What day is best to launch on Product Hunt?

There is no single best day. Mid-week days usually bring more traffic and more competition; weekends are quieter on both counts. Pick a day when your whole team can be online.

What time does a Product Hunt launch start?

Product Hunt's launch day has historically started at 12:01 am Pacific Time. Check the current schedule when you submit.

Do I need a hunter to launch?

Not necessarily. Many makers launch their own products. Check Product Hunt's current guidance on hunters before deciding.

Do I need a video for Product Hunt?

It is not required, but a short video is one of the quickest ways for visitors to understand your product. Keep it to 30–60 seconds and make it work muted.

How far in advance should I prepare?

Around four weeks is comfortable: time to build an audience, make the listing assets and video, and test your onboarding.

Guide

Product Hunt Launch Checklist: Four Weeks to Launch Day

A good Product Hunt launch is mostly preparation. This checklist runs from four weeks out to the week after, covering your listing, gallery and video, your audience, launch-day timing and follow-up.

Updated 18 October 2026 · 7 min read

Quick answerFour weeks out: decide the date, set up your maker profile and start telling your audience. Two weeks out: write the tagline and description, make the gallery images and launch video, and prepare a launch offer. The day before: schedule the launch, test every link. On the day: post the maker comment early, share with your community, and reply to every comment. Afterwards: follow up with new users.

Before you start: is Product Hunt right for this launch?

Product Hunt works best for products that early adopters can try quickly: SaaS tools, AI products, developer tools, Chrome extensions and apps with a free plan or trial. It is less useful for products that need a sales call before anyone can see them. If that is you, consider launching a free tool or a self-serve tier first.

Also be clear about your goal. A launch can bring sign-ups, feedback, backlinks and a burst of credibility, but the ranking itself matters less than what you do with the attention. Pick one primary goal (for example, sign-ups to the free plan) and design everything around it.

Four weeks out

☐ Pick a launch date. Avoid major holidays and days when you cannot be online for the whole launch day. Many makers prefer mid-week; weekends are typically quieter, with less competition and less traffic.
☐ Check the current rules. Read Product Hunt's current guidelines for makers, especially on scheduling, hunters and asking for support.
☐ Set up or refresh your maker profile, with a real photo, a short bio and links. Add co-makers' profiles too.
☐ Be active on the site. Comment thoughtfully on other launches in your category. It helps you learn what works and builds genuine connections.
☐ Start telling your audience. Mention the coming launch in your newsletter, community and social posts.
☐ Fix onboarding. Launch traffic will hit your sign-up flow hard. Make sure a new user reaches value in minutes.

Two to three weeks out: the listing

☐ Name and tagline. The tagline should say what the product does for whom, in plain words, within the current character limit. The Product Hunt tagline generator can help you shortlist options.
☐ Description. Two or three short sentences: the problem, what the product does, and what is different.
☐ Topics. Choose the most relevant categories for your product.
☐ Thumbnail. A clear, recognisable icon or animated thumbnail that reads at small sizes.
☐ Gallery images. Real product screens with short headlines, in the order of your story. Check current recommended dimensions in the submission form.
☐ Launch video. A 30–60 second 16:9 video showing the real product. See below.
☐ Maker comment draft. Why you built it, who it is for, what is included, and what feedback you want.
☐ Launch offer. Optional, but a discount or extended trial for the community is common and appreciated.

The launch video

The gallery video is often the quickest way for a visitor to understand your product. Keep it to 30–60 seconds in 16:9, show real screens within the first ten seconds, make it work with the sound off, and end with your name and URL. Product Hunt has historically accepted a YouTube link for the gallery video, so upload it to YouTube (unlisted is fine) and check the current form.

The full process is in our Product Hunt launch video guide, and the Product Hunt template gives you a scene list and script to copy. Make vertical and square cuts at the same time for launch-day posts. If you want to build it quickly, Cadenzova Spotlight drafts a first cut from your website and screen recordings that you then edit; the free plan lets you make the whole video before deciding whether to buy an HD export.

One week out

☐ Prepare your landing page for launch-day visitors: a short welcome line for Product Hunt visitors, your launch offer, and a clear sign-up button.
☐ Write launch-day posts for X, LinkedIn and any communities you belong to, with your video and a link. Follow each community's rules on self-promotion.
☐ Draft emails to your newsletter and to people who asked to hear about the launch.
☐ Plan the team's day. Who replies to comments, who watches support, who posts updates, and when each person is online.
☐ Prepare answers to likely questions: pricing, privacy, integrations, roadmap, how you differ from alternatives.
☐ Check analytics so you can see where sign-ups come from.

Ask people to check out the launch and share honest feedback, not to upvote. Product Hunt's guidelines discourage asking for upvotes directly, and genuine comments are more valuable anyway.

The day before

☐ Schedule the launch for the right date and time. Product Hunt's launch day has historically started at 12:01 am Pacific Time; check the current schedule when you submit.
☐ Preview the listing on desktop and mobile. Check every image, the video and every link.
☐ Test sign-up end to end, including emails, on a fresh account.
☐ Load-test the obvious bottlenecks if you expect a spike: sign-up, onboarding, any heavy first action.
☐ Sleep. Launch day is long.

Launch day

☐ Post your maker comment as soon as the launch goes live.
☐ Share with your audience in waves through the day, adapted to each time zone, rather than all at once.
☐ Reply to every comment, thoughtfully and quickly. Thank people for feedback, answer questions directly, and acknowledge criticism.
☐ Post native video on social channels rather than just a link; it tends to get more attention in feeds.
☐ Watch support and error logs. Fix anything that blocks sign-up immediately.
☐ Post updates on the day's progress to your own channels if it feels natural, not as a request for votes.

Mistakes that cost makers the most

Launching before onboarding works. Launch traffic is a one-off. If new users hit a broken or confusing first step, you lose most of them for good.
A vague tagline. "The future of work" tells nobody anything. Say what it does and for whom.
Disappearing after the first hour. Comments keep arriving all day, and slow replies look like a product nobody is maintaining.
Treating the ranking as the goal. A respectable finish with hundreds of engaged sign-ups beats a high ranking with no follow-up.
Making the video the night before. It is one of the assets visitors see first. Give it time and a second pair of eyes.

The week after

☐ Email new sign-ups with a personal thank-you and a clear next step.
☐ Collect feedback from comments into a list and reply when you ship fixes.
☐ Add your launch to your site if you did well, with a badge or link.
☐ Reuse the assets. The launch video works on your homepage, in sales emails and in onboarding. Short feature videos keep the momentum going; the feature release template is built for that.
☐ Write down what you learned for next time.