No. On the live Show HN (Hacker News) listing we checked on 10 October 2026 the link to the product carried rel="nofollow", so search engines treat it as a hint rather than an endorsement. On the Show HN item we opened (Carrier-Explode, already on the /show page), the title link had no rel attribute at all. But on /shownew, where every new Show HN lands first, 27 of the 29 title links carried rel="nofollow", and 9 of 30 on /show did. In practice a new post starts nofollow, and the link only loses it once the post gains traction.
Free dofollow backlink checker. Paste the page that links to you and your domain to see every link to your site and whether it is dofollow, nofollow, ugc or sponsored.
Open Dofollow Backlink Checker → Free toolFree launch readiness check for your website. One click checks HTTPS, title, meta description, social preview, favicon, mobile viewport, H1, indexing and speed, with a score and a fix for each problem.
Open Website Launch Readiness Checker →Free. No fee and no paid tier. You submit a normal story whose title begins with "Show HN".
Account: Required. The submit page says: "You have to be logged in to submit." Account creation is a username and password on the same page. Review time: None stated; goes live on posting. Their guidelines: "Every Show HN appears on shownew. Once it clears a small points threshold, it will appear on the show page in the top bar."
A working, non-trivial thing you built yourself and are around to discuss, that people can try without signing up. They ask you not to post "quickly-generated one-offs", landing pages or fundraisers, and say minor version updates are not Show HNs. Asking friends to upvote or comment is "not ok on HN".
Free. No fee and no paid tier. You submit a normal story whose title begins with "Show HN".
Required. The submit page says: "You have to be logged in to submit." Account creation is a username and password on the same page.
Yes. Launch sites change their markup and plans without notice, which is why we list the date we checked and why it is worth checking your own listing.