Only a few subreddits let you promote your own product anywhere: r/SideProject, r/alphaandbetausers, r/roastmystartup, r/selfpromotion and r/coolgithubprojects are built for it. Most large communities allow self-promotion only in a pinned weekly thread (r/devops, r/EtsySellers, r/WeAreTheMusicMakers), on a set day (r/webdev's Showoff Saturday, r/iOSProgramming's App Saturday) or within a limit (r/SaaS: once every 60 days). Several big ones, like r/startups, r/shopify, r/sales and r/podcasts, do not allow it in normal posts at all.
The table below covers 39 subreddits founders, marketers and creators ask us about. If you want the bigger picture first (why Reddit works, account warm-up, post formats, measuring CAC), read our Reddit marketing guide. This post is the lookup list.
How we checked these rules
Reddit blocks automated access to rule pages, so we could not simply download every sidebar. In November 2026 we checked each subreddit against the most recent copy we could find: archived copies of the subreddit's rules data, mirrored snapshots of pinned posts and sidebars from 2025 and 2026, and moderator announcements. Where we found the rule text itself, the row says Confirmed. Where we only found third-party summaries or old copies, the row says Check the sidebar, and we tell you what we saw so you know what to look for.
Member counts are rounded and come from Reddit's own data in archived copies from late 2025 to mid 2026. Reddit's interface now often shows weekly visitors instead of members, so the number you see may differ.
Rules change. Moderators rewrite them after spam waves, and several of these subs tightened up in 2025 and 2026. Treat this as a starting map and spend two minutes on the live sidebar before your first post.
Subreddits that allow self-promotion: the full table
"Where allowed" uses these labels: Anywhere (promotion is the purpose of the sub or allowed in normal posts), Thread (only in a pinned weekly or monthly thread), Day / flair (only on a set day or with a specific flair), Limited (allowed occasionally within a stated limit), Never, and Check where we could not confirm the current rule.
Founder and startup subreddits
| Subreddit | Members (approx.) | Where allowed | Key requirement or note | Status (Nov 2026) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| r/SideProject | 717K | Anywhere | Built for sharing projects and getting feedback. No sub-specific rules were listed in the March 2026 copy. Frame posts as "here's what I built, roast it". | Confirmed |
| r/alphaandbetausers | 18K | Anywhere | Made for recruiting early users and testers. Say what feedback you need. | Confirmed |
| r/roastmystartup | 14K | Anywhere | You post your startup or idea so others can criticise it. Expect blunt replies. | Confirmed |
| r/selfpromotion | 27K | Anywhere | The whole sub is for promoting your own work. Small, and most readers are other promoters. | Confirmed |
| r/IMadeThis | 16K | Anywhere (reported) | Showcase sub listed by several startup guides. We found no rule text. | Check the sidebar |
| r/SaaS | 643K | Limited | Mod rule (April 2026): self-promotion once per 60 days, counting posts, comment plugs and links; alt accounts count as you. Feedback requests only in the weekly pinned feedback thread. Blog posts allowed if the main ideas are in the post, link only at the end. | Confirmed |
| r/indiehackers | 161K | Day / flair | You may promote your product once, with the SHOW IH flair, for feedback. Posts that mention MRR need proof. | Confirmed |
| r/startups | 2.0M | Never (normal posts) | No promotional posts of any kind outside stickied exception threads. Post titles carry "i will not promote". The weekly hiring and co-founder thread tolerates mild self-promotion. | Confirmed |
| r/Business_Ideas | 316K | Thread | A weekly "Free For All" thread (Small Business Sundays) is described as the only place to solicit. | Confirmed |
| r/SomebodyMakeThis | 69K | Thread | Monthly Creator Showcase thread. No paid services or direct promotion of paid products in it. | Confirmed |
| r/Entrepreneur | 5.1M | Check | Older rules: text posts only, no link-dropping, at least 10 comment karma earned in the sub before posting. Third-party guides mention a promotion day. | Check the sidebar |
| r/EntrepreneurRideAlong | 628K | Check | Journey and build-in-public posts. We found no rule text on promotion. | Check the sidebar |
| r/growmybusiness | 56K | Check | Has a monthly growth strategy thread; guides say ask a question rather than pitch and use post tags. | Check the sidebar |
| r/microsaas | 44K | Check | Small-team SaaS. Rule text not found. | Check the sidebar |
Marketing, e-commerce and small business subreddits
| Subreddit | Members (approx.) | Where allowed | Key requirement or note | Status (Nov 2026) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| r/EtsySellers | 212K | Thread | Weekly "Self Promotion & Store Milestones" thread is the approved place for shop links and launches. No unsolicited critiques in it. | Confirmed |
| r/Etsy | 284K | Thread | Weekly "Share Your Stuff" thread. | Confirmed |
| r/smallbusiness | 2.4M | Thread | Sidebar: "This sub is not for advertisements!" A weekly "Promote your business" thread ran through at least April 2025; we could not confirm it is still running. | Check the sidebar |
| r/ecommerce | not verified | Never | Pinned post (March 2025): account at least 10 days old and 10 comment karma, no exceptions. No soliciting or promoting, even if free. Affiliate links banned. Your own store link is fine when asking for a review or troubleshooting. | Confirmed |
| r/shopify | 320K | Never | Do not promote your app, offer, service or site; use r/ecommerce or r/ReviewMyShopify for reviews. No DMs offering services. | Confirmed |
| r/sales | 524K | Never | Sidebar: selling, recruiting and blog spam lead to an immediate, permanent ban. | Confirmed |
| r/marketing | 1.9M | Never (reported) | Older rules banned blog spam, website or product review requests and URL shorteners, and pointed advertisers to Reddit Ads. | Check the sidebar |
| r/digital_marketing | 238K | Check | Rule text not found. | Check the sidebar |
| r/growthhacking | 135K | Check | Rule text not found. Historically loose, which also means a lot of spam. | Check the sidebar |
| r/freelance | 632K | Never (reported) | Sidebar warns that rule breaks mean removal and a permanent ban. Guides list self-promotion as banned. | Check the sidebar |
App, developer and AI subreddits
| Subreddit | Members (approx.) | Where allowed | Key requirement or note | Status (Nov 2026) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| r/coolgithubprojects | 57K | Anywhere | The sub exists for sharing GitHub projects. Link the repo, not a landing page. | Confirmed |
| r/devops | 442K | Thread | Weekly Self Promotion Thread for projects, ideas and repos. "Self Promotion / Vendors" is a listed rule. | Confirmed |
| r/AI_Agents | 294K | Thread | "Weekly Thread: Project Display" to show off agents and LLM apps; top projects go in their newsletter. | Confirmed |
| r/webdev | 3.2M | Day / flair | Sharing your project or portfolio only on Showoff Saturday (threads seen through May 2026). Commercial promotion is not allowed. | Confirmed |
| r/iOSProgramming | 177K | Day / flair | App Saturday: promote on Saturdays only, with the App Saturday flair, one app once per year (mod post, April 2025). | Confirmed |
| r/androiddev | 266K | Thread | Since an October 2023 rules rewrite, self-promotion and closed-source app posts belong in the weekly discussion and feedback thread. | Check the sidebar |
| r/opensource | 304K | Check | Open source projects are on topic; we found no rule text on promotion. | Check the sidebar |
| r/AppIdeas | 42K | Check | Idea and feedback posts; asks you to read the rules before posting. | Check the sidebar |
Creator, writing and music subreddits
| Subreddit | Members (approx.) | Where allowed | Key requirement or note | Status (Nov 2026) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| r/WeAreTheMusicMakers | 3.8M | Thread | Weekly Promotion Thread is the only place to promote music; no promotional posts elsewhere. Feedback has its own weekly thread. | Confirmed |
| r/selfpublish | 212K | Thread | Sidebar says it is not a place for self-promotion; the Weekly Self-Promo and Chat Thread is the exception. No AI content or AI services. | Confirmed |
| r/NewTubers | 642K | Check | Collaboration thread forbids self-promotion links; services go to r/CreatorServices. Check the current rules for channel feedback threads. | Check the sidebar |
| r/SmallYTChannel | 157K | Check | Feedback and collaboration for small channels. Rule text not found. | Check the sidebar |
| r/Blogging | 183K | Never | Even the monthly feedback and questions threads ban promoting your blog. | Confirmed |
| r/podcasts | 3.9M | Never | Sidebar: "This is not a place to promote your podcast." | Confirmed |
| r/InternetIsBeautiful | 16.6M | Never (for products) | Older rules ban online stores, paid services, sites that require login or email, and downloads. Only free, unique websites. | Check the sidebar |
Sources for the confirmed rows: archived copies of each subreddit's rules and sidebar data, mirrored snapshots of pinned threads (September and October 2026), the r/SaaS rules page, the r/ecommerce welcome post and the r/iOSProgramming App Saturday reminder.
How to read a subreddit's self-promotion rules
Start with Reddit's own baseline
Reddit's site-wide rules do not ban self-promotion. Rule 2 asks you to follow each community's rules and bans spam and vote manipulation. The "10% rule" you will see quoted everywhere comes from Reddit's old self-promotion guidance: keep promotional links to about a tenth of your activity. Admins later described it as a rule of thumb for spotting spammers, not a quota. We cover the history in the Reddit marketing guide. In practice, the subreddit's own rules are what get you removed or banned, and many are much stricter than 10%. Some still use a ratio of their own: older r/webdev rules point to a 9:1 ratio, and older r/androiddev rules capped self-promotion at half of your posts.
Where to look
- The rules page. On desktop it sits in the sidebar; in the app it is under the community's About tab. You can also open "reddit.com/r/<name>/about/rules".
- Pinned posts. Rule changes are often announced in a mod post before the sidebar is updated. r/SaaS announced its 60-day limit this way.
- The wiki. Some subs keep the full rules there (r/bigseo links to a wiki rules page from its description).
- The recurring threads. Search the sub for "author:AutoModerator" to find the current weekly or monthly thread.
What the common rule types mean
- Weekly or monthly threads. The only place your link is allowed. They get far less attention than front-page posts, so treat them as a bonus, not a launch.
- Promo days. Showoff Saturday or App Saturday. Post on the wrong day and AutoModerator removes it, often without telling you.
- Flairs. Some subs only accept promotion with a specific flair (SHOW IH, App Saturday). No flair, no post.
- Frequency limits. Once per 60 days, once per year, once ever. These usually count comment mentions too, not only posts.
- Karma and account age. r/ecommerce asks for 10 days and 10 comment karma. These checks are silent: the post looks live to you and is invisible to everyone else.
- "I will not promote" tags. r/startups expects the phrase in titles. It is a promise, and mods read your post history to check it.
How to promote on Reddit without getting banned
Short version of what we do before every promotional post:
- Read the live rules that day. Not last month's screenshot.
- Earn your place first. Two to four weeks of useful comments in that sub, with no links.
- Put the value in the post. A lesson, numbers, a template. The link goes at the end, or in a comment if someone asks.
- Say who you are. "I built this" in the first lines. Hidden affiliation is what gets people angriest.
- One sub at a time. Never paste the same post into ten subreddits on the same day. The same link across many subs in a short time is the classic spam pattern.
- Check visibility. Open the post in a logged-out browser. If it is missing, AutoModerator removed it; message the mods politely instead of reposting.
- Stay for the comments. Reply to every serious question in the first few hours.
If you are planning a launch, it can help to line Reddit up with other channels. Our first 100 customers playbook and Product Hunt checklist show how we sequence them.
Subreddits that look open but aren't
- r/startups. Huge, full of founders, and the obvious first idea. Promotional posts are banned outside stickied exception threads, and members tag their own posts "i will not promote".
- r/smallbusiness. The name suggests a place to talk about your business. It is a question and answer sub, and its sidebar says it is not for advertisements.
- r/SaaS. The rule text says "Promotion is ok here", which people read as permission. Since April 2026 it means once every 60 days, comment plugs included, with a ban and URL blacklist for repeat offenders.
- r/shopify. Full of store owners who might buy your app. Promotion is banned and offering services by DM is called out explicitly.
- r/InternetIsBeautiful. Tempting for a nice-looking site, but stores, paid services and anything behind a signup are not allowed.
- r/Blogging and r/podcasts. Communities about the exact thing you made, which is exactly why they ban promoting it.
- r/selfpromotion. Open, but most readers are there to promote too. Fine for a test post, rarely a source of customers.
A pattern we keep seeing: the subs that allow promotion freely are full of other people promoting, and the subs full of buyers protect themselves from promotion. The best results usually come from answering questions in the strict subs and saving the links for the open ones.
Frequently asked questions
Which subreddits allow self-promotion?
The ones built for it allow it anywhere: r/SideProject, r/alphaandbetausers, r/roastmystartup, r/selfpromotion and r/coolgithubprojects are examples. Many larger subs allow it only in a weekly or monthly thread (r/devops, r/EtsySellers, r/WeAreTheMusicMakers, r/selfpublish), on a set day or with a flair (r/webdev, r/iOSProgramming, r/indiehackers) or within a limit (r/SaaS). Always check the live sidebar, because rules change.
Is self-promotion allowed on Reddit?
Reddit's site-wide rules do not ban self-promotion. They ban spam and vote manipulation and require you to follow each community's rules. So whether you can promote depends on the subreddit: some welcome it, many limit it to threads or set days, and some ban it completely.
What is the 10% rule on Reddit?
It is an old Reddit guideline that promotional links should be about a tenth of your activity, with the rest being genuine posts and comments. Reddit admins described it as a rule of thumb rather than a hard quota. Today, each subreddit's own rules matter more, and many are stricter.
How much karma do you need to promote on Reddit?
There is no site-wide minimum. Each subreddit sets its own threshold, often enforced silently by AutoModerator. r/ecommerce, for example, requires an account at least 10 days old with 10 comment karma, and older r/Entrepreneur rules asked for 10 comment karma earned in that sub. If your post does not appear when you are logged out, a karma or age filter is the usual reason.
What happens if you break a subreddit's self-promotion rules?
Usually the post is removed first. Repeat or obvious cases lead to a ban from the subreddit, and some subs go further: r/SaaS says violations mean a ban, removal of all your submissions and a blacklist of your URL. Spam across many subreddits can also trigger Reddit's site-wide filters, which can affect your whole account or domain.
Where can I promote on Reddit if my product is not for founders?
Find the subreddits where your customers talk about the problem, not where other founders hang out. Search Reddit for the problem in your customers' words, note which communities keep appearing and check their rules. Our Reddit marketing guide walks through that research step by step.
How SENERVerse can help
We run Reddit community growth for SaaS, apps and e-commerce brands: mapping the subreddits where your buyers are, writing founder-voice posts and comments that follow each sub's rules, and tracking what turns into sign-ups. We cannot promise a viral thread, but we can keep you out of the ban list. Take the 2-minute survey or get in touch.