The money
How we make money.
Launching here is free, and so are voting, commenting and the badge. The site earns money from the four things below, at the prices shown. Votes set the rank. Paying moves your time, or buys a spot marked as an ad, never your rank.
Every launch is ranked over the same window, measured from its own go-live time, so launching earlier or at a chosen hour gives no head start. See how ranking works.
Next open slot
$9 one-time
- What it buys
- Your launch goes live as soon as the payment is confirmed, instead of waiting its turn in the free queue (at least 24 hours, then 10 releases a day, oldest first).
- What it never buys
- Votes, vote weight, or a place in any ranked list: the day board, the leaderboard, category pages.
If the launch can no longer go out by the time the payment arrives (it already went live, or a moderator took it down), the payment is refunded automatically. Only a launch that hasn't gone live yet can buy it.
Pick your exact release slot
$24 one-time
- What it buys
- You pick the exact release slot (UTC) your launch goes live in, including within the next 24 hours, and it is kept even on a day when the free releases are full. Other launches may go live at the same time.
- What it never buys
- Votes, vote weight, or a place in any ranked list: the day board, the leaderboard, category pages.
Scheduling stays free: you can still pick a date at least 24 hours ahead at no cost. A free scheduled launch joins the queue at that time and goes out in the next open release slot, so its exact minute isn't guaranteed. The paid tier is for when the exact slot matters.
If the launch can't go live at the slot you booked, or a moderator takes it down before it goes live, the payment is refunded automatically.
Featured week
$29 one-time
- What it buys
- 7 days in the “Featured today” band at the top of the front page, from 00:00 UTC on the start date you pick. At most 2 startups are featured on any day.
- What it never buys
- Votes, vote weight, or a place in any ranked list: the day board, the leaderboard, category pages. A featured startup keeps exactly the votes and rank it has everywhere else, and ads never sit between ranked rows.
How it is labelled: each featured startup carries an Ad mark before its name, the band says “Advertisement. Paid placement, not ranked by votes.”, and the startup's own page shows a “Ad · Featured · Paid” tag while its week runs.
The booking calendar shows how many of the 2 daily spots are really left on each day. There are no countdowns, no invented “last spots” and no crossed-out prices.
Partner: Distriova
Commission
- What it buys
- Distriova, a service that submits products to directories, is a product we recommend and earn a commission on. Its strip sits above the navigation, labelled “Partner · Ad”, and the menu has a “Partner: Distriova” link. Both links are marked
rel="sponsored"for search engines. - What it never buys
- Anything on our boards: Distriova is not a launch here and is never placed in a ranked list.
Links to your website
No payment changes the link from a listing to the startup's website. By default it is marked as user content for search engines.
The one way to a followed link is free: put our badge on your site. A startup whose badge we find gets a direct, followed link from its listing, along with the ✓ Verified seal and a spot on the Verified founders shelf. The badge earns no votes and no rank. Details are under showing our badge.
What money never buys
- Votes, or more weight for the votes you have.
- A position in any ranked list, or a place between ranked rows.
- Comments, replies or reviews.
- The ✓ Verified seal or a followed link (the badge earns those, for free).
- Editorial picks, such as the second-chance slot on the front page.
Prices are in US dollars, before tax; if tax applies, Stripe shows it before you pay. Receipts and invoices come from Stripe by email. Questions: see About.