Featured-on MakerHunt badge guide

The Featured-on MakerHunt badge is the free-path homepage embed. It is the thing we crawl before we list you. It is not the paid “Featured” pill on the hunt feed. Getting those names wrong is the most common support confusion we see.

This guide covers why the badge exists, how to embed it, what the crawl checks, how it differs from Featured €19, and what happens if you remove it later. Short ops versions also live in add Featured-on badge and Featured-on and crawl.

Why the badge exists

Free listings trade visibility for attribution. You show MakerHunt on your homepage. We confirm it with a crawl. You get the next UTC launch day (~09:00 after schedule) and, while the badge stays live, the free dofollow story we document in badges legal.

That deal is intentional. We are not pretending free is “unlimited everything.” Free is: badge visible on apex, crawl green, next day, votes, comments, rank eligibility.

Paid Premium / Featured / SEO skip that crawl. They buy a different product: listing without the homepage requirement, plus optional feed chrome and (for SEO) a queued article. See launch types and pricing.

Featured-on vs Featured (paid)

Never call the paid slot “Featured on.” Never call the homepage badge “Featured package.” Same English word, different SKUs.

What we do not sell with the badge

• We do not sell PotD via badge placement.
• We do not sell fake domain-rating numbers tied to the embed (honest DR and proof).
• We do not treat a buried /press badge as a free-path pass.
• Rank badges (PotD / PotW / PotM) are earned after votes lock. They are not a substitute for Featured-on.

How to add the badge

1. Open badge markup or your owner page at /projects/[slug]/badges after you have a project.
2. Copy the HTML embed (image + link back to MakerHunt).
3. Place it on your homepage (apex), not a buried /press page, if you want the free crawl to pass.
4. Prefer light or dark SVG under /badges/featured-on*.svg so contrast matches your background.
5. Submit or re-run crawl from the dashboard.
6. Wait for green status before assuming you are scheduled.

Placement tips that actually matter:

• Put it where humans see it (footer is fine if it is on the apex HTML). Hidden CSS display:none is not the deal.
• Keep the link dofollow-style as documented on the legal page. Do not nofollow the MakerHunt link and expect the same free story.
• If your site is a SPA, make sure the badge exists in the initial HTML we fetch, or serve a static shell that includes it.

What the crawl checks

We fetch the website URL you submitted and look for our badge asset and/or a dofollow-style link to makerhunt.space on that homepage HTML. Failures show on the dashboard with a reason when we have one.

Common fails

Fix the site, re-crawl. Admins can override a false negative. Do not open five support threads while the homepage still 302s to /login.

Timing after a green crawl

Free path: after crawl passes, you schedule for the next UTC launch day. Live window opens around 09:00 UTC. There is no free multi-month calendar. Details: how to launch on MakerHunt and launch day UTC.

Paid path: when to skip the badge

Skip-crawl is rational when:

• You do not control the marketing homepage (agency, marketplace listing, App Store only).
• Brand or legal will not allow third-party badges yet.
• You need certainty that listing is not blocked on a flaky crawl the night before launch.

Premium €7 skips the badge and adds a Premium pill. Featured €19 adds Featured chrome and a home Featured grid slot. SEO €39 is Featured plus a queued operator article. None of those buy PotD.

If you can wear the badge, free is the honest dogfood path. Paid is convenience and chrome, not a rank hack.

Keeping the badge after launch

Free dofollow is tied to the badge remaining. If you remove it later, expect the free deal to weaken (warn / recrawl policy as we finish that ops path). Paid listings do not depend on the badge for listing rights.

Operator advice:

• Leave Featured-on up if you launched free. It is cheap credibility and matches what we crawled.
• If you redesign the site, re-check the embed in the new footer before you ship.
• Do not replace Featured-on with a PotD SVG you did not earn. Visitors notice; we will too when recrawl exists.

Rank badges are separate

Product of the Day / Week / Month embeds are earned, owner-only copy, after ranks lock. Copy them from /projects/[slug]/badges when you have ranks 1–3 for the window. Visitors still see PotD chrome on closed-day feed rows and on winners.

Guide: votes and PotD and PotD votes ranking.

Featured-on = entry ticket for free. PotD = result of the vote day. Featured €19 = paid chrome. Three different objects.

Day-of and aftercare for badge users

Evening before UTC launch

1. Confirm crawl is still green (site deploy did not drop the footer).
2. Soft announce to your list: link tomorrow, not only “we launch.”
3. Draft the pinned maker comment.

Launch day

Drive people to the MakerHunt URL. The homepage badge is proof and crawl collateral; the vote button is on the hunt page. See prepare launch day comments and upvotes.

After close

1. Keep Featured-on live.
2. If you earned PotD 1–3, add that embed where it fits (about, press, changelog).
3. Point footer or changelog at the listing.
4. Check trending / winners for week and month rollups.

Failure modes (badge-specific)

• Launch with a badge on staging only. Crawl hits production. Production must have the markup.
• A/B tool strips the footer for 50% of visitors. Crawl may miss it; humans may miss it. Serve the badge consistently on apex.
• Calling paid Featured “Featured on” in your tweet. Confuses buyers and your own analytics. Use the table above.
• Removing the badge the morning after PotD. You burn the free deal for a slightly cleaner footer. Usually a bad trade.

Embed checklist (copy this)

Use this as a 10-minute preflight before you hit submit or re-crawl.

1. Open production homepage in a private window (logged out).
2. View source (or “View Page Source”), not only DevTools Elements after hydration. Confirm the badge img and MakerHunt a appear in that HTML.
3. Click the badge. It should land on makerhunt.space (or the documented destination from legal/badges).
4. Check contrast: light SVG on dark hero, dark SVG on light footer. Wrong variant looks broken and people remove it.
5. Resize to mobile width. Footer badges that collide with cookie banners get covered; move them up one block if needed.
6. Deploy, then run crawl from the dashboard. Do not assume local success equals production success.
7. Screenshot green crawl status for your own notes. If you redesign next week, you will want the proof.

If step 2 fails, stop. Fix markup before you pay for “urgency” you do not need.

Free vs paid decision (badge lens)

Operator take: if the only reason you are reaching for Premium is “I forgot the badge last night,” put the badge up and crawl. Save the €7 for a week when homepage control is genuinely gone.

Longer pricing narrative: MakerHunt pricing explained. Full launch ops: how to launch.

After launch: badge hygiene

Month one is when people quietly delete the footer “to clean up the site.” That is how free-path deals die.

• Put Featured-on next to other real proof (your own changelog link, a customer logo row), not in a junk drawer of 20 unverified badges.
• When you ship a redesign, treat the embed as a regression test: homepage source still contains it.
• If you earn PotD 1–3, add PotD embeds in addition to Featured-on. Do not swap them. Different claims.
• If you later buy Featured chrome for a relaunch, you may keep Featured-on for continuity. Paid skip-crawl does not require removing the free badge.

Week and month boards: winners, trending. Rank rules: PotD votes ranking.

Support confusion we keep seeing

“Crawl failed but I see the badge.”
You see it after React mounts. We fetch HTML. View source on production.

“I put Featured-on on /blog/launch.”
Wrong page. Apex homepage for free path.

“I bought Featured, where is my Featured-on SVG?”
Featured €19 is feed chrome. Featured-on markup is still on legal/badges if you want it.

“Does the badge mean we backlink forever no matter what?”
Free dofollow story is tied to the badge remaining. Read legal/badges. Removing it weakens the deal.

“Can I hotlink a random PNG I drew?”
Use the documented assets. Custom art that does not match what we look for fails crawl.

FAQ

Can I use the badge without launching?
The legal page explains markup. Listing still needs a successful free crawl or a paid path.

Does the badge guarantee PotD?
No. Ranks are votes after you are live.

Can I put the badge on a subdomain?
Crawl uses the website URL you submit. If you submit https://app.example.com, that is what we fetch. Prefer the marketing apex most users land on.

Is client-side injection enough?
Only if the fetch we run sees the markup. Initial HTML is the safe path.

Is this the same as Product Hunt’s badge?
Same job (social proof), different network and rules. For the wider landscape see Product Hunt alternatives 2026.

What if I already paid Featured and also want the badge?
You can still embed Featured-on for social proof. Paid does not forbid the badge; paid only means we do not require it for listing.

Where do embeds live after I have a project?
Owner badges page: /projects/[slug]/badges. Public markup reference: legal/badges.

Next step

Paste the embed from legal/badges, run through the launch checklist, then submit. If you need skip-crawl or home Featured chrome, compare packages on pricing first. Full launch sequence: how to launch on MakerHunt.