Hey Product Hunt! 👋 I'm excited to introduce Linkfount

Linkfount is a link-in-bio platform tailored specifically for academics, researchers, and writers who want to establish an elegant online presence without the complexity of traditional website builders.

Why I built this

While yet another "blogging / website builder" platform may seem like a classic tarpit idea, I've think there's an interesting gap in the existing offerings. That is, there are a few options for someone wanting to build a landing page...

Blogs / newsletter platforms like Substack
Link-in-bio sites like Linktree
Website builders like Wordpress or Wix
The DIY approach

...but these aren't the just-right fit for someone who...

primarily creates content hosted on 3rd party platforms (say, a freelance writer or journalist) and/or has content to share but not a consistent stream of new content to share,
has lots of content to share,
and has low interest / aptitude in technical stuff (even simple site builders leave you faced with tons of decisions to make rather than the feel of "just getting to post stuff")

In other words, someone who needs something more static and "link-out" oriented than blogging/newsletter platforms, more searchable/filterable than a link-in-bio platform, and less intimidating than a normal website builder. (Techies think it's easy to build a website—and it sort of is!—but lots of broadly "non-technical" people disagree.)

Who it's perfect for

- Academics sharing research papers
- PhD students establishing their early online presence
- Writers showcasing their articles and favorite reads
- Researchers organizing publications by topic or journal
- Anyone wanting to share scholarly work and curated resources

- Personally, I've started using my own profile as a sort of lightweight spot to publicly bookmark links, keep a reading list with some notes, and start a sparse, low-pressure blog. For folks like me who are tired of social media and "slop" culture, I could see this providing a nice way to have a minimalist "feed-free" online presence similar to a social media account... but not at all sure whether others will see similar utility here.

What's coming next

I don't have a set roadmap but after collecting some early feedback and circling back to improve the robustness of some of the basic implementation here (e.g., setting up CloudFlare and emails), I have some rough plans like adding
- Custom domains
- Comments and discussion features
- Patronage support/donations for independent scholars
- Simple (non-algorithmic) following/feed feature

I'd love to hear your feedback on how Linkfount could better serve the academic and writing communities! Right now the platform is totally free, since I'm early in the development/differentiation process.

Try it out: https://linkfount.com

(BTW - Built with Laravel 11, Livewire 3, and Flux UI - huge thanks to these amazing tools for making this possible!)

Blogs / newsletter platforms like Substack
Link-in-bio sites like Linktree
Website builders like Wordpress or Wix
The DIY approach

...but these aren't the just-right fit for someone who...

primarily creates content hosted on 3rd party platforms (say, a freelance writer or journalist) and/or has content to share but not a consistent stream of new content to share,
has lots of content to share,
and has low interest / aptitude in technical stuff (even simple site builders leave you faced with tons of decisions to make rather than the feel of "just getting to post stuff")

(BTW - Built with Laravel 11, Livewire 3, and Flux UI - huge thanks to these amazing tools for making this possible!)

Linkfount

Personal website alternative for writers & academics

Personal website alternative for writers & academics