# Where to Launch Your Startup in 2026, by Stage > Where to launch your startup in 2026, stage by stage: pre-launch, launch week and after, with prices, link types and cadence for each platform. ```yaml url: "https://makerhunt.io/studio/where-to-launch-your-startup-by-stage" markdown: "https://makerhunt.io/studio/where-to-launch-your-startup-by-stage.md" title: "Where to Launch Your Startup in 2026, by Stage" type: studio_article category: Growth tags: "places to launch your startup, where to launch my saas, best places to launch, launch platforms 2026, product launch, Product Hunt, Show HN, startup directories, launch strategy, Growth" featured_image: "https://txmhk1zrnc.ufs.sh/f/xSkWTCqmKWx9yEdLfuPL7SkfmuIv3GZM6sRyd4NzgobD0Kc9" published_at: "2026-11-04T12:29:00.000Z" updated_at: "2026-11-04T12:38:17.952Z" ``` ## About this studio article Where to launch your startup in 2026, stage by stage: pre-launch, launch week and after, with prices, link types and cadence for each platform. ## Article The best places to launch your startup depend on its stage. Before launch, use places that collect interest and feedback, like a waitlist directory or a maker community. On launch week, pick one big daily board such as Product Hunt and one or two weekly boards you can plan around. In the months after, move to rolling directories and comparison sites that keep sending people long after launch day. Trying to be everywhere at once is the most common way to launch and hear nothing. This guide is for makers about to ship a SaaS or tool for the first time, or relaunching one. Prices and rules come from each platform's own page, read on 4 November 2026. Where I could not confirm a link type on a live listing, the table says "unverified". Disclosure: Aura++, EarlyHunt, IndieHunt, MakerHunt, SideHunt and Uno Directory are Praneet Brar's sites, and so is this one. **Last checked: Nov 4, 2026** ## Why does launch stage matter more than the platform list? Every launch platform has a different audience and a different clock. A daily board gives you one loud day. A weekly board gives you seven quieter days. A directory gives you a slow trickle for months. If you show up at a daily board with a product nobody can sign up for yet, you burn your one loud day. If you list a finished product only in a waitlist directory, you collect emails from people who wanted to try it now. So the question is not "where should I launch my SaaS?" but "what do I need right now?" Early on you need feedback. On launch week you need attention. Later you need steady discovery. ## Where should you launch, stage by stage? Platform Price Link type Cadence **Stage 1: before launch (collect interest)** BetaList Unverified Unverified Rolling, reviewed Peerlist Launchpad Unverified Unverified Weekly ("Week 44" on 4 Nov) **Stage 2: launch week (get attention)** Product Hunt Free (its launch page says "100% free") Unverified Daily, from 12:01 am Pacific Hacker News (Show HN) Free Ranked Show HN links had no nofollow on 4 Nov; "new" page links had rel="nofollow" Continuous Uneed Free queue; $39.99 to pick a date Per its pricing page: do-follow at an upvote score of 20, or guaranteed with skip the line Daily Aura++ (ours) Free; $29 Premium Per its pricing page: free dofollow only in the daily top 3 with badge; $29 guaranteed. Not checked on a live listing Daily EarlyHunt, IndieHunt, MakerHunt, SideHunt (ours) Free; $29 Premium Per pricing pages: nofollow by default, dofollow for weekly top 3 with badge; $29 guaranteed. Not checked on a live listing Weekly, Mondays 8:00 AM UTC **Stage 3: after launch (steady discovery)** SaaSHub Free submission Unverified Rolling Uno Directory (ours) Free with backlink verification; from $29 Unverified Rolling DevHunt (developer tools) Unverified for listings (it sells ad spots from $99 a week) Unverified Unverified Be fair to the list: none of these is "best" in general. Product Hunt has the biggest crowd and the most competition. The smaller weekly boards, ours included, are quieter but give a small product more time on the front page. Pick by what you need, not by which logo looks most impressive. ## Stage 1: what should you do before launch? Before you launch, you want two things: people who say "tell me when it is ready" and people who tell you what is confusing. Neither needs a big launch board. - List a waitlist or beta page only where the audience expects unfinished products. Pre-launch directories are built for this. - Share progress in one maker community you actually read, and answer every reply. - Collect emails on your own page, so the list is yours no matter which platform sent them. Do not post on Show HN yet. Its guidelines say sign-up pages and waitlists are off topic; people need something to try. ![A person in a grey jacket holding open a paper map outdoors](https://images.pexels.com/photos/3604968/pexels-photo-3604968.jpeg?auto=compress&cs=tinysrgb&w=1200&h=800&fit=crop) ## Stage 2: how do you pick launch-week platforms? Pick one daily board and one or two weekly boards. More than that and you cannot answer comments, which is the part that actually turns visitors into users. 1. **Choose your loud day.** If your audience is broad tech early adopters, Product Hunt. If it is developers and you have something they can run, Show HN. 2. **Add a weekly board for the same week.** A Monday-to-Sunday board keeps you visible after the loud day fades. 3. **Prepare assets once.** One short tagline, one longer description, five screenshots and a short demo clip. Good screenshots carry a listing; this guide to [making product screenshots that get clicks](https://makerhunt.io/studio/how-to-make-product-screenshots-that-get-clicks) covers what to show. 4. **Block time to reply.** Plan to be at your desk for the first hours of each launch. Product Hunt's own [launch guide](https://www.producthunt.com/launch) says you can share your launch however you like but must not ask people directly to upvote; ask them to visit and comment. 5. **Tag every link.** Add a different UTM tag per platform so you know which one sent signups, not just clicks. ## Stage 3: where should you list after launch? After launch week, the job changes from attention to being findable. People searching for "alternatives to X" or "best tool for Y" land on comparison sites and directories. Those listings keep working for months if they describe you well. - Submit to two or three rolling directories that match your category. SaaSHub's [submission rules](https://www.saashub.com/services/submit) are a good example of what reviewers reject: unreleased products and free subdomains. - Keep your listing text in sync with your homepage. Outdated pricing on a directory costs you trust. - Check each listing once a month: is it still live, is the link still right, did it send anyone? ## When should you relaunch? Relaunch when there is something new a past visitor would care about: a big feature, a new audience or a rebuilt product. A list of small fixes is not a relaunch. Most boards allow it; Product Hunt says you can launch "as often as you have new significant product iterations". Treat a relaunch like stage 2 again, with a fresh demo and new screenshots. ![A tape measure, pencil and wood shavings on a workbench](https://images.pexels.com/photos/5974028/pexels-photo-5974028.jpeg?auto=compress&cs=tinysrgb&w=1200&h=800&fit=crop) ## What mistakes waste a launch? - **Launching everywhere on one day.** You cannot reply in ten comment threads at once, and replies are where users come from. - **Launching a sign-up wall.** If people cannot see the product, many will not bother. - **Buying a listing only for the link.** Google's [spam policies](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/essentials/spam-policies) treat buying links for ranking as link spam unless they are marked sponsored or nofollow. Pay for an audience or a date, not for a link. - **Measuring votes instead of signups.** A top spot with no signups is a bad week. A quiet listing with five real users is a good one. ## A made-up example: Theo and Shiftboard Theo built Shiftboard, a rota planner for small cafes. Stage 1: he listed a beta page in one pre-launch directory and posted weekly progress in a maker community, collecting a small email list. Stage 2: once cafes could sign up, he chose a weekly board for Monday and a daily board for Wednesday of the same week, wrote one set of assets, and stayed online both days. Stage 3: he added a rolling directory listing and a comparison-site profile, and checked them monthly. The names and details are invented; the order is the lesson. ## FAQ ### What are the best places to launch a SaaS in 2026? For launch week, one daily board (often Product Hunt, or Show HN for developer tools) plus one weekly board. Before and after that, pre-launch and rolling directories do more for you. ### Should I launch on Product Hunt first? Only when the product is usable and you can spend the day replying. If not, start with a smaller weekly board to practise. ### How many launch platforms should I use? Two or three on launch week. Add a few rolling directories over the following month. ### Do launch platforms help SEO? A little, at most. Many free listings are nofollow, and link type can change. Treat SEO as a bonus and check each link yourself. ## Match the place to the stage Places to launch your startup are not one list; they are three. Collect interest first, get attention on one planned week, then make yourself findable. If you want a longer list sorted by type, MakerHunt keeps a page of [places to launch a product](https://makerhunt.io/places-to-launch) you can work through by stage. ## Links - Article (HTML): https://makerhunt.io/studio/where-to-launch-your-startup-by-stage - AI-friendly Markdown: https://makerhunt.io/studio/where-to-launch-your-startup-by-stage.md ## Explore - [Studio index](https://makerhunt.io/studio) - [Blog](https://makerhunt.io/blog) - [Browse projects](https://makerhunt.io/projects) _HTML version: https://makerhunt.io/studio/where-to-launch-your-startup-by-stage_