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Show HN: I am Building a Producthunt alternative
- bootstrpppin 2y agoAre you going to launch it on PH? Joking aside, I really think you need a unique angle and a solid distribution strategy: there are 1,000 PH clones but they don't stick because they're the same as PH, just with less users/traction/eyeballs.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- denysvitali 2y ago0% off, use coupon "undefined" :)
- heyarviind2 2y agofixed it, :P
- encoderer 2y agoTerrible name. Hunt doesn’t mean anything. Huntly is bad. Huntlie is terrible. Forget about product hunt. Invent a new brand. Let people submit for free but you choose when they get published. If they want to pick a date charge for that.
- gre 2y agoAn open source applicant tracking system that grows with your company 50% Off, use coupon HUNTILE I first read it as "Huntile" which is like Product Hunt + quartile. Then I saw it's Huntlie, "HUNT LIE" which has negative connotations. And then I click the site and see the coupon code is "HUNTILE". christ
- muhammadusman 2y agoDon't use the term "hunt" in the name, to me it just screams "dupe" instead of something unique. Go the route of improving what PH has and adding things that are missing. Some ideas: - Users should be able to update their post to some extent. - There's no "product page" in your app, build something where I can see people commenting, reacting, and maybe even sharing their own screenshots of it because that's something PH does pretty well but can be improved. - "LAUNCHES WORTH YOUR SCROLL" sounds kinda cringe, change to something like "Find the next best thing" or make it random on load and have a few less in your face versions of it. Reddit has "homepage of the internet" which seems appropriate. You can have "have you launched yet?", "find the next best thing", "what's trending today"...etc I have more ideas, feel free to message me or drop a way to contact you if you'd like more feedback :)
- heyarviind2 2y agoHey thank you so much for the feedback. I want to hear more from you. Can we connect on Twitter/x: @heyarviind?
- aardvark179 2y agoMaybe not, “next best thing,” I don’t know about American English but in British English next best means second best.
- tuckerman 2y agoAt least in American English “next to best” would mean second whereas “next best thing” means something likely to be the best thing in the near future and it’s a very common idiom.
- phone_book 2y agoi am american and think "next best thing" means second best. maybe "next big thing" would be better but is a bit generic
- 2y ago
- srbhr 2y agoI've added a product (SWIRL) it shows 0% off. :) How can I change that?
- heyarviind2 2y agohave you enabled the discount checkbox? Anyway let me know the coupon code and percentage off, i can add it manually ;)
- dinkblam 2y agosame here, didn't specify a discount either
- olegp 2y agoCongrats on launching! I just submitted https://www.freeats.com https://www.freeats.com I liked the submission flow, it was nice and simple. The only issue is that at the end of the process I got a page that looked like it was broken, so had to manually navigate to the main page.
- heyarviind2 2y agosorry about that, i am fixing it
- olegp 2y agoNo problem, it's better to launch early.
- permanent 2y agoAdded an icon, and still it says: > Product icon is required
- bochoh 2y agoHaving the same issue here! Cheers on launching
- supertofu 2y agoWhen everything is a priority, nothing is a priority. Re: the black visit buttons. Save black for the top 3 featured, and make the rest a milder color. It's cognitively fatiguing to have a giant list of primary buttons.
- triyambakam 2y agoHow is the name supposed to be pronounced? It looks like the two English words hunt and lie which doesn't sound very nice.
- heyarviind2 2y agoit is pronounced as hunt-lee https://www.names-hub.com/name/huntlie https://www.names-hub.com/name/huntlie
- trollied 2y agoIt really isn't though. Any native English speaker is going to see Hunt Lie.
- cabinguy 2y agoConfirmed. I immediately read “hunt lie.”
- emmanueloga_ 2y agoIn the context of discovering brand-new companies, it does come across as somewhat ironic. Maybe consider the "Kodak recipe" for an alternative? [1]: "Keep it short, easy to pronounce, and avoid similarities to existing names or associations." (short is harder in 2024 though!) I'm on the fence on whether the name should have meaning. There are plenty of successful companies on either side. -- 1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kodak#Name https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kodak#Name
- willsmith72 2y agoImo better to start with a generic name in the early days at least. Best case your generic name becomes a brand name, ie airbnb.
- stared 2y agoI am not a native speaker, but the very first thing I saw was "Hunt Lie". It conveyed the message "Product Hunt, but for scam". "Huntly", maybe?
- inerte 2y agoUnrelated, but I am thinking about how do I get alpha users for an app I am building, and decided to check Product Hunt if they offer any sort of feature to help with that, and I ended up on this page https://www.producthunt.com/questions https://www.producthunt.com/questions Looks like someone is trying to pull a Forbes... And I guess related to you, please don't do that :)
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- etewiah 2y agoCrikey, that looks horrible... Any ideas what that is about? Sorry I don't understand the Forbes reference.
- inerte 2y agoForbes, a name that probably makes people think about business articles, has been publishing all sorts of non-business pieces and they did extremely well on SEO because the domain has a lot of authority and inbound links. So well that basically people were speculating the SEO part would take over the more traditional business. Google caught up recently (as in a few weeks ago) and has heavily punished their ranks. Ironically if you search Google for “Forbes SEO” you’ll find many articles about what happened. I think it all started with something titled “The parasitic company trying to take over Forbes”
- amiantos 2y agoWhy?
- blakeburch 2y agoGlad to see someone working on an alternative! Personal note - I used to be a pretty frequent user of ProductHunt. Some folks I worked with jokingly called me the SaaS King. If you had a problem, I knew of 3 tools to potentially solve it. The biggest reason why I stopped using ProductHunt was because people opted to submit and upvote low quality "list of X" aggregation services and minor updates, not real products. Hopefully you've thought about how to refine the curation. Also, agreed with the feedback from muhammadusman about having a product page. Right now, it's just a list of links with synopsis - not enough to intrigue me to explore further.
- thehadiahmadi 2y agoHi, I liked the idea. There are some issues, maybe these are in your todo list, but I want to tell you based on my usage. 1. there is no difference before and after login. (maybe login is unsuccessful) 2. I cannot edit/delete my submitted project. 3. No search for projects. 4. No Dark mode :)
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- klntsky 2y agoProduct hunt clones should all launch on each other
- crowcroft 2y agoWe need to go meta and build a Product Hunt clone focussed on being the best Product Hunt clone directory.
- escapecharacter 2y agoProduct Rat King
- richardw 2y agoDone: https://www.producthunt.com/products/product-hunt/alternatives https://www.producthunt.com/products/product-hunt/alternativ...
- rrr_oh_man 2y agoLogin doesn’t work… How to correct a post? :-)
- dt3ft 2y agoCongrats! I tried submitting https://fdeploy.com https://fdeploy.com but the product icon wouldn’t upload. Which file formats are supported?
- xwowsersx 2y agoLooks promising! May I offer some gentle feedback on your blurb above the fold? > fDeploy is a self-hosted deployment software for Windows being currently built in Stockholm, Sweden by developers with over 10 years of experience in the industry, focusing only on the most essential and most valuable features. I'd recommend focusing on what the most valuable features are and making those the highlight. Leading with who is building it and where doesn't add much unless your team is especially well-known or noteworthy. Also, citing "10 years of experience" as social proof might not resonate strongly—it's not a differentiator for most audiences (10 years is not that long). Instead, consider showcasing the unique aspects of the product that would immediately grab attention.
- dt3ft 2y agoI will set some time aside to rewrite that. Thank you for the feedback, much appreciated!
- nhatcher 2y agoThere was a slightly similar product some days ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41860810 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41860810
- TripleChecker 2y agoTried to add a product but nothing happens when I submit. Domain isn't the easiest to remember IMO.
- joshdavham 2y agoLooks interesting! Could I get a short pitch on what makes your alternative better/different?
- that_guy_iain 2y agoThere are so many product hunt alternatives that it's hard to keep track. There are literally services to go around and list you on all of the alternatives. I believe it's about 60+. The problem with ProductHunt is that it's basically the glory days are behind it. If you want to have a successful ProductHunt launch the key is simple, wait until you're established and then send an email to all your customers to upvote you. People focus so much on having a good ProductHunt launch like it'll make a difference. They go around begging everyone they know and spamming everyone they don't know asking for an upvote. They'll spend weeks focusing on this product hunt launch and overall get less traffic than they would from posting on here with Show HN and less traffic than they would get from posting on the right subreddits. Product Hunt and similar launch sites are just focusing don't he false hope that new founders have that the launch matters.
- IgorPartola 2y agoWhat problem does PH solve/what problem would this solve? Honestly PH always felt to me like a time waster. “Oh look at this idea. Neat. Next.” Now, a website where I can type in the problem I am having and it suggests solutions (with a mix of self hosted vs commercial products depending on my settings) would be super useful. For example: “I want to organize a library full of old photos that don’t have metadata” or “I want a cheap online backup solution with support for Linux servers” or “I want to automate sending personalized-feeling birthday cards to people I know professionally”.
- anonzzzies 2y agoIt can get you started, it did for many. It seems kind of crappy these days but it still works as a channel to get your product out.
- breadwinner 2y agoPH is a website that program managers from big companies such as Microsoft and Google go to get ideas for new features. I recommend against post anything to PH unless you have patents, or a big marketing budget, if not your idea will just be copied by big companies before you can get the word out about your product.
- gkoberger 2y agoDo you have any examples of this happening? How many products on Product Hunt do you think are patent-able? My startup was posted on PH, and many years later we're quite successful. We had $0 budget and it was just me at the time, and it worked out wonderfully.
- bootstrpppin 2y agoThat's a pretty cynical view....besides, big companies would take months/years to to copy an idea - even if it's a good one - and by then the market has moved.
- agnishom 2y ago"Oh look at this idea. Neat. Next." That's exactly what HackerRank feels like. Same with "normal" social media like Reddit or Twitter
- FiddlerClamp 2y agoThis could use an RSS feed (Blogtrottr reported there isn't one). Looking forward to seeing how it develops!
- rootsudo 2y agoI don't want to be a debbie downer, but I'm seeing this sort of post often now on HN. If not bimonthly. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41714345 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41714345 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41867294 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41867294
- slurpyb 2y agoIs this a pisstake??
- inquisitor27552 2y agohunt lies rebrand!
- Brajeshwar 2y agoWhen one builds a Product Hunt (PH) alternative, one needs to remember that PH succeeded because of Ryan Hoover. Just as with any new Startup App/Website of that time, it was not fancy, interesting or likable at all. Ryan’s shouts, marketing, and his everything everywhere all at once presence made PH. When I think of PH, I remember his avatar (profile picture); that 'P' reminds me more of Pinterest than PH. PH is a successful directory-listing-ish website, there is always a limit to its success. Ryan, being a super smart founder, realizes that and moves out at the perfect time at its super-high hype cycle. All PH-esque clones can focus on specific niches and become good lifestyle businesses. Like other business ideas, shred apart Craigslist and build PH of them.
- nadermx 2y agoIf I remember correctly it started as an email list too, like Craig's list, before it needed a site.
- Brajeshwar 2y agoHoly D*n. I think you are correct, and I was one of the early subscribers subscribed via Twitter Login (only option or something like that).
- rrr_oh_man 2y agoHoly Dickin'?
- popcorncowboy 2y ago`D x n` multi-dimensionality reference?
- rrr_oh_man 2y agoThank you!
- ntlk 2y ago
- r0fl 2y agoSwitching between newest and featured brings me to the top of the late each time That’s pretty annoying Should just stay where the surfer is
- faizmokh 2y agoNot gonna lie. It kinda feels like the site was generated by AI with minimal modifications. Hence, it made me wonder how long it will last.
- davidedicillo 2y agoI tried to add a product (https://platformchecker.com https://platformchecker.com), and initially, the process wasn't clear. The icon isn't marked as mandatory (it is) and the discount code is (it is not).
- anonzzzies 2y agoI would like a startups-which-are-not-shallow-llm-wrappers.com. Basically don't allow any product that you go to and shows you a chatbox 'type to create X'. It will be eaten tomorrow by openai, anthropic etc, so there is no product there; yet all is infested with these on sites like PH.
- uwemaurer 2y agoI tried to post my side project (https://awesome.facts.dev/ https://awesome.facts.dev/) but nothing happened when I clicked 'Submit'. I see that a POST to https://huntlie.com/api/products https://huntlie.com/api/products returns Server Error 500 {error: "Failed to create record."} I hope it helps!
- arthur_sav 2y agoGreat, just posted my product there PandaExtract
- PittleyDunkin 2y agoWhat we really need is one of these service directories that excludes commercial results. I don't care about what I can buy, I care about what I can do for free.
- rrr_oh_man 2y agoSaaS Groupon, but for free?
- progx 2y agoPH-Sites, are that the new ToDo-List-Examples?
- Pikamander2 2y agoLooks like the site is broken? The login feature doesn't work, and trying to post a product gives a 500 error. {message: 'Request failed with status code 500', name: 'AxiosError', code: 'ERR_BAD_RESPONSE', config: {…}, request: XMLHttpRequest, …}
- newsclues 2y agoI hope to see a catalogue for open source tools, so when I’m trying to accomplish something I can find a tool that can do that. A well organized pegboard for OSS
- bevan 2y agoJust tried posting my site (which I was gonna launch on HN today anyway). https://strawberry.army https://strawberry.army ("Hover Youtube Thumbnails for Instant Summaries") ...but got a 500 error. No other clues in the console. Good luck with this!
- seanw265 2y agoI received a 500 error when attempting to submit a product. I also attempted to log in (with Google) and it doesn't seem to have taken. I still see the "Login" button at the top of the page. I kind of regret giving you my data via Sign in with Google now.
- wkirby 2y ago500 error when attempting to add a product. > "Failed to load the submitted data due to invalid formatting."
- rukshn 2y agoThe initial PH was more like the SHOW HN, turned into a website, filled with people who are geuninly buidlding things and showing things. Then marketers came, and the whole thing became a place where people just game, where people that I were preparing for weeks for PH launch, sending reminders for people to vote and try to get to the top. It became a place where people wanted to sell you something rather than people who share what they build. Looking at this website, I feel like it's already a place where it's more about selling, and not a PH alternative. Black Friday deals, promoted items, it may not be a place of gamification, but still it's more about selling. I would love to se a place where there is old PH. But I guess it will forever be Show HN
- stevekemp 2y agoProductHunt has been gamed to the extent that it's no longer in any way real - it's just who can spam the most. What will stop your site from the same fate?
- heyarviind2 2y agoI want to take an approach of Instagram algorithm, no matter what votes you have you will see all the products once every visit.
- crowcroft 2y agoWhy do you think that's a good idea?
- akutlay 2y agoI can't add a product, it asks me to add an icon despite the fact that I already uploaded one.
- heyarviind2 2y agoyou can click on next even after it gives an error