HackerNoon

Conditional free route community

Researched from public pages — no submission was run · sources read 2026-09-25. Rules change — recheck the platform's own pages before submitting.

What the free route requires

Free publishing only for individual human authors — 'Individuals can publish for free, and brands will pay to publish'
Brand-as-author posts carry a fee; to stay free, author the piece as a named human tech leader
All submissions pass human editorial review (~3 business days target) and can be rejected

Original tech-related story you own the rights to; republishing elsewhere is allowed (non-exclusive license)
All vested interests in companies mentioned must be disclosed
Story needs: title, feature image, 8 tags, meta description; headline should be ≤80 chars and accurate
Zero tolerance for violence/hate; constructive community norms
A product 'listing' here = a published story (e.g. a launch post, technical deep-dive, or founder narrative) authored by a person

Create an account and log in at hackernoon.com/login
Click 'Start Writing' and write or upload the story in the editor
Open Story Settings: add 8 tags, upload the feature image, enter the meta description
Confirm content rights and vested-interest disclosures
Click 'Submit Story for Review' — a confirmation email follows
A staff editor reviews within ~3 business days; respond to improvement emails if sent
If accepted, the story is published and distributed

Submitting as a brand triggers the paid tier — keep authorship individual
Purely promotional product announcements risk rejection; the article needs real substance or a unique point of view
If no response in ~a week, use the help channel 'my story is not reviewed' rather than resubmitting
Contributors keep ownership (non-exclusive license) but grant HackerNoon edit/publish/distribute rights

The story is published at hackernoon.com/<slug> with your author byline and is publicly readable