Directory review · Community
Show HN on Hacker News: the rules and the link
Show HN costs nothing and rewards products people can try in a minute. We read its rules and checked how its links are marked on October 7, 2026.
Founder, SaaSCity
Updated
Checked by hand. DR from Ahrefs.
- 91
- Domain Rating
- Depends on points
- Nofollow until a post gathers points
- Yes, always
- Free route
- None
- Paid from
Contents (9)
The short answer
Show HN is free and is for things people can try now: sign-up pages, landing pages, newsletters and fundraisers are off topic, and asking friends to upvote or comment is against the rules. As of October 2026, every Show HN appears on /shownew and moves to /show after a small points threshold. In our October 7, 2026 check, links on new, low-scoring posts carried rel="nofollow" and links on posts with more points had no rel at all, so only a Show HN that takes off earns a followed link.
Hacker News (Show HN) at a glance
- Type
- Show HN threads on a tech news forum
- Owner
- Y Combinator, which owns and funds HN
- Cost
- $0; there is no paid placement
- Where posts appear
- /shownew and /newest first, /show after a small points threshold
- Title rule
- Must begin with "Show HN"
- What qualifies
- Something you made that people can try now
- Link
- Direct; rel="nofollow" on low-scoring posts, none on posts with more points
- Thread life
- Closed to new comments after two weeks
- Wait or review time
- Live as soon as you post
- Domain Rating
- 91 (Ahrefs)
- Website
- news.ycombinator.com
What Show HN is
Show HN is the part of Hacker News for sharing your own work. You submit a story whose title begins with "Show HN", and readers try the thing and leave feedback and questions in the thread. The guidelines say it must be something you worked on personally and are around to discuss, and that it should be non-trivial: "Don't post quickly-generated one-offs; anybody can do that now."
Y Combinator owns and funds Hacker News, and its FAQ says the HN team is editorially independent. The FAQ also lists what YC companies get: their startup launches and job ads are placed on the front page. Every other Show HN competes on votes.
Ranking is mostly points against time. The FAQ says the basic algorithm divides points by a power of the time since submission, with user flags, anti-abuse software, account or site weighting and moderator action also in play. Every Show HN starts on /shownew, and the strongest posts reach the front page.
Is Hacker News dofollow?
Sometimes. As of our check on October 7, 2026, Hacker News links straight to your site with no redirect, but it adds rel="nofollow" to the story link while a post has few points and leaves the attribute off once a post has more. HN does not publish the rule.
We read the raw HTML of /newest, /shownew, /show and the front page and matched each story link to its points. Every link on /newest carried nofollow (30 of 30), as did 28 of 30 on /shownew. On /show it was 18 of 30, and on the front page 2 of 30. Every story under 9 points had nofollow and every story at 12 points or more had a plain link; in between, a 9-point post had no rel and an 11-point post still had nofollow.
Item pages follow the same pattern. Show HN: EasyToSTL at 2 points linked with rel="nofollow"; Show HN: Parseable at 84 points linked with no rel. External links typed into the post text or into comments carried nofollow every time we looked. Item pages carry no meta robots and a self-canonical, so a post that takes off is an indexable page with a followed link to your site.
Plan for a nofollow link. In our October 7 sample, 28 of the 30 newest Show HN posts were still marked nofollow; the followed link only came with the points.
The link as rendered on news.ycombinator.com
<a href="https://getzit.org/" rel="nofollow">Show HN: Git extension for controlling Git worktree mess</a>
<a href="https://www.parseable.com">Show HN: Parseable, an open observability datalake, handles 100M time-series/min</a>
What Show HN costs
Nothing. As of October 2026 there is no paid plan and no way to buy placement. The real cost is effort: a product people can try without signing up, a post you write yourself and a day spent answering technical questions.
The only special placement the HN FAQ describes is for Y Combinator companies, whose startup launches and job ads are placed on the front page.
How to post a Show HN
You need a Hacker News account: the submit page asks you to log in. These steps come from the Show HN guidelines and the moderators' Show HN tips, last edited in March 2026.
- Check that it qualifies It must be something people can try now: software they can run, or for hardware a video or a detailed article. For a book, a sample chapter is fine. Blog posts, sign-up pages, newsletters, lists, landing pages and fundraisers are off topic, and a minor version bump generally is too.
- Remove the barriers Make it possible to try without a sign-up or an email confirmation. The guidelines say you will get more feedback that way, and the moderators warn that HN readers get ornery when they have to jump through hoops.
- Post from a personal account The tips ask you not to use your company or project name as your username. Adding an email to your profile lets the moderators reach you, and they sometimes send repost invites.
- Write a plain title Start it with "Show HN". No uppercase for emphasis, no exclamation points, no site name in the title and no gratuitous numbers.
- Add the backstory by hand Say clearly what it is, how you came to build it and what is different about it, in factual language with no marketing. The tips say not to use an LLM to write or even edit the text, and the guidelines ban generated and AI-edited posts.
- Stay for the thread Answer questions as they come in. Do not ask friends to upvote or comment, and keep booster comments from fans out of the thread.
Posting a Show HN? Add a page you control
Most Show HN posts stay on /shownew with a nofollow link, and the thread closes after two weeks. SaaSCity, which we run, gives your product a permanent page on a DR 66 domain; its link turns dofollow once our badge is on your homepage, or Quick Pass ($19.99) puts the listing live within 24 hours after a human review, with no badge. It will not give you the technical feedback HN does, so do both: the Show HN for the conversation and the listing for search.
Show HN rules, flags and dead posts
From the HN guidelines and FAQ, as of October 2026.
No vote or comment requests
The FAQ says HN penalizes or bans submissions, accounts and sites that ask for upvotes. Asking for comments is out too, and the FAQ adds that readers spot it and flag it.
What [flagged] means
Users flagged the post as breaking the guidelines or as not belonging on HN. Moderators can also add flags, or turn them off when they are unfair.
What [dead] means
Software, user flags or moderators killed the post. Dead posts are hidden unless a reader turns on showdead, and readers past a small karma threshold can vouch for one that should not be dead.
Reposts
A small number of reposts is fine if the story had no significant attention in the last year or so; otherwise reposts are buried as duplicates. Do not delete and repost.
New versions
A new release counts as a Show HN only if it is significantly different. The moderators suggest once or twice a year at most, with a comment linking to the previous thread.
Is Show HN worth it?
For a developer tool, an open-source project or anything technical that people can try in a minute, yes. It costs nothing, and readers try the product and leave specific feedback in the thread. A post that takes off also gets a followed link from an indexable page.
For most SaaS marketing sites it is a poor fit. A sign-up wall works against the main request in the rules, and marketing copy is what the moderators call an instant turnoff. AI-written text is against the guidelines. Most posts we saw sat on /shownew with a nofollow link, and every thread closes to new comments after two weeks.
Good fit
- Developer tools and open-source projects
- Products people can try without signing up
- Founders who can answer technical questions all day
Skip it if
- Your product is a waitlist or sits behind a sign-up wall
- You need a guaranteed followed link
- Your post would read like marketing copy
Alternatives to Show HN
Other places to show a working product, checked on October 7, 2026.
- DR 91
A free daily launch leaderboard; its Visit website link is marked ugc.
- DR 65
A weekly launch board for developer tools; paid launches get a followed link.
- DR 81
A products database and a daily Build Board for build-in-public posts.
- DR 76
Daily launches with a free waiting line and paid options from $14.99.
- DR 77
A free weekly launch from a verified personal profile; only the top five get a ugc link.
Hacker News (Show HN) FAQ
- What are the Show HN rules?
- As of October 2026, a Show HN must be something you made that people can try now, posted with a title that begins with "Show HN". Sign-up pages, landing pages, newsletters, blog posts and fundraisers are off topic, and asking anyone to upvote or comment is not allowed.
- How do I post a Show HN?
- Log in to Hacker News, submit your product URL with a title that starts with "Show HN" and add a short text, written by you, on what it is and why you built it. Then stay in the thread to answer questions.
- Is Hacker News dofollow?
- Sometimes. In our October 7, 2026 check, story links on new posts with few points carried rel="nofollow", while posts with 12 or more points linked with no rel attribute. External links in post text and comments carried nofollow.
- Why was my Show HN flagged?
- A [flagged] label means users marked the post as breaking the guidelines or as not belonging on HN. For Show HN, the guidelines rule out sign-up pages, landing pages and reading material. A [dead] post was killed by software, flags or moderators, and readers can vouch to restore it.
- Can I use AI to write a Show HN post?
- No. As of October 2026, the HN guidelines say not to post generated or AI-edited text, and the moderators' Show HN tips say to write the text by hand without an LLM, even for editing.
- Why is my Show HN not on the Show page?
- Every Show HN appears on /shownew and /newest first. It moves to /show only after it clears a small points threshold, which HN does not publish.
How we checked
Every fact on this page was read on the site it describes. Last checked on . Prices and rules change, so check the site before you pay.
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SaaSCity runs a launch directory, so we are not a neutral party. Nobody paid for this review, and the facts in it come from the pages listed under How we checked.