Short answer: the sites worth your time in 2026 are Product Hunt (free, one day, best if you bring an audience), Hacker News “Show HN” (free, only for things people can try without signing up), Peerlist Launchpad, Uneed, TinyLaunch and Microlaunch (launch boards with free or cheap options), BetaList (paid, for early-stage products), Indie Hackers and AlternativeTo (free and slow but steady), and the marketplace or niche directory where your users already are. For design tools, that means the Figma Community, Framer Marketplace, Blender Extensions or The Design Tools Launch Week. Skip packages that promise “submission to 100+ directories”.
We run The Design Tools, which is on this list. We checked every site on 26 September 2026 (the two AI directories on 12 September): that it’s online, what it costs and what you get. Designer News, a staple of older lists, was offline when we checked, so we left it out.
Quick picks
- Free, and worth it for most tools: Product Hunt if you have an audience, Show HN if people can try your tool without signing up, AlternativeTo, and Indie Hackers.
- Design tools: The Design Tools and its Launch Week, your host app’s marketplace (Figma, Framer, Blender), Sidebar and Toools.design.
- Paid, cheap and clear about what you get: Uneed ($14.99 or $29.99), usetools.design (€9.99 or €29.99), TinyLaunch ($39) and Microlaunch ($39).
- Paid, and only for early-stage products: BetaList.
Launch platforms
These give you a day or a week in the spotlight, usually with votes deciding the order.
| Site | Cost (26 Sep 2026) | How it works | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Product Hunt | Free | A daily leaderboard on Pacific time. Product Hunt’s team picks which launches appear on the homepage. You may ask people to visit and comment, but not to upvote. | Tools with an audience to bring on one day |
| Peerlist Launchpad | No fee shown | Weekly. Launches open on Mondays (UTC) and voting runs through the week. The top three get a profile badge and a newsletter feature. Places are limited, and you need a Peerlist profile. | Tools for designers and developers |
| Uneed | Free line, $14.99, or $29.99 | The free line can put you up to five months out. $14.99 gets a slot in about 14 days, and $29.99 lets you pick the date. Free launches need 10 upvotes to stay published and 20 for the do-follow link. The $29.99 option guarantees the link. | Indie software of any kind |
| TinyLaunch | Free, or $39 premium | Standard launches stay on the homepage for several days, and only the top three get the backlink. Premium skips the queue and guarantees the link. The do-follow link also depends on embedding TinyLaunch’s badge on your site. | Makers who want a quick, cheap launch |
| Microlaunch | $39 Launch Pro to skip the queue (discounted from $49 when we checked) | Launches stay visible for 30 days rather than one. The site reports about 30,000 unique visitors a month. | Makers who can’t be online on one set day |
| BetaList | Paid only, with a full refund if you’re not selected | For pre-launch and recently launched startups. You need your own domain, since links to free hosting subdomains or app stores aren’t accepted. | Early-stage products collecting beta users |
| Launching Next | Free, or $99 to be considered within one business day | A startup listing site with an editorial review. | Early-stage startups |
| DevHunt | Free | An open-source launch board for developer tools. You list through a GitHub pull request, and people vote by signing in with GitHub. | Developer tools, design-to-code |
Communities
These are free, but each has rules about self-promotion. Read them before you post. A deleted post helps nobody.
| Site | Cost | How it works | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hacker News: Show HN | Free | Only for things people can try, “ideally without barriers such as signups or emails”. Landing pages, sign-up pages and fundraisers don’t qualify, and asking friends to upvote is not allowed. | Working tools with a technical story |
| Indie Hackers | Free | A product directory that shows each product’s self-reported revenue, plus a founder community. | Bootstrapped makers sharing how they built it |
| Reddit (r/SideProject) | Free | r/SideProject exists for sharing projects. Most design subreddits restrict self-promotion, so check each one’s rules. | Early feedback from other makers |
Directories and “alternatives” sites
These rarely bring a spike. They bring a steady trickle of people searching for something to switch to.
| Site | Cost | How it works | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| AlternativeTo | Free | Crowd-sourced. List your tool as an alternative to the well-known product it replaces. | Tools that replace a famous product |
| SaaSHub | Free, plus a “Feature my product” upgrade | Alternatives and comparisons. Once you verify your product, SaaSHub gives you a list of 110 other sites to submit to. | SaaS products |
| OpenAlternative | Account needed to submit | Open-source alternatives to proprietary software. | Open-source tools |
Design-specific places
If you make a design tool, these reach designers directly.
| Site | Cost | How it works | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Design Tools and Launch Week (us) | Free. Optional Maker Verified, $29 one time. | A directory of 600 design tools. A person reviews each free submission within 7 days and writes down real drawbacks as well as strengths. Launch Week runs from Monday to Sunday, votes alone set the order, and your review page stays up afterwards with an ordinary link to your site. The catch: we’re young and small, so bring your own audience. | Any design tool |
| Figma Community | Free to publish | Where Figma users install plugins, widgets and files. Figma reviews every new plugin before approving it. | Figma plugins, widgets and files |
| Framer Marketplace | Check Framer’s current terms | Framer’s own marketplace for templates, components and plugins. | Anything built for Framer |
| Blender Extensions | Free | Blender’s official directory of add-ons and themes. Every extension is reviewed, and it must be GPL-compliant. | Open-source Blender add-ons |
| Toools.design | Free to suggest | A curated directory of 2,200+ design resources. Only design-related tools are accepted after review. | Design resources of every kind |
| usetools.design | €9.99, or €29.99 priority | A curated list of 1,352 design tools. Standard listings are reviewed within a week, and priority within 48 hours with 14 days near the top of the category. You get a full refund if you’re not approved. | Design tools with a small budget |
| Sidebar | Free to submit a link | Five design links every weekday, on the site and by email. It’s editorial, so a submission isn’t a guaranteed slot. | The story of how you built your tool |
More on these in Product Hunt alternatives for design tools.
AI tool directories
Only worth it if your tool is AI-first. The two biggest, There’s An AI For That and Futurepedia, charge several hundred dollars for a listing, according to our last check on 12 September 2026. Both change their prices often, so check before you budget.
What to skip
- “Submit to 100+ directories” packages. Several launch sites sell or give away lists of more than 100 directories. Most of those directories send almost no visitors, and a hundred near-identical listings do little for search. Pick the ten where your users actually are.
- Bought upvotes or “launch support” groups. Votes from strangers don’t turn into users, and Product Hunt and Hacker News both forbid vote manipulation.
- Paying before you’ve tried the free route. List for free first, see what each site sends, then decide whether a paid slot is worth it.
Prepare one submission kit and reuse it
Every site asks for the same things in slightly different shapes. Write them once:
- Name and a one-line tagline under 60 characters that says what the tool does and for whom.
- A 160-character description and a longer 2–3 paragraph version.
- A square logo and 3–5 screenshots of real work, not marketing mockups.
- A 20–40 second demo video or GIF showing the main job done start to finish.
- Pricing in one sentence, including what the free tier covers.
- The story: why you built it, in a few honest sentences. Communities share stories, not sales pages.
- A tracked link for each site. Add a
?ref=or UTM tag per site so you can see which ones send people who stay.
The full timing, with what to do in which week, is in how to launch a design tool.
Frequently asked questions
What are the best sites like Product Hunt?
For most tools: Hacker News Show HN if people can try the product without signing up, Peerlist Launchpad for design and developer tools, Uneed and TinyLaunch for cheap launches, BetaList for early-stage products, and AlternativeTo for steady traffic from people switching tools. For design tools, add the Figma Community, Framer Marketplace or Blender Extensions if you build for those apps, and a design directory such as The Design Tools with its weekly Launch Week.
Which launch sites are free?
Product Hunt, Show HN, Indie Hackers, AlternativeTo, SaaSHub, DevHunt, Toools.design, Sidebar, the Figma Community, Blender Extensions and The Design Tools are free, and Uneed, TinyLaunch and Launching Next have free options with longer waits. BetaList and usetools.design are paid only.
Are paid launch sites worth it?
Sometimes. A cheap, clearly described upgrade, such as picking your own launch date, can be worth it when you already know the free listing sends people. Avoid paying for vague promises of reach, and never pay for votes.
Do launch sites help SEO?
A few, a little. Many launch sites mark their links nofollow or ugc, Product Hunt included, and those pass little ranking credit. Others give a do-follow link, sometimes only if you win or embed their badge. The bigger effect is indirect: people who find you there write about you and link to you.
How many sites should I submit my tool to?
Around ten well-chosen ones beat a hundred random ones. Start with the places your users already browse, add one or two launch boards, and list your tool on an alternatives site.
Where should I submit a design tool?
Your host app’s marketplace if it’s a plugin, a design-only directory such as The Design Tools with Launch Week, Toools.design and usetools.design, Sidebar for the story behind it, and Product Hunt on the same week if you have an audience to bring.
Made a design tool?
Get a review page, a week on the Launch Week board and an ordinary link to your site. Free.
Already listed? Claim your page.