alternative
A Hacker News alternative for builders
Hacker News is where software conversation happens, but it is a discussion board first and a place to showcase your work second. ShowBuild takes the part of Hacker News that works — a single ranked feed, upvotes instead of follower counts, text over glossy marketing — and rebuilds it specifically for people shipping products.
Why makers look for a Hacker News alternative
Show HN posts compete with every other story of the day and sink within hours unless they catch an early wave. There is no permalink designed for your project, no way to edit a listing after the fact, and no link value: outbound links from Hacker News are not a ranking signal you can rely on for a new site.
None of that makes Hacker News bad. It makes it a conversation venue rather than a listing venue. If the goal is a durable page that describes your product, collects upvotes, and sends visitors for months, a builder-focused board does that job better.
How ShowBuild differs
- No moderation queue. A submission goes live as soon as you have joined in with five builds already on the board. Nothing sits waiting for approval, and there is no need to time your post for a specific timezone.
- A permanent page per project. Every listing lives at its own address, readable by search engines, with the full description and comments.
- A dofollow backlink. Add the badge to your site and your listing link switches to dofollow — something Hacker News never offers.
- Freshness-aware ranking. New projects rank above older ones for their first week, so a listing today gets the same shot as one posted last month did.
- Makers only. The board is entirely projects people are building, so you are not competing with essays, funding news, or flame wars.
Which one should you use?
Use both, for different things. Hacker News is excellent for technical discussion and feedback from experienced engineers. ShowBuild is the listing: it is where your project gets a page, a ranking, a backlink, and a place strangers can find it by category or search.
If you are choosing one place to send the link on your site, choose the one designed to hold it. That is the job ShowBuild was built for.
Get started
Create an account and submit your project, then join in with five builds already on the board and yours goes live. If you want the backlink, read how dofollow backlinks work on ShowBuild, or browse the board to see what other makers are shipping.
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