How to Submit to Hacker News
news.ycombinator.comHacker News is Y Combinator's link aggregator. A Show HN post that reaches the front page can send tens of thousands of technical visitors in a day; the link is nofollow. The domain has been indexed since 2019 and has 121,025 referring domains. Google sends it an estimated 2,947,038 organic visits a month across 531,486 ranking keywords, 129,205 of them in the top 10. People search for “hacker news” about 201,000 times a month.
Is Hacker News free to submit to, and how long does approval take?
Is Hacker News worth submitting to?
- –Links are nofollow, so this is a traffic and visibility play, not a link-building one.
- –Real referral potential: 9823× the organic traffic of the median directory.
- –It costs nothing, which makes it worth the ten minutes regardless.
How much traffic does Hacker News get?
Compared with the median of the 131 directories we track. Google US, DataForSEO estimates.
| Metric | Hacker News | Median directory | Ratio |
|---|---|---|---|
| Organic visits / month | 2,947,038 | 300 | 9823Ă— |
| Ranking keywords | 531,486 | 105 | 5062Ă— |
| Keywords in top 10 | 129,205 | 3 | 43068Ă— |
| Referring domains | 121,025 | 385 | 314Ă— |
| Domain Rating | 91 | 50 | 1.8Ă— |
15% of the domains linking to Hacker News do so with nofollow links; its spam score is 20/100. It gained 235,338 new ranking keywords in the last month and lost 369,406.
What does Hacker News rank for on Google?
The queries that send Hacker News the most Google traffic. On most directories these are individual product listings rather than the homepage, which is the point: a listing here is a page that can rank on its own.
| Keyword | Position | Monthly searches |
|---|---|---|
| speedtest net | #9 | 9,140,000 |
| translation | #54 | 45,500,000 |
| hacker news y combinator | #1 | 201,000 |
| bython | #4 | 450,000 |
| r/nba | #5 | 450,000 |
How do you submit to Hacker News?
- 1
Open the Hacker News submission page
Go to https://news.ycombinator.com/submit.
- 2
Create an account or sign in
Hacker News requires an account before you can submit.
- 3
Fill in the listing form
The form asks for: Title, URL.
- 4
Wait for review
Check back after a few days and confirm your listing and link are live.
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What does the Hacker News submission form ask for?
- Title
- URL
How much does it cost to submit to Hacker News?
Submitting to Hacker News is free. Use a "Show HN:" title for a product launch.
What should you know before submitting to Hacker News?
Best for: Technical audiences and developer-focused products.
Use "Show HN" for launches. Best for technically interesting products. A front-page hit can send 10k+ visitors in a day.
Which directories are similar to Hacker News?
91 | Free | |
92 | Paid | |
95 | Free | |
87 | Freemium | |
82 | Paid | |
80 | Freemium |
More questions about submitting to Hacker News
Is Hacker News free to submit to?›
Yes. Submitting to Hacker News is free. Use a "Show HN:" title for a product launch.
Does Hacker News give a dofollow backlink?›
No, Hacker News uses nofollow links; the listing can still send referral traffic.
Do I need an account to submit to Hacker News?›
Yes, you have to sign up before the form is available.
How much traffic does Hacker News get?›
About 2,947,038 organic visits a month from Google (DataForSEO estimate, US), from 531,486 ranking keywords.
What is the domain authority of Hacker News?›
Ahrefs Domain Rating 91, with 121,025 referring domains; the domain has been indexed since 2019.
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Submission details verified on Hacker News's own site on 2026-09-09. Traffic and backlink figures are DataForSEO estimates for Google US from 2026-09-09. Domain Rating is fetched live from Ahrefs.