Zeabur Ship It Hackathon Rules
Deploy, share, and win — judged by the final live product.
🧭 Overview & Participation
Welcome to the Zeabur "Ship It" Hackathon! This event is about what you can build and launch.
Whether you are deploying a sophisticated full-stack application or leveraging the Zeabur AI Hub to create the next viral AI tool, the goal is simple: Deploy, Share, and Win.
Below is the structured breakdown of how to participate, how you'll be judged, and the rewards waiting at the finish line.
💰 Scoring, Prizes & Terms
🔹 Scoring Rules
Unlike traditional PR-based hackathons, we evaluate the final live product. Your submission will be judged on a scale of 1–10 across three categories:
- Innovation & Originality: How unique is the idea?
- Technical Execution: How well does it run on Zeabur? (Bonus for using Zeabur-native features like private networking or CI/CD).
- UI/UX & Polish: Is the website intuitive, responsive, and aesthetically pleasing?
🔹 Prizes & Recognition
We are rewarding the top creators who demonstrate the power of seamless deployment.
| Rank | Cash Prize |
|---|---|
| 1st Place | $300 |
| 2nd Place | $200 |
| 3rd Place | $100 |
Note: All valid entries that meet the minimum requirements will receive a "Zeabur" digital badge.
📏 Tracks & Participation Rules
You can choose one of two main paths to victory. All projects must be deployed on Zeabur to be eligible.
1. The AI Hub Challenge (AI-Focused)
Requirement: Build an application that utilizes the Zeabur AI Hub.
- You must use the $5 credits provided by the AI Hub to power your backend logic, LLM interactions, or image generation.
- Submission: A link to the live site and a brief explanation of how the AI Hub was integrated.
2. The Full-Stack Deployment Track (General)
Requirement: Deploy any functional web application or service on Zeabur.
- This track focuses on the Developer Experience. We want to see complex apps (databases, redis, frontend, backend) running harmoniously.
- Submission: A link to the live site and a link to the public GitHub repository (to verify the Zeabur deployment config).
🛠 Submission Requirements
To ensure a fair evaluation, every entry must meet these "Definition of Done" criteria:
- Live URL: The project must be accessible via a
*.zeabur.appdomain. - Stability: The site must not crash during the 48-hour judging period.
- Documentation: A
README.mdin your repository explaining what the project does and how it uses Zeabur/AI Hub. - Originality: Projects must be built or significantly updated during the hackathon window.
💡 Evaluation & Timeline
Our judging panel will review submissions based on the "Usability First" principle. A simple, perfectly working tool will always outscore a complex, broken one.
🗓️ Timeline
Jan 8 – Jan 18, 2026 (Pacific Time)
Online · Global · Open-source
🌍 Compliance & Fair Play
- Open Source: While your project doesn't have to be open-source, providing a public repo helps judges understand your technical depth.
- Original Work: Plagiarism or "cloning" without significant modification will lead to disqualification.
- Resource Usage: Users found gaming the credit system or creating multiple accounts to farm AI Hub credits will be removed from the ranking.
Ready to ship? We can't wait to see what you build on Zeabur! If you run into deployment hurdles, jump into our Discord for support. Happy hacking!