LaunchRepoShort answer
- Reddit is a network of communities, and each one sets its own rules on self-promotion. Reddit’s help center says moderators decide what counts as spam in their community.
- Most SaaS and startup subreddits in our comparison forbid plain promotion posts; several point you to a pinned thread or a fixed weekday instead.
- What works everywhere: say it is your product, write a post that is useful without the link, ask a specific question and answer in the thread.
- What fails everywhere: asking for upvotes, posting the same text to many communities and hiding who you are.
Reddit’s own rules
Before any subreddit rule, two Reddit pages apply to every post: the Reddit Rules and the help-center article on spam.
Quotes are the platforms’ own English wording, copied from the pages listed under Sources and checked on September 30, 2026.
| Rule | Official wording | What it means for you |
|---|---|---|
| Rule 2 | Participate authentically in communities where you have a personal interest, and do not spam or engage in disruptive behaviors (including content manipulation) that interfere with Reddit communities. | Post where you are genuinely part of the community. Vote manipulation and spam break the site-wide rules. |
| Rule 5 | You don't have to use your real name, but do not intentionally mislead others or impersonate an individual or entity in a deceptive manner. | A pseudonym is fine; pretending to be a neutral user while promoting your own product is not. |
| Spam | Spam – defined as repeated or unsolicited actions (whether automated or manual) that negatively affect redditors, communities, and/or Reddit itself – is never allowed. | Spam covers repeated or unsolicited actions, done by hand or by tools, and is never allowed. |
| Mass posting | Mass-posting repetitive content for the purpose of exposure or financial gain. | The same post in many subreddits for exposure is listed as a spam example. |
| Bots and AI tools | Using tools (e.g., bots, generative AI tools) that may break Reddit or facilitate the proliferation of spam. | Automated or AI-generated posting that spreads spam is listed as a violation. |
| Your own business | If your contributions to Reddit consist primarily of links to a business that you run, own, or otherwise benefit from, please be thoughtful about the frequency of posting, or consider advertising opportunities using our self-serve platform. | If most of what you post links to your own business, slow down, or use Reddit’s ads platform instead. |
| Moderators decide | community moderators adjudicate what constitutes unwanted/spammy content in their communities and may take action accordingly. | Each community’s moderators judge what is unwanted there, so their rules are the ones to read. |
Ten communities compared
We read the sidebar of each community on the check date. The rule titles are quoted as posted; open the community and expand a rule to read its full text before you post.
| Community | Posted rules that apply | Pinned threads and notes | In short |
|---|---|---|---|
| r/SaaS |
|
| A discussion community. Vendor posts, selling and ad-tech SaaS are ruled out; surveys need approval; links must be direct. |
| r/SideProject | No community rules shown in the sidebar on the check date; Reddit’s site-wide rules apply. | Built for sharing projects. With no posted rules, Reddit’s site-wide rules are the standard to meet. | |
| r/startups |
|
| No direct promotion in posts; share your startup in the pinned thread and request feedback in the pinned threads. |
| r/Entrepreneur |
|
| No promotion, and content must be original and human. Weekly threads take feedback requests and offers. |
| r/EntrepreneurRideAlong |
| Only general rules are posted: follow Reddit’s rules and engage with good intent. | |
| r/indiehackers |
|
| Has a rule titled “Self Promotion” and a matching flair: read the rule text for when promotion is allowed. |
| r/microsaas |
|
| Low-effort self-promotion is ruled out, and so are “DM me” posts; a pinned post addresses self-promotion. |
| r/webdev |
|
| No self-promotion and no commercial promotion; projects (not products) go into Showoff Saturday. |
| r/smallbusiness |
|
| Questions only: no promotion posts, no links, no market research; a pinned thread exists for promotion. |
| r/roastmystartup |
| A place to ask for a roast. No bare links, no Product Hunt or Vercel links, no AI-written posts. |
Rules change. This table shows the sidebar on the check date; if a community’s current rules differ, theirs win.
Check your draft
Choose a community and tick what your draft contains. The check matches each item against the posted rules above and Reddit’s site-wide rules and tells you which ones apply. It runs in your browser and posts nothing.
A sample post
Here is a post we wrote for our own product, to show the pattern. It is written for a project-sharing community, names the project and what it does in the title and puts the disclosure first.
LaunchRepo - a repo kit that lets your coding agent submit your SaaS to launch directories
Disclosure: I build LaunchRepo, and it is a paid product (one-time purchase).
What it is: a repository with a checked catalog of launch platforms and a playbook for each one. Your own coding agent (Claude Code, Codex and others) opens each site in a real browser, fills in your product details and records every result in a tracker.
Why I built it: submitting one product to many launch sites by hand is slow, and the forms keep changing.
What I would like feedback on: 1) Would you let an agent fill in forms in your own browser session? 2) Which launch step do you still do by hand?
Link: https://launchrepo.dev/
I will answer every comment in this thread.
- The disclosure comes first: who you are and that the product is paid.
- It explains the product in plain words, with no superlatives.
- It asks two specific questions people can answer from experience.
- One direct link, with no shortener and no tracking parameters.
- Replies stay in the thread: no “DM me” and no request for upvotes.
This is a sample. We have not posted it, and this page reports no results from it. Check the rules of the community you choose before you adapt it.
Reddit or Hacker News?
Both can bring your first users, but the rules are organised very differently.
| Question | Hacker News (Show HN) | |
|---|---|---|
| Where are the rules? | One set of site guidelines plus one Show HN page for the whole site. | Reddit’s site-wide rules, plus each community’s own rules. |
| Is showing your own product allowed? | Yes: Show HN exists for things you made that people can try. | It depends on the community; most SaaS subreddits restrict it or move it into threads. |
| Can you ask for votes? | No: the guidelines say not to solicit upvotes or comments. | No: vote manipulation breaks Reddit’s site-wide rules. |
| Does timing matter? | No official rule; our data shows small differences by day and hour. | Only where a community sets a day, such as Showoff Saturday. |
| Rule | Official wording | What it means for you |
|---|---|---|
| Show HN | Show HN is for something you've made that other people can play with. | Your own product is the point of a Show HN post, as long as people can try it. |
| Show HN votes | Please don't ask friends to upvote or comment. | Share the link, but do not ask friends to vote or comment. |
| Site guidelines | Don't solicit upvotes, comments, or submissions. | The same applies to every post on Hacker News. |
If your post is removed
A removal is a signal about fit, not the end of Reddit for your product.
- Read the removal message and the rule it names.
- If the rule is unclear, write to the moderators through modmail, politely and once.
- Do not repost the same text elsewhere or from another account; Reddit treats ban evasion and mass posting as violations.
- Move the post to the pinned thread or weekday the community offers, or rewrite it as a useful discussion without the link.
- Spend a few weeks answering other people’s questions in communities you actually use. That history is what makes your next post welcome.
Sources
Every rule and figure on this page comes from one of these pages. We read all of them on September 30, 2026; the middle column shows a last-update date only where the page itself gives one.
| Page | Last updated (per page) | Checked by us |
|---|---|---|
| Reddit Rules | no date shown | |
| Reddit Help: Spam | no date shown | |
| Show HN guidelines | no date shown | |
| Hacker News Guidelines | no date shown | |
| r/SaaS | no date shown | |
| r/SideProject | no date shown | |
| r/startups | no date shown | |
| r/Entrepreneur | no date shown | |
| r/EntrepreneurRideAlong | no date shown | |
| r/indiehackers | no date shown | |
| r/microsaas | no date shown | |
| r/webdev | no date shown | |
| r/smallbusiness | no date shown | |
| r/roastmystartup | no date shown |
FAQ
- Is self-promotion allowed on Reddit?
- Reddit does not ban self-promotion outright, but each community sets its own rules and moderators decide what counts as spam there. Most SaaS and startup subreddits in our comparison restrict promotion posts or move them into pinned threads.
- Which subreddits allow you to promote a SaaS?
- In our comparison, project-sharing communities and pinned threads are the clearest places: r/SideProject shows no posted rules, r/startups points to a share-your-startup thread and r/Entrepreneur runs weekly feedback and offer threads. Always read the current rules first.
- How do I promote my SaaS on Reddit without getting banned?
- Say that it is your product, write something useful without the link, use the thread or day the community offers, ask a specific question and answer in the thread. Never ask for upvotes, never post the same text to many communities and never use a second account.
- Is Reddit or Hacker News better for a SaaS launch?
- Hacker News has one set of rules and Show HN is made for things you built, so a technical product can post there directly. Reddit reaches many more niches, but you have to follow each community’s rules. You can use both, a few days apart.
- Can I use Reddit ads instead?
- Yes. Reddit’s help center suggests its self-serve ads platform to people whose posts are mostly links to their own business. Ads are labelled as ads and do not depend on community rules for self-promotion.