The final weeks before launching your SaaS are a whirlwind of excitement and anxiety. You're close to the finish line, but a single missed step can lead to a rocky start. How do you ensure a smooth, successful debut?
A methodical approach is your best defense against launch-day chaos. This comprehensive checklist is designed for founders and indie hackers, breaking down the critical tasks into manageable phases. Follow it to ensure your product, marketing, and administrative foundations are solid before you go live.
Phase 1: Product & Technical Readiness
This is about making sure the product itself is bulletproof.
- 1. Finalize Core Features: Lock down the feature set for your v1. Stop adding new things and focus on stability. Why? Feature creep is the #1 cause of launch delays.
- 2. Conduct Thorough QA & Bug Squashing: Test every user flow, button, and form. Hunt down and resolve all critical and major bugs. Use tools like Jira, Linear, or even a simple spreadsheet.
- 3. Set Up Transactional Emails: Ensure your welcome emails, password resets, and payment receipts are styled, written, and sending correctly. Don't forget to check your SPF and DKIM records to avoid the spam folder.
- 4. Install and Test Analytics: Integrate your analytics suite (like Google Analytics, Plausible, or Fathom) and confirm it's tracking pageviews, events, and conversions accurately.
- 5. Implement Error Monitoring: Set up a service like Sentry or Flare to get real-time alerts for any backend or frontend errors your first users encounter.
- 6. Perform a Final Security Audit: Check for common vulnerabilities (like XSS or SQL injection). Ensure your SSL certificate is active and correctly configured.
Phase 2: Marketing & Website Readiness
Your marketing site is your digital storefront. It needs to be perfect.
- 7. Finalize Website Copy & Design: Your value proposition should be crystal clear on the homepage. Ensure your pricing page is easy to understand and your FAQ section answers key questions.
- 8. Optimize On-Page SEO: Every page should have a unique, descriptive
<title>and<meta name="description">. Use our Meta Tag & Open Graph Generator to craft and preview them perfectly. - 9. Set Up Social Sharing Tags: When your site is shared, does it look good? Configure Open Graph and Twitter Card tags to control the preview image, title, and description.
- 10. Create a "Coming Soon" Landing Page: Before the full launch, use a simple landing page to collect emails from interested users. This builds your initial audience.
- 11. Prepare Your Launch Day Content: Write your blog post, social media announcements, and emails in advance so you can focus on engagement on launch day.
Phase 3: Legal & Administrative
Don't let the "boring" stuff trip you up.
- 12. Create Your Privacy Policy & ToS: Have clear Terms of Service and a Privacy Policy. These are legally required in many regions and build trust.
- 13. Set Up Your Payment Gateway: Connect and test your Stripe or Paddle account. Run a real transaction to ensure the entire payment and subscription flow works.
- 14. Establish Customer Support Channels: Decide how users will get help. Will it be a chat widget, a dedicated email address, or a simple contact form? Make sure it's visible.
Phase 4: The Final Countdown
The last few days before you go live.
- 15. Back Up Everything: Create a full backup of your database, code, and server configuration.
- 16. Prepare Your Launch Channels: Draft your posts for Product Hunt, Hacker News, Reddit, and other communities. Remember to read the rules of each community before posting.
- 17. Inform Your Email List: Send a "heads up" email to your waitlist a day or two before you launch.
- 18. Get a Good Night's Sleep: You've done the work. Launch day will be busy, so face it well-rested and ready.
Launching a SaaS is a marathon, not a sprint. By following this checklist, you can move forward with confidence, knowing you’ve covered your bases for a strong and successful debut.