Links to try any product at any moment with no setup
Portal exists because trying software is still weirdly fake. We send landing pages, videos, and demos - but the first time someone actually uses a product still requires signups, installs, or a sales call. Portal lets you send a browser session, which can be open to any real, running state of your product. That could be opened to localhost:3000, with an extension installed, or logged into a demo account with safety, resets, and optional AI. You get analytics. The link allows a temp session.
Why is it still so hard to let someone actually try software?
Last year I was in a disability lab in Seattle, showing someone a Chrome extension I’d built to control a computer with voice.
They were excited - but when it came time to install, they hesitated & didn't trust downloading this thing.
I remember thinking: Why can’t I just send a link to a computer where this is already running?
That question stuck with me.
What Portal does
Portal turns a browser session (a real product state) into a shareable link.
Clicking a Portal feels like opening someone else’s browser - already set up - that you can safely explore.
When multiple people open a Portal, each gets their own isolated session automatically.
A Portal might open to:
a logged-in dashboard
a demo account with real data
a specific onboarding step
a localhost or Chrome extension w/ 10 min temp/limited access & analytics on use
No installs. No signups. No pretending. Just click & you’re in.
How it works (high level)
Think of a Portal like a booth at a science fair - an iPad already open to the app, with guardrails.
Each Portal is:
the real UI, fully interactive
opened in a specific chosen state
sandboxed with guardrails & expiring access
optionally joined by an AI you control (to answer questions or run a demo)
instrumented with analytics on clicks and hesitation
You choose the state, who leads (user or AI), and the rules of the sandbox that is contained in a stateful URL. When someone opens the link, that session comes alive. Most Portals take under a minute to create, with zero code.
Demos (led by an AI agent or self-serve w/ AI to answer Qs) are just one use case
People use Portals to:
share hard-to-set-up products instantly, trialing conversion / user insight lifts
run self-serve onboarding or research
send links in Slack instead of Looms
end presentations with actual software, not slides
soon embed specific experiences on their sites
Using an unreleased multiplayer beta, I send Portals to my parents to scroll through news articles together instead of screen sharing, and drop a Portal instead of sharing on Zooms.
A moment that made it click
At a South Park Commons demo event, I ended with a QR code.
25 founders scanned it - and instantly opened isolated instances of my localhost app on their phones, with a Chrome extension already installed.
No installs. No screen sharing. No pretending.
They didn’t watch a demo. They experienced the product.
The vision
We’re building Portal as a new primitive for the web: shareable links to live product states, for the next billion stateful products.
If Google Docs made documents shareable, Portal makes software experiences shareable.
📌 Hey Product Hunt - I’m Zach, founder of Portal
👉 Try a live Portal here: www.makeportals.com/try-producthunt
Portal started with a simple question:
Why is it still so hard to let someone actually try software?
Last year I was in a disability lab in Seattle, showing someone a Chrome extension I’d built to control a computer with voice.
They were excited - but when it came time to install, they hesitated & didn't trust downloading this thing.
I remember thinking: Why can’t I just send a link to a computer where this is already running?
That question stuck with me.
What Portal does
Portal turns a browser session (a real product state) into a shareable link.
Clicking a Portal feels like opening someone else’s browser - already set up - that you can safely explore.
When multiple people open a Portal, each gets their own isolated session automatically.
A Portal might open to:
a logged-in dashboard
a demo account with real data
a specific onboarding step
a localhost or Chrome extension w/ 10 min temp/limited access & analytics on use
No installs. No signups. No pretending.
Just click & you’re in.
How it works (high level)
Think of a Portal like a booth at a science fair - an iPad already open to the app, with guardrails.
Each Portal is:
the real UI, fully interactive
opened in a specific chosen state
sandboxed with guardrails & expiring access
optionally joined by an AI you control (to answer questions or run a demo)
instrumented with analytics on clicks and hesitation
You choose the state, who leads (user or AI), and the rules of the sandbox that is contained in a stateful URL.
When someone opens the link, that session comes alive. Most Portals take under a minute to create, with zero code.
Demos (led by an AI agent or self-serve w/ AI to answer Qs) are just one use case
People use Portals to:
share hard-to-set-up products instantly, trialing conversion / user insight lifts
run self-serve onboarding or research
send links in Slack instead of Looms
end presentations with actual software, not slides
soon embed specific experiences on their sites
Using an unreleased multiplayer beta, I send Portals to my parents to scroll through news articles together instead of screen sharing, and drop a Portal instead of sharing on Zooms.
A moment that made it click
At a South Park Commons demo event, I ended with a QR code.
25 founders scanned it - and instantly opened isolated instances of my localhost app on their phones, with a Chrome extension already installed.
No installs. No screen sharing. No pretending.
They didn’t watch a demo.
They experienced the product.
The vision
We’re building Portal as a new primitive for the web: shareable links to live product states, for the next billion stateful products.
If Google Docs made documents shareable, Portal makes software experiences shareable.
www.makeportals.com/try-producthunt
Vid making a Portal: https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7422078545230843904/
If anything feels unclear, broken, or surprisingly powerful, I’d genuinely love your feedback - and how you’d want to use a Portal.