[ROAST] Launching on DevHunt Doesn't Work? Here's What I Found!

Let's talk about DevHunt. As a platform for launching open-source projects, I decided to give it a spin and see how it performs. Here are some of its key features: Founded over a year ago by John Rush (more details on dev.to), DevHunt aims to help open-source projects share their stories. If you want a free launch, your project will go live in six months. For a faster release, you’ll need to pay, or you can sponsor the platform to always appear in the top banner.

By the way, the platform itself has open source code on GitHub ❤️.

The concept of a delayed launch seems to be based on the idea that founders of new projects will use that time to connect, build a community, and gather support contacts on LinkedIn and X. This one-on-one interaction should ideally happen within the platform itself, since it’s meant to be a community for developers, rather than outsourcing engagement to other infrastructures like LinkedIn and X.

But here’s the catch: It doesn’t work! Here's why, based on my experience with launches on the best plarform Product Hunt (which I’m still exploring) and new cool alternative platform, Product Radar, as well as three weeks of observing DevHunt.

For a platform boasting “100k+ developers found Dev Tools here”, the activity is shockingly low.

Engagement is minimal, and when you comment on a project, your comment is likely to go unanswered. In fact, I couldn’t even find a way to reply to comments.

Many people seem to forget about their launches, and the platform doesn’t even send reminders. On the day of my launch or one week before, I only received updates about the projects that won last week. (Today is November 19, 2024)

In the evening, if you have account X linked, you will be indirectly notified about the launch via a post from the DevHunt channel during their roundup of newly launched projects. For example.

One thing I genuinely appreciate about DevHunt is that even with a six-month wait for a launch, the interface and functionality of this open-source project have evolved. And DevHunt does let you edit your description—well, sort of. There’s a quirky bug: If you update the description, save it, then change the image, your project card might still display the old description.

Weird, but okay! Just tweak the sequence, and it works.

Speaking of winners, the "Past winners 👑" section doesn’t actually show last week’s launches but rather all previous winners, making it hard to track real activity.

Real activity is clear if you go and look at the projects every week, or by mailing.

There’s also a lack of subcategories for search and no smart search feature (like a bot) to help you find specific tools, like a video generator. And what’s the purpose of projects on DevHunt anyway? Is it to recruit team members, find investors, share your story, or just get your project roasted? I wanna see those target of project as category in search.

Also, what does the "Impressions" badge mean? Hovering over it doesn’t explain anything.

I also like the user activity transparency. You can see which projects a user has supported or commented on. That’s a real advantage for account owners who want to revisit tools they’ve favorited. Speaking of favorites, though, there’s one big gap: there’s no dedicated "Favorites" tab. Since I can’t upvote projects after their launch period ends, how do I bookmark them for later? There’s just no real incentive to keep me coming back to DevHunt.

This user activity feature could also be super valuable for thought leaders in fields like AI. Anyone could easily check which projects these leaders are interested in and use in their work.

Honestly, I think DevHunt has huge potential if developed further. Imagine video breakdowns of projects, behind-the-scenes stories of launches, or how DevHunt impacts projects over time (for example on DevHunt or Patreon). Maybe even microblogs for each project, where teams can share updates. This would only work, though, if the platform has solid user retention and good SEO, so every update makes it easier to find these tools.

And hey, why not add gamification through achievements to keep people engaged, instead of just being a platform for cold email blasts?

And let’s not forget: it’s a free and open platform, and that’s pretty awesome.

Despite the issues, I still like the idea of a fresh community for developer tools. And I wish John Rush his DevHunt development, the main thing is not to abandon the project, but to make it the best tool. Thank you.

Will I keep exploring new platforms? Absolutely!