Product Hunt Launch Screenshots: Comparative Screenshots, Demo Examples, and What the Gallery Needs
September 14, 2026
On Product Hunt the gallery does most of the work. Most visitors never read the description; they flick through the images, decide in a few seconds whether the product is real and interesting, and either upvote, click through or leave. Launches with a weak gallery under-perform launches with a weak product.
This is the gallery, image by image: what each one is for, how to make it, and the two things that outperform screenshots when you can manage them.
Image 1: the product, doing the thing
The first image is a screenshot of the product mid-task with one line of text above it saying what just happened. Not a logo, not a tagline on a gradient. The reader is deciding whether this is a real product; a real screen answers that faster than anything you can write.
Capture the area, not the whole monitor -- the app window with the browser chrome cropped out reads cleanly at gallery size. The free screenshot tool does the crop and lets you add the one label you need.
Images 2–3: comparative screenshots
A comparative screenshot puts the old way and the new way side by side: the spreadsheet next to the dashboard, the twelve-step form next to the two-step one, the competitor’s pricing page next to yours. It is the most upvoted kind of gallery image because it makes the argument without words.
Keep both halves at the same scale, label each with two or three words, and resist the temptation to make the "before" look worse than it is -- Product Hunt readers have used the before, and they notice.
Images 4–6: one feature per image, annotated
Each remaining image shows one capability with one annotation: a box around the thing and a short label. Blur anything that is not yours to show. Do not stack three annotations on one image; make three images.
The demo link
Product Hunt lets you add a video, and a video helps. An interactive demo helps more, because a hunter who clicked through your product has effectively used it, and used-it converts to upvotes and signups better than watched-it. Put the link in the first comment and in the description, and make the demo eight to twelve steps: the workflow, not the tour.
Using an interactive demo for a Product Hunt launch covers the recording side.
Sizes and the boring details
- Gallery images: 1270 × 760 px is the size Product Hunt recommends; export PNG for interface screenshots.
- Thumbnail: 240 × 240 px, and it should be a logo or icon, not a screenshot -- it is displayed tiny.
- Text in images: large enough to read at half size; the gallery is viewed on phones.
- Consistency: the same annotation colour and the same crop style across every image, so the gallery reads as one product rather than six.
Frequently asked questions
- What screenshots should I use for a Product Hunt launch?
- A first image of the product mid-task with one line of text, two or three comparative before/after screenshots, then one annotated image per key feature. Six to eight images total, all at 1270 × 760, with a consistent crop and annotation style.
- What is a comparative screenshot?
- Two screenshots side by side showing the old way and the new way of doing the same task: the spreadsheet and the dashboard, the long form and the short one. It makes the product’s argument without words, which is why it performs well in a gallery.
- Should I add a demo to my Product Hunt launch?
- Yes. A video in the gallery helps; an interactive demo linked from the description and first comment helps more, because hunters who click through the product convert better than hunters who watched a video of it.
Keep reading
This is what Demorta does
Click through it — the same kind of demo you can record of your own product.
Try it on your own product
Record your first interactive demo free.
Five demos on the free plan, forever. No credit card, no trial countdown, no sales call. Install the Chrome extension, click through your product once, and you have a shareable link in about ten minutes.
Start free →