts can reach the front page.
If a post sinks:
- Don't delete it and resubmit straight away.
- Hacker News' FAQ allows a small number of reposts of a story that hasn't had significant attention. Wait a while, improve what readers will see first, and consider a clearer title.
- If you think a good post was simply missed, you can email the moderators at hn@ycombinator.com. They sometimes give overlooked posts a second chance. Ask once, politely.
One more detail: while a post is new on the shownew page, its link is nofollow. When we checked on 14 Oct 2026, links on the Show page and front page, for posts with about 10 or more points, had no nofollow.
After Hacker News
A front-page Show HN can bring a wave of visitors in a day, then fade within a day or two. Make the most of it:
- Tag your link (for example
?ref=hn) so you can see what the post sent; our guide to tracking launch traffic explains how. - Turn the questions people asked into docs and FAQ entries. They're exactly what future users will search for.
- Follow the steps in what to do after launch day to turn the visitors who signed up into users.
Show HN works well alongside other launches. It gives you a technical audience for a day; a weekly launch board gives you a permanent page and a dofollow link that keep working long after. Launch on Hauntboard to add one, or compare Show HN and Hauntboard side by side.