dev · open-source · indie
Devpost: requirements, how to submit, and what you actually get
The hackathon world's project gallery: free, instant, nofollow, and gated at the first step by a reCAPTCHA.
devpost.com
Eligibility
Who Devpost accepts
You need
An account: GitHub, Google, Facebook, LinkedIn or email and password
A project name of 60 characters or fewer
A human at a reCAPTCHA, which sits on the very first step
You'll be rejected if
A commercial pitch with nothing built: the whole gallery is projects, usually with a repo and a demo
Developer toolsOpen source projectsSide projectsAI toolsMobile apps
What you actually get
A project page with a gallery, a built-with list, a story section and a link out, sitting in a portfolio alongside whatever hackathons you enter. The audience is developers browsing hackathon work rather than buyers, and the outbound link on a project page is nofollow.
How to submit to Devpost
1
Sign in
Four social buttons (GitHub, Facebook, Google, LinkedIn) beside an email and password form. Google creates the account on the spot.
2
Skip past the recommendations wizard
First sign-in lands on a Hackathon recommendations form asking for specialty, skills, location, occupation, student level, school, graduation month and birth month. Going straight to /software/new bypasses it.
3
Name the project, and meet the reCAPTCHA
Step one is the project name alone, capped at 60 characters, with an Import from GitHub shortcut that pulls the name, tagline and README. Save and continue will not post until a reCAPTCHA is solved.
4
Fill the project page
Past that the project already exists at /software/<slug>/edit. The elevator pitch is capped at 200 characters, Built with is a tag widget of up to 25 entries, and About the project is one markdown field where the Inspiration, What it does and How I built it headings are convention rather than separate inputs. A thumbnail, a gallery, the Try it out links and a video URL sit alongside it.
5
Save, and it is published at once
Save takes you straight to the public project page. There is no review and no queue, and Edit project stays on it, so the story can be finished after it is live.
Devpost requirements
Account (GitHub, Google, Facebook, LinkedIn, or email and password)
Project name, 60 characters
A human to solve the reCAPTCHA
An elevator pitch, capped at 200 characters
At least one Built with tag
The project story, written as markdown
A thumbnail, which they ask for at a 3:2 ratio and under 5 MBoptional
A GitHub repo, which their importer reads for the name, tagline and READMEoptional
Gallery images and a demo videooptional
Gotchas
A reCAPTCHA guards the first step, before any of the project content is asked for, so nothing here can be automated end to end.
First sign-in drops you into a hackathon recommendations wizard that asks for your school, graduation month and birth month. None of it is needed to post a project: go straight to /software/new.
The page is written for a hackathon entry, so the story headings ask what inspired you and what you learned. A product listing pasted into that shape reads as an advertisement in a room that is not selling anything.
Whatever your account is called is printed under the project as its creator, and on a launch account that is usually the product's name rather than a person's.
Let your agent submit to Devpost
Connect SubmitMap to your AI over MCP and this page stops being something you read and copy. Your agent asks for the Devpost playbook and gets the brief for this exact form, with the values already taken from your submission pack instead of placeholders you fill in by hand.
What it does for this platform
Checks your product against the 4 Devpost rules above, so you find out you would be rejected before you open a tab.
Hands your agent all 9 fields this form asks for, 3 of them optional, already filled from your pack.
Types it into Devpost in your own browser, and stops for you when the form wants a sign-in.
Records what it sent, so the dashboard can answer "did I ever submit to Devpost?".
Connect your agentTools and endpointsWorks with Claude Code, Claude, Codex, Cursor, VS Code and Hermes.
Devpost FAQ
How long does Devpost approval take?
Devpost's typical time from submission to going live is instant.
How much does it cost to submit to Devpost?
Submitting to Devpost is free.
Does Devpost give a dofollow backlink?
No, links from Devpost are nofollow. The site has a domain rating of 88.
Does Devpost require a backlink to your site?
No, Devpost does not require a link back from your site.
What gets you rejected from Devpost?
A commercial pitch with nothing built: the whole gallery is projects, usually with a repo and a demo.