.png)
"Launch on Uneed", they said. "It will be easy and worth it", they said.
As I'm writing this, one day after launching on Uneed, I can say (at least in our experience) that it really was not.
We all know great products don't sell themselves - at least not at first.
They need exposure to get the ball rolling.
In the startup world, one way to win exposure is through creating a listing on product directories (a.k.a. "software directories" or "SaaS directories"). Some well-known examples of such product directories are Product Hunt, G2 and Capterra.
Listing your product on these platforms not only makes it easier for potential customers to find you, but it's also a great way to boost your SEO game via backlinks.
Plus, the higher the domain authority (DA) of the website linking back to you, the better your chances of appearing on search results pages in the long run (MonsterInsights, 2024). For example, if your purpose is purely to get quality backlinks, then given the DA scores shown below, it would be better to list on Product Hunt or G2 rather than Capterra if you could only choose one.
Following the same spirit of maximizing exposure, we listed our collaboration tool, Beep, on all the above platforms plus some. The most notable being our Product Hunt launch in December 2023 that culminated in a "Product of the Day" win.
A Product Hunt alternative
What we didn't like about Product Hunt was that it seemed more like a competitive game of who could get the most upvotes rather than a place where genuine interest in your product could be fostered. It's common to see seemingly useless tools get featured at the top, and game-changing tools get totally overlooked or not even featured at all.
Essentially, what was once a launch pad frequented by tech-savvy early adopters eager to get their hands on up and coming tools, now has turned into a space bustling with founders & marketers promoting their own tool (HackerNews, 2022).
So then, we wondered... where did those tech-savvy early adopters go?
After searching, searching and yet more searching we stumbled upon a relatively young platform called Uneed run entirely by one serial entrepreneur, Thomas Sanlis, that advertises itself as a:
"Product Hunt alternative offering enhanced visibility, community support, and equal opportunities for indies and startups." (Uneed, 2024)
"Could this be the next best platform to get eyes on our product?" we thought.
Uneed vs Product Hunt
Curious, we visited the site to see a familiar "Product Hunt-like" layout. The overall premise is the same: every day a new set of products are featured and have 24 hours to compete for the top spot via upvotes (these 24 hours start at 00:00 PST). The winners not only get a badge to embed onto their websites, but also enjoy enhanced visibility on the weekly, monthly and yearly leaderboards.
At first glance, the main differences between Uneed & Product Hunt were:
There was no "Community" tab. For us, this was a nice bonus since the Product Hunt discussions seems to be a echo chamber where members pretty much subtly or explicitly use it as a marketing funnel for their product, or post purely to boost their karma (which, the last time I checked, has no tangible benefit whatsoever).
It isn't as competitive. If you look at the image above, the products at the top spots only have 11 upvotes - 7 hours after the day started. Compare that to the screenshot below taken at roughly the same time of the Product Hunt launch page where securing a place at the top requires more than 30 times more upvotes. Generally, whenever we checked Uneed at the end of the day, we typically saw winning products averaged at around 20-30 upvotes only.
Seeing what appeared to be an easy path to acquiring more backlinks and possibly extra publicity from winning a top spot, we went ahead and scheduled a launch on Uneed.
And with our experience launching successfully on Product Hunt, plus having amassed an even bigger userbase - many of whom would be happy to support us, we knew we would to win.
Disappointment starts to set in...
To start, if you go the free route like we did, you will not be able to choose your product's launch date; it would be chosen for you by Uneed. They do notify you well in advance when it will be, so you have ample time to prepare.
If, on the other hand, you really want to choose a specific launch date, you can do so with a $30 payment. But it could be advisable to just pay to avoid what happened next...
Our assigned launch date was also not ideal, because we were given the 30th of July. In other words, even if we got to win product of the month, we could only hope to be featured at the top spot for a maximum of two days (that's if we couldn't rank in the yearly leaderboards).
By this time, we knew if we wanted as much visibility as possible on the platform, we would have to compete with the top products from the entire year. And when we checked, the top products of the year at the time ranged from 60-100+ upvotes - more than 3-5 times the average of daily winning products.
How we prepared for the Uneed Launch
For comparison, when we launched on Product Hunt, it took us over 4 weeks of preparation leading up to launch day, which meant sacrificing time and effort from other responsibilities. To be completely honest, we didn't want to go through that process again, which is initially what we thought we could get away with by launching on Uneed.
Unlike Product Hunt, on Uneed you won't:
make a teaser/"Notify Me" page
engage with any community members (since there are no discussion forums or the even the ability to write comments on launches or to reply to reviews)
So the preparation process is pretty straightforward.
But since we suddenly had this new goal of taking on the top product of the year with 103 upvotes, we knew we had to call in the help of our most engaged users. So a week prior to our launch, emails and DMs were sent out. And though many accepted to support, we already expected (learnt from first-hand experience during our Product hunt launch) that only about 15-25% of them would be available or be willing to take the time to register to upvote on the date itself.
Nevertheless, it was fine, we didn't need that many supporters. Having more than 150 upvotes on launch day would be overkill...
or so we thought..
Launch Day - the BIG Surprise
So launch day finally arrives.
We go online a few minutes after the 24 hour timer begins and we see upvotes slowly coming in for Beep.
Barely 3 hours into the day, and we already had 17 upvotes.
So far, so good! (considering Uneed launches' average numbers)
However, we eventually noticed we were not alone in our determination to win.
Another product was competing head-to-head with us.
Like a tit-for-tat, every upvote we gained seemed to be matched by an upvote on theirs.
The rivalry was evident considering all other products launching with us only had 5-7 upvotes at the time.
One hour our product was ahead, the other hour theirs took the lead, continuing like this for the following hours at a gradually slower pace until Beep stopped receiving upvotes altogether at about 40 while theirs continued climbing to 50.
Thankfully, 14 hours in, we start to finally see a big push from what we assume were our US-based users (as it was already late in Europe) or other Uneed users.
We watched our upvote counter soar and steadily slow down over time to a stop at 162 upvotes.
During this time, other products in the group also started gaining upvotes. And the other product we were initially competing with dropped down to 4 place.
With 3 hours left till the end of the launch day, I observed no further increases in our upvote counter (as shown below) and I decided to finally head to bed.
What appeared to us a definite win was apparently not so.
Our hearts sank when we saw the leaderboard upon waking up the following morning.
Because in just a span of those 3~ hours, that same product we were initially competing with the day prior suddenly shot up in upvotes and bagged the first place.
We couldn't believe it.
But when winning has got to happen, sometimes people do special things (we get it).
And we did also notice that, compared to Product Hunt, it's super easy to create a fake account on Uneed. Where in Product Hunt accounts could only be made using either a Google, X, Facebook, Apple ID, or LinkedIn account, Uneed accepted any other type of email account - and this can easily be exploited. Hopefully Uneed looks into this for the benefit of those launching in the near future.
All in all, there was nothing else to do but to accept defeat.
Besides, securing the second spot on the yearly leaderboards still affords us decent exposure.
Plus, anyone discerning enough might catch the drift of what happened just by looking at the quality of reviews shown below written for their product (left) vs those written for ours (right).
We want to take this moment to thank all those who supported, especially our users who took the time to leave very nice and detailed reviews on our listing on Uneed - our continued success would not be possible without you!
Now, we move on to the even BIGGER question...
Was it worth launching on Uneed?
Google Analytics shows, within July 30-31, that 5 unique users clicked on the link on our listing, not anything to celebrate by any means but it is better than nothing.
On the bright side, from these 5 visitors, 2 of them decided to give Beep a try, and then one of them even went ahead and bought a paid subscription. That's technically a 40% conversion rate (from site visitor to free user) and a 50% conversion rate (from free to paid user). Which, in theory, is not bad at all.
But then again, perhaps it's yet too early to judge a Uneed launch's entire worth given our launch day just happened a day ago (as I'm writing this ). We're hoping to see if this platform might bring more of a "trickling" benefit over time rather than an immediate one.
Our verdict
Hopefully our experience gave you a better idea of what it's like to launch on Uneed, and if it's the right move for your own product.
Is a Uneed launch right for you?
It depends on your goals & expectations.
If you're doing this for the backlinks, then by all means go ahead and post a listing there and even try your hand during launch day. (Uneed has a domain authority score of 44 according to ahrefs.com)
if you're doing this for social proof (a.k.a. to win another badge), then be prepared as you won't know exactly who you will be competing against. Most days it's easy to win the top spot of the day, others not so much.
if you're hoping for a boost in website traffic - if you're happy with any amount of traffic, then do post a listing. If you're limited on time and seeking the best platform to drive traffic from then Uneed isn't the solution for you.
Possible Future of Uneed
The only issue I see is that this platform will only get more competitive. With new launchers constantly vying to one-up the previous best, and without Uneed stepping in to implement safeguards (such as better user account verification mentioned earlier), then I predict that it may sadly just transform into yet another Product Hunt.
But it may take some time as at the moment, sources say Uneed is bootstrapped and solely operated by Thomas Sanlis (ProdigyPR, 2023).
List of References:
HackerNews (2022) "Ask HN: Is Product Hunt Worth It?" [online forum] Available from: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29864157
MonsterInsights (2024) "Domain Authority: What It Is and How To Increase It In 2024" [online] Available from: https://www.monsterinsights.com/domain-authority/
ProdigyPR (2023) "Uneed Reaches 1 Million Views in 2023, Announces New Sponsorship Options" [online] Available from: https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/188435/Uneed-Reaches-1-Million-Views-in-2023-Announces-New-Sponsorship-Options
Uneed (2024) "Uneed - A Product Hunt Alternative" [online] Available from: https://www.uneed.best/blog/uneed-a-product-hunt-alternative
Comments