SaaS Launch Checklist: What to Ready Before Launch Day

A SaaS launch checklist should cover seven things before day one. The product has to work for a stranger without help, and the landing page has to say what it does. Signup and onboarding need to work, and pricing and payments need a real test. Tracking should show where visitors come from, and people need a way to reach you. Last come the launch copy and the listing for each platform. The list below breaks each of those into items you can tick.

It assumes a small team or a solo maker, a product that works but isn’t finished, and a launch on one or more launch platforms. We run LaunchGP, a launch directory, so we have an interest in your launch going well there. The listing section uses it as the example; everything else applies to any platform. The list is our own suggestion, not an industry standard, so skip what doesn’t fit your product.

Work through it a week or two before your launch date. Anything you can’t tick, either fix or decide on purpose that it can wait. A rough timing:

When	Sections to finish
Two weeks before	Product, landing page, signup and onboarding, pricing and payments
One week before	Tracking, support, launch copy, launch listing
The days before	The people you’ll tell, and a last full signup test
Launch day	The launch day list, and nothing new

Is the product ready for strangers?

• A new user can reach the first useful result without help from you.
• The main flow works on a phone, even if the product is built for desktop.
• Error messages say what went wrong and what to do next.
• You’ve signed up from scratch with a new email address in the last few days.
• You know what breaks first under load, and you’ve raised the limits you can.
• There’s a way to delete an account, or a sentence explaining how to ask.

Does the landing page explain the product?

• The first line says what the product does and who it’s for. No slogan.
• There’s one clear call to action above the fold.
• A screenshot or short video shows the product itself, not an illustration.
• The page loads quickly on a phone. Test it on mobile data, not office wifi.
• The page title and meta description describe the product in plain words.
• Shared links show a proper preview image (Open Graph tags).
• Your terms and privacy pages exist and are linked in the footer.

Do signup and onboarding work?

• Signup asks only for what you need to get started.
• The confirmation or welcome email arrives, and doesn’t land in spam.
• The empty state on first login tells the user what to do next.
• Sample content or a template is available, so nobody starts from a blank screen.

Are pricing and payments tested?

• Pricing is on the site, or there’s a sentence saying the product is free for now.
• A test purchase goes through end to end, receipt included.
• Refunds and cancellations are explained somewhere a customer can find.
• If there’s a launch discount, it has an end date you will actually keep.

Can you see where visitors come from?

• Analytics are installed and you can see visits by referrer.
• You know which events count as a signup and as an activated user.
• Links you post have UTM tags where the platform allows them, so you can compare launches.
• Google Search Console is set up and your sitemap is submitted.

Can people reach you?

• There’s a visible way to reach you: an email address, a chat or a contact form.
• You’ve blocked time during launch week to answer messages within hours, not days.
• You have a short note ready for the questions you already expect.

Is your launch copy written?

• A tagline of one line that a stranger understands. See how to write a tagline for your product.
• A short description: what it does, who it’s for, what’s different.
• A maker comment or launch post: who you are, why you built it, what you want feedback on. See how to write a launch post.
• A square logo and two or three screenshots at the sizes the platform asks for.

Is your launch listing ready?

If you’re launching on LaunchGP:

• Your product is added in the garage with its name, tagline, link and category.
• For a free seat, the LaunchGP badge is on the page you entered, as a normal link, and the badge check has passed.
• Your round is booked. Free seats go to the earliest round with an open seat; to choose your week, book a front slot or use a Season Pass from the pricing page.
• The badge is still on your site at lights out, Monday 00:00 UTC. We check every free car again then, and a car without it doesn’t start.

For other platforms, read their rules the week before. Each one has its own timing, assets and limits, which we compare in product launch platforms compared by how they work.

Who will you tell?

• A list of people who asked about the product, tried a beta or said they’d use it.
• A short personal message for each, with the link, written in advance.
• A post for the communities you’re already part of, following their self-promotion rules.
• A note on voting: on LaunchGP people need to sign in, and a vote from a brand-new account counts once the account is a day old, if that’s before the round ends.

What do you do on launch day?

• You’re online when your launch window opens, or soon after.
• You’ve sent the personal messages and posted the launch post.
• You reply to every comment and question that day.
• You keep a running list of every bug and request people mention.

What can wait?

A launch doesn’t need a blog, a referral program, a full help center or every integration on your roadmap. It needs a product that works for the first person who tries it and a maker who answers when they write.

What comes after launch week matters too. We cover that in how to launch a SaaS without an audience and how to keep users after launch week ends.

FAQ

How far ahead should I start the launch checklist?

A week or two before the launch date, if the product already works. That leaves time to fix what the checklist turns up without moving the date.

What is the most important item on a SaaS launch checklist?

The first one: a new user can reach a useful result without your help. Most other items bring people to the product. This one is about whether they get anything from it.

Do I need a finished product to launch?

No. You need a product that does one job well for the first person who tries it, and an honest description of what it doesn’t do yet.

Should I launch with a discount?

Only if you’ll keep its end date. A discount with no real deadline stops meaning anything to the people who saw it.

What if I can’t add a badge to my site?

On LaunchGP, front slots and Season Pass entries don’t need the badge. The options are on the pricing page.