Show HN: I am Building a Producthunt alternative

(huntlie.com)

48 points | by heyarviind2 6 hours ago ago

54 comments

  • muhammadusman 4 hours ago

    Don't use the term "hunt" in the name, to me it just screams "dupe" instead of something unique. Go the route of improving what PH has and adding things that are missing.

    Some ideas: - Users should be able to update their post to some extent.

    - There's no "product page" in your app, build something where I can see people commenting, reacting, and maybe even sharing their own screenshots of it because that's something PH does pretty well but can be improved.

    - "LAUNCHES WORTH YOUR SCROLL" sounds kinda cringe, change to something like "Find the next best thing" or make it random on load and have a few less in your face versions of it. Reddit has "homepage of the internet" which seems appropriate. You can have "have you launched yet?", "find the next best thing", "what's trending today"...etc

    I have more ideas, feel free to message me or drop a way to contact you if you'd like more feedback :)

    • aardvark179 4 hours ago

      Maybe not, “next best thing,” I don’t know about American English but in British English next best means second best.

      • tuckerman 3 hours ago

        At least in American English “next to best” would mean second whereas “next best thing” means something likely to be the best thing in the near future and it’s a very common idiom.

        • silisili an hour ago

          To jump in on the confusion, I'm American and have seen it used both ways, completely dependent on context. When I read the original comment I understood it as 'next thing that we all think is best' rather than 'second best.'

          But after reading the comments and thinking on it, I realize it's probably used more often in the context of 'second best.'

        • phone_book 3 hours ago

          i am american and think "next best thing" means second best. maybe "next big thing" would be better but is a bit generic

        • ImPostingOnHN 2 hours ago

          I think you might be referring to the common american english idiom "next big thing", as "next best thing" means 2nd best in american english as well.

          Note that "next bigGEST thing" also means the 2nd biggest thing.

          • mathgeek 2 hours ago

            This is the common usage in my experience (US).

        • corobo 2 hours ago

          Do you not have sentence structures along the line of "I wanted the premium model but it was out of my budget so I went for the next best thing"?

          I get we're trying to go for "next [best thing]" but yeah I (also UK) read it as "[next best] thing" and can't think of any examples where I'd read it as the former

      • ribeyes 2 hours ago

        i guess it's somewhat ambiguous here, but "next-best" would be second-best, while "next best" means "future best"

    • malfist 6 minutes ago

      It really is an unfortunate name. How do you pronounce it, hunt lie? Hunt Lee? I'm not sure, but my first impression was it was a portmanteau of hunt and lie, which wouldn't be something I'd want my startup to be associated with

    • heyarviind2 4 hours ago

      Hey thank you so much for the feedback. I want to hear more from you.

      Can we connect on Twitter/x: @heyarviind?

  • blakeburch 3 hours ago

    Glad to see someone working on an alternative!

    Personal note - I used to be a pretty frequent user of ProductHunt. Some folks I worked with jokingly called me the SaaS King. If you had a problem, I knew of 3 tools to potentially solve it.

    The biggest reason why I stopped using ProductHunt was because people opted to submit and upvote low quality "list of X" aggregation services and minor updates, not real products. Hopefully you've thought about how to refine the curation.

    Also, agreed with the feedback from muhammadusman about having a product page. Right now, it's just a list of links with synopsis - not enough to intrigue me to explore further.

  • klntsky 3 hours ago

    Product hunt clones should all launch on each other

  • IgorPartola an hour ago

    What problem does PH solve/what problem would this solve?

    Honestly PH always felt to me like a time waster. “Oh look at this idea. Neat. Next.”

    Now, a website where I can type in the problem I am having and it suggests solutions (with a mix of self hosted vs commercial products depending on my settings) would be super useful. For example: “I want to organize a library full of old photos that don’t have metadata” or “I want a cheap online backup solution with support for Linux servers” or “I want to automate sending personalized-feeling birthday cards to people I know professionally”.

  • triyambakam 3 hours ago

    How is the name supposed to be pronounced? It looks like the two English words hunt and lie which doesn't sound very nice.

    • OJFord 10 minutes ago

      Fwiw it parsed to me as 'Hun tile', certainly no better.

      If it's meant to be hunt-lee per sibling comment then 'huntly' (with the domain hunt.ly) is by far the established (still-annoying) way to do that.

    • codazoda an hour ago

      I also read it as “hunt lie” instead of “hunt lee” FWIW.

    • heyarviind2 3 hours ago

      it is pronounced as hunt-lee

      https://www.names-hub.com/name/huntlie

      • trollied an hour ago

        It really isn't though. Any native English speaker is going to see Hunt Lie.

        • cabinguy 28 minutes ago

          Confirmed. I immediately read “hunt lie.”

          • emmanueloga_ 10 minutes ago

            In the context of discovering brand-new companies, it does come across as somewhat ironic.

            Maybe consider the "Kodak recipe" for an alternative? [1]: "Keep it short, easy to pronounce, and avoid similarities to existing names or associations." (short is harder in 2024 though!)

            I'm on the fence on whether the name should have meaning. There are plenty of successful companies on either side.

            --

            1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kodak#Name

  • thehadiahmadi 3 hours ago

    Hi, I liked the idea. There are some issues, maybe these are in your todo list, but I want to tell you based on my usage.

    1. there is no difference before and after login. (maybe login is unsuccessful) 2. I cannot edit/delete my submitted project. 3. No search for projects. 4. No Dark mode :)

  • stevekemp 6 hours ago

    ProductHunt has been gamed to the extent that it's no longer in any way real - it's just who can spam the most.

    What will stop your site from the same fate?

    • heyarviind2 5 hours ago

      I want to take an approach of Instagram algorithm, no matter what votes you have you will see all the products once every visit.

      • crowcroft 4 hours ago

        Why do you think that's a good idea?

  • nhatcher 2 hours ago

    There was a slightly similar product some days ago:

    https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41860810

  • joshdavham an hour ago

    Looks interesting!

    Could I get a short pitch on what makes your alternative better/different?

  • olegp 4 hours ago

    Congrats on launching! I just submitted https://www.freeats.com

    I liked the submission flow, it was nice and simple. The only issue is that at the end of the process I got a page that looked like it was broken, so had to manually navigate to the main page.

    • heyarviind2 4 hours ago

      sorry about that, i am fixing it

      • olegp 4 hours ago

        No problem, it's better to launch early.

  • dt3ft 2 hours ago

    Congrats!

    I tried submitting https://fdeploy.com but the product icon wouldn’t upload. Which file formats are supported?

    • xwowsersx 2 hours ago

      Looks promising! May I offer some gentle feedback on your blurb above the fold?

      > fDeploy is a self-hosted deployment software for Windows being currently built in Stockholm, Sweden by developers with over 10 years of experience in the industry, focusing only on the most essential and most valuable features.

      I'd recommend focusing on what the most valuable features are and making those the highlight. Leading with who is building it and where doesn't add much unless your team is especially well-known or noteworthy. Also, citing "10 years of experience" as social proof might not resonate strongly—it's not a differentiator for most audiences (10 years is not that long). Instead, consider showcasing the unique aspects of the product that would immediately grab attention.

      • dt3ft 2 hours ago

        I will set some time aside to rewrite that. Thank you for the feedback, much appreciated!

  • supertofu 3 hours ago

    When everything is a priority, nothing is a priority. Re: the black visit buttons. Save black for the top 3 featured, and make the rest a milder color. It's cognitively fatiguing to have a giant list of primary buttons.

  • TripleChecker 2 hours ago

    Tried to add a product but nothing happens when I submit.

    Domain isn't the easiest to remember IMO.

  • srbhr 4 hours ago

    I've added a product (SWIRL) it shows 0% off. :) How can I change that?

    • heyarviind2 4 hours ago

      have you enabled the discount checkbox?

      Anyway let me know the coupon code and percentage off, i can add it manually ;)

    • dinkblam 3 hours ago

      same here, didn't specify a discount either

  • amiantos 3 hours ago

    Why?

  • permanent 3 hours ago

    Added an icon, and still it says:

    > Product icon is required

    • bochoh 3 hours ago

      Having the same issue here! Cheers on launching

  • that_guy_iain an hour ago

    There are so many product hunt alternatives that it's hard to keep track. There are literally services to go around and list you on all of the alternatives. I believe it's about 60+.

    The problem with ProductHunt is that it's basically the glory days are behind it. If you want to have a successful ProductHunt launch the key is simple, wait until you're established and then send an email to all your customers to upvote you.

    People focus so much on having a good ProductHunt launch like it'll make a difference. They go around begging everyone they know and spamming everyone they don't know asking for an upvote. They'll spend weeks focusing on this product hunt launch and overall get less traffic than they would from posting on here with Show HN and less traffic than they would get from posting on the right subreddits.

    Product Hunt and similar launch sites are just focusing don't he false hope that new founders have that the launch matters.

  • akutlay 6 hours ago

    I can't add a product, it asks me to add an icon despite the fact that I already uploaded one.

    • heyarviind2 6 hours ago

      you can click on next even after it gives an error

  • encoderer 4 hours ago

    Terrible name.

    Hunt doesn’t mean anything. Huntly is bad. Huntlie is terrible. Forget about product hunt. Invent a new brand.

    Let people submit for free but you choose when they get published. If they want to pick a date charge for that.

    • gre 3 hours ago

          An open source applicant tracking system that grows with your company
          50% Off, use coupon HUNTILE
      
      I first read it as "Huntile" which is like Product Hunt + quartile. Then I saw it's Huntlie, "HUNT LIE" which has negative connotations. And then I click the site and see the coupon code is "HUNTILE". christ
  • denysvitali 4 hours ago

    0% off, use coupon "undefined"

    :)

  • rrr_oh_man 2 hours ago

    Login doesn’t work…

    How to correct a post?

    :-)

  • bootstrpppin 5 hours ago

    Are you going to launch it on PH?

    Joking aside, I really think you need a unique angle and a solid distribution strategy: there are 1,000 PH clones but they don't stick because they're the same as PH, just with less users/traction/eyeballs.

  • inerte 3 hours ago

    Unrelated, but I am thinking about how do I get alpha users for an app I am building, and decided to check Product Hunt if they offer any sort of feature to help with that, and I ended up on this page https://www.producthunt.com/questions

    Looks like someone is trying to pull a Forbes...

    And I guess related to you, please don't do that :)