Product Reviews

The Best Platform For Startups? Product Hunt Pros and Cons

icon
Micky Dewilas
1/17/2024 7:50 PM
The Best Platform For Startups? Product Hunt Pros and Cons

Discovered in 2013, Product Hunt is an online community platform that helps creators share their new products and have them discovered by thousands of viewers. The platform is free, and many companies have registered fruitful results. In this in-depth Product Hunt pros and cons review, we’ll dissect this product to help you make an informed decision. 

Who Is Product Hunt For?

It’s ideal for Startups with creative and exceptional products in the early stage, planning to obtain product feedback from earlier adopters and maybe get partnership opportunities, startup funding, or networking. Mature companies can also use Product Hunt to expose their products to a robust technology audience interested in emerging tech solutions.

Some of the companies that had success with launches on the platform include Loom, Zoom, Grammarly, and GitLab. Figma, Clearbit, and Segment are among the products that launched effectively and received a broader following after.

Core Features

Homepage Leaderboard

Developers use this feature to launch and submit a list of their new products, with featured products shown as default. The leaderboard changes constantly throughout the day depending on the upvotes, time since submission, comments, and other decisions.

Product Hub

Your Product Hub is where you discover every detail about your product’s journey. Here, people can find information like

  • Reviews your product has ever had.
  • The awards and accolades your product has had (if any)
  • News related to your product
  • Creators who have collaborated on your creation throughout its life 
  • Active job listings

Comments

You’ll find a comment section on each product page where members can discuss various things. This feature has everything from asking the makers questions about their products to showing support or checking other people's opinions. Moreover, users can even continue the conversation to the discussion section of the platform - a space for members to post mini-blogs.

Pros

  • It gives creators early market validation to guide their product development efforts and finetune their value proposition.
  • The platform connects creators with potential customers, investors, industry peers, and influencers.
  • Product Hunt’s vast user base and substantial online presence can kickstart your brand's visibility and lead to organic growth.

Cons

  • The platform has high competition, so your product will need help to stand out.
  • In the long run, sustaining the initial traffic spike on your website may require well-researched marketing beyond the launch.

Pricing Plan

Using Product Hunt doesn’t cost a dime. All you need to get started is to open a personal account to contribute to the community, and you are good to go. After opening an account, you can begin sharing products, reaching “Product of the Day” goals, commenting, and achieving all kinds of successes.

Product Hunt has issued strict guidelines prohibiting anyone from paying community members money to hunt or send traffic to their site. A person could have their product removed from the site or permanently banned from the platform if found guilty.

However, there are many ways to advertise and promote your product. Ads allow you to drive engagement with your products, but these initiatives are separate from the leaderboard rankings.

Conclusion

Product Hunt is a powerful platform for startups and innovative hubs looking to increase their visibility to a broad target audience. Before using it, it’s vital to thoroughly assess its benefits and likely drawbacks. But overall, Product Hunt can give you valuable insights for growth and maturity. 

Subscribe to our newsletter to get expert insights
Thank you! Your submission has been received!
Oops! Something went wrong while submitting the form.

Read more about Product Reviews

Would you like to share your expertise with our audience?
write
Write for us
write
Write for us
For general inquiries:
info@highflyers.media
highflyers.media
For general inquiries:
info@highflyers.media
MarketingWrite for usTechnologyAbout usNetworkingProduct ReviewsPrivacy policyBusinessContact us
Copyright © 2023 HighFlyers
//new code function timePast(curr, prev) { // Define the milliseconds in every time unit var msMin = 60 * 1000; var msHr = msMin * 60; var msDay = msHr * 24; var msMonth = msDay * 30; var msYr = msDay * 365; // Get elapsed time in milliseconds var elapsed = curr - prev; console.log("Elapsed time in ms:", elapsed); if (elapsed < 0) { console.error("Negative elapsed time. Check date parsing."); return "Invalid time"; } if (elapsed < msMin) { return Math.round(elapsed / 1000) + ' seconds ago'; } else if (elapsed < msHr) { elapsed = Math.round(elapsed / msMin); return elapsed === 1 ? elapsed + ' minute ago' : elapsed + ' minutes ago'; } else if (elapsed < msDay) { elapsed = Math.round(elapsed / msHr); return elapsed === 1 ? elapsed + ' hour ago' : elapsed + ' hours ago'; } else if (elapsed < msMonth) { elapsed = Math.round(elapsed / msDay); return elapsed === 1 ? elapsed + ' day ago' : elapsed + ' days ago'; } else if (elapsed < msYr) { elapsed = Math.round(elapsed / msMonth); return elapsed === 1 ? elapsed + ' month ago' : elapsed + ' months ago'; } else { elapsed = Math.round(elapsed / msYr); return elapsed === 1 ? elapsed + ' year ago' : elapsed + ' years ago'; } } $(document).ready(function() { $('.date.color').each(function() { var now = new Date(); var parsedTime = Date.parse($(this).text()); console.log("Parsed time:", parsedTime); if (isNaN(parsedTime)) { console.error("Invalid date format:", $(this).text()); $(this).text("Invalid date"); } else { $(this).text(timePast(now, new Date(parsedTime))); } }); });