What makes a SaaS launch different
A SaaS launch starts a billing relationship rather than making a one-off sale. The launch spike brings people who will judge the price, try the trial and hand over a card in the same visit, and whatever they meet becomes the default for every customer after them. You can change plans, trial terms or prices later, but you pay for it in old accounts on old terms and in emails explaining why.
That is why the money path goes first here. A broken signup is visible and gets fixed within the hour. A failed renewal, a missing receipt or a webhook that never fires is silent, and it looks exactly like churn until someone goes looking.
The order that works
Decide between a trial and a free plan, then write the pricing page, because the page forces you to name what each plan includes. Build checkout against that page, run a real card through signup, charge and refund, and only then set up the handling for failed payments, since you need a working charge before you can test a failing one.
Tax, invoices and annual plans can wait until the basics work, but not until the first business buyer asks for them. Payment platforms such as Stripe and Paddle can calculate tax and send invoices once it is set up.
Type specific
0/3These items appear only for the launch types you selected.
The two attract different people, and switching after launch annoys the users you already have.
What to check
Decide which one you have, how long the trial lasts or what the free plan includes, whether a card is needed to start, and what happens on the last day. Then write it on the pricing page in one sentence.
How to check it
Look at how long a new user takes to get real value. If it is minutes or days, a short trial works. If the product gets more useful over weeks, a free plan with a clear limit fits better. Run a test account with a shortened trial so you see the reminder emails and the end of the trial for yourself.
What goes wrong
A trial shorter than the time it takes to set the product up, a free plan generous enough that nobody upgrades, and a trial that ends without warning. Asking for a card up front tends to lower signups and not asking tends to lower conversion, so choose on purpose rather than by default.
Cards expire constantly. A silent failure looks exactly like churn, and you only find out months later.
What to check
Know what happens when a renewal fails: how often the charge is retried, which emails the customer gets, when access is limited, and what happens once the card is updated. Make sure you hear about it too.
How to check it
Turn on your provider's automatic retries and failed payment emails (in Stripe these are Smart Retries and the customer emails in the billing settings), and handle invoice.payment_failed and subscription status changes in your app. Test with a card that saves and then declines, on a subscription with a short billing period.
What goes wrong
Accounts cut off on the first failed charge, accounts never cut off at all, failed payment emails from a no-reply address the customer ignores, and a card update that does not restart the subscription. In the dashboard, each of these looks like churn.
Buyers who cannot find a price assume they cannot afford it, or leave to check a competitor who shows one.
What to check
One page, linked from the main navigation, with every plan, its price, the billing period, what is included and where the limits are. Say which currency, whether prices include tax, and what happens at the end of a trial.
How to check it
Read the page as someone comparing you with a competitor in the next tab: can they tell which plan they need in under a minute? Check that each button leads straight into checkout for that plan, and that the prices on the page match checkout exactly.
What goes wrong
"Contact us" as the only price on a self serve product, limits that only appear at checkout, a monthly price shown for plans billed annually without saying so, and a page that drifts out of date with the plans in the payment provider.
Questions
FAQTrial or free plan?
A trial suits products with a clear moment of value in a few days. A free plan suits products that get better as people keep using them. Pick one and say so on the pricing page.
Should I launch with a paid plan from day one?
If you intend to charge, yes. Launch traffic is the cheapest attention you get, and people who arrive knowing the price convert better than free users you bill later.
Do I need to show pricing publicly?
For self serve, yes. Buyers who cannot find a price assume they cannot afford it, or go and check a competitor who shows one.
What should happen when a card fails?
Retry the charge over several days, email the customer a link to update the card, and only then limit the account. Tell them what will happen and when, so a lapsed card does not look like a cancellation to either of you.
Do I need a merchant of record?
If you sell to consumers or small businesses in many countries and do not want to register for sales tax or VAT yourself, a merchant of record such as Paddle takes that on for a higher fee. If you mainly sell to businesses in a few countries, a payment processor with tax calculation is usually enough.
What breaks most often in the first week?
Failed payments and transactional email. Both fail silently, and both look like churn from your side of it.
Is an annual plan worth it at launch?
Only if you already know your churn is low. A discount on a product people leave after two months is an expensive way to look bigger.
These phases apply to every kind of product. Open any item for its reasons, or read them all on the full product launch checklist.
Before you launch
0/5Product ready
0/6A failed first charge costs you the customer and the trust. Put one real card through, then refund it, so you have seen both paths.
What to check
Put one real card through the whole path a customer takes: choose a plan, pay, receive the receipt, reach the paid features, then get refunded. At every step the plan in your database, the subscription in your payment provider and the access in the app should agree.
How to check it
Use your provider's test mode for the failure cases (Stripe publishes test card numbers that decline, ask for authentication or fail after being saved) and live mode with your own card for the final run. Keep the webhook log open while you do it: every event your app relies on should arrive and be handled once.
What goes wrong
Webhooks still pointed at a staging URL, checkout that works with test keys but not live ones, receipts sent from a shared address that lands in spam, and a refund that returns the money but leaves the account on the paid plan.
Website ready
0/10Launch assets
0/6Get listed
0/5Launch day
0/4First week after
0/5First month
0/3More checklists
- The product launch checklistA free product launch checklist for SaaS, apps, AI tools and more. Every step says why it matters and when you can skip it.
- Website launch checklistThe things to have in place before a product website goes live, from HTTPS and share images to page speed and a real contact address.
- App launch checklistMobile app launch checklist: store review, device screenshots, privacy labels and every other step, with why each matters and when to skip it.