Head to head
Hacker News vs Indie Hackers
Hacker News leads the BLP Index (77 vs 64). Hacker News has more raw reach. Indie Hackers is fairer for founders without a network. Hacker News scores higher on AI visibility.
| Dimension | Hacker News | Indie Hackers |
|---|---|---|
| BLP Index | 77 | 64 |
| Rank | #1 | #30 |
| Type | Communities | Communities |
| Cycle | ongoing | ongoing |
| Listing cost | Free | Free |
| Audience | Engineers, founders, researchers, and technically literate operators | Bootstrapped founders, solopreneurs, and indie SaaS operators |
| Traffic | Most posts: little. Front page: hundreds to several thousand. Top posts: 1,000+ upvotes and outsized referral spikes. | Low per post unless it hits the popular feed; value is relationships |
| Backlink | Nofollow in most cases; SEO value is the thread ranking, not the link juice | Follow/nofollow varies; community citations matter more |
| Reach | 88 | 50 |
| Intent | 86 | 76 |
| Fairness | 48 | 74 |
| Evergreen | 84 | 66 |
| AI visibility | 88 | 58 |
| Ease | 52 | 64 |
Hacker News
A Show HN post is plain text, no scheduling, and no gallery. Most sink. The ones that connect can outdraw a #1 Product Hunt day and rank in Google for years.
Hacker News is not a launch board. It is a news community with a Show HN convention for things you made. There is no hunter, no thumbnail, and no way to rally a private Slack without getting flagged. The entire bet is whether the artifact is interesting to skeptical engineers.
Full Hacker News guideIndie Hackers
Milestones, numbers, and long-game relationships. The founders who treat Indie Hackers as a launch button leave empty-handed.
Indie Hackers is a forum of people building internet businesses. There is a place to share a product, but the culture rewards a trail of posts: milestones, revenue, failures, and specific questions. A cold “we launched today” thread from a new account is wallpaper.
Full Indie Hackers guide