How to Launch a Dev Tool on Product Hunt

We launched Corbado on Product Hunt and reached #1 Developer Tool of the Week. Read about our learnings and tips on how to successfully launch Developer Tools on Product Hunt.

Check out the full blog on our website.

Corbado’s Launch

We’re Corbado, dedicated to make the internet a safer place by making websites and apps passwordless. Our product helps developers implement passkeys with just a few lines of code — allowing them to go passwordless in just one sprint.

On January 25 2024, we hit a significant milestone: Launching our Developer Tool on Product Hunt, we not only achieved the #4 product of the day but also topped the charts as the #1 Developer Tool of the week. Our launch resulted in 2x the traffic on our website and 4x the amount of usual daily signups on launch day and the few days after it.
A lot of time and effort went into preparing our launch and we learned many things, which we want to share in this blog post.

Why Launch your Dev Tool on Product Hunt?

For those who don’t know, here’s a quick explanation of Product Hunt:
It’s a unique platform where creators, so called “Makers,” showcase their products. Each product launch, or “Hunt,” lasts for 24 hours, during which the products compete against each other and are ranked by their number of upvotes and interactions.

Even though Dev Tools are the minority of products on Product Hunt, the list of benefits is convincing. To name a few:

1. New Customers: The platform is a hub for early adopters, tech enthusiasts, and professionals like developers and product managers -which you can convert to your (first) customers!‍
2. Diverse & Global Audience: Product Hunt’s mix of tech-savvy and non-technical members provides a unique opportunity to understand how your tool is perceived by a broader audience — everywhere around the globe.‍‍
3. Valuable Feedback: The community on product hunt is open-minded and positive towards all new tools & products — so you can expect valuable feedback for your product, landing page and other aspects.‍
4. Upgrade your Marketing Material: Launching on Product Hunt gives you a reason to finally create the nice and crisp visuals and product descriptions that your product deserves — material which you can use for launches in typical Dev Communities, too.‍‍
5. Prioritizing Features, SDKs & Integrations: Which frameworks do your potential customers use and what features are a must-have? Launching on product hunt is a great way to get answers on these questions and prioritizing on the right Development Tasks.‍
6. Framing your product: With Dev Tools you usually focus on features for developers and de-prioritize all the marketing fluff around it. However, these “soft factors” are important, too, and the sooner you optimize them the better.‍
7. SEO Boost: Launching on Product Hunt boosts your SEO through valuable backlinks, enhancing your website’s long-term visibility — of course this effect is greater the better your ranking is.

As you can see there are a lot of benefits — but a launch also needs to be well-prepared, so let’s dive into our recommendations for rocking your launch.

Tip #1: Choose the right Hunter

On Product Hunt, a “hunter” is the user that uploads your product. While you could do this yourself, it’s become a thing that users often hunt products on behalf of others.
Here’s what you should look out for in a Hunter:

‍1. Experience with Dev Tools: Look for hunters who either have a background in development or have a track record of successfully launching and marketing Developer Tools on Product Hunt. Their insights and experience are very valuable in preparing your launch materials, ensuring they resonate with the Product Hunt community.
2. Network within the Developer Community: A hunter’s network can greatly push your launch, which we’ve seen for example with our hunter Florent Merian (fmerian on Product Hunt). He is not only seasoned in hunting Developer Tools but also co-manages the Developer Marketing Community on Slack, which he can leverage for your launch.

Tip #2: Decide on a Launch Strategy

Deciding your launch date and understanding your target group might seem easy at first, but these factors significantly impact your overall strategy and the success of your launch. Before anything you need to decide on your main goal for the launch.

Choose your Launch Goal

You should choose one or a few of these primary goals:

• Becoming #1 Product of the Day
• Maximum number of user signups
• Receive a lot of valuable feedback
• Improve your SEO with new mentions

While #1 Product of the Day is all about understanding and playing the Product Hunt “Game” on the platform, other goals like the signups require more focus on converting the users with a good website. It’s tough to decide on one of these — but trust us, it will help you down the line in the many small decisions that are awaiting you.

Choose your Launch Date

Traffic on Product Hunt varies throughout the week. Typically, Tuesday to Thursday see the highest user traffic. Launching on these days means maximum exposure but also tougher competition. It’s challenging to make it to the top on these days due to more established companies choosing the same window for their launches.
In contrast, Friday to Monday is quieter, with fewer users but also less competition on the platform. These days might offer a better chance to become the product of the day or to ensure your product doesn’t get overlooked.

For our launch of Corbado, we aimed for high traffic and exposure and chose Thursday, the busiest day of the week. A useful tool to check out is hunted.space to see the number of products and total upvotes for each day.

Understanding Product Hunter’s User Types

On Product Hunt, users generally fall into two categories:
1. Developers and Techies: These are your primary target customers and prefer straightforward content that highlights your tool’s USPs over marketing BS.
Unfortunately, they make up a minority of the Product Hunt community.
2. Non-Techies: These are mostly investors, product managers, or other business-oriented users. If your content is overly technical, these users might find it inaccessible or irrelevant. However, their support is crucial for ranking higher on Product Hunt since these are the majority of users.
The key challenge of launching a Dev Tool is to create a product page that appeals to both groups — oftentimes it’s just impossible to perfectly target both. Therefore, you need to decide which group is more important for your specific launch goals.

Tip #3 Optimize your Launch Page

Tailoring everything to your target group is crucial and directly follows the decision you made about your audience in the previous step. The key to a successful launch lies in how you craft your profile, including the headline, description, visuals, and maker’s comment. These elements should not only be catchy but also informative, reflecting who you are targeting.

For our Corbado launch, we chose a balanced approach. We created visuals and headlines designed to catch the attention of all users but made it abundantly clear in our description and maker’s comment that our product was specifically designed for Developers.

Want to know what to consider in your visuals and write in your Maker comment? Or how you should optimize your website and leverage the Product Hunt Community?

Continue reading the full blog to find answers to these questions.