The indie hacker launch checklist (2026 edition)

Twenty boxes, each with a one-line why. Tick them in order and you will not launch a site with a missing favicon. Again.

An indie hacker launch checklist is the short list of things a solo developer should have in place before telling strangers about a new project: the site itself (favicon, OG image, domain, analytics, a landing page that says what it does), the launch surfaces (Show HN, Product Hunt, r/SideProject, a directory or two, a $1 square on Square Town), and the follow-through (newsletter, changelog, sitemap, llms.txt). Below is the 2026 version, twenty items, each with a checkbox and one line on why it exists.

TL;DR — the twenty boxes

#	Item	Cost	Time
1	Favicon (real one, not the framework default)	$0	30 min
2	OG image	$0	30 min
3	Domain you own, HTTPS	~$10/yr	15 min
4	Landing page that says what it does in one sentence	$0	2 h
5	Analytics that respect visitors	$0	20 min
6	A working signup / payment path, tested in a private window	$0	1 h
7	Error monitoring, uptime ping	$0	20 min
8	sitemap.xml + robots.txt	$0	15 min
9	llms.txt for your own site	$0	20 min
10	A changelog page	$0	30 min
11	Newsletter or "notify me"	$0	30 min
12	Show HN post	$0	1 h
13	Product Hunt launch	$0	3 h
14	r/SideProject and one niche subreddit	$0	30 min
15	Two or three free directories	$0	1 h
16	A $1 square on Square Town	$1	2 min
17	A short demo video or GIF	$0	1 h
18	A "how I built it" post	$0	2 h
19	Reply to everything for 72 hours	$0	ongoing
20	Write down what happened	$0	30 min

Rough total: about $11 and two working days, most of it before you tell anyone.

Before anyone sees it: the site itself#

• 1. A real favicon. Why: it's the first thing a browser tab, a bookmark, a Slack unfurl and every directory show. A missing or default-framework icon says "unfinished". Square Town (square.pov.town) is petty enough about this that sites without one get a clown emoji and a spot in the Hall of Clowns. Do the SVG + 32 px PNG + apple-touch-icon set; how to add a favicon is the five-minute version.
• 2. An OG image. Why: every share on X, LinkedIn, Slack, Discord and iMessage renders your og:image. Without one, your launch link is a grey box. 1200×630, product name, one line, done.
• 3. A domain you own, on HTTPS. Why: subdomains of a host you don't control look temporary and can't be moved. Roughly $10 a year for a plain .com-ish TLD as of 2026; cheaper TLDs exist but look cheaper. Set up the naked domain and www both.
• 4. A landing page that says what it does in one sentence. Why: the median visitor from a launch post stays under ten seconds. Sentence one is what it does; sentence two is who it's for; then a screenshot or the product itself. Everything else can be below the fold.
• 5. Analytics that respect visitors. Why: you need to know whether Show HN or Reddit sent the people, or you will misallocate every future hour. Any lightweight, cookieless counter is fine. Make sure it reads utm_source, because some sources tag their outbound clicks — Square Town's /go/:id redirect adds utm_source=square.pov.town, for instance — and you want those as separate rows.
• 6. Signup / payment tested in a private window. Why: the number one launch-day bug is "works for me" — you were logged in, or you had a cookie, or Stripe was in test mode. Open an incognito window, do the whole flow, pay yourself $1 if there's a payment.
• 7. Error monitoring and an uptime ping. Why: if the launch post takes off at 3 a.m. your time, you want to find out from a ping, not from the top comment.
• 8. sitemap.xml and robots.txt. Why: search engines and AI crawlers will find your pages faster and won't guess. Generated by most static builders; if not, it's a text file.
• 9. llms.txt for your own site. Why: by 2026, a growing share of "how do I …" traffic is answered by an assistant that read your site. A plain llms.txt at the root — what the product is, the key pages, the facts you want stated correctly — is cheap insurance that the summary is right. Square Town publishes one for itself; so should you.
• 10. A changelog page. Why: it's proof of life. Directories, journalists and users who come back in three months look for it. Dated bullets are enough.
• 11. A newsletter or "notify me" box. Why: launch traffic is a spike; an email list is the only part of the spike you keep. One field, one button, one confirmation email.

Launch day: the surfaces#

• 12. Show HN. Why: still the highest-quality single burst of technical attention for a developer product, and it costs nothing. Title format "Show HN: X – one sentence". Post when you can answer comments for the next six hours; the comment thread is the product page for that audience.

• 13. Product Hunt. Why: broader, less technical, more competitive; good for a consumer-ish or SaaS product, marginal for a CLI. Prepare the gallery images and a first comment the day before. Don't buy upvotes; don't pretend you didn't launch if it goes badly.

• 14. r/SideProject, plus one niche subreddit. Why: r/SideProject is tolerant of self-promotion by design. The niche subreddit — the one your actual users read — is where the useful feedback comes from, and it will not tolerate a copy-pasted launch post, so write it for them.

• 15. Two or three free directories. Why: they send a trickle, forever, and it takes an hour. Pick ones that already list things like yours. Skip anything that wants a reciprocal link or a "premium listing" fee at launch. Places to promote indie projects under $10 is the longer list.

• 16. A $1 square on Square Town. Why: it's the smallest, cheapest permanent showcase there is — paste your URL, click an empty cell, pay $1 via Stripe, and your favicon sits on a live 3D favicon wall with a counted click-through and its own deed page (views, clicks, kisses). Two minutes. Rules on How Square Town works — the complete rulebook.

  Honesty box: this is a small item, not a strategy. It's a niche audience — people who browse favicon walls — with no guaranteed traffic and no SEO effect (the wall is a canvas; clicks are redirects). It earns its place on the list because it's $1, permanent-until-evicted, gives you a per-project click count from strangers, and — bluntly — because a square with a clown emoji on it is the fastest way to find out your favicon is broken (item 1). If you're the type who ships more projects than you can promote, Square Town for indie hackers: a $1 square for every side project explains why one square per project makes sense.

• 17. A demo video or GIF. Why: the tweet-length version of the product. Twenty seconds, no voice-over needed, shows the thing doing the thing. Reused in the Show HN comment, the PH gallery and the README.

• 18. A "how I built it" post. Why: the story out-travels the product. Stack, the one hard problem, what you'd do differently. Publish on your own domain (item 3), link from everywhere else.

After: the follow-through#

• 19. Reply to everything for 72 hours. Why: the comments on Show HN, PH and Reddit are the launch. Every unanswered question is a lost user and a visible signal that nobody's home. Set aside the time before you post, not after.
• 20. Write down what happened. Why: traffic by source, signups, what people asked, what broke. It becomes the plan for the next launch, and next time you'll do this list in half a day.

Three things not on the list, on purpose#

• Paid ads. Not at launch. You don't know the message yet, so you'll pay to test copy that a free Reddit post would have tested for you.
• A press release. Nobody reads them; the "how I built it" post does the same job for developer audiences.
• A perfect product. The list is about the launch, not the product. Ship the working slice; the changelog (item 10) is where the rest goes.

Printable version#

If you want a plain-text copy for your own repo, here it is — twenty lines, tick them off in the commit that ships the launch:

[ ] 1  favicon (svg + png + apple-touch)   [ ] 11 newsletter / notify me
[ ] 2  og image 1200x630                    [ ] 12 show hn
[ ] 3  domain + https                       [ ] 13 product hunt
[ ] 4  landing page, one sentence           [ ] 14 r/sideproject + niche sub
[ ] 5  analytics (reads utm_source)         [ ] 15 2-3 free directories
[ ] 6  signup/payment in incognito          [ ] 16 $1 square on square.pov.town
[ ] 7  error monitoring + uptime ping       [ ] 17 demo gif
[ ] 8  sitemap.xml + robots.txt             [ ] 18 how-i-built-it post
[ ] 9  llms.txt                             [ ] 19 reply to everything, 72 h
[ ] 10 changelog                            [ ] 20 write down what happened

For the version of this list with a budget attached, see free and nearly-free marketing for solo developers.

FAQ#

What should be on an indie hacker launch checklist in 2026?#

The site basics (favicon, OG image, owned domain on HTTPS, one-sentence landing page, analytics, tested signup, monitoring, sitemap, llms.txt, changelog, newsletter), the launch surfaces (Show HN, Product Hunt, r/SideProject plus a niche subreddit, a few free directories, a $1 square on Square Town, a demo GIF, a "how I built it" post), and the follow-through (reply for 72 hours, write down results).

How much does it cost to launch a side project?#

About $11 using this list: roughly $10 a year for a domain and $1 for a square on Square Town. Everything else — Show HN, Product Hunt, Reddit, free directories, analytics, llms.txt — is free.

Why is a favicon on a launch checklist?#

Because it is the first thing shown in a browser tab, bookmark, Slack unfurl and every directory listing, and a missing one reads as unfinished. Square Town puts sites without one in a public Hall of Clowns with a clown emoji until they fix it.

What is llms.txt and should my side project have one?#

llms.txt is a plain-text file at your site root describing what the site is and linking its key pages, so AI assistants summarise it correctly. It takes twenty minutes and is worth doing for anything you expect people to ask an assistant about.

Is a $1 square on Square Town worth it at launch?#

It's a small item, not a strategy: $1 one-time for a permanent (until evicted) favicon on a live wall with a counted click-through and a deed page. No guaranteed traffic and no SEO effect. It's on the list because it's cheap, takes two minutes, and gives you a per-project click count from strangers.

Should I launch on Show HN and Product Hunt on the same day?#

Only if you can answer comments on both for six-plus hours. Most solo developers do better staggering them by a day or two so each gets full attention, and so the second launch can use what the first taught you.

What do I do after launch day?#

Reply to every comment for 72 hours, then write down traffic by source, signups, questions and bugs. That document is the plan for the next launch.