How long a free launch waits, and what it costs to skip the queue

A free launch costs time. On our list, the longest stated free queue is OpenHunts at about 60 weeks; DevHunt and eBool say about six months, Uneed up to five, Awesome Indie about four. Almost every site with a long queue sells a way past it, from $9.90 to $49 on the launch sites, and what you buy is a date, not an audience.

This guide sets out each wait in the site's own words, with the price of skipping it, as we read them on 29 and 30 September 2026. The numbers and tables are read from the list when you open the page. We don't run a launch board and we take no money from the places we list.

01The waits, longest first

The table shows what each poster shows: the kind, the cost and the stated wait in short form, and the date of our last link check. Hover a value to see the full sentence we read. Each name opens the place's page, where the source and the quote sit behind a free account.

Two things to read into the short forms. Uneed's poster says "Up to 5 mo" because that is the far end: its FAQ (opens in a new tab) says a free launch gets a date "between 30 days and 5 months out". And the token is the site's own estimate on the day we read it. Queues grow and shrink with the number of people submitting, so treat each number as a guide, not a promise. The last three rows are paid times: PeerPush's paid launch, Website Hunt's Fast Track and Indie Tool's paid listing.

02A year or more: OpenHunts

OpenHunts publishes its queue on its pricing page, and it is the longest on the list:

D157OpenHunts·Approval

“Free Launch $0 /launch 20 slots weekly Current queue time: ~60 weeks Or add our badge to skip”

Our reading: Free launches: 20 slots a week, queue about 60 weeks (or add the badge to skip)

Twenty free slots a week is the reason. The same page offers two ways out. Its Premium launch was "$9.9", shown struck through from "$19/launch", with "Skip the wait. Launch next Monday". Or you add the OpenHunts badge to your site, and that skips the queue too. A badge is a link from your site to theirs; whether you want that on your homepage is your call, not a formality.

03About six months: DevHunt and eBool

DevHunt. Its story page (opens in a new tab), re-read on 30 September 2026: "The average wait time for a free launch is 6 months". Skipping costs $49 and lets you "Pick any launch week you want". DevHunt is for developer tools; what else it asks is in where to launch a developer tool. One trap: the launch site is devhunt.org. When we looked, devhunt.io was an unrelated hiring site.

eBool is a SaaS directory, not a launch board, but its submit page gives its free queue as about as long, around six months, with paid listings approved in days. Its tiers and their prices are in SaaS directories.

04Three to five months: Uneed, Awesome Indie, Startup Ranking

Uneed. Its free line is open. A submission service claimed in August 2026 that Uneed had closed it; Uneed's own pages say otherwise, and we re-read them on 30 September 2026. The pricing page (opens in a new tab): "We assign your launch date, at most 5 months out. An upvote score of 10 to stay published, 20 for the do-follow backlink." The FAQ adds how the line moves: when many products are waiting, "free launches go up to 50 a day, so the free wait never goes past 5 months." There are two paid ways past it: Fast-track at $14.99, which the pricing page says gets you a date "in about 14 days", and Skip the line at $29.99, where you choose the day.

Awesome Indie. Its how-it-works page (opens in a new tab) says launch days take "between 15 and 25 products at a time as things stand, and the queue for them is around four months deep." Picking your own day costs $9.99, one-off per product, the cheapest skip among the long queues.

Startup Ranking is a startup database rather than a launch site, and it states its wait plainly: about 80 days for a free submission, under a day for its paid Faster Approval. Startup databases quotes it. AlternativeTo, a software alternatives site, is honest in the same way: its FAQ says a new app "usually sits in our backlog for at least a few months", and sells a small one-time fee to jump the queue. SaaS directories has the details.

05Weeks: the newer launch sites

Most launch sites we added to the list in September 2026 state a wait in weeks, or cap the free slots instead.

• Fazier: free listings are "Reviewed & listed within 30 days", by its submit page. The paid Lite launch was $29 one-time, shown down from $39.
• Launch Llama: about four weeks, quoted below. Its Instant Launch add-on, $39 one-time, is sold as "Skip the ~4 week wait, go live now".
• Smol Launch: no stated time, but a cap. Its free tier has "50 verified slots a week, shared across all makers". Premium is $19 and Premium+ $39 per launch.
• Tiny Startups: "Launching is free; Skip the queue ($29) puts you in the next Monday batch", by its about page.
• TinyLaunch and PeerPush: each has a free queue with no stated length, and a $39 launch that skips it; PeerPush says its paid launch "goes live instantly".
• LaunchIgniter: every free launch is reviewed by hand; its $12 Basic launch is sold as "Skip the queue, get instant launch".

D148Launch Llama·Approval

“Reviewed and published in ~4 weeks”

Our reading: Free listings reviewed and published in about 4 weeks

Some directories outside the launch boards sit in the same range: Dang.ai (free review up to four weeks) and AgentHunter (free listings typically 14 days, paid within 72 hours), both covered with the other AI directories in AI tool directories, and VentureRadar (within 21 business days, or instant with a paid Premium Profile), in startup databases.

06No queue: a day you pick

A few places don't make you wait for a slot at all.

• Product Hunt is free and you schedule the day; the post goes live at 12:01 AM Pacific time. The Product Hunt alternatives guide quotes its help page.
• Peerlist Launchpad runs on a weekly clock. Its help pages: "Launch window opens on Monday every week. The launch continues for a week." You need a verified individual Peerlist profile to launch.
• Micro Launch sells its Pro launch ($49) as "Skip the queue, go Live Now or Schedule".

Among directories, the fastest stated times are paid: Indie Tool says "live in 60s" for $29.99, and Website Hunt's €9 Fast Track publishes within 24 hours. What each paid-only directory charges is in paid startup directories.

07What skipping buys

Read the sites' own words and a skip buys three things:

1. A date. DevHunt's "Pick any launch week", Uneed's "choose your launch date", Awesome Indie's "Choose your own launch day". This is the main one.
2. A link, on some sites. Several boards give free launches a followed link only if they do well, and paid launches one outright. Uneed's free launches keep it from an upvote score of 20; OpenHunts gives one to the top 3; Peerlist, which is free, to the top 5 projects of the week. How much a directory link is worth is a separate question: see do startup directories help SEO?
3. Sometimes, a slot on the home page. CtrlAlt's $19 skip includes a week on its home page; Startup Collections' $10 skip includes 30 days of sponsorship.

It does not buy votes or visitors. No page we read promises either, and we don't measure them. One board goes further than selling dates: Tiny Startups' launch page (opens in a new tab) heads its paid board "FEATURED STARTUPS rank = money", and offered "Claim #1 for $260" on 30 September 2026.

08When paying to skip makes sense

When your date is fixed. A release, a post you have planned, a Product Hunt day you want the others to land around. Then the fee buys something you need. Add up the skip prices of your shortlist before you decide; on the sites above they run from $9.90 to $49, and a list of five adds up fast.

When it doesn't. If you could launch on any day, submit to the long free queues months ahead and let them come to you. That is the whole idea of the launch plan: the longest queue first.

Be wary of new boards sold on backlinks. While adding launch sites in September 2026, we looked at dozens of new boards and left most of them off the list. The pattern repeated: a template shared across several sites, a headline selling a "DR 70+" or "DR 80+" followed link, and front pages where the day's top launches had zero to two votes. A short queue on a board nobody visits saves you nothing. Before you pay, open the board and look at the votes and comments on last week's launches.

09Put the waits in your plan

Write each date into your plan the moment a queue gives it to you, and build the rest around it. My launch keeps that plan on a free account: press + on a poster, mark each place submitted and live as you go, and keep a note of the date a queue assigned you.

10How we checked

Waits and prices come from each site's own pages, read on 29 and 30 September 2026, with the page and the exact words on each place's page. We re-read DevHunt's, Uneed's and OpenHunts' pages on 30 September 2026 for this guide. Each poster shows the date of its last link check. We don't submit products or measure what a launch brings. Nobody pays to be listed or to appear in a guide. Read how we check for the details.

11Questions

01

How long does a free launch on Uneed take?

Uneed assigns the date. Its FAQ says between 30 days and 5 months out, and that it launches more free products a day when the line is long so the wait never passes 5 months. A free launch then needs an upvote score of 10 to stay published. Its free line was open when we re-read its pages on 30 September 2026.

02

How long is the DevHunt queue?

DevHunt's own story page says the average wait for a free launch is 6 months. Its paid option lets you pick any launch week; the price is in the table above and on DevHunt's page on our list.

03

Is it worth paying to skip the queue?

Only if you need a particular date. A skip buys a date, and on some sites a followed link or a home-page slot. No site we read promises votes or visitors, and we don't measure them. If your launch day is flexible, submit to the long free queues early instead.

04

Which launch platform has the longest free queue?

On our list, OpenHunts: its pricing page showed a queue of about 60 weeks on 30 September 2026, with 20 free slots a week. DevHunt and eBool state about six months.

05

Which startup directories approve listings the same day?

Mostly the paid ones. Indie Tool says a paid listing is live in 60 seconds, and Website Hunt's paid Fast Track publishes within 24 hours. Among launch sites, Product Hunt lets you pick your day for free, and several boards sell a same-week launch. The table in this guide shows each stated wait.