THE BOARD

A Show HN alternative for a brand that is not a project, where the position is bought and does not decay

If you have built something people can try without signing up, and you can sit in the thread for a day answering questions, post it to Show HN. It is free, it needs no approval, and a front-page run sends more in a day than anything else on these pages that costs nothing.

If what you have is a brand rather than a project, a landing page, a service, a shop, or a product that needs an account, Show HN's own rules turn it away, and The Board is a page for exactly that: a logo, a line and a link, on the board for a dollar, ranked by what it paid, counted by Fathom.

Show HN compared with The Board: to be listed, Free against $1
Show HNThe Board
To be listed
Freeif it is a project people can try, not a brand
$1once, any brand, on the board today
Guaranteed placement
Nonenothing is sold; YC places its own launches
$1 overwhatever rank 01 has paid
Attention lasts
Hoursone to fifteen on the front page, founders report
Until outbidand 30 days at the top wins the season
Reach
Unpublisheda moderator's estimate, 5M a month, 2022
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 Show HN were read from its own pages on 6 September 2026 and are linked at the foot.

What Show HN is, and what it costs

Show HN is a story on Hacker News whose title begins with Show HN, for something you have made that other people can play with. There is no queue, no launch day and no approval: the post is live on the newest and shownew lists at once, and once it clears a small, unpublished points threshold it appears on the Show page. Rank is points divided by a power of the time since posting, adjusted by flags, anti-abuse software and moderators, and the FAQ is explicit that karma does not help and that asking anybody to upvote gets the post penalised or the account banned.

It costs nothing and sells nothing. There is no paid tier, no boost and no skip; the only placed items on the front page are Y Combinator's own job posts and Launch HN threads for YC-funded startups, which are not for sale. The rules are the price: the project must be something people can run or hold, must be non-trivial, must be yours, and must be easy to try without a signup or an email. Landing pages, sign-up pages, newsletters, fundraisers and point releases are off topic, and Hacker News asks that it not be used primarily for promotion.

Hacker News publishes no statistics page. The moderator's own estimate in November 2022 was around five million monthly unique users, perhaps ten million page views a day, and about 1,300 submissions a day, a figure that had not grown since 2011. What a Show HN sends is founder-reported: 11,000 unique visitors from thirteen hours on the front page (KTool, September 2022), 3,500 to 4,000 from about an hour at rank 17 (Marco Maier, March 2023), and around 500 for a post that never reached the top (Aidlab, October 2025). Threads close to new comments after two weeks.

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 Show HN’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.

Show HN and The Board, side by side

QuestionShow HNThe Board
To be listedFree; a story titled Show HN, live on newest at once$1, once, for a listing: a logo, a line and a link
What decides your rankPoints over time, adjusted by flags, software and moderators; asking for votes is bannedWhat the listing has paid. Nothing else, and nobody decides
A guaranteed top positionNot sold. The only placed items are YC's own job posts and launches$1 more than whoever holds rank 01 has paid
How long it lastsHours on the front page: founders report one to fifteen; the thread closes after two weeksUntil 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 verifyNo stats page. A moderator's 2022 estimate of 5M monthly users; founder-reported 500 to 11,000 visitors a postPage views and outbound clicks counted by Fathom on a public dashboard; every listing shows its own impressions and clicks
RefundsNothing to refund; nothing is soldNone. Every payment is final and the terms (dated 25 August 2026) say so
Who you are dealing withY Combinator owns and funds Hacker News; the moderation team is editorially independentDustin W. Stout, Bakersfield, California. Stripe, with a public Stripe profile
Best forA working project people can try without signing up, with its maker in the thread all dayA brand that Show HN will not take, or one that wants a position that stays after the thread closes

Eight things to know before you pay either

QuestionShow HNThe Board
Terms with a date on them✕ YC's terms of use carry no date; the guidelines govern✓ Dated 25 August 2026
A named operator✓ Y Combinator owns and funds it✓ Dustin W. Stout, with a city and a Stripe profile
The price of the top spot published✕ Nothing is sold; rank is points over time✓ On the board, live, to the dollar
Reach counted by a third party✕ No stats page; a moderator's 2022 estimate✓ Fathom, on a public dashboard
Position lasts past a day✕ Hours on the front page; the thread closes in two weeks✓ Until somebody pays more; seasons end it
A refund path✓ Nothing to refund; nothing is sold✕ None. Every payment is final
No curator between you and the page✓ Live on newest at once; moderated after the fact✓ None. Money decides, nobody else
On the page for a dollar✓ Free✓ $1, once

How The Board works, for somebody leaving Show HN

Show HN is a thread that decays: points divided by time, and the front page moves on within hours whatever the thread was worth. The Board is a page that does not. A dollar lists a brand, a logo, a line and a link, at whatever rank a dollar buys on a page ordered by what each brand has paid, and the listing stays at that rank until somebody pays more. There is nothing to write, no thread to sit in and no rule about demos or signups: the terms say what may be listed and the amount says where.

Rank 01 costs a dollar over whatever the holder paid, every amount is public, and nobody is asked to vote because there is nothing to vote on; the page states that every listing is a paid placement. Hold the top for thirty days and the season ends: the standings freeze on a permanent page and every amount resets. The page views and outbound clicks are Fathom's count on a public dashboard, so the reach is a number rather than a write-up.

Where Show HN falls short, and where it wins

Falls short
  • It is for projects, not brands. Landing pages, sign-up pages, services and anything that needs an account to try are off topic by the guidelines, and a post that is mainly promotion is what the site asks you not to make.
  • It decays by design. The rank is points over a power of time, the front page is gone in hours, the thread closes in two weeks, and nothing can be paid to change any of it.
  • Nobody counts it for you. There is no stats page, the reach figures are founders' write-ups, and the only estimate from the site itself is a moderator's from 2022.
Wins
  • A front-page run sends real traffic: founders report thousands to tens of thousands of visitors in a day, for nothing.
  • There is no gate. A post is live at once, nobody approves it, and the same rules apply to everybody, karma included.
  • The thread is the best feedback a technical product can get, from people who will try it and say what they found.

Which to pick

Pick Show HN if
  • You have made something people can try in a minute without an account.
  • You can be in the thread for a day, answering questions without pitching.
  • A technical audience is the one you want, and a day of it is enough.
Pick The Board if
  • You have a brand rather than a project, and Show HN's rules would flag it.
  • You want a position that is there next week, not a thread that has closed.
  • You want the reach counted and published rather than reported by whoever posted last.

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 Show HN alternative

Is Show HN free?
Yes, and nothing about it can be paid for: there is no fee, no boost and no skip. The front page's only placed items are Y Combinator's own job posts and Launch HN threads for YC-funded startups, which are not for sale. The price is the rules: a working project people can try, posted by its maker, with no asking for votes.
Is The Board a Show HN alternative?
For a brand that Show HN will not take, yes; for a working project with a maker to discuss it, Show HN is free and sends more in a day. The Board is a public leaderboard where every listing is a paid placement, ranked by what it paid, open to any brand, for a dollar. The two are not exclusive: post the project there and list the brand here.
What does The Board cost compared to Show HN?
Show HN is free. A listing on The Board is $1, taking rank 01 costs $1 more than the holder paid, and every amount on the page is public. Nothing bills again. What the dollar buys that free cannot is a position that stays.
Can I post a landing page or a startup on Show HN?
The guidelines say no to landing pages, sign-up pages, newsletters, fundraisers and reading material; Show HN is for something people can run on their computers or hold in their hands, and it should be easy to try without a signup. A startup whose product can be tried is fine; a startup whose page says coming soon is not.
How much traffic does a Show HN post get?
Hacker News does not say, and founders' write-ups vary by an order of magnitude: 11,000 unique visitors from thirteen hours on the front page (KTool, 2022), 3,500 to 4,000 from about an hour at rank 17 (Marco Maier, 2023), and about 500 for a post that never reached the top (Aidlab, 2025). A daily.dev guide from June 2026 puts a front-page post at 5,000 to 30,000 in 24 hours. The Board makes no claim and publishes its Fathom dashboard.
How long does a Show HN stay on the front page?
Hacker News gives no figure; rank is points divided by a power of time. Founders report about an hour at rank 17 (Marco Maier), thirteen hours (KTool) and fifteen hours (swyx), and daily.dev's June 2026 guide says a post whose maker answers the thread lasts 18 to 24 hours while one whose maker disappears fades in four to six. Threads close after two weeks. A listing on The Board stays at its rank until somebody pays more.
What happens when somebody outbids me?
Your listing moves down one place and stays on the board; the amount you paid never goes down. You get one mail saying who passed you and what taking the position back would cost, and you can raise by any whole-dollar amount or leave it where it is. Nothing decays and nothing closes: waiting costs nothing.
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. Every kind wears off on its own, you can clear it early or buy protection ahead of time, and nobody is told who attacked whom.
Do I get a backlink from The Board?
Not one to buy the listing for. Outbound links on the board go through a counted redirect, and the badge you can embed carries rel=sponsored, which is what an honest paid placement has to do. Hacker News links are reported as nofollow too. Buy the position 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: Indie Hackers. Every listing site worth submitting to is in the directory list.