When does a Product Hunt launch day start?

At 12:01 AM Pacific time. Each day on Product Hunt runs midnight to midnight Pacific, so launching at 12:01 AM gives you the whole 24 hours.

No. Product Hunt encourages makers to post their own product, and says most featured launches and #1 Product of the Day winners were self-hunted. Paying someone to hunt breaks its rules.

How long is the Product Hunt tagline limit?

60 characters. Product Hunt’s launch guide also gives 260 characters for the description (an older page says 500), up to 3 topics, a square thumbnail and at least two gallery images.

Is every launch featured on the Product Hunt homepage?

No. The homepage is curated: Product Hunt’s team picks launches for usefulness, novelty, craft and creativity. A launch that isn’t featured is still live in the All feed and can still get upvotes and comments.

Can I ask people to upvote my launch?

No. Product Hunt doesn’t allow asking for upvotes or offering anything for them; share the launch and ask for feedback and comments instead. Breaking this can lower your ranking or unfeature the launch.

Is the link from Product Hunt dofollow?

Not plainly. On the product pages we looked at, the website link’s rel attribute marks it ugc (user-generated content), which tells Google not to treat it as an endorsement. Product Hunt doesn’t document it.

How soon can I relaunch on Product Hunt?

Two months after the last launch of the same product, company or root domain, and an earlier one needs a significant update and a relaunch request. A launch that wasn’t featured can be resubmitted after six months.

How to launch on Product Hunt (2026)

How Product Hunt works in 2026

A launch day is a Pacific-time day. Launches go live at 12:01 AM PT and compete with that day’s other launches until midnight PT (Launch Guide).
The homepage is curated. Submitting doesn’t put you on it, and neither do upvotes. The team reviews each launch for usefulness, novelty, craft and creativity; it has to be a live digital product, and waitlists, directories, templates, courses, services and the like are usually passed over (Featuring Guidelines, March 2026). An unfeatured launch stays live in the All feed and can still be upvoted (Why is my post not on the homepage?).
The leaderboard counts points, not raw upvotes. One upvote isn’t always one point: points weigh featured status, engagement and whether votes look authentic, and Product Hunt doesn’t publish the formula (How is the homepage ranked?). It removes points it judges fake (Why did my points go down?).
Awards. Product of the Day, Week and Month go to the most points in that period (Product of the Day, Week & Month). The Golden Kitty Awards were retired in November 2025 for the quarterly, per-category Orbit Awards.
Launching is free. Ads exist, but they don’t touch the leaderboard and can’t run on your own launch day (Ad campaigns). There is no paid launch or paid featuring.

Before you launch

Your account

Post from a personal account that looks like a real person: first and last name, a photo, a headline. Company and brand accounts can’t post, vote or comment (Community Guidelines).
A new account waits a week before it can post; subscribing to Product Hunt’s newsletter lifts that (How can I get access to post?). Product Hunt’s own advice is to join months ahead and take part.
Hunt it yourself. You don’t need a hunter; Product Hunt encourages self-hunting (Can I post my own product?). Paying anyone to hunt or promote breaks the rules. Each person can schedule at most two hunts a day (Daily Hunt Limits).

The post

From Product Hunt’s Launch Guide and How to post a product:

Name: the product’s name only, no description and no emoji unless it’s part of the name.
Tagline: 60 characters at most. Say what it does, not how great it is.
Description: 260 characters (one older Product Hunt page says 500; the form decides).
Link: your product’s own URL, with no shortener and no UTM tags.
Thumbnail: square, 240×240, under 3 MB. A GIF doesn’t autoplay, so its first frame has to work alone.
Gallery: at least two images, 1270×760 recommended. A YouTube video and an interactive demo (Arcade, Storylane, Supademo and others) are optional.
Topics: up to three. Pricing: free, paid, or paid with a free plan or trial.
Makers: add your co-makers by their Product Hunt usernames.

Your website matters too: everyone who clicks through from Product Hunt, X or LinkedIn sees its share card first. Check your link preview before the day.

Scheduling

You can schedule up to 30 days ahead and pick the date; a scheduled post isn’t indexed and can’t be upvoted early (How to schedule a post). “Launch now” is gone: you schedule or save a draft (Where did Launch Now go?).
Since mid-2026 a scheduled launch can be made public from the lock icon on its banner, so you can share the page before the day (How to share a scheduled launch).
Which day? Product Hunt’s answer is the day you’re most prepared. Weekdays draw bigger companies; weekends suit side projects, have fewer big launches and, by Product Hunt’s numbers, 15% more Visit clicks (producthunt.com/launch). Pick a day you can spend answering comments.

Launch day

12:01 AM PT: check the post is live and every link works.
Post your first comment: who you are, why you built it, what’s next, and a specific question. Product Hunt says about 70% of its award winners had one.
Tell your people: email list, X, LinkedIn, Bluesky, communities you’re part of. Share the launch and ask for feedback.
Don’t ask for upvotes, don’t offer anything for them and don’t run upvote contests. Product Hunt can lower your ranking or unfeature you for it (Can I ask my community to upvote?); mass identical messages are out too.
Answer every comment through the day. The conversation is most of what you take away.

After the day

Your launch keeps a permanent product page, and Product Hunt emails you badges to embed (featured, awards, reviews).
Know what the link is worth: on the live product pages we checked on October 29, 2026, the website link’s rel attribute was noreferrer noopener ugc, which tells Google not to treat it as an endorsement. Product Hunt doesn’t document this.
Relaunching: wait two months after the last launch of the same product, company or root domain; sooner needs a significant update and a relaunch request (Can I relaunch my product?). A launch that wasn’t featured can be resubmitted after six months.

Launch in more than one place

One day on one board is a narrow window. Most makers also launch on a few smaller boards, each with its own rhythm, price and kind of link; see where to launch your product for them side by side, and the launch checklist for the whole run-up.

Launchdog is one of them: a weekly board you launch from your AI coding agent. It drafts the listing from your site and books the week, the launch runs Monday to Sunday, and every launch gets a permanent followed link. How it works.