Startups & founders

Best time to post in r/indiehackers

The best and worst hours to post, the rules that get posts removed, and a check of your draft against both.

Posts in r/indiehackers are most often removed for flair required issues. It is a public subreddit that allows both text and link posts and does not require post flair. In our latest sample of 32 recent posts, an estimated 100% were still up about a day later.

IndieHackers is a subreddit focused on people who bootstrap their way to success by building products.

Your draft3 free checks · no signup
r/indiehackersChecked against this sub's rules
Verdict in seconds

The best and worst hours to post in r/indiehackers

In our sample of 453 recent and top r/indiehackers posts, activity and scores peak around Tuesday 1pm UTC, and are weakest around Thursday 5am UTC. Based on posts sampled through Sep 4, 2026. Times in this sentence are UTC; the grid below converts to your local timezone. Timing helps a clean post get seen. It does not save a post that breaks a rule.

Times in your timezoneUTC · GMT+0
  1. Window 1

    Tue around 1pm

    avg score 47.8 · 6 posts sampled

  2. Window 2

    Thu around 3pm

    avg score 52.8 · 4 posts sampled

  3. Window 3

    Mon around 12pm

    avg score 43.8 · 5 posts sampled

Your timezone: UTC (GMT+0). Darker cells mean more posts in our sample.

Compare r/indiehackers against every tracked community on the best time to post on Reddit tool.

Estimated survival rate

100%

of 32 recent r/indiehackers posts we sampled were still publicly visible about a day later.

How this is measured

Estimate. We sample recent public posts and check again about 18 hours later to count how many are still publicly visible. Posts removed at the moment of submission never become publicly visible at all, so the true removal rate is at least this high. Last sampled Sep 4, 2026.

Strictness: RelaxedPublic subText + link postsFlair optional

r/indiehackers rules: what actually gets removed

Each rule below is paired with the way it is most likely enforced. Where the rules state a number, we quote it. Where they do not, we say so instead of guessing.

  1. 1.Self Promotion

    Enforced automatically

    Users can self promote their product 1 time using the Self Promotion flair. The purpose is for feedback and critique not advertisement.

  2. 2.MRR

    Enforcement varies

    Posts containing info about MRR should have proof; no proof, no post.

  3. 3.What you build type thing

    Enforcement varies

    We sometimes allow “what you build” type posts. If we see that this is done to karma farm, we don't have great news for you.

r/indiehackers does not publish karma or account-age minimums in its rules. Subreddits often enforce unpublished filters on top of what they write down, which is why posts from new accounts can vanish without a message here.

Can you self-promote in r/indiehackers?

Yes, within reason. r/indiehackers allows self-promotion, but Reddit's sitewide 9-to-1 guideline still applies: accounts that mostly post their own links get filtered as spam regardless of sub rules. The sub's own wording: "Users can self promote their product 1 time using the Self Promotion flair.".

r/indiehackers by the numbers

Members
190K
Active right now
Not public
Posts / day
2
154 comments / day
Community age
9 years
since Sep 26, 2016
What a successful r/indiehackers post looks like · 53 top posts from the last month
Median title lengthPosts with a linkPosts with flairDominant format
79 characters11%100%text posts

What gets removed in r/indiehackers

  • Low karma or a new account

    r/indiehackers publishes no karma or age minimum, but unpublished account filters are common at this size. New accounts should comment before posting.

  • Reddit's sitewide spam filter

    A separate layer before the subreddit ever sees your post. New accounts posting links, URL shorteners, and repeated domains are its favorite targets. Removals are instant and silent.

  • A shadowbanned account

    If the account itself is shadowbanned, every post looks live to you and invisible to everyone else, in any subreddit.

Wondering about a post that already disappeared? Start with why Reddit posts get removed or run the free shadowban check.

Subreddits like r/indiehackers

Posting somewhere adjacent? Each of these has its own rules and its own removal pattern. Check the one you actually plan to post in.

See all subreddits like r/indiehackers →

r/indiehackers posting questions

Can I post links in r/indiehackers?

Yes. r/indiehackers accepts link posts. The usual sitewide traps still apply: URL shorteners, affiliate parameters, and brand-new domains get filtered fast, and promotional links are judged against the sub's self-promo rules. One clean link to the original source is the safe pattern.

Does r/indiehackers require karma to post?

r/indiehackers does not publish a karma minimum. That does not mean there is none: many subreddits enforce unpublished karma and account-age filters that remove posts silently. If your account is new or has little karma, that is the first thing to rule out when a post disappears.

Can you self-promote in r/indiehackers?

Yes, within reason. r/indiehackers allows self-promotion, but Reddit's sitewide 9-to-1 guideline still applies: accounts that mostly post their own links get filtered as spam regardless of sub rules. The sub's own wording: "Users can self promote their product 1 time using the Self Promotion flair.".

Is r/indiehackers strict?

Relaxed, by our estimate (3/100 on our strictness scale, from its measured removal rate, 3 rules, and its stated gates). About 0% of recent posts disappeared within a day in our sample. Strictness is about enforcement, not hostility: a strict sub is predictable if you follow its rules.

What is the best time to post in r/indiehackers?

Based on our sample of recent and top posts, activity and scores peak around Tuesday 1pm UTC and Thursday 3pm UTC. Treat this as a starting point, not a guarantee: a post that breaks a rule gets removed at any hour. The heatmap on this page converts these windows to your local time.

Why do posts get removed in r/indiehackers?

The most common reasons are flair required violations, plus the layers every subreddit has: Reddit's sitewide spam filter, unpublished AutoMod rules, and account-level gates like karma and age. In our recent sample, roughly 0% of r/indiehackers posts disappeared within about a day of going up. Many removals are silent, so checking your draft first beats finding out after.

Rules last checked Sep 2, 2026

Go deeper: how AutoMod removals work, the shadowban explainer, or earning karma the allowed way.

Stop getting silently removed.

Know if your post survives before you hit submit, and fix it if it won't.

Check my post for free

Paste a draft · verdict in ~10 seconds