Weekly indie hunt with two genuinely free lanes, a 400-word floor and a calendar full four months out.
sidehunt.io
Eligibility
Who Sidehunt accepts
You need
An account (Google, GitHub or an emailed link)
A project description of at least 400 words, enforced by a live counter
A square logo under 1MB
A link to sidehunt.io on your site, verified before submission (Free Launch)
You'll be rejected if
Nothing stated; the constraint is the calendar rather than the editorial
Indie projectsSaaS productsAI toolsDeveloper toolsSide projects
What you actually get
A project page at sidehunt.io/project/your-slug and a launch blog post, live on the homepage for the seven days of your chosen week, competing on votes with about fifteen other free launches. The link is nofollow unless you finish top three that week, and the first bookable free week was four months out when I looked.
How to submit to Sidehunt
1
Pick a lane, and read all three
Free Launch needs a badge and is nofollow unless you win top 3. Nofollow Launch is also free, needs no badge and is nofollow forever. Premium is $19 with a guaranteed dofollow.
2
Fill the project details
URL, name, a 100-character short title, maker name, optional X handle, up to three categories, a pricing model, a logo under 1MB and an optional preview image under 2MB.
3
Write 400 words, minimum
The description counter is live and the step will not advance below 400 words. This is the real cost of the submission.
4
Choose a launch week
A calendar of weekly slots, 15 free per week. Every week for the next four months read "Week full (0/15 free slots)"; availability resumes later in the year.
5
Verify the backlink
Step 4 checks your site for a link to sidehunt.io before it will schedule anything. Any link counts, not just their badge.
Sidehunt requirements
Account sign-in (Google, GitHub or emailed link)
Project URL, name, a short title up to 100 characters and a maker name
A description of at least 400 words
Up to three categories and a pricing model
Square logo under 1MB
A verified link to sidehunt.io on your site (Free Launch)
Preview image under 2MB and an X handleoptional
Gotchas
Every free week for the next four months reads "Week full (0/15 free slots)"; the first bookable one was seventeen weeks out, while weeks after that showed 15 of 15 free, so the near-term queue is genuinely saturated rather than broken.
The description will not pass under 400 words and the counter is live, so a normal launch blurb fails the step and you have to write an essay before you can pick a week.
The free lane is nofollow unless you finish top three in your week, and the badge is still required to enter at all, so you can host their link for four months and still end up with nothing that passes equity.
A site-wide banner says you can launch premium for free during a special offer while the premium card on the same page still reads "One-time $19 payment", and nothing reconciles the two.
Let your agent submit to Sidehunt
Connect SubmitMap to your AI over MCP and this page stops being something you read and copy. Your agent asks for the Sidehunt 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 5 Sidehunt rules above, so you find out you would be rejected before you open a tab.
Hands your agent all 7 fields this form asks for, 1 of them optional, already filled from your pack.
Warns you that Sidehunt looks for its badge on your site, so it has to be live before you submit rather than after.
Tells you what paying buys here, so you pick it on purpose: $19 Premium guarantees the dofollow, needs no badge and skips the queue; a site-wide banner claims premium is free right now while the card still reads $19.
Types it into Sidehunt 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 Sidehunt?".
Connect your agentTools and endpointsWorks with Claude Code, Claude, Codex, Cursor, VS Code and Hermes.
Sidehunt FAQ
How long does Sidehunt approval take?
Sidehunt's typical time from submission to going live is 17+ weeks.
How much does it cost to submit to Sidehunt?
Sidehunt has a free submission option plus paid placement ($19 Premium guarantees the dofollow, needs no badge and skips the queue; a site-wide banner claims premium is free right now while the card still reads $19).
Does Sidehunt give a dofollow backlink?
No, links from Sidehunt are nofollow. The site has a domain rating of 41.
Does Sidehunt require a backlink to your site?
Yes, Sidehunt expects a link back from your site as part of listing.
What gets you rejected from Sidehunt?
Nothing stated; the constraint is the calendar rather than the editorial.