Question 1

What is AppBoard?

Accepted Answer

AppBoard is a free product discovery platform where creators submit their software products and get ranked by community engagement and reputation. Launching is free — there is no submission fee and no paywall to appear on the leaderboard. Every day brings a new batch of launches: visitors vote for what they love, creators climb the leaderboard, and the best products rise to the top.

Question 2

How does the leaderboard ranking work?

Accepted Answer

Products are ranked by their PBS (Points-Based Score) — a blend of the product's community signals: recent upvotes (newer ones count for more), saves, follows, ratings and real click-throughs, plus a small capped bonus from the creator's reputation. Every signal is bounded so no single one can dominate, and a product's score gently fades as it goes dormant — keeping the leaderboard fresh. You can filter by Today, This Week, This Month, or All Time. The more genuine engagement you collect, the higher you climb.

Question 3

What are reputation points?

Accepted Answer

Reputation points reward community engagement — you earn them by participating, not by receiving. Upvoting, commenting, reviewing, following, and favoriting other products each earn a point, capped per day to keep things fair. They accumulate on your creator profile and add a small, capped bonus to your own products' ranking score. The more you ship and support others, the higher your reputation.

Question 4

How do I submit a product?

Accepted Answer

Submitting is free. Log in, click "Submit" in the navigation, and paste your website URL — our AI prefill extracts your product name, tagline, description, and screenshots automatically. Review the details, add categories and pricing, and submit. After a quick publishing check your product goes live on the leaderboard. The whole process takes under 5 minutes and costs nothing.

Question 5

How does voting work?

Accepted Answer

Every logged-in user gets one vote per product, with a daily budget of 10 votes that resets every day — this prevents gaming and keeps the leaderboard fair. Each upvote lifts the product's PBS and earns you (the voter) a reputation point, capped daily. You cannot vote for your own product.

Question 6

Is AppBoard free to use?

Accepted Answer

Yes — AppBoard is free. Creating an account, submitting a product, launching, and voting cost nothing, and there is no free trial that expires. The only paid option is promoted placement, which features your product in dedicated rows across the home page and leaderboard. Promotion never affects your organic score; it's purely incremental visibility, so a free listing competes on the leaderboard on equal terms.

Question 7

Will my listing stay permanently?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Once submitted, your product stays on AppBoard indefinitely and always appears in the All Time leaderboard. The Today and This Week views are time-windowed — they reflect your launch date, not an expiry. Your listing is never removed unless it violates our guidelines.

Question 8

What's the difference between user reputation and product score?

Accepted Answer

A product's PBS is specific to that product — a blend of its recent upvotes, saves, follows, ratings and click-throughs, with a small capped bonus from the creator's reputation. A user's reputation is their own cumulative score, earned by engaging with the community (upvoting, commenting, reviewing, following, favoriting). Because it only adds a small, bounded bonus to each of their products' PBS, staying active gives all your launches a modest lift — but it can never outweigh real engagement on the product itself.

Question 9

How is AppBoard different from Product Hunt?

Accepted Answer

AppBoard is built around the reputation of the creator, not just the product, and it is free to launch on. There's no invite-only hunter system, no algorithm hiding your launch, and no "golden kitty" gatekeeping. If you ship, you get a fair shot. We also weight recency so every day is a clean slate for new launches.

Question 10

Can I promote my product?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Promoted products appear in dedicated sections on the home page and leaderboard, clearly labelled as sponsored. Promotion gives you incremental visibility on top of your organic ranking — it doesn't inflate your score. You can start a promotion yourself anytime from your product's analytics page; checkout is self-serve and takes a minute.

Question 11

How do I get more exposure on launch day?

Accepted Answer

The first few hours matter most — votes collected early carry the highest recency weight. Share your AppBoard listing on social media, in your communities, and with your existing users. Engaging with comments on your product page also signals activity and keeps your listing prominent throughout the day.

Frequently asked questions