THE BOARD

A Dev Hunt alternative with no queue, no vote and a position you price yourself

If you are launching a developer tool and the audience you want is developers who log in with GitHub, launch on Dev Hunt. It is free if you can wait about six months, $49 on its about page (read 6 September 2026) if you cannot, and the winners stay listed on the home page long after the week.

If you are a brand rather than a dev tool, or you want a position rather than a week's vote, The Board lists you for a dollar, ranks you by what you paid, and counts the traffic with Fathom in the open.

Dev Hunt compared with The Board: to launch, Free against $1
Dev HuntThe Board
To launch
Freeafter about six months; $49 to pick the week
$1once, on the board today
Top of the page
$497home page ad, seven days, per the about page
$1 overwhatever rank 01 has paid
Rank decided by
Voteslogged-in developers, over one week
Moneythe amount is the rank
Reach
Its own200,000 visits and a per-tool counter
Fathompage views and clicks, in public

The Board is ours, so read this with that in mind. Every listing on it is a paid placement, its position is decided by money and by nothing else, and nothing on it is editorial. The figures for Dev Hunt were read from its own pages on 6 September 2026 and are linked at the foot.

What Dev Hunt is, and what it costs

Dev Hunt is a weekly launch site for developer tools, a MarsX company and open source under the MIT licence. A launch week runs Tuesday to Monday; logged-in users vote, the countdown closes at the end of Monday UTC, and the most-voted tools win a newsletter feature, a social post and a badge. Submitting and voting both need a GitHub or Google login, which is how it keeps bots out. There is no editorial approval step; the constraint is the calendar.

The about page (read 6 September 2026) has one price for founders and three for sponsors. A free launch is queued, and the page says the average wait is six months. Skip the queue is $49: pick any week, a post on X and a launch video. The newsletter ad is $397 for the top of the Tuesday mail, the home page ad is $497 for seven days at the top of the page, and the pair is $797. Every package is activated by hand after purchase and can be refunded any time until it is activated, which is a real refund path and a rare one. The source code, last committed 28 August 2026, shows the mechanism behind the queue: a week is free while it holds fewer than fifteen tools and $49 once it holds fifteen or more.

The reach is Dev Hunt's own. The about page says 200,000 visits from developers, 10,000 upvotes cast and over a thousand tools launched; the ads claim about 10,000 impressions for a seven-day home page placement and over 10,000 newsletter recipients. Every tool shows an impression count, which is the site's counter. Launch Directories (updated 5 September 2026) estimates 2,000 visits a month. There is no terms page and no privacy policy on the site.

The price of a place, and the price of the top

Two prices matter: what it costs to be on the page at all, and what it costs to be the one everybody sees first. Drawn to scale, with The Board’s top spot read live from the board.

A log scale: every gridline is ten times the last, which is the only way a dollar and a five-figure sum fit on one line. Prices on the left are Dev Hunt’s as read on 6 September 2026; the top spot on The Board is $101 as this page was built and changes as the board does.

Dev Hunt and The Board, side by side

QuestionDev HuntThe Board
To be listedFree, with an average wait of about six months; $49 to pick your week$1, once, for a listing: a logo, a line and a link
What decides your rankVotes from logged-in developers over one week, Tuesday to MondayWhat the listing has paid. Nothing else, and nobody decides
A guaranteed top positionNot on the ranking. A home page ad is $497 for seven days at the top of the page$1 more than whoever holds rank 01 has paid
How long it lastsOne week of voting; winners stay in the past winners list on the home pageUntil somebody pays more. Hold rank 01 for 30 days and the season is yours: the standings freeze on a permanent page and every amount resets
Reach you can verifyIts own: 200,000 visits and a per-tool impression count; Launch Directories estimates 2,000 a monthPage views and outbound clicks counted by Fathom on a public dashboard; every listing shows its own impressions and clicks
RefundsAny package refunded any time until it is activatedNone. Every payment is final and the terms (dated 25 August 2026) say so
Who you are dealing withDev Hunt, a MarsX company led by John Rush; open source; no terms page foundDustin W. Stout, Bakersfield, California. Stripe, with a public Stripe profile
Best forA developer tool with a GitHub following that can wait for a week or pay $49 for oneA brand of any kind that wants a position it can price and hold, without a vote

Eight things to know before you pay either

QuestionDev HuntThe Board
Terms with a date on them✕ No terms page found on the site✓ Dated 25 August 2026
A named operator✓ MarsX, led by John Rush, with a public repo✓ Dustin W. Stout, with a city and a Stripe profile
The price of the top spot published✕ Rank is voted; $497 buys a banner for seven days✓ On the board, live, to the dollar
Reach counted by a third party✕ Its own counter, per tool and site-wide✓ Fathom, on a public dashboard
Position lasts past a day✓ A week of voting; winners stay listed✓ Until somebody pays more; seasons end it
A refund path✓ Refunded any time until activated✕ None. Every payment is final
No curator between you and the page✓ No editor; a login and a week in the queue✓ None. Money decides, nobody else
On the page for a dollar✓ Free, after about six months✓ $1, once

How The Board works, for somebody leaving Dev Hunt

Dev Hunt asks you to pick a week and bring the votes; The Board asks for a dollar. A listing is a logo, a line and a link, and it is on the page the moment it is paid for, at whatever rank a dollar buys on a ladder sorted by what each brand has paid. There is no queue, no launch week and no vote closing on Monday night. There is no GitHub login either, because there is nothing to vote with: the amount is the rank and nobody can cast it twice.

The position holds until somebody pays more. Rank 01 costs a dollar over whatever the holder has paid, every amount is on the page, and a paid amount never goes down. Hold the top for thirty days and the season is yours: the standings freeze on a permanent page and every amount resets. Where Dev Hunt shows its own impression counter beside every tool, The Board shows each listing's impressions and clicks and hands the page count to Fathom, whose dashboard is public and not ours to edit. One thing Dev Hunt has that The Board does not is a refund: every payment here is final, and the terms say so before you pay.

Where Dev Hunt falls short, and where it wins

Falls short
  • The free queue is about six months by the site's own average, and the week you get is the one with room in it. A week fills at fifteen tools and the code switches it to $49.
  • It is for developer tools. The about page lists what qualifies, the voters are developers logged in with GitHub, and a brand that is not a tool is in the wrong room.
  • There is no terms page and no privacy policy, and the reach figures are the site's own. The refund path is a sentence on the about page rather than a clause in a contract.
Wins
  • The refund is real: any package can be refunded until it has been activated, which almost no launch site offers.
  • The audience is exactly the one a developer tool wants, and the login gate keeps the vote honest in a way most launch sites cannot claim.
  • It is open source under MIT and run by a named team, so the ranking code can be read rather than guessed at.

Which to pick

Pick Dev Hunt if
  • You are launching a developer tool and the people you want are developers who log in with GitHub.
  • You can wait about six months for a free week, or $49 is worth picking one.
  • You want a vote whose code you can read and a refund if you change your mind before it runs.
Pick The Board if
  • You are a brand of any kind, not a dev tool, and you want to be on a page today.
  • You want a position that holds until somebody pays more, not a week that closes on Monday.
  • You want the traffic counted by somebody who is not selling the slot.

Claim a spot from $1

A listing is a logo, a line and a link. Rank 01 costs $1 more than whoever holds it, every amount on the page is public, and the traffic is on a Fathom dashboard anyone can open.

Questions people ask about a Dev Hunt alternative

Is Dev Hunt free?
Yes, with a wait. The about page, read 6 September 2026, puts the average wait for a free launch at six months, and the source code shows why: a week is free while it holds fewer than fifteen tools and $49 once it is full. Skip the queue at $49 lets you pick any week. The Board is a dollar, and buys a position rather than a week.
How long is the Dev Hunt queue?
About six months on average for a free launch, per the about page on 6 September 2026. The upcoming page lists launch batches by Tuesday, and each week takes a limited number of free tools before it switches to paid. Paying $49 skips the wait and picks the week.
Does Dev Hunt give refunds?
Yes. Every package, the $49 skip, the $397 newsletter ad and the $497 home page ad, is activated by hand after purchase and can be refunded any time until it has been activated. It is one of the few launch sites with a refund path, and it is written on the about page rather than in terms, because the site has no terms page.
Who runs Dev Hunt?
It is a MarsX company led by John Rush, built by a named team, and open source under the MIT licence at github.com/MarsX-dev/devhunt. Payments go through Stripe payment links. The site has no terms page or privacy policy, and its country is not stated.
Is The Board a Dev Hunt alternative?
For being seen by people who watch new brands, yes, and it is a different thing. Dev Hunt is a weekly vote among logged-in developers for developer tools. The Board is a public leaderboard for any brand, where every listing is a paid placement, the order is what each listing paid and nothing else, and the position lasts until somebody pays more.
What does The Board cost compared to Dev Hunt?
Dev Hunt is free with a wait of about six months, or $49 to pick a week. A listing on The Board is $1, once, and rank 01 costs $1 more than the holder paid; every amount is public and nothing bills again unless you choose to raise. Dev Hunt refunds until a package is activated; The Board never does.
What happens when somebody outbids me?
You slip one place and stay on the board; what you paid never goes down. A single mail tells you who passed you and what taking the place back would cost, and there is no second until you have made a move of your own. Raise by any whole-dollar amount, or wait for free.
Can other brands damage my listing?
Yes, and it is part of the game. Anyone can buy one of four kinds of sabotage against a listing, which changes how it looks or whether its link works for a few hours, never what it paid or its real rank. Each wears off on its own, can be cleared early or protected against in advance, and nobody is told who attacked whom.
Do I get a backlink from The Board?
Not one to buy the listing for. Dev Hunt's outbound links carry a ref parameter; The Board's go through a counted redirect, and the badge you can embed carries rel=sponsored, which is what an honest paid placement has to do. The position is for the people who see it and click it, both of which are counted and shown.

Sources

Read on 6 September 2026. Prices on these sites move, and a figure here that no longer matches its source is a figure to tell us about: hello@toptheboard.com.

Also compared: Product Hunt, BetaList, Uneed, Peerlist Launchpad, Fazier, Microlaunch, LaunchIgniter, Tiny Startups, BetaPage. Every listing site worth submitting to is in the directory list.