Where to post your app promo codes
By Promies · Last updated
Executive summary
Start with the deal subreddits that exist for this: r/AppHookup and r/eFreebies are the two biggest, at roughly 200,000 members each, and both want a title that says the platform, the old price and the new one. Then add the small on-topic ones, r/AppGiveaway, r/PromoCodeShare and, for Android, r/droidappshowcase. Watch the calendar for the rest: r/apple takes developer posts on Sundays only, and most big developer subreddits only allow promotion inside a weekly thread. Never paste the codes themselves into a comment, link to a page that hands them out one at a time.
The ten subreddits worth your codes
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1. r/AppHookup
- What you can post
- Real price drops and limited-time free runs, any platform
- When
- Any day, once the new price is live
- Best for
- A paid app that is genuinely cheaper than usual
About 210,000 members, and the one deal community that covers iOS, Android, Windows, macOS and Steam together. Titles follow a fixed shape: the platform, the app name, the price change in US dollars and a short description, as in
[iOS] Night Sky Pro [$4.99 -> Free] Astronomy planner. Deal posts are held for a moderator to approve, so post once and wait instead of deleting and trying again.Promo codes have their own rule here: a lifetime unlock rather than a trial, a batch big enough for the audience, and a link to a page that gives them out individually. That is the job Promies does for developers.
The downside: Launch discounts, permanent "sales", trials shorter than a year and apps that are normally free all get removed. If the price in your title is the price you always charge, do not post it.
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2. r/eFreebies
- What you can post
- Anything digital that is temporarily 100% free
- When
- Any day, while the free window is open
- Best for
- A paid app going free for a weekend
Around 200,000 members who collect free ebooks, games, software and apps. The rule that matters is in the sidebar: the giveaway has to be temporarily free with nothing to buy. A code that unlocks a trial, or a "free" tier that still asks for a card, gets pulled. Of all the promo posts that pointed people at Promies, more came from here than from anywhere else.
The downside: It is a general freebie audience, not an app audience, so a post slides off the front page quickly and the installs skew towards people who collect free things they never open.
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- What you can post
- iOS and Android apps and games given away free
- When
- Any day; a daily rhythm suits it
- Best for
- Codes you want claimed within a few hours
About 36,000 members and nothing on topic except giveaways, which makes it small but efficient: everybody reading it came to claim something. Say the platform and the normal price in the title, link the claim page, and answer the first few comments, because this crowd reports dead codes fast.
The downside: The audience is small and the intent is purely free, so expect claims rather than reviews, and very little that converts to a paying user later.
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- What you can post
- Promo codes of any kind, apps included
- When
- Any day
- Best for
- A code page you can leave standing for weeks
Roughly 38,000 members who are there specifically for codes, app or otherwise. Posts live longer than in the big deal subs because the volume is lower, so this is a reasonable place for a discount that runs for a month rather than a weekend.
The downside: Plenty of the traffic is after referral links and retail coupons, so an app post has to be clear in the title about what it is and which store it is on.
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- What you can post
- Your own Android app, giveaways included
- When
- Any day
- Best for
- Android developers, who have fewer options
The showcase community that r/androidapps, with its 580,000 members, sends self-promotion to: it bans promotion outright and points developers here. Tag the title with
[Giveaway], say what the app does in a couple of hundred words, add screenshots and the Play Store link, and put the redemption steps at the end. Being allowed to post is not the same as being welcome, so lead with the app, not the offer.The downside: Far smaller than the subreddit that feeds it, and almost everyone reading is another developer, so treat the numbers as feedback rather than reach.
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6. r/apple
- What you can post
- A self-post about your app. No bare store links
- When
- Sundays only, California time
- Best for
- One careful post a year with real reach
The biggest room on this list, and the strictest door. Developers may promote on Sundays in California time, as a self-post with the story in the post itself. You also need a history there: comments and posts over the previous weeks that have nothing to do with your app, and self-promotion kept to a small share of everything you post.
The downside: Earn the account first or the post disappears. That is weeks of genuine participation for one Sunday slot, which is worth it once and not worth repeating every time you cut the price.
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7. r/iPhoneApps
- What you can post
- iOS apps, including your own with the price in the title
- When
- Any day
- Best for
- iOS-only giveaways that need an iPhone audience
About 126,000 members who are there to find iPhone apps, which is a better fit for a code drop than any general deals community. The posts that land use the deal-sub title shape anyway:
[iOS] [App name] [Free] [what it does].The downside: Quieter than its size suggests, and a post with no screenshots and no explanation of what the app does gets ignored rather than removed.
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8. r/apps
- What you can post
- Anything app related, on any platform
- When
- Any day
- Best for
- One post that covers both platforms at once
Around 125,000 members and deliberately broad, so it is the one place where an app that ships on iOS and Android can be a single post rather than two. It rewards a post that explains the problem the app solves; the free codes work better as the last line than the headline.
The downside: Being broad cuts both ways: you are next to support questions and "what app should I use" threads, and a pure giveaway reads as spam here.
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- What you can post
- Your project, titled [Project name] - [Short description]
- When
- Any day
- Best for
- Launch week, with codes as the reason to try it
Nearly 900,000 members, there to give feedback on things other people built, and one of the few large communities where posting your own work is the point. Write about what you made and why, then offer the codes at the end. Holiday and seasonal giveaways do unusually well here.
The downside: The audience is builders, not buyers. Expect useful comments and very few installs from people who would ever have paid.
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10. r/promoteMyApp
- What you can post
- Open promotion of apps, sites and SaaS
- When
- Any day
- Best for
- A second post when the strict subs said no
About 18,000 members and no pretence: it exists so that developers can post their own work without arguing with a rule. Useful as a backstop and for cross-linking, and the format is whatever you like, which in practice means the full offer in the title works.
The downside: Almost everyone there is promoting something of their own, so reach is low and the comments are mostly other developers swapping links.
Side by side
| Subreddit | What you can post | When | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| r/AppHookup | Real price drops and limited-time free runs, any platform | Any day, once the new price is live | A paid app that is genuinely cheaper than usual |
| r/eFreebies | Anything digital that is temporarily 100% free | Any day, while the free window is open | A paid app going free for a weekend |
| r/AppGiveaway | iOS and Android apps and games given away free | Any day; a daily rhythm suits it | Codes you want claimed within a few hours |
| r/PromoCodeShare | Promo codes of any kind, apps included | Any day | A code page you can leave standing for weeks |
| r/droidappshowcase | Your own Android app, giveaways included | Any day | Android developers, who have fewer options |
| r/apple | A self-post about your app. No bare store links | Sundays only, California time | One careful post a year with real reach |
| r/iPhoneApps | iOS apps, including your own with the price in the title | Any day | iOS-only giveaways that need an iPhone audience |
| r/apps | Anything app related, on any platform | Any day | One post that covers both platforms at once |
| r/SideProject | Your project, titled [Project name] - [Short description] | Any day | Launch week, with codes as the reason to try it |
| r/promoteMyApp | Open promotion of apps, sites and SaaS | Any day | A second post when the strict subs said no |
When to post, not just where
A good post removed for arriving on the wrong day is the easiest mistake to avoid. Three patterns cover almost every subreddit:
- A fixed day. r/apple takes developer self-posts on Sundays, California time. r/iOSProgramming has App Saturday, and allows one app a year. r/webdev has Showoff Saturday. Post on the wrong day and it is gone, however good the post was.
- A weekly thread. r/Entrepreneur, r/startups and most business communities only allow promotion inside a pinned thread, which means finding this week's one and commenting in it rather than posting.
- Any day, while the offer is live. The deal subs work this way. Set the price change or the promotion live in App Store Connect or Play Console first, check the store page shows it, then post. A deal post that arrives before the price does gets removed and rarely survives a second attempt.
Beyond that, stagger. Posting the same giveaway to eight subreddits in ten minutes looks like a bot to both the spam filter and the moderators who share notes. One or two a day, each written for that audience, gets through.
Write the title the way the deal subs expect
Deal communities read titles in a fixed order, and the readers scan for the square brackets:
[Android] Budget Finder [$1.99 -> Free] Track spending offline
Platform first, then the app name, then the price change in US dollars, then one short line on what it does. Say "Free" rather than "100% off", keep the exclamation marks out, and if the giveaway is limited, put the number of codes in the title so nobody arrives at an empty page.
The rules that catch developers out
- Never paste codes in a comment. The first three people take them all, half end up on a coupon site, and you cannot tell who claimed what. Link to a page that gives out one code per person.
- Account age and karma gates. Several app subreddits require an account a few months old with a few hundred karma. A brand new account made for launch day is the most common reason a post never appears.
- Disclose that it is yours. Every subreddit here allows it; none of them forgive hiding it.
- Run the codes out. Apple gives you 100 promo codes per version per platform and they expire four weeks after you generate them. Google Play gives you 500 per app per quarter and unused ones do not carry over. Codes you sit on are codes you lose.
- r/androidapps does not take self-promotion at all. Nor do most of the big platform subreddits outside their one weekly slot. Check the sidebar before you write the post, not after it is removed.
The longer list, if you have the codes to spare
These are smaller or more specialised, and all of them have carried app promo posts: they are worth a look once the ten above are done.
- Giveaways and deals: r/WebSoftGiveaway, r/ooapps, r/FreeAppReviews, r/deals.
- Showcases: r/ShowYourApp, r/ShowMeYourApps, r/Appstore, r/LookWhatTheyBuilt.
- Developer and founder rooms, where the post is a story and the codes are the footnote: r/iosdev, r/iOSAppsMarketing, r/buildinpublic, r/AppBusiness, r/indie_startups.
- Niche audiences, only if the app actually fits: r/VibeCodeDevs, r/AiBuilders, r/GenAiApps, r/TechImpact.
Questions people ask
Where can I post iOS promo codes?
r/AppHookup and r/eFreebies for the reach, r/AppGiveaway and r/PromoCodeShare for an audience that is only there for codes, and r/iPhoneApps for people who want iPhone apps specifically. r/apple is the biggest of all, but only on a Sunday and only from an account with a history there.
Where can I post Android promo codes?
r/droidappshowcase is the main one, because r/androidapps bans self-promotion and sends developers there. r/AppHookup, r/eFreebies, r/AppGiveaway and r/apps all take Android posts as well, as long as the title starts with [Android].
What is the best day to post an app giveaway?
For the deal subreddits, the day your price change goes live, since the post is removed if the store does not match it yet. Everywhere else the day is decided for you: Sundays for r/apple, Saturdays for r/iOSProgramming and r/webdev, and the weekly pinned thread in most business communities.
How many promo codes do I need for a Reddit giveaway?
Enough that a popular post does not run dry in an hour. Apple allows 100 codes per app version per platform, valid for four weeks; Google Play allows 500 per app per quarter. Deal subreddits expect a large batch and a link that hands them out one at a time, not a handful dropped in the comments.
Can I post the same giveaway in several subreddits?
Yes, but not at once and not word for word. Space the posts over a few days and rewrite the opening for each audience. Identical posts across many subreddits in one sitting is what the spam filter is built to catch.
Is it against the rules to ask for a review in exchange for a code?
Yes, on both stores. Apple and Google both forbid incentivised reviews, and subreddits remove posts that ask for one. Give the code away with no conditions and let the people who like the app write what they want.