The Checklist Before Launching Your AI-Built SaaS

SaaS launch checklist

Your app is ready. Is it really?

You built your app with vibe coding. The prototype works. The interface looks great. You want to share the link with everyone.

Wait 30 minutes. Go through this checklist. Each point is something that can cost you users, money, or sleepless nights if you discover it after launch.

This isn't a theoretical list. These are problems I regularly see with founders who launch AI-built products. The good news: most of them can be fixed in a few hours.

1. Security

The least exciting section and the most important one. If you only check one thing, check this.

Not just "I can log in." Verify that:

Sessions expire. If a user logs in and stays connected forever, even after closing their browser 3 months ago, that's a risk. Anyone who gets their phone has access to everything.
"Forgot password" works end to end. Click the link, receive the email, change the password, log back in. If any step breaks, your users will be locked out.
Email is verified on signup. Without this, anyone can create an account with someone else's email address.
Private pages are actually private. Open an incognito tab (without being logged in) and try to access pages that should be protected. If you can see them, that's a problem.

How to verify: open an incognito tab and test every step. Signup, login, logout, forgot password. Do it like it's your first time.

Your secrets aren't in the code

Your access keys for services (payments, email sending, database...) should never be visible in your source code.

The trap: even if it's fixed today, those secrets may have been recorded in a previous version of your code. And the history keeps everything. If that's the case, it's not enough to delete them — you need to regenerate them (create new keys and delete the old ones).

Your forms resist abuse

AI generates forms that work. It doesn't generate forms that resist malicious users.

Server-side validation. When a user fills out a form, your app probably checks the data in the browser (is the email valid, are fields filled in...). But those checks can be bypassed. You also need to verify on the server — where nobody can cheat.
Protection against injections. A malicious user can enter code in a form field to access your database. Ask the AI: "are my queries protected against SQL injections?"
Submission limits. Without protection, someone can submit your contact form 10,000 times in 5 minutes. Set up a limit.
Captcha on public forms. A simple "I'm not a robot" on your signup and contact forms blocks automated submissions.

2. Data

Your data is backed up

Your database contains your users' data. If it disappears, your business does too.

Check that automatic backups are enabled. Most hosting providers offer this, but it's sometimes disabled by default.
Test a restore. A backup that's never been restored is a theoretical backup. Restore it once on a test environment to make sure it works.

Your emails reach the inbox

You send confirmation emails, password resets, maybe notifications. If they end up in spam, your users will never see them — and they'll think your app is broken.

How to verify:

Send a test email to a Gmail, Outlook, and Yahoo address. Check it arrives in the main inbox.
Use a custom domain as sender (your-app.com), not a free address like @gmail.com.
Ask your email sending service (Resend, SendGrid, Mailgun...) to set up domain authentication. These are DNS settings that prove you're actually sending those emails. Without them, email providers treat your messages as suspicious.

3. Functional

All features are actually connected

Sounds obvious, but it's a classic: you built 15 features with vibe coding, and 2 of them aren't really wired up. The button exists, the screen too, but nothing happens behind it.

How to verify: do a complete walkthrough of your app as a real user. Signup → setup → use each feature → payment. Every button, every link, every form. If a button does nothing, the feature isn't finished.

Your tests pass

If you have automated tests (and it's a good idea to have some), run them. If any fail, don't launch.

If you don't have any, now is the time to do at least a complete manual test of every critical user flow.

You've tested on mobile

Not "I resized my browser window." Test on a real phone.

Are buttons big enough to tap with a finger?
Are forms usable on a small screen?
Does anything overflow or get cut off?

More than half of web traffic is mobile. If your app is unusable on a phone, you're losing half your users on first contact.

4. Payments

If your SaaS is paid, this is the most critical point after security. No working payments = no business.

Are you in live mode? Payment services like Stripe have a test mode (with fake cards) and a live mode. Make sure you've switched to live mode before launching.
Have you completed a real purchase end to end? Create an account, choose a plan, pay, verify you get access to the service. Then check the money actually arrived in your Stripe account.
Does your app react to payments? When someone pays, your app needs to be automatically notified to activate their account. Test that this works — it's often where things break.
Does the error flow work? Declined card, cancelled payment, user closing the page mid-payment. Test these cases too.

The classic trap: everything works in test mode, you switch to live, but the connection between the payment service and your app still points to the test environment. Result: people pay, but your app doesn't know about it.

5. Infrastructure & monitoring

You have a real domain and HTTPS

my-app-xyz123.vercel.app doesn't look professional. Your users will hesitate to enter their credit card on an address that looks like a prototype.

Buy a domain name (10-15 euros per year)
Check that the little padlock appears in the address bar (HTTPS). It's automatic on most modern hosting providers.

You can see errors when things break

When your app has a problem in production — and it will — you want to know before your users do.

Set up a tool that alerts you when something crashes (Sentry, LogRocket, or even just your hosting provider's logs). The important thing is not to be blind.

You're measuring traffic

You're going to launch, communicate, maybe run ads. If you're not measuring anything, you won't know what's working.

Install an analytics tool (Google Analytics, Plausible, PostHog...). You want to know at minimum: how many visitors, where they come from, and where they drop off.

6. Legal

If you have European users, you need to comply with GDPR.

Add a cookie banner that lets users accept or decline (not just "OK")
Don't load tracking and advertising scripts before the user has consented
Allow users to delete their account and their data

This isn't just best practice. It's the law.

Legal notices and terms of service

If you're selling something online, you need:

Legal notices — who you are, where you are, how to contact you
Terms of Service — the rules for using your product
Terms of Sale — payment conditions if you're charging money

AI can help you draft a first version. But have it reviewed by someone who knows what they're doing — a poorly written legal document won't protect you.

7. Depending on your project

These points don't apply to everyone. But if they apply to you, don't skip them.

Multiple languages

If your app is available in several languages, verify that all translations are complete. Nothing worse than a "Valider" button in the middle of an English interface. Go through every screen in every language.

Accessibility

If your audience is broad or in a professional context (B2B, public sector), accessibility matters. At minimum, verify that keyboard navigation works, colors have enough contrast, and images have alternative text for screen readers.

SEO

If you're counting on Google to bring visitors, check the basics: every page has a title and meta description, URLs are clean and readable, and your site has a file that tells Google which pages to index. AI often generates pages without these fundamentals.

8. Plan B

You know what to do when it breaks

Last question, and not the least important: if your app goes down on a Saturday night, what do you do?

Do you know how to restart your app?
Do you know how to roll back to the previous version?
Do you have the contact of a developer who can step in urgently?

You don't need a 50-page disaster recovery plan. But you need a plan.

Ready to launch?

This checklist doesn't guarantee everything will be perfect. But it guarantees you're not launching blind. And that's already a lot.

Vibe coding lets you build fast. This checklist helps you launch with confidence. Both together — that's the right combination.

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And if you want a professional to go through this checklist with you — and fix what needs fixing — book an audit. In a few days, you'll know exactly where you stand.