How to find beta testers for a new app
Getting impartial feedback before launch is difficult once you exhaust your friends and family. Reaching actual users is frustrating because non-developer communities usually ban self-promotion, leaving you stuck with forums filled entirely with other developers.
What people tried
Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.
- 1Recruiting friends and family for initial testing
- 2Posting public beta links in dedicated testing subreddits
- 3Direct outreach on LinkedIn, professional Discord groups, and local business associations
- 4Framing requests strictly as seeking feedback rather than promoting a product
- 5Providing testers with 2-3 specific scenario tasks rather than open-ended exploration
In their words
Unedited, grouped by where they were said, most upvoted first within each place, each linked to the thread it came from.
“I'm trying to figure out how to recruit people to test the app before it launches in the app store.”source ↗
“I've already got everything I can out of friends and family via test flight. I would like to have some completely impartial people test it and let me know what they think.”source ↗
“I'm not sure what communities would work best for this sort of thing. I'm not sure I want to post it in a place completely filled with developers and most non-developer subreddits have rules against promoting your app/business.”source ↗
“Do you have any tips on how to reach partners or users to beat test new apps?”source ↗
Where this came up
People with this problem also raised
- 3How to safely test new apps without risking live catalog data
- 2All-in-one platform for private consultancy and community hosting
- 2Where to post open positions for a volunteer board
- 2How do you actually find early-stage funding for a new product?
- 3How do I find early startup employees with no budget?
- 2How to test software without a sandbox environment