SaaS Launch Checklist
A structured checklist for shipping a SaaS product to production with confidence. Every item exists because someone skipped it and regretted it.
Pre-Launch Checklist (28 Items)
Infrastructure (5 items)
- SSL/TLS -- Certificate installed, auto-renewal configured (Let's Encrypt / ACM), HSTS header present
- CDN -- Static assets served through CDN, cache-control headers set, origin shielding enabled
- Backup -- Database backup scheduled (daily minimum), tested restore procedure, off-site copy
- Monitoring -- Health check endpoint returns 200 when healthy and 503 when degraded, uptime monitor pings every 60s
- Alerting -- PagerDuty/Opsgenie configured, on-call rotation set, escalation policy defined (5 min ack SLA)
Security (5 items)
- Penetration test -- Run OWASP ZAP or equivalent against staging, fix all HIGH/CRITICAL findings
- Dependency audit --
npm audit/pip-audit/trivyshows zero critical CVEs - Secret rotation -- All production secrets differ from staging, rotation schedule documented
- Rate limiting -- API endpoints rate-limited (e.g., 100 req/min per user), auth endpoints stricter (10 req/min)
- Headers -- CSP, X-Frame-Options, X-Content-Type-Options, Referrer-Policy all configured
Legal (4 items)
- Terms of Service -- Reviewed by legal counsel, published at
/terms, acceptance recorded at signup - Privacy Policy -- GDPR/CCPA compliant, published at
/privacy, covers data collection, retention, and third parties - Cookie consent -- Banner shown to EU visitors, non-essential cookies blocked until consent, preferences stored
- DPA (Data Processing Agreement) -- Template available for enterprise customers, sub-processor list published
Payment (4 items)
- Test transactions -- Full purchase flow tested with test cards (success, decline, 3DS), subscription upgrade/downgrade verified
- Webhook verification -- Stripe/Paddle webhook signature verified, replay attacks prevented with idempotency keys
- Invoice generation -- Invoices auto-generated with correct tax info, downloadable as PDF, emailed on payment
- Dunning flow -- Failed payment retry schedule configured (day 1, 3, 5, 7), grace period before cancellation
Email (4 items)
- SPF/DKIM/DMARC -- DNS records configured, DMARC policy set to
quarantineorreject, verified with mail-tester.com - Transactional templates -- Welcome, password reset, invoice, and trial expiry emails tested across Gmail/Outlook/Apple Mail
- Unsubscribe -- One-click unsubscribe header present (RFC 8058),
/unsubscribeendpoint works, preference center available - Sender reputation -- Dedicated IP warmed up (if >10k emails/day), bounce handling configured, complaint feedback loop active
Analytics (3 items)
- Core events -- Signup, activation, purchase, and churn events tracked with user ID and properties
- Funnels -- Signup-to-activation and trial-to-paid funnels configured in analytics dashboard
- Dashboards -- Real-time dashboard shows active users, revenue (MRR), error rate, and response time
Performance (3 items)
- Load test -- k6/Artillery run at 2x expected peak traffic, p95 latency under 500ms, zero errors
- CDN cache -- Cache hit ratio above 90% for static assets, proper
Cache-ControlandETagheaders - Image optimization -- All images served as WebP/AVIF with responsive srcset, lazy loading below the fold
Day-1 Monitoring Dashboard
Build this dashboard before launch. Every panel answers a specific question.
+-----------------------------------------------------+
| SaaS Launch Dashboard |
+---------------------------+-------------------------+
| Request Rate (req/s) | Error Rate (%) |
| Normal: 10-50/s | Target: < 1% |
| Alert: > 200/s | Alert: > 2% |
+---------------------------+-------------------------+
| p95 Latency (ms) | Active Users (real-time) |
| Target: < 200ms | Shows WebSocket/polling |
| Alert: > 500ms | count |
+---------------------------+-------------------------+
| Signup Rate (/hr) | Payment Success Rate (%) |
| Compare to projection | Target: > 95% |
| Alert: 0 for 30min | Alert: < 90% |
+---------------------------+-------------------------+
| CPU / Memory | Database Connections |
| Alert: > 80% | Alert: > 80% pool |
+---------------------------+-------------------------+
Dashboard as Code (Prometheus Queries)
# monitoring/launch-dashboard.yml
panels:
- title: Request Rate
query: sum(rate(http_requests_total[5m]))
alert_threshold: 200
- title: Error Rate
query: |
sum(rate(http_requests_total{status_code=~"5.."}[5m]))
/ sum(rate(http_requests_total[5m])) * 100
alert_threshold: 2
- title: p95 Latency
query: |
histogram_quantile(0.95,
sum(rate(http_request_duration_seconds_bucket[5m])) by (le))
alert_threshold: 0.5
- title: Signup Rate
query: sum(increase(user_signups_total[1h]))
alert_threshold: 0 # alert if zero for 30 min
- title: Payment Success Rate
query: |
sum(rate(payment_completed_total[5m]))
/ sum(rate(payment_attempted_total[5m])) * 100
alert_threshold: 90 # alert if below
Rollback Plan Template
Complete this before you deploy. If you cannot fill every field, you are not ready to launch.
# Rollback Plan: [Product Name] v[X.Y.Z]
## Decision Criteria
Trigger rollback if ANY of these occur within 60 minutes of deploy:
- [ ] Error rate exceeds 5%
- [ ] p95 latency exceeds 2 seconds for 5 consecutive minutes
- [ ] Payment processing fails for 3+ consecutive attempts
- [ ] Data integrity issue detected (mismatched records)
## Rollback Steps
1. Set feature flag `launch_v1` to OFF (immediate, <30 seconds)
2. Revert DNS/load balancer to previous deployment
3. Run: `kubectl rollout undo deployment/api --to-revision=PREV`
OR: `docker compose -f docker-compose.prod.yml up -d --force-recreate`
4. Verify health check returns 200 on previous version
5. Notify #incidents channel: "Rollback executed, investigating"
## Data Migration Rollback
- [ ] Database migration has a DOWN migration
- [ ] Tested: `npm run migrate:down` or `python manage.py migrate APP PREVIOUS`
- [ ] New columns are NULLABLE (old code ignores them)
- [ ] No destructive changes (column drops, renames) in this release
## Communication
- Engineering: #incidents Slack channel
- Support: Pre-drafted message in support tool
- Customers: Status page update (only if downtime > 5 min)
## Owner
- Rollback decision: [On-call engineer name]
- Execution: [DevOps engineer name]
- Communication: [Support lead name]
Incident Response Playbook Skeleton
# Launch Day Incident Playbook
## Severity Levels
| Level | Definition | Response | Example |
|-------|-----------------------------|-----------|----------------------------|
| SEV-1 | Service down, data loss | 5 min | Database unreachable |
| SEV-2 | Major feature broken | 15 min | Payments failing |
| SEV-3 | Minor feature broken | 1 hour | Email delivery delayed |
| SEV-4 | Cosmetic issue | Next day | Alignment bug on Safari |
## On-Call Roster (Launch Day)
| Role | Primary | Secondary | Contact |
|--------------------|----------------|----------------|----------------|
| Incident Commander | [Name] | [Name] | [Phone/Slack] |
| Backend Engineer | [Name] | [Name] | [Phone/Slack] |
| Frontend Engineer | [Name] | [Name] |