Ask HN: Self hosted Waitlist with Landing page?

5 points by surrTurr 7 hours ago

Currently building a little app.

To see if people would be interested in it, I want to build a little landing page that features some screenshots and has a waiting list (via email) at the bottom.

Are there any services or open source projects for this? Preferably using shadcn/react/supabase. I don't want to reinvent the wheel here.

codegeek 5 hours ago

"Preferably using shadcn/react/supabase. I don't want to reinvent the wheel here."

Respectfully, you don't need supabase for a landing page with waitlist especially when you don't want to reinvest the wheel. You have several options:

1. Find a WordPress theme that has the form built in. The fastest out of the box setup you will find.

2. If you don't want WordPress, then there are plenty of static HTML templates you can find. Just google "Landing Page Templates with Waitlist". One example for you [0]

For Option 2, you can connect the form to an existing API from any email provider like mailchimp, loops, etc. If you want to self host, you can get something like sendy [1] or listmonk [2]

[0] https://cruip.com/demos/waitlist/

[1] https://sendy.co/ (PHP Based)

[2] https://listmonk.app (Golang based)

brudgers 39 minutes ago

To me, if building a landing page seems like too much work, you might not have enough enthusiasm for the idea to do the heavy lifting that comes later.

And often, building a landing page is a way of playing house. It seems like progress but it isn't because it doesn't move the product forward and does not gain actual users. It provides an excuse to avoid those unpleasant tasks.

If you really want to go down the landing page route, be serious and ask for money. People's willingness to pay you while knowing the product does not exist is reasonable validation...though of course you have to do "successful kickstarter" level work.

Anyway, in the time it takes to read this, a person could be halfway done with HTML and Javascript and a Google Sheet for a landing page. Good luck.

makingstuffs 3 hours ago

This sounds like the perfect use case for something like v0 or bolt.new

Especially considering you want it to use shadcn etc

codingdave 7 hours ago

Well, a static HTML page with a form submission would achieve what you describe. If you are building an app -- any app -- even your prototype is surely already more advanced than a simple web page? So exactly what piece of it is blocking you from creating one?

  • surrTurr 7 hours ago

    + a backend

    what's blocking me from creating one myself:

    - time

    - i don't want to build something that has been built thousands of times in the past

    I want to focus my time on my app instead

    • codingdave 7 hours ago

      You don't need a custom back end to receive a simple form submission. As one easy example: https://docs.netlify.com/forms/setup/

      There are others. You are probably going to spend more time seeking a pre-canned SaaS that does this vs. just picking a cloud provider and figuring out the easiest way to do a serverless form with them.

pestaa 4 hours ago

Email service providers often offer landing pages.

I've built my fair share of 'coming soon' pages, and it was never a good use of time.

beretguy 4 hours ago

Ah...

<form method="post">

  <label for="email">Email </label>

  <input name="email" id="email" />

  <button type="submit">Join waiting list</button>
</form>

And then store it in database on a server.

You can get it working with PHP on FortRabbit in less than an hour.

  • uncomplexity_ 2 hours ago

    this is archaic, marking this as outdated for not using reactjs, mongodb, serverless, and not being rewritten in rust and zig.

    • beretguy an hour ago

      ... and it's also missing AI, blockchain, cryptocurrency, NFTs and emojis.