How to find people asking for your tool on Hacker News

Search recent Hacker News stories and comments for "X alternative", "is there a tool", and "how do I" questions about your category, then reply honestly by hand. Free, via the official HN Algolia API.

Try it now (free, no signup)

Player 1 · type a product, rival or job

Level select:

Hacker News is where developers compare tools in the comments, ask "what do you use instead of X?", and launch alternatives (Show HN). It's a high-trust, high-signal place for dev-tool founders, and it has strict norms.

What to search for

Competitor switching: "Competitor alternative", "switched from Competitor", "Competitor pricing"
Job-to-be-done questions: "how do you do the job", "is there a tool that …"
Pain: "Competitor is down", "Competitor export", "self-hosted category"

Example from our own check on 2026-10-18: a 30-day search for firebase alternative returned 6 matches, 4 of them on HN, including threads comparing open Firebase alternatives. Volume per phrase is small, so run a pack of 10–30 phrases daily rather than one keyword.

How AskHound searches HN

Your browser (or the CLI/local MCP on your machine) queries the official HN Algolia API directly, covering stories and comments, newest first. AskHound's servers never fetch or store HN content.

How to reply on HN

Hacker News does not allow AI-generated or AI-edited comments. Your agent may find threads and summarize them, but write HN replies yourself. Answer the question, disclose that you build the product, and name alternatives. If you have nothing useful to add, don't post.

npx -y https://askhound.haullabs.dev/askhound-0.1.5.tgz search "firebase alternative" --sources hn --days 30

Cartridges

Give it to your agent

Remote MCP

zero install · Stack Exchange + Bluesky, from our server

Free: 10 results per call, 20 calls a day. A key lifts the cap and returns 50 to 100.

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "askhound": { "url": "https://askhound.haullabs.dev/api/mcp" }
  }
}

Claude Code: claude mcp add --transport http askhound https://askhound.haullabs.dev/api/mcp

Local MCP

all 4 sources · runs on your machine · Node 18+

HN and GitHub are queried with your own access.

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "askhound": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "https://askhound.haullabs.dev/askhound-0.1.5.tgz", "mcp"]
    }
  }
}

CLI

one file · zero dependencies

npx -y https://askhound.haullabs.dev/askhound-0.1.5.tgz \
  search "otter.ai alternative" --context meeting,transcript

# save a pack, run it daily, new results only
askhound pack save mine --competitor Otter.ai \
  --competitor Fireflies --category "transcript export"
askhound pack run --md today.md

Honest-reply policy (built into every tool response): a human approves every public reply; never auto-post or mass-DM; disclose that you build the product; answer the question first and name alternatives; follow each community's rules. Hacker News, for example, does not allow AI-generated or AI-edited comments, so replies there must be written by you. AskHound finds the conversation. You decide whether you have something useful to say.

Insert coin

Pricing: select your player

Free is for looking around. Paid plans are for not missing anyone: watches re-run your searches on our server and send you only people you haven't seen yet. Hosted searches cover Stack Exchange and Bluesky (the sources whose terms allow server-side use). Hacker News and GitHub run in the free CLI on your machine. No Reddit, no X.

FreeP1 · free play

$0forever

Browser search: 3 a day, last 7 days, top 10
Remote MCP: 10 results per call, 20 calls a day
Open-source CLI + local MCP (MIT): HN, GitHub, Stack Exchange, Bluesky
Local reply-state

Install ▶

Most picked

Solo1 player

$19/ month

$149/ yearsave $79 · 2 months+ free

3 always-on watches
Daily email digest of new askers only (beta)
Search 90 days back, every result
Remote MCP: 50 results per call, no daily cap
Cloud reply-state sync

Start Solo ▶Start Solo yearly ▶

Pro3 players

$49/ month

$390/ yearsave $198 · 2 months+ free

15 watches
Hourly checks (beta, see note)
Slack, Discord or any webhook, plus email
Remote MCP: 100 results per call
3 seats sharing reply-state

Start Pro ▶Start Pro yearly ▶

Agency10 players

$149/ monthmonthly only

Everything in Pro
50 watches (one set per client)
White-label client reports (Markdown/HTML)
10 seats

Start Agency ▶

Beta, plainly: email digests are in beta until our sending domain is verified; until then a new watch is saved and starts emailing the day the sender goes live (Slack, Discord and webhooks on Pro work now). Hourly checks are in beta too: our scheduler runs daily today, hourly is being switched on. Your license key appears right after checkout. Cancel anytime: reply to your Stripe receipt and we cancel it. Full refund within 14 days if it isn't useful to you.