How to Get on the Front Page of Hacker News: The 2025 Playbook

Introduction

Hacker News (HN) is the 15-million-monthly-visit watering hole where founders, engineers, VCs, and curious technologists crowdsource what matters next. A front-page story can:

Drive 20k–80k qualified visits in 24h

Land you on TechCrunch, Reddit, Twitter, and newsletter round-ups

Convert beta users, customers, employees, or investors faster than a $50k ad spend

But the feed turns over every 60–90 minutes, only 30 stories sit on page 1, and 300–400 new posts arrive daily. This article gives you the repeatable system—updated for 2025—that founders, marketers, and open-source maintainers use to break through the noise.

1. How the HN Algorithm Actually Works (in One Minute)

Vote score is time-decayed. Every 45 minutes the gravity multiplier increases, so a story with 10 upvotes in 15 minutes outranks a story with 50 upvotes in 6 hours.

Flags and downvotes remove points; controversial topics sink fast.

Comments add “heat” but only if they are non-flame and written by users with >500 karma.

Domain and user karma act as tie-breakers, not primary fuel. A brand-new account on an unknown domain can still hit #1 if early velocity is high.

Ring-detection is aggressive. Shared-office IPs, voting circles, and Twitter “please upvote” links are auto-filtered.

2. The Four Levers You Control

A. Timing

Best windows (US Pacific time):– Tue–Thu 8:00–10:00 am (engineers check news before stand-up)– Sun 6:00–9:00 pm (low competition, bored hackers)

Worst windows: Fri after 2 pm (weekend brain), Mon before 7 am (inbox clearing).

Use hn.algolia.com → “Past Week” to verify that your target slot is not crowded by giant stories (Google launches, Apple events, etc.).

B. Title

45–65 characters shows fully on mobile.

Front-load concrete benefit or intrigue.

Use digits, version numbers, or time-boxed results:– “Show HN: I cut my AWS bill 82 % with a 200-line Lambda”– “How we shaved 1.2 s off React hydration at 50 k MAU”

Avoid listicles, superlatives, and “you won’t believe” clickbait; they trigger reflexive downvotes.

C. Content Quality

HN isn’t a link dump—it’s a discussion starter.

Ideal post types:– Technical deep-dives with benchmarks and code– Show HN with live demo and GitHub repo– First-hand failure or revenue transparency post

Minimum viable depth: 1,200 words, original visuals, and at least one “I couldn’t find this anywhere else” insight.

D. Early Engagement

You need ~8–10 genuine upvotes and 2–3 thoughtful comments in the first 30 minutes to reach the top 10.

The fastest legal source: your email list of technical subscribers who actively use HN.

Second fastest: private Slack/Discord channels where members already have HN accounts >1 year old.

Never: public Twitter threads, LinkedIn blasts, or “upvote party” Telegram groups—those IPs get shadow-banned.

3. Step-by-Step Submission Checklist

Step 1: One Week Before

Create or warm up your HN account: comment on 5–7 stories, earn 20+ karma.

Draft the article in a Google doc; share with three domain experts for gut-checks.

Prepare a GitHub repo, demo GIF, or calculator that readers can open immediately—HN loves interactive proof.

Step 2: 24 Hours Before

Shortlist two title variants.

Use https://www.hntitles.com (free) to compare character width on iPhone SE.

Schedule a “Launch tomorrow” tweet so your warm audience knows when to look.

Step 3: Submission Minute

Log in via your home IP or mobile hotspot (office IPs often share karma pools).

Paste URL, add Title A, hit submit.

Immediately copy the newest page link and paste into a private Slack channel with your pre-selected five helpers.

Upvote your own post once—it is allowed, but only from the submitter account.

Step 4: Golden 15 Minutes

Refresh /newest, locate your post, and add the first comment: a 60-word TL;DR plus one question to seed discussion.

Ask your helpers to upvote and leave on-topic comments (not “nice post!”).

Reply to every comment within 10 minutes; early threads keep the story hot.

Step 5: Traction Hour

Once you hit 20+ points and top-10 position, post the demo/repo link as a top-level comment—HN allows this and it doubles click-through.

Tweet the HN thread (not your blog URL) so your Twitter followers upvote the discussion, not just the blog—a subtle but important distinction that avoids ring detection.

Step 6: Sustain or Exit

If velocity drops, add an “Update” paragraph at the top of your article with new data; append “(Updated)” to the title by clicking “edit” on the thread.

If flags start (comment score < −1), delete marketing paragraphs and add more technical detail, then ask moderators (hn@ycombinator.com) to review—vouches sometimes restore rank.

4. Real-World Examples That Hit #1

“Show HN: I built a $1k MRR privacy tool in 10 days”– Why it worked: revenue + hyper-specific timeline– Key tactic: posted Tue 9 am PT, opened with a live Stripe dashboard GIF

“Things I learned compiling a 2 MLOC C++ codebase with Clang 17”– Why it worked: deep technical novelty, first-hand data– Key tactic: author answered the first 30 comments in real time, keeping the thread alive

“We accidentally deleted 600 GB of clickstream data and survived”– Why it worked: failure story + concrete recovery code– Key tactic: GitHub notebook uploaded within 15 minutes so readers could reproduce the fix

5. Common Mistakes That Kill Momentum

Duplicate content: Search site:news.ycombinator.com your-domain.com before posting.

Paywall or email gate: HN will flag and bury instantly.

Editing the title more than once: Each edit resets the “recent comments” timestamp and can knock you off the front page.

Asking for upvotes in public: Even “Please check my HN post” on Twitter is enough to trigger a penalty.

Posting from a fresh account with zero comments: Moderators manually review first submissions; lack of history = instant spam label.

6. Quick-Fire Tips for Non-Technical Founders

Outsource the deep technical diagram to a freelance CTO, but write the narrative yourself—authenticity matters.

If your product is no-code, include a 2-minute Loom video that opens with the JavaScript console to prove there’s code under the hood.

Use analogies: “Think of it as Terraform for Excel” helps technical readers grasp value fast.

Conclusion

Getting on the front page of Hacker News is not luck; it’s a deterministic process that rewards precise timing, a killer title, genuine technical insight, and ethical early engagement. Run the checklist above, treat the community with respect, and one good post can repay the effort for years. Bookmark this guide, share it with your launch buddy, and see you on the front page.

FAQ

Q: Can I pay a marketing agency to guarantee front page?
‍A: No. HN’s ring detection is stronger than ever; paid upvote services get domains banned for life.

Q: How many accounts can I use to upvote my post?
‍A: One. Any additional accounts—even from teammates—risk a site-wide shadowban of the URL.

Q: Does reposting work if my first attempt flopped?
‍A: Yes, but wait 48 hours, change the title significantly, and add new technical content. Flag as “second attempt” in the first comment.

Q: Is Sunday really better than Monday?
‍A: For unknown authors, yes. Competition is ~40 % lower, and engineers browse longer, giving you extra minutes to gather critical mass.

Q: What HN karma level is “safe” to self-promote?
‍A: 250+ combined with a history of technical comments. Below that, ask a high-karma colleague to submit for you.