ShipDesk vs Product Hunt: which should you launch on?
George · 2 min read
The short answer: Product Hunt has the bigger audience and a daily leaderboard, which suits teams that can bring a lot of attention on one day. ShipDesk.dev runs weekly boards with less competition and a permanent launch page, which suits solo founders and small teams who want a fair week of attention. They do not exclude each other, and many founders launch on both.
This is the ShipDesk.dev blog, so we are not neutral. We have tried to be fair: here is how each one works, and who each one suits.
How a launch works on each
Product Hunt ranks launches on a daily leaderboard. Each day starts fresh, so a launch has that one day to gather upvotes and comments. The Product Hunt team also decides which launches get featured on the homepage.
ShipDesk.dev ranks launches on a weekly board that runs from Monday to Sunday, UTC. A launch that goes live on Monday stays on that week's board for all seven days. Every launch is reviewed before it goes live, and the top three of each week keep a medal on their page.
Audience
Product Hunt is much bigger and much better known. A launch that does well there can be seen by a large number of people interested in new products.
ShipDesk.dev is newer and smaller. You will reach fewer people, but your launch is one of a handful in its week instead of one of many in its day, so it is easier to be noticed.
Cost
Launching on both is free. On ShipDesk.dev, a free launch upvotes three other launches before submitting. Two paid plans are optional: fast, which puts a launch at the top of the board on its launch day, and featured, which keeps it at the top for seven days and skips the review wait. The pricing section on the homepage lists what each one includes.
What you keep afterwards
Both give your product a page that stays online after the launch. On ShipDesk.dev, the launch page has a link to your site that search engines follow, a badge you can put on your website, and the stats for your page: views, clicks to your site, and where visitors came from.
Who each one suits
Product Hunt suits you if you already have an audience to bring on launch day, you can be online and active for the whole day, and you want the biggest possible stage.
ShipDesk.dev suits you if you are a solo founder or a small team, you want a whole week instead of one day, or you are launching a smaller product or an app that would get lost in a busy daily ranking. It also works from Claude Code, Cursor and the command line, if you would rather launch from your editor.
Use both
The two are not either-or. A common plan is to launch on ShipDesk.dev on a Monday, use that week to collect feedback, fix what people point out, and then go to Product Hunt with a better product, a stronger page and a few early supporters.