Can I get my dev tool featured on Hacker News instead of publishing on Dev.to?

Yes — you can try to get it featured on Hacker News instead of publishing on Dev.to, but there’s a big difference in how those platforms work:

Hacker News

• Not a publishing platform in the usual sense.
• You don’t “publish” there like you would on Dev.to.
• Typically, someone submits a link to your product, blog post, demo, or announcement.
• If the community likes it, it may rise in visibility and get featured on the front page.
• The audience tends to be more technical and skeptical, and they value:
  • originality
  • usefulness
  • technical depth
  • interesting discussion
  • minimal marketing language

Dev.to

• A content publishing platform.
• You can directly post an article about your dev tool.
• It’s much easier to control the narrative, add screenshots, tutorials, and SEO-friendly content.
• It’s generally more predictable than hoping for HN traction.

If your goal is exposure

You can absolutely submit your tool to Hacker News, but it’s not a guaranteed or controllable channel like Dev.to.

Best approach

A lot of builders do both:

1. Publish a helpful post or demo page
2. Submit it to Hacker News
3. Repurpose the same content on Dev.to for broader reach

Important HN tips

If you want a better chance on HN:

• Make the title factual, not hypey
• Lead with the product and what it does
• Avoid “growth” or sales language
• Show something technically interesting or genuinely useful
• A launch post alone may not perform as well as a strong technical write-up or a novel demo

If you want, I can also help you:

• write an HN-friendly title
• decide whether your project is likely to do well on HN
• compare HN vs Dev.to vs Product Hunt for your specific dev tool