Shippin is a social network for people who build products. Members post build updates tied to specific products, ship interactive demos, run waitlists, and compete on a weekly launch leaderboard.

What are the best ways to build in public?

The best way to build in public is to ship a small thing every week and narrate it where other builders already gather. On Shippin you do that with build-log posts tied to a specific product, four post types (update, milestone, launch, question), and a public /launches leaderboard that resets every Monday. Pair that cadence with an interactive demo on your product page so visitors can try the app instead of reading about it. Trust-weighted upvotes keep the leaderboard honest, so early traction is real signal, not theater. Create an account at app.shippin.dev/signup to start posting.

How do I get people to see my app?

Pair a clear demo with a weekly launch and a steady build log so the same audience sees you ship multiple times. Shippin gives you all three in one place: an interactive demo iframe on every product page, a /launches leaderboard with This Week, Upcoming, and Past Winners tabs, and build-log posts that surface in the For You feed. Multi-launch means a product can re-launch every time it ships a major version, so each release reaches the front page again instead of dying after one day. Add an embed badge to your own landing page to convert visitors into Shippin upvotes.

How do I get my first users?

First users come from showing real progress in places where builders and curious early adopters already hang out, not from cold ads. Shippin is built for that loop: post a build log, tag the product so it lands on its profile, attach a working demo, and schedule a launch on /launches when the product is ready for traffic. Followers of the product, the topic, and the builder all see each shipping post. The trust-weighted upvote model means an early supporter who is real, even with five followers, can move your rank. Start with a stealth product page, ship to it weekly, then flip stealth off the day you launch.

How can I find a co-founder on Shippin?

Use Shippin like an audition tape. Post build logs about the problem you want to solve, mark a question post asking for a specific role (designer, engineer, growth), and follow the topic so you see who else is building in that lane. Multi-role product builders means you can add a candidate as a teammate on a product, give them a real slice (a demo update, a launch task), and see how they ship before any equity conversation. DMs with realtime are baked in so the handoff stays in one place. For people earlier than that, our guide at shippin.dev/guides/finding-cofounders covers when to look and what to look for.

Where can I discover new apps and what is launching this week?

The /launches page on Shippin is a Product Hunt-inspired weekly leaderboard with three tabs: This Week (live ranked launches), Upcoming (scheduled with countdowns), and Past Winners (every weekly and monthly top-three a product has earned). Multi-launch means the same product can ship and rank again every week, so the board is fresh every Monday. Trust-weighted upvotes filter out vote farms, so what you see at the top is real momentum from real builders. Follow topics like AI, dev tools, or design to get a personalized For You feed of newly shipped products. Browse at app.shippin.dev/launches.

How do I find startups in a category?

Shippin organizes products by a one-level category tree (AI, dev tools, design, fintech, health, social, and more) and lets you follow any leaf or parent. Every product profile shows stage (idea, building, beta, live), pricing chip, stack, structured reviews with overall plus four sub-axes, and pros/cons tag clouds drawn from real users. Curated alternatives appear first on each profile, then algorithmic suggestions based on subcategory and follow-graph overlap. That makes discovery directional: you find the next dev tool the way another builder would, not the way an algorithm thinks an advertiser would. Browse categories at app.shippin.dev.

What is the best Product Hunt alternative for builders?

Shippin is the closest fit for makers who want continuous launch surface, not a single 24-hour slot. Where Product Hunt is one all-day campaign per career launch, Shippin runs a calendar-week leaderboard, awards persistent top-three badges that travel with the product forever, and supports multi-launch so a product can re-rank every time it ships a major version. Trust-weighted upvotes resist farming, so early signal is real. Indie Hackers stays great for long-form discussion, and Hacker News Show HN still works for the engineer crowd, but for a weekly competitive surface plus an embedded build log and live demos in one app, Shippin is the answer. Free to join at app.shippin.dev/signup.

Where do indie hackers build in public?

Indie hackers spread their work across a few complementary surfaces: Shippin for the weekly /launches leaderboard, build-log posts, and interactive demos in one place; Indie Hackers for long-form revenue stories; X/Threads for short-form distribution; and Hacker News Show HN for the engineer audience. Shippin sits at the center because it combines the launch board, the build log, the demo, the per-product waitlist, and DMs in one app, and because the trust-weighted vote model resists the kind of gaming that wears down older boards.

How are product launches different from Product Hunt?

Shippin launches run on a calendar week, not a single 24-hour slot. Top three earn a permanent badge that follows the product. You can re-launch on a new week every time you ship a major version, so a slow rollout still gets the credit.

What is an interactive demo?

A live, sandboxed iframe of your actual product, embedded on its profile page. Visitors click, type, and try it out without leaving Shippin. It is not a video, it is the running app. Drives feedback faster than any landing page can.

How does the trust-weighted vote work?

Votes from accounts under 7 days old, accounts with no posts, and people with no follow-graph relationship to the product still register, but they do not move leaderboard ranks. It keeps launch-day vote farms from drowning real momentum.

What's the For You feed scored on?

A blend of recency decay, engagement on the post, network proximity to the author, and your own affinity signals. The scoring is transparent, no black-box ad-driven loop. Your second tab is Following, which is strictly chronological.

Yes. Posting, products, demos, waitlists, follows, DMs, launches: all free. Shippin+ is an optional paid tier for verification, advanced analytics, and team perks.

Shippin+ is the optional paid verification tier. Two scopes: user (the blue check on your profile) and product (the verified mark on a product page). Stripe-backed monthly billing, manageable from settings.

PRIVACY POLICY

Last updated: 2026-05-25

1. Who we are

Shippin is operated by Friskly AB, org.nr 559500-7526, Skogsvägen 9, 141 44 Huddinge, Sweden — the data controller for the personal data described in this policy. For any privacy question or to exercise the rights described below, contact us at [email protected] — we acknowledge data-subject requests within one business day.

2. Data we collect

We collect the following categories of personal data when you use Shippin:

Account data: email, username, display name, bio, avatar, date of birth (used only for age verification)
Payment data: if you subscribe to Shippin+, your subscription status and a Stripe customer reference. Card details are entered with Stripe directly and never reach our servers.
Profile data: social links (website, X, GitHub), status, preferences
Content data: posts, comments, reactions, products you create, media you upload
Usage data: pages visited, features used, interactions
Technical data: IP address (hashed in the consent log), browser, device info
Consent records: what you agreed to, when, from where (in the consent_log table)

3. How we use your data and the lawful basis under GDPR

Under GDPR Art. 6, we identify a specific lawful basis for every processing purpose. The table below maps each purpose to the basis we rely on:

Purpose	Lawful basis
Operating the platform (account, profile, posts, products)	Art. 6(1)(b) — necessary for the contract with you
Security, abuse prevention, content moderation	Art. 6(1)(f) — legitimate interest in keeping the platform safe
Marketing email (product updates, announcements)	Art. 6(1)(a) — your explicit consent
Analytics cookies	Art. 6(1)(a) — your explicit consent
CSAM hash matching (Microsoft PhotoDNA)	Art. 6(1)(c) Legal Obligation + Art. 6(1)(f) Legitimate Interest

4. Sub-processors

We do not sell your personal data. To deliver the service we rely on the following sub-processors. They process personal data on our behalf under contractual data-processing terms (GDPR Art. 28). Where data leaves the EEA, the transfer is covered by Standard Contractual Clauses (SCCs) and, where applicable, by the EU-US Data Privacy Framework (DPF):

Processor	Role	Location	Transfer mechanism
Supabase	Database, authentication, storage, edge functions	Frankfurt (dev) / Ireland (prod) — EU	N/A (EU)
Resend	Transactional and digest email delivery	United States	SCCs + EU-US Data Privacy Framework
Sentry	Error monitoring	Frankfurt — EU	EU residency; SCCs for vendor support
Stripe	Payments (Shippin+ subscriptions)	Ireland (EU controller) with US sub-processors	SCCs + EU-US Data Privacy Framework
Railway	Application hosting	Amsterdam — EU	EU residency; SCCs for vendor support
Plausible	Privacy-respecting analytics (consent-gated)	Germany — EU	N/A (EU)
Sight Engine	Automated content moderation (NSFW, violence, weapons)	France — EU	N/A (EU)
Microsoft PhotoDNA	CSAM hash matching	United States (Azure)	SCCs + EU-US Data Privacy Framework
Google Fonts	Web font delivery (CDN)	United States	SCCs + EU-US Data Privacy Framework

Other users see your public profile, posts, and products — that is part of the platform's purpose. We will disclose data to law-enforcement authorities only when required by a lawful order.

5. International transfers

Personal data may be processed outside the EEA by the US-based sub-processors listed above. Each transfer relies on (a) the EU Commission's Standard Contractual Clauses (2021/914), and (b) the EU-US Data Privacy Framework where the recipient is certified under it. We rely on adequacy decisions where they apply. Copies of the SCCs are available on request at [email protected].

6. Your rights under GDPR

You have the right to:

Access: request a copy of your personal data
Portability: download your data in a machine-readable format (JSON)
Rectification: correct inaccurate data via your Settings page
Erasure: delete your account and all associated data
Restrict processing: limit how we use your data
Object to processing: where the basis is legitimate interest
Withdraw consent: revoke marketing or analytics consent at any time from Settings

The fastest path to access (export) or erasure (delete account) is the in-app Settings flow. You can also email [email protected] — we acknowledge within one business day and complete the request within one month, as required by Art. 12(3).

You also have the right to lodge a complaint with your local data-protection authority.

7. Cookies

We use three categories of cookies:

Essential: authentication, session management, security. Cannot be disabled.
Analytics: understanding usage patterns. Loaded only with your consent (Art. 6(1)(a)).
Marketing: measuring campaign effectiveness. Loaded only with your consent.

You can manage your cookie preferences at any time via the cookie banner or Settings.

8. Retention

We retain data only as long as we need to:

Category	Retention period
Account data (profile, posts, products, follows)	For the lifetime of the active account, plus 30 days after deletion
Deletion logs (data_deletion_requests)	3 years from the request, for compliance audit
CSAM evidence (csam_reports + quarantine storage bucket)	7 years, aligned to criminal-investigation evidence preservation norms
Consent log (consent_log)	For the lifetime of the account, plus 3 years

Anonymised, aggregated usage statistics may be retained indefinitely because they no longer relate to an identifiable person.

9. Data security

We protect your data with:

Encryption in transit (TLS / HTTPS)
Encryption at rest (Supabase managed Postgres + Storage)
Row-level security policies enforcing per-user access controls
Service-role isolation for sensitive tables (audit log, CSAM evidence, consent log)

10. Children and minor safety

Shippin requires you to be at least 18 years old. We do not knowingly collect personal data from anyone under 18. If you believe an account belongs to a minor, please report it via the in-app Report menu on the user's profile (reason: "User appears to be under 18"). Reports route to our trust & safety queue and are reviewed within 24 hours. You can also email [email protected].

Date of birth is collected only to confirm you are 18 or over. Once set, it cannot be changed in-app — this is enforced at the database level to prevent age-gate circumvention.

11. Changes to this policy

We may update this policy. When we make a material change, we will bump the policy version and re-prompt logged-in users to accept it before they can continue using the service. Continued use after an update constitutes acceptance of the new policy.

12. Contact

Privacy questions: [email protected]

Data-subject requests (Art. 12-22): [email protected]

Trust & safety reports: [email protected]