Hacker News (Show HN) vs Reddit r/SideProject
Show HN reaches a large technical audience that expects something it can try and gives sharp, sometimes blunt feedback. r/SideProject is a friendlier subreddit for side projects and first versions, where makers swap feedback.
Choose Hacker News (Show HN) if
your product is technical and ready to be tried and judged.
Choose Reddit r/SideProject if
you have a first version or side project and want gentler early feedback.
Side by side
| Fact | Hacker News (Show HN) | Reddit r/SideProject |
|---|---|---|
| Type | Community | Community |
| Best for | Developer tools, open source and technical products that can be tried right away. | Side projects and first versions looking for early feedback. |
| How a launch works | You post a Show HN link with a short explanation; ranking comes from community votes, and the comments are often frank technical feedback. | You post your project following the subreddit's rules; votes and comments decide how many people see it. |
| Link to your site | Dofollow (on the 2 listings we checked) | Not checked yet |
| Price | Not checked yet | Not checked yet |
| Suits | developer tools, open source | indie makers |
| Last checked | Oct 24, 2026 | Oct 24, 2026 |
“Not checked yet” means we have not verified it on a real listing. We never guess, and a platform can treat paid or featured listings differently.
Questions
- Should I launch on Hacker News (Show HN) or Reddit r/SideProject?
- Choose Hacker News (Show HN) if your product is technical and ready to be tried and judged. Choose Reddit r/SideProject if you have a first version or side project and want gentler early feedback.
- Do Hacker News (Show HN) and Reddit r/SideProject give a dofollow link?
- Hacker News (Show HN) gave a dofollow link on the listings we checked. We have not checked Reddit r/SideProject on a real listing yet, so we do not say.
- Can I launch on both Hacker News (Show HN) and Reddit r/SideProject?
- Yes. They reach different people, so many founders use both: launch on one, improve the tagline and screenshots with what you learn, then launch on the other a few days later.
Other comparisons
Free tools for launch day
All free tools- Launch checklistEverything to do before, on and after launch day, ticked off as you go.
- Launch time plannerSee your launch moment in every major time zone.
- Character counterCount characters and check them against title, tweet and app store limits.
- Social preview checkerSee the card your link shows on X, LinkedIn and Slack, and what to fix.
- UTM builderTagged links for every channel on launch day, so you know which one worked.
- Meta tag checkerCheck the title, description, canonical and indexing tags Google reads.
Launch on Aback Launch, free
A permanent page built to be found on Google and in AI answers, reviewed by a person.