Launch platform
A product launch platform with exactly two rules
Most launch platforms are a queue with a paid bypass. The queue exists so the bypass has something to sell. LetsLaunch caps free launches at 20 a week so each gets seen, and while this week has room you join it straight away; once it is full you book an upcoming week. A Premium launch skips that queue on any day you pick, and it never takes one of those free spots — nobody can buy their way past you.
Instead there are two rules, both mechanical, both applied identically to everyone: a reciprocal badge earns your listing its dofollow link, and upvotes alone decide its rank. A third — 5 upvotes in 7 days to stay listed — is paused while LetsLaunch builds up launch volume.
- Pick your own launch week — no editor, and paying never takes your spot
- The dofollow link gated on a badge, not on a payment
- Rank decided by votes, not by a subscription
- Every price on the site is a published number
What a launch here gets you
Concretely, and with the limits stated.
Gate one: the badge
A submission is published on its launch week with a nofollow link. When the checker finds the reciprocal badge on your site, the link turns dofollow — the badge earns the link, it does not hold back the listing.
Gate two: the votes
A published listing is meant to reach 5 qualifying upvotes within 7 days or drop from browse. That rule is paused while LetsLaunch builds up launch volume, so for now votes only rank the board.
What money buys
Placement, freedom from badge maintenance — so a dofollow link without the badge — and a launch day outside the weekly cap. Premium and Premium+ are listed on the pricing page with numbers next to them. Ads are labelled and rendered separately from the board.
What money cannot buy
A position on the board, upvotes, or survival past the window. Sponsored blog content carries rel="sponsored"; the board is ranked by real votes alone.
The launch flow, end to end
- 1
Paste your URL
The form reads your site and prefills the name, tagline, description, categories and screenshots. You edit what it got wrong, then join this week while free spots last, or book an upcoming week — 20 free launches a week.
- 2
You're published
Your listing goes live straight away in this week, or as the upcoming week you booked opens — no editor, and no badge needed to be seen. Until the badge is up, its outbound link is nofollow.
- 3
The badge earns the dofollow link
Copy the embed from your listing's badge page and put it anywhere on your own site — any real crawlable link back to your listing URL counts, as long as it is not marked nofollow, ugc or sponsored. The check runs automatically, or trigger a re-check yourself; when it passes, your link turns dofollow.
- 4
Collect 5 upvotes
The bar is 5 upvotes in your first 7 days on the board. While LetsLaunch builds up launch volume that rule is paused, so no listing is hidden for missing it — the votes still decide where you rank.
The rule: a published listing has 7 days from launch to collect 5 qualifying upvotes. Clear it and the listing is permanent. Miss it and the listing is hidden from browse and its outbound link drops to nofollow — nothing is deleted, and you get one free relaunch. While LetsLaunch is still building up launch volume this rule is paused, so no listing is currently removed for missing the threshold.
What it costs
Three tiers, all published. The free one is the standard path, not a trial.
Free Launch
Free
Everything you need to launch in public, forever free.
Premium
$9
Skip the badge and the weekly queue — launch today, or any day you want.
Premium+
$29
Your launch, plus a week of homepage promotion and an article.
Full breakdown, including ad placements, on the pricing page. No tier buys a position on the board, upvotes, or survival past the window; Premium skips the badge, so its link is dofollow without one.
What the platform does after launch day
A launch platform that only works on launch day is a newsletter. These surfaces run continuously.
Weekly boards and a permanent archive
Each week has its own page and its own URL, kept forever with the votes it actually recorded.
Best of today, this week, this month
Rolling leaderboards over trailing windows, so a strong launch keeps surfacing for a month rather than a day.
Directories, categories and search
The SaaS, AI tools, startup and developer tools views, plus twenty category boards and full-text search across everything.
A live activity feed
Views, clicks, votes and launches as they happen, on the site and in your dashboard. Nothing is aggregated overnight before you can see it.
On the board right now
This week's launches, ranked by upvotes — the board yours would join.
How to compare product launch platforms
Every launch platform describes itself the same way, so the comparison has to be made on mechanics rather than positioning. Four questions separate them, and all four have answers you can check yourself in a few minutes.
First: what publishes a listing — an editor, a timer, or a payment? An editorial queue means your launch date belongs to someone else. Second: is the outbound link followed? Open an existing listing, view source, read the rel attribute. Do not read the sales page; we checked the landscape this way and a lot of "dofollow" claims did not survive contact with the HTML.
Third: can placement be bought, and if so is it labelled and separated from the organic board, or blended into it? Blended paid placement means the ranking is not a ranking. Fourth: is there any condition for staying listed? Sites with no condition fill up with dead pages, and the value of every link they hand out falls with each one.
LetsLaunch's answers, for the same test: you are published on submit, the link is followed once the badge is up, paid placement is labelled and rendered separately, and staying listed costs 5 upvotes in 7 days (a rule that is currently paused). Run the same four questions on every platform on your list — including this one.
Frequently asked questions
- What is a product launch platform?
- A site where makers publish a product on a launch date and visitors discover new software. The category ranges from single-day leaderboards to curated newsletters to directories with a launch feed bolted on. What separates them is what it takes to get published and what it takes to stay listed.
- Which launch platform is best?
- It depends on the job. For a single-day traffic spike with the largest general audience, Product Hunt is still the default. For a durable indexed page with a followed link, in a launch week you pick, that is what this platform is built for. Most founders should do both, in the same week.
- Is there a review queue?
- No. There is no editor and no approval step. The only automatic check is the badge check, which looks for a reciprocal link on your own site and turns your outbound link dofollow when it finds one — the listing is published either way.
- Can I pay to skip anything?
- Yes, two things: the badge and the queue. Premium gives a permanent followed link with nothing to install, and can launch on any day, today included, even when the week's free spots are gone — without using one of them. You cannot pay to skip the survival rule or to move up the board.
- What happens to a listing that misses the threshold?
- Right now, nothing: the 5-upvote survival rule is paused while LetsLaunch builds up launch volume, so no listing is hidden for missing it. When it is switched on, a listing that misses the bar is hidden from browse, marked noindex and switched to a nofollow link — never deleted — with one free relaunch into a later week.
- Do you take listings from imports rather than submissions?
- Yes, and they are clearly marked. Imported listings have no maker, no votes, and a nofollow link, and they never enter a week's board or the survival sweep because nobody launched them. A maker can claim one by submitting the product normally.
Launch on a platform with rules you can read
Two gates, both mechanical, both applied the same way to everyone. Submit and see.