Notes on finding, listing and ranking AI products.
Documentation for the directory, written for the people who use it. No launch hacks, no invented reach numbers, no promises about what a paid slot will do for your business.
Hotaibuild is a directory of AI products with an openly paid ranking. That combination only works if the rules are legible, so these guides explain them in plain language: how a free listing is reviewed, what a boost actually buys, which views on the homepage are unaffected by payment, and how the open-source index is assembled. They also cover the practical work of choosing a tool, because a directory is a starting point for evaluation, not a substitute for it.
Every guide here is free to read and independent of paid placement. Buying a boost never buys a mention in an article, an Editor's pick, a change to the Trending or Just added order, or a favourable comparison. Where we describe our own product we try to describe its limits as plainly as its features; where we compare with another service we describe what that service does well. If a guide is wrong or out of date, email hello@hotaibuild.com and we will correct it.
Start with the question you have.
How we list open-source AI apps
How hotaibuild selects and labels source-available AI projects from public GitHub repositories, and why star counts are not a quality score.
Read the guideHotaibuild vs Product Hunt: an honest comparison
Two different ways to discover new AI products: a community launch day with votes, or a permanent directory with explicitly labelled paid ranking.
Read the guideHow to boost your launch without buying an endorsement
A practical guide to Spark, Flame and Wildfire boosts: what a labelled paid slot buys, how bidding works, and what it will never buy.
Read the guideHow to submit an AI product to Hotaibuild
What to prepare before you submit, what makes a reviewable entry, and why a free directory listing is a different thing from a paid boost.
Read the guideHow paid ranking works on Hotaibuild
The mechanics of the Hot list: time-limited labelled boosts, bid order, and the Trending, Just added and Editor's picks views that money cannot move.
Read the guide