# Product Hunt Scraper | Launch Leaderboards (`danthedataman/product-hunt-launch-ledger`) Actor

Export Product Hunt daily, weekly or monthly launch leaderboards with product links, taglines, votes, comments and topics. Deduplicate launches across selected pages.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/danthedataman/product-hunt-launch-ledger.md
- **Developed by:** [Eli J](https://apify.com/danthedataman) (community)
- **Categories:** Business, Developer tools, Marketing
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

from $1.20 / 1,000 results

This Actor is paid per event. You are not charged for the Apify platform usage, but only a fixed price for specific events.
Since this Actor supports Apify Store discounts, the price gets lower the higher subscription plan you have.

Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/actors/running/actors-in-store.md#pay-per-event

## What's an Apify Actor?

An Actor is a serverless cloud program that runs on the Apify platform. It has two run modes.
In Batch mode, an Actor accepts a well-defined JSON input, performs an action which can take anything from a few seconds to a few hours,
and optionally produces a well-defined JSON output, datasets with results, or files in key-value store.
In Standby mode, an Actor provides a web server which can be used as a website, API, or an MCP server.

Apify vocabulary and the platform model are defined once, in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md.

## How to integrate an Actor?

If asked about integration, you help developers integrate Actors into their projects.
You adapt to their stack and deliver integrations that are safe, well-documented, and production-ready.

Do not guess an integration path. Every one of them is in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md: the Apify MCP server, Agent Skills with the Apify CLI, the JavaScript and Python clients, the REST API, and the account-free path for an agent with no human to sign in. It also carries the rule on stating cost before the first paid run.

For examples already wired to this Actor's own input schema, see the [API](#api) section below.

Each client library has reference documentation the quickstart does not restate: [JavaScript/TypeScript](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md) (`npm install apify-client`) and [Python](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md) (`pip install apify-client`).

# README

### What you can export

Use this **Product Hunt scraper** for launch research and product discovery. Supply daily, weekly or monthly leaderboard dates to export launch names, taglines, post links, available product websites, displayed votes, comment counts and topics.

A launch found on multiple selected pages is exported once. Ranks and counts are source snapshots; featured leaderboards do not represent every Product Hunt launch.

### Try the shipped prefill

Use the input form's example values for a first run. Prefills are examples, not API defaults; check the billing and limits before starting.

```json
{
  "dates": [
    "2026-10-05"
  ],
  "maxItems": 5
}
```

### Input

| Field | Type | Default | What it does |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| `dates` | array | None; prefill `["2026-10-05"]` | Dates in input order. Day: `YYYY-MM-DD`; week: `YYYY-Www`; month: `YYYY-MM`. Duplicate dates are read once. |
| `period` | string | `day` | `day`, `week` or `month`, applied to every date in this run. A week names the site's numbered week route directly. |
| `maxItems` | integer | `100`; prefill `5` | Maximum distinct launch rows across the run. `0` makes no requests and writes no rows. |

For a weekly run use `{"dates":["2026-W40"],"period":"week"}`;
for a monthly run use `{"dates":["2026-09"],"period":"month"}`.
The week number is the site's route value; no calendar-to-week conversion
is performed.

Omitting `dates` (including `{}`) or sending `[]` is refused before any run or charge.
With other inputs valid, null `dates` succeeds with guidance and no rows;
Actor Start still applies. Null `maxItems` uses `100`. Omitted `period`
uses `day`; an explicit null period is rejected by platform input validation.
Invalid dates or input types fail before any source request.

### Output

One row per launch post. This row was observed on October 5, 2026; counts are a snapshot:

```json
{
  "name": "FastRouter.ai",
  "tagline": "Route requests to the right LLM for cost, latency & quality",
  "postUrl": "https://www.producthunt.com/posts/fastrouter-ai-2",
  "productWebsiteUrl": "https://fastrouter.ai/?utm_source=producthunt&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=ph-launch",
  "launchDate": "2026-10-05T00:01:00-07:00",
  "dailyRank": 1,
  "votes": 256,
  "comments": 49,
  "topics": [
    {
      "name": "API",
      "slug": "api-1"
    },
    {
      "name": "Developer Tools",
      "slug": "developer-tools"
    },
    {
      "name": "Artificial Intelligence",
      "slug": "artificial-intelligence"
    }
  ],
  "sourceUrl": "https://www.producthunt.com/leaderboard/daily/2026/10/5",
  "scrapedAt": "2026-10-05T15:52:38Z"
}
```

| Column | Meaning |
| --- | --- |
| `name`, `tagline` | Post text returned by Product Hunt. |
| `postUrl` | Per-launch `/posts/{slug}` permalink; Product Hunt may redirect it to the product with a launch parameter. |
| `productWebsiteUrl` | Product's public website from its detail page; null when absent or that page cannot be read. |
| `launchDate` | Source `featuredAt` timestamp with its original offset; not the post creation time. |
| `dailyRank` | Integer rank on the launch's own day, including on weekly/monthly boards; null when absent. It is not the position on the requested weekly/monthly board. |
| `votes` | Source `latestScore`, the vote number displayed by the site. Its relationship to raw votes is not established. Null when votes are hidden or absent. |
| `comments` | Source comment count, in comments; null when absent. No comment text is exported. |
| `topics` | Topic names and slugs returned for the post (the board requests up to three), or null when absent. |
| `sourceUrl` | First selected leaderboard page that supplied this post, also for its continuation pages. |
| `scrapedAt` | UTC time the launch was projected from the fetched response, before its optional website lookup. |

Counts and ranks are snapshots and can change. Product Hunt decides which
posts appear on its public featured leaderboards. This export does not
promise every launch on the site. No maker profiles, user profiles, emails
or comment text are included.

### Billing and limits

Each delivered dataset row is one pay-per-event result. The Store's current Pricing section shows the applicable event rates. The platform's Actor Start event is separate, including on
a run with `dates: null`. Errors are never dataset rows or charged result rows.

The collector stops fetching when `maxItems` is reached or Apify reports
that the customer's maximum event charge was reached.
Product website URLs come from Product Hunt's product pages. The collector reads
those pages up to five at a time, and never for more rows than `maxItems` and
the maximum event charge still allow. Rows are delivered one at a time, in the
order the leaderboard lists them.
Requests use Apify
residential proxies in the US, configured automatically, with gzip compression.
If a source response is blocked or unreadable, leaderboard and continuation
requests are tried up to three times on fresh proxy sessions; product website
lookups are tried up to twice. Valid empty leaderboards are not retried.
Each HTTP request
has a 30-second blocking-operation timeout. Large selections can exceed
the platform's run timeout; use smaller batches if needed.

### Empty results and support

Source failures are recorded in the run's `ERRORS` key-value record, never
in the dataset. A missing product website keeps its launch with a null
website. A failed website lookup additionally records a warning. An unavailable continuation can leave a
partial dataset and a warning. A run with no rows fails only when every
selected leaderboard failed; a valid empty leaderboard succeeds with guidance.

If a source page changes or is blocked, share the Apify run URL in this
Actor's Issues tab. Product Hunt is the data source; this Actor is an
independent export service.

# Changelog

This Actor's version history is a separate document: https://apify.com/danthedataman/product-hunt-launch-ledger/changelog.md

# Actor input Schema

## `dates` (type: `array`):

Dates for the selected period: YYYY-MM-DD for day, YYYY-Www for week (the site's numbered week route), YYYY-MM for month. Read in input order; duplicate dates and launch posts are exported once. Omitted or \[]: Apify refuses the start, with no run or charge. With other inputs valid, null succeeds with guidance and no requests or rows; Actor Start still applies.

## `period` (type: `string`):

Select the leaderboard period for every date in this run. Weekly dates specify the site's numbered route directly, rather than converting a day to a week.

## `maxItems` (type: `integer`):

Maximum distinct launch rows across all dates. 0 produces no rows and makes no requests. Omitted or null means 100.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "dates": [
    "2026-10-05"
  ],
  "period": "day",
  "maxItems": 5
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `results` (type: `string`):

No description

## `errors` (type: `string`):

Handled request failures, when present; never result rows.

# API

You can run this Actor programmatically using our API. Below are code examples in JavaScript, Python, and CLI, as well as the OpenAPI specification and MCP server setup.

## JavaScript example

```javascript
import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

// Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
// Replace the '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token
const client = new ApifyClient({
    token: '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>',
});

// Prepare Actor input
const input = {
    "dates": [
        "2026-10-05"
    ],
    "maxItems": 5
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("danthedataman/product-hunt-launch-ledger").call(input);

// Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if any)
console.log('Results from dataset');
console.log(`💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/${run.defaultDatasetId}`);
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
items.forEach((item) => {
    console.dir(item);
});

// 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs

```

## Python example

```python
from apify_client import ApifyClient

# Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
# Replace '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token.
client = ApifyClient("<YOUR_API_TOKEN>")

# Prepare the Actor input
run_input = {
    "dates": ["2026-10-05"],
    "maxItems": 5,
}

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("danthedataman/product-hunt-launch-ledger").call(run_input=run_input)

# Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if there are any)
print(f"💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/{run.default_dataset_id}")
for item in client.dataset(run.default_dataset_id).iterate_items():
    print(item)

# 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs/quick-start

```

## CLI example

```bash
echo '{
  "dates": [
    "2026-10-05"
  ],
  "maxItems": 5
}' |
apify call danthedataman/product-hunt-launch-ledger --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,danthedataman/product-hunt-launch-ledger"
        }
    }
}
```

The hosted server signs you in with OAuth on first connect, so no API token belongs in this config. Clients without OAuth support can send an `Authorization: Bearer <APIFY_API_TOKEN>` header instead, using a token from API & Integrations in Apify Console (https://console.apify.com/settings/integrations).

## OpenAPI specification

Download the OpenAPI definition: https://api.apify.com/v2/actors/H6j9bRNsBDk1M51Jm/builds/TUzZHhh1c8HYkgeE6/openapi.json