I built a pay-to-rank leaderboard for indie products. Here’s why I skipped the algorithm.
Hey Indie Hackers! 👋
Like many of you, I’ve hit a wall with traditional launch loops. You spend weeks polishing a project, only to stress over upvote algorithms, hidden visibility rules, or getting buried by Monday morning because you timed your launch wrong.
Inspired by the recent wave of direct bidding experiments (shoutout to outbid style mechanics), I decided to build my own take: launchon.it.
How it works:
The All-Time Board: You bid once, and you are locked in permanently[1]. No shifting algorithms deciding your project is "old news" next week.
The Weekly Board: Resets every Monday so there’s always a fresh #1 spot that's actually reachable.
Radical Transparency: Every rank, every price point, and every click metric is 100% public. No hidden metrics.
The Tech Stack (for the builders curious under the hood):
Frontend/App: Next.js deployed on a clean VPS.
Server/Proxy: Nginx configured with security headers and fallback error pages.
Database/Payments: Fast, straightforward setup meant to keep listings live the second a transaction clears.
We just went live today, and the board is completely open. If you want to bypass the algorithm fatigue and test out a direct visibility model, come check it out or grab a spot.
I’d love to hear your thoughts, feedback, or roast the concept—drop a comment below!
the all time board locked in permanently is the interesting design choice here. outbid worked because the price kept climbing and that climb was the whole show, watching the number go up is what made people screenshot it. once your board fills with permanent slots, whats left to bid on becomes scarcity instead of momentum, a different psychological hook, more like buying real estate than watching an auction. curious if people are bidding again once they already have a permanent slot, or if its mostly one and done
We'll see how it goes once i get the first listings, they have the option to claim a listing after their initial bid and they can keep bidding up, outranking the others above.
Skipping the algorithm is an interesting choice. Does the pay-to-rank model make discovery simpler, or are you seeing users question whether the ranking reflects product quality?
Good