AppBrewers2026-05-12· 8 min read
The Ultimate Web App Launch Checklist: 47 Things to Do Before Going Live
A comprehensive launch checklist covering security, SEO, performance, legal compliance, and launch day execution. Based on 50+ shipped projects.
web app launchdeployment checklistSaaS launchsecuritySEOperformance
Launching a web app without a checklist is like flying a plane without a pre-flight inspection. You might get lucky. Or you might crash on takeoff. After shipping 50+ projects, we have seen every launch mistake. Here is the complete checklist we use before any app goes live.
Pre-Launch (4–6 Weeks Before)
- Define success metrics (users, revenue, engagement)
- Set up Google Analytics 4 and event tracking
- Configure error monitoring (Sentry, LogRocket)
- Set up uptime monitoring (UptimeRobot, Pingdom)
- Create staging environment separate from production
- Write automated tests (unit, integration, E2E)
- Run load tests (Artillery, k6, Loader.io)
- Audit dependencies for known vulnerabilities
- Set up CI/CD pipeline for automated deployments
- Configure database backups and disaster recovery plan
Security (2–3 Weeks Before)
- Enable HTTPS with valid SSL certificate
- Set up Content Security Policy (CSP) headers
- Configure CORS properly (whitelist, not wildcard)
- Hash and salt all passwords (bcrypt, Argon2)
- Implement rate limiting on all API endpoints
- Validate all user inputs server-side
- Sanitize HTML to prevent XSS attacks
- Use parameterized queries to prevent SQL injection
- Enable 2FA for admin accounts
- Set up audit logging for sensitive operations
- Review OAuth scopes (minimum necessary permissions)
- Encrypt sensitive data at rest (database encryption)
- Implement session timeout and secure cookie flags
SEO & Performance (1–2 Weeks Before)
- Add unique meta titles and descriptions to every page
- Create and submit XML sitemap to Google Search Console
- Add robots.txt with proper directives
- Implement canonical tags to prevent duplicate content
- Add Open Graph and Twitter Card meta tags
- Optimize Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) to under 2.5s
- Minimize Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS) to under 0.1
- Compress images (WebP, responsive images)
- Add alt text to all images
- Enable lazy loading for below-the-fold images
- Minify CSS, JavaScript, and HTML
- Set up CDN for static assets
- Add structured data (Schema.org) for organization and services
- Create a custom 404 page with navigation
- Test on real devices (iOS Safari, Android Chrome)
Legal & Compliance
- Add Privacy Policy (GDPR compliant if serving EU)
- Add Terms of Service
- Add Cookie consent banner
- Implement GDPR data export and deletion features
- Set up DMCA notice if user-generated content exists
- Review PCI DSS compliance if handling payments
- Add accessibility statement (WCAG 2.1 AA)
Launch Day
- Run final smoke tests on production
- Verify SSL certificate is valid and not expiring soon
- Check all forms submit correctly
- Test payment flows with real transactions
- Verify email notifications are sending
- Check social login (Google, Apple, Facebook) works
- Test on mobile devices (iOS Safari, Android Chrome)
- Verify analytics events are firing
- Check error monitoring is capturing issues
- Have a rollback plan ready
- Schedule post-launch monitoring for 48 hours
Common Launch Mistakes to Avoid
- Launching on Friday afternoon. If something breaks, your team is offline for 48 hours. Launch Tuesday or Wednesday morning.
- Not testing on real mobile devices. Chrome DevTools mobile view is not Safari. iOS Safari has different bugs and performance characteristics.
- Forgetting about SEO until after launch. Google needs 4-12 weeks to index and rank new content. Start SEO work during development, not after.
- No rollback plan. When (not if) something breaks, you need to revert in under 5 minutes. Have the command ready and tested.
- Not monitoring after launch. The first 48 hours reveal issues that no amount of pre-launch testing catches. Someone needs to be on call.
- Soft launch without a marketing plan. Building it is 30% of the work. Getting users is 70%. Have your launch channels ready before you deploy.
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