I researched 70+ places to launch a startup — here's what surprised me

When you're building as an indie hacker, "where should I launch?" sounds like a simple question.

It's not.

I started researching launch platforms because I kept seeing the same advice everywhere: Product Hunt, Hacker News, Reddit, repeat.

Those platforms can absolutely be useful, but there are many other launch boards, beta platforms, communities, directories, and product discovery sites that founders rarely talk about.

So I started compiling them.

I ended up researching 70+ platforms and comparing things like:

• Traffic / reach

• Audience intent

• Submission requirements

• Backlink and evergreen value

• Fairness for new products

• AI visibility

• Ease of launching

I turned the research into Best Launch Platforms, an independent ranking and comparison resource.

One thing that stood out to me: the platform with the most traffic isn't necessarily the best platform for your product.

A developer tool might get more useful feedback from a smaller technical community than from a huge general audience.

A pre-launch product might be better off building a waitlist before doing a major launch.

And some platforms are much more useful for long-term discovery than for launch-day traffic.

I'm curious what other IH builders have experienced:

What's the most underrated place you've launched a product?

Not necessarily the biggest source of traffic — just the place that gave you surprisingly good users, feedback, or exposure.