Indie Hackers Guides Worth Reading

Start with Where To Submit to list your product

Where To Submit's guide is the most specific free guide to the sign-up and listing steps. It covers profile fields, then the listing itself: a tagline of 10 words or fewer, a description of 200 to 500 words, an optional MRR figure and your team. Check your draft against those limits before you publish, since it is the most recently dated guide here. ^[1]

The publisher runs a directory and promotes its own browser extension, MCP server and agent skill. It shows domain ratings with no source, and it does not say whether the directories it recommends pay it. Follow the steps, and check any directory before you pay for a listing.

Read the 2019 etiquette post for habits, not mechanics

The developer's post is a practitioner's first-hand account with its own examples. It covers profile setup, posting insight rather than bare links, questions that say what you already tried, upvoting, and searching before you post. The author states no affiliation with the site. ^[2]

The etiquette still reads as current. The post predates the groups and product listings, so it cannot tell you where to list a product. Pair it with the Where To Submit guide.

Use the GitHub checklist as community norms, not as the rules

The unofficial guide on GitHub lists community habits: share specifics and numbers, link what you mention, say what you tried, search before you ask, make questions specific, and vote on good unanswered questions. It links to Indie Hackers' official FAQ for the rules themselves. ^[3]

The project has 3 stars and is not affiliated with Indie Hackers. It summarizes a forum thread, so use it as a checklist before your first post and read the official FAQ for anything it leaves out.

Launch guides mostly sell listings, so read their timing as opinion

StartupDirectorySubmit names five launch-relevant groups: Product Launches, Milestones, Landing Page Feedback, SaaS Products and Show IH. It suggests posting on Tuesday to Thursday, 8 to 10 AM Pacific, and a two- to four-week engagement plan before launch. The group sizes and timing come from its own practice, with no sources cited, and the site sells directory submission. ^[4]

Better Launch sorts posts into Milestones, Launches, Show IH and Self-promote Saturday, which is the clearest map of post types here. Its line that the first six hours decide visibility has no source. The site sells listings and suggests pairing an Indie Hackers launch with its own submission, so weigh its advice that way. ^[5]

Smol Launch gives a launch-day timeline, but its case study is hypothetical

Smol Launch's checklist sets a sequence: publish at T-0, reply to comments within an hour, and post an update at T+24 hours. Its screenshot advice is concrete. The guide sells a weekly launch platform that it keeps recommending, and its 1,800-visitor example is labelled illustrative and hypothetical. ^[6]

The page's update line says July 2025, while its text says 2026. Use the timeline, and treat the date as uncertain.

Where to start

To list a product, read the Where To Submit guide first. For your first post, read the developer's post and the GitHub checklist, then the post-type map in Better Launch. Before you pay any directory or launch service, read what it sells. For free tools, see the Indie Hackers tools page.