SaaS Launch Checklist: Everything to Do Before, During, and After You Go Live

Launching a SaaS product without a checklist is how you forget your meta description, ship with broken mobile layouts, and realize your confirmation email has a typo after 200 people have seen it.

This is the list. Use it.

Pre-Launch: 30–14 Days Out

Product

• [ ] Core user journey works end-to-end without errors
• [ ] Mobile layout tested on real devices (not just DevTools) at 390px and 375px
• [ ] All interactive elements meet 44×44px minimum tap target size
• [ ] Stripe (or your payment processor) is in live mode, not test mode
• [ ] Transactional emails send correctly — welcome email, confirmation, password reset
• [ ] Error states are handled gracefully (404 page, form validation errors, API failures)
• [ ] Basic analytics are live (at minimum, you need to know how many people visit and where they came from)

Infrastructure

• [ ] Custom domain configured and SSL active
• [ ] Uptime monitoring set up (UptimeRobot free tier is fine)
• [ ] Database backups configured
• [ ] Environment variables are not exposed in client-side code
• [ ] GDPR/privacy: privacy policy and cookie notice in place if you're collecting data from EU users

SEO and discoverability

• [ ] Unique <title> and <meta name="description"> on every key page
• [ ] Open Graph image configured (shows when you share the link on Twitter, Slack, etc.)
• [ ] Sitemap generated and submitted to Google Search Console
• [ ] Core Web Vitals check — run Lighthouse and target LCP ≤ 2.5s, CLS ≤ 0.1

Pre-launch audience

• [ ] Waitlist live and capturing emails
• [ ] Referral mechanic configured so signups generate referral links
• [ ] At least one launch-day distribution channel identified (HN, PH, Reddit, newsletter, etc.)
• [ ] Email list of people to notify on launch day (aim for 50+)

Pre-Launch: 7–3 Days Out

• [ ] Write your launch posts for each channel — don't wing it on the day
• [ ] Record or prepare a short demo (60–90 second Loom works fine)
• [ ] Test every email in your sequence in a real inbox — check for rendering issues and broken links
• [ ] Personal outreach list ready: who are the 20–30 people you'll DM directly on launch day?
• [ ] Pricing page reviewed — is the value proposition clear? Is the free tier obvious?
• [ ] Write your first blog post if you haven't already — launch day is a good time to have fresh content indexed

Launch Day

First 2 hours

• [ ] Go live and post across all prepared channels
• [ ] Send personal DMs to your outreach list (not copy-paste blasts — personalized short messages)
• [ ] Email your waitlist: "We're live. Here's your link."
• [ ] Monitor error logs and Stripe for anything broken

Throughout the day

• [ ] Reply to every comment, tweet, and message — launch day engagement compounds
• [ ] Track signups, conversions, and where traffic is coming from in real time
• [ ] Don't ship new features — if something breaks, you want a stable codebase to roll back to
• [ ] Screenshot everything: traffic spikes, first payment, comments. These are your build-in-public content for the next week.

Post-Launch: Week 1

• [ ] Email every person who signed up on launch day — personally, not a drip sequence. Thank them and ask one feedback question.
• [ ] Write a launch retrospective post: what happened, the numbers, what surprised you. Post it everywhere.
• [ ] File the feature requests and bug reports from comments — even if you don't act on them immediately
• [ ] Check your Core Web Vitals under real traffic conditions — things sometimes look different at scale
• [ ] Start your weekly email cadence to your user list — don't go silent after launch

Post-Launch: Month 1

• [ ] Identify your highest-activation users (people who've actually used the product, not just signed up) and reach out personally
• [ ] Set up a feedback loop — a simple Tally form, a public roadmap on Notion, or a Discord channel
• [ ] Submit to startup directories (there are 50+ free ones) to build backlinks and discovery
• [ ] Start your SEO content calendar — one blog post per week targeting a specific founder pain point
• [ ] Review pricing with real data: are people converting? Where are they dropping off?

The One Thing Most Founders Skip

Personal outreach. Not newsletter blasts, not automated sequences — actual human messages. "Hey, you signed up on day one, I wanted to personally say thank you and ask: what were you hoping this would solve for you?"

Ten of those conversations are worth more than your entire analytics dashboard for the first month.

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Before your launch, make sure your waitlist is ready to capture and convert every visitor. Set up a referral-powered waitlist on fstlaunch — free to list your startup.