Product Launch Checklist for a SaaS or AI Tool, Week by Week
A product launch checklist for a SaaS or AI tool runs from about eight weeks before launch day to 30 days after it, in five stages of lines to tick. For a founder booking free launch slots alone, the item that sets the start date is somebody else's queue: on 10 November 2026 OpenHunts put its free line at about 60 weeks and Firsto at about 180 days, while Uneed assigned free dates at least 50 days out. Around the launch sit the listings: our catalog export of 3 November 2026 holds 76 launch sites we submit to, 40 of them with a followed link on our record.
Page one for this search serves product marketing teams (go-to-market checklists, PDFs, Word templates). This checklist for product launch is for the founder doing it alone, with the whole launch checklist at the end as a template to copy.
Plan backwards from the slowest free line you want. Eight weeks out, book the launch slots and start a beta; three weeks out, make the texts and images once; in launch week, freeze the product and file the directories; on launch day, one platform and every reply; in the 30 days after, check what went live. Launchtory sells seven days of Featured publishing for $29. The same $29 at Submitator files 30 directories you pick from the 189 we submit to, each with a description written for it and every badge kept live.
How to launch a product in five stages
How to launch a product without a team comes down to order: the work that waits on other people goes first (a launch site's line, a beta tester's answer), so launch day arrives with nothing left to write. The same order answers how to launch a startup of any kind. The product launch timeline below is the plan at a glance; each stage after it lists the lines that need a reason, and the template at the end holds every line.
Product launch timeline: five stages, eight weeks out to 30 days after
| Stage | When | The item that cannot slip |
|---|---|---|
| Pre-launch | Eight to four weeks out | Booking the launch sites whose free lines run long |
| The last three weeks | Three weeks to launch week | Signup and payment tested end to end |
| Launch week | The seven days before | Nothing new ships |
| Launch day | The day itself | Replies within the hour |
| The 30 days after | Days 1 to 30 | Badges kept where directories asked for them |
For one founder launching a SaaS or AI tool with no marketing team. Eight weeks is the run-up for the product; a launch site whose free line runs longer sets its own date (the queue table below).
Pre-launch checklist: eight to four weeks out
The product pre-launch checklist is short on building and long on booking: most of it starts a clock that runs without you.
- Write the launch plan on one page (the four decisions further down).
- Pick the date by working back from the slowest line you want; what gates a Product Hunt date is in our run-up to a Product Hunt day.
- Book the launch sites whose free lines run long, or choose the badge or the paid date that skips them (the queue table).
- Run a closed beta and ask every tester for one sentence you may quote.
- Start the list of people to tell; if strangers are on it, one team's launch outreach shows how early that work starts.
- Track signup, trial start and payment, so launch day reads in customers rather than visits.
The last three weeks: the site, the texts and the assets
Three weeks out the launch turns into things you can make, each made once. The product site has its own list just below.
- Write the listing texts once: a tagline, a short and a long description. Our examples for software listings are cut to the lengths forms ask for.
- Make a logo, screenshots and a share card. Product Hunt's sizes and first comment are in our post on its gallery and the maker's comment.
- Gather the directory kit (categories, accounts, one inbox); the full kit, item by item, has its own page.
- Put the launch offer, with its end date, on the page every link points to, and draft a post for each channel.
- Choose the launch-day platform and read its rules; for Product Hunt, first check the old advice that no longer holds.
Website launch checklist for the product site
Every launch link lands on the site, so its checklist is about the visit:
- Pricing as text on its own page; signup, the welcome email and payment tested in live mode with a real card.
- A title, a description and a share card of its own on every page you will post, each card checked with our link preview checker, which shows what a shared URL turns into.
- Search Console verified and a sitemap submitted; a new domain's first month of search work is in our search plan for a new site.
- A privacy policy, terms and a way to reach you in every page footer.
Launch week checklist
Launch week is for stopping: schedule the posts and the email, check the share cards and leave launch day nothing but people.
- Freeze features; fix what blocks signup or payment and nothing else.
- File the directories, since a listing has no launch day of its own. With Submitator, most directories are delivered in 24 to 48 hours and every directory within 21 days at most.
- Brief anyone helping: who answers where, with answers to the usual questions.
Launch day: one platform, every reply
A founder can run one launch day well: pick the platform whose audience is closest to your buyer and give it the whole day.
- Go live on the platform you picked. A Product Hunt day is planned hour by hour in our post on who is awake when, and what its link does for search is in our check of the Product Hunt link.
- Email your list, publish the drafted posts and answer every comment and email within the hour.
- Watch signups and payments rather than votes, and note where each signup came from.
The 30 days after launch
After the day the slow half of the list pays: listings go live one by one and the launch dates booked for later come round.
- Days 1 and 2: thank people one by one and place any badge you earned; the first 48 hours after a launch have a post of their own.
- Week 1: note each listing as it goes live, and run the launches you booked for later dates.
- Week 2: open each live listing, make sure the link goes to your own URL and read its rel (followed or nofollow).
- Every week: keep each badge a directory asked for in place; on some, the followed link lasts exactly as long as the badge.
- Weeks 3 and 4: write the numbers down (signups by source, trials, paid), follow up every lead and pick the next launch moment.
Where to launch: the launch sites and directories we submit to
Launch sites rank the day's products on a front page and keep a page for each; directories file a product by kind. Our export of 3 November 2026 holds 76 launch sites and startup directories we submit to, 40 with a followed link on our record: 21 with no badge in their rules and 19 with one, 16 of them requiring it. Product Hunt is among the 76 and outside the followed count: its link is tagged ugc.
Where to launch a SaaS or AI tool: the sites we submit to, by group
| Group | We submit to | Followed on our record | Followed, no badge in the rules |
|---|---|---|---|
| Launch sites and startup directories | 76 | 40 | 21 |
| SaaS and software directories | 59 | 40 | 25 |
| AI tool directories | 54 | 36 | 31 |
| All three | 189 | 116 | 77 |
Our catalog as exported on 3 November 2026, intercepts set aside: 189 rows across the three groups. Followed: our admin's dofollow record on a row no count of its live listings has flagged. A badge is in a row's rules when it is required or optional, or when the followed link depends on it. Domain Rating by Ahrefs
Which launch site passes a followed link, one by one, is in our Product Hunt alternatives page; every row with its rating and badge rule is in the startup directories table.
Launch queues: why the list starts eight weeks out
Done alone, a free launch is a place in a line, and the line belongs to the site. Of the seven we read on 10 November 2026, two print waits that run to months (about 60 weeks at OpenHunts, about 180 days at Firsto), Uneed assigns free dates at least 50 days out and the other four state no length.
Launch queues: the free line at seven launch sites, read on 10 November 2026
| Launch site | The free line, in its words | On the free route, in its words | What skips the line |
|---|---|---|---|
| OpenHuntsDR 73 | “20 slots weekly”; “Current queue time: ~60 weeks” | “Dofollow backlink if top 3” | A badge: “add our badge to skip”. Or Premium Launch, $9.90: “Skip the wait. Launch next Monday” |
| FirstoDR 57 | “5 slots available daily”; “Queue: ~180 days” | “DF backlink for Top 3 (badge required)” | Premium Launch, $19.90: “Skip the queue and launch in 24h” |
| UneedDR 77 | “We assign your launch date, at least 50 days out.” | “An upvote score of 10 to stay published, 20 for the do-follow backlink.” | Skip the line, $39.99: “Launch a new product and choose your launch date.” |
| HUNT0DR 33 | “70 slots per week”; “first come, first served” | “First 20 community-ordered launches eligible for an ordinary link” | A badge: “Skip the free queue” (“Ahrefs DR above 10 + official HUNT0 badge”). Or Premium Launch, $16.90: “Reserve your launch week” |
| Launch VaultDR 63 | “25 slots available each week”; “Standard launch queue” | “Badge verification is required before a free launch is scheduled.” | Premium Launch, $9.99: “Launch in days, not months” |
| TinyLaunchDR 74 | “Standard launch queue” | “High authority backlink for top 3 ranking products” | Premium Launch, $39: “Skip the queue” |
| LaunchtoryDR 64 | “Due to high submission volume, we cannot guarantee a review timeframe for free submissions.” | “Add a Launchtory link to your website and verify it before publishing.” | Featured publishing, $29: “Review within 24 hours after payment confirmation” |
Each line quoted from the site's own pricing page, read with a plain GET on 10 November 2026 (openhunts.com/pricing, firsto.co/pricing, uneed.best/pricing, hunt0.com/pricing, launchvault.dev/pricing, tinylaunch.com/pricing and launchtory.com/pricing). Prices in US dollars, the lower one where a struck list price sits beside it. DR: the Ahrefs figure in our export of 3 November 2026. Queues and slot counts change from week to week. Uneed's cheaper paid route, Fast-track at $14.99, reads “We assign you a slot in about 14 days.” Domain Rating by Ahrefs
Each of the seven sells a way past its line, from $9.90 at OpenHunts to $39.99 for Uneed's Skip the line, and at OpenHunts and HUNT0 a badge on your site skips it for nothing, which puts the badge in the plan. Uneed closes its free line when it fills; through us you can always launch there. What paying each site directly adds up to is in our post on what submissions cost.
Launchtory: $29 for seven days of Featured publishing. Submitator: $29 for 30 directories.
Same $29. Launchtory's Featured publishing puts one project on its homepage and in its category for seven days; our Starter files 30 directories you pick from the 189 we submit to, Launchtory among them, each with a description written for it. 60 for $49, 100 for $79, paid once.
Product launch plan and strategy: four decisions behind the list
The product launch plan is four decisions made before the first line is ticked, the head of any product launch plan checklist:
- Who the launch is for. One buyer, in one sentence; it decides which launch sites deserve a slot.
- The one page every link sends people to. Usually signup or pricing; a launch that links five pages measures none of them.
- The offer, and the day it ends. A launch discount, a longer trial or a founding price: the end date is what makes it an offer.
- The number that says it worked. Trials or paid signups, set before the day, not votes.
A product launch strategy for a founder alone is the choice of one loud week and the quiet listings around it; a go-to-market checklist for a company with a sales team adds enablement and internal training a team of one does not need.
Beta launch, soft launch and public launch
Beta launch: before the product is public
One site is built for the beta stage: BetaList. Its criteria, read on 18 October 2026, accept startups “not available to anyone yet” and private betas that let users in by invitation, and a startup can be featured there at most twice, once before launch and once at it, at least a few weeks apart. The sites above list public products, so they wait for the public launch.
Soft launch against a public launch
A soft launch for a product is the quiet opening in between: the waitlist gets its invitations, one community gets a link and the first support emails show what onboarding missed. Book the launch sites with long lines during it, so their dates land after.
SaaS, AI tool and app launch checklists: what changes
SaaS launch checklist
Any software launch checklist keeps the five stages. A SaaS product launch checklist adds the billing (trials that end when they should, a cancel flow, a receipt with your company name) and listings past the launch sites: the software directories, 59 in our catalog with 40 followed on our record, and the marketplaces of the tools you integrate with. The pages a SaaS builds for search are in our post on SEO for software companies; a startup launch checklist for any other product keeps the stages and swaps the directories.
AI tool launch checklist
An AI tool gets a group of its own: 54 AI tool directories we submit to, 36 followed on our record. Put what the tool does in one plain line before the first form asks for it.
App launch checklist
For a mobile app the store review is the gate, so the app launch checklist moves the build submission into the pre-launch weeks and keeps a web page for the app, since launch sites and directories link a website.
Product launch checklist template
The whole launch checklist as plain text, 30 lines to paste into a doc or a task app. The four decisions at the top make it a launch plan template too, and kept as your product launch template it is the new product launch checklist for the next one.
PRODUCT LAUNCH CHECKLIST (copy, paste, tick)
Launch date: ____________ Audience: ____________
The one page every link sends people to: ____________
Offer and its end date: ____________ The number to watch: ____________
PRE-LAUNCH: EIGHT TO FOUR WEEKS OUT
[ ] Launch plan written on one page: audience, page, offer, number
[ ] Launch date picked, working back from the slowest queue you want
[ ] Launch sites with long free lines booked (or a badge or paid date chosen)
[ ] Closed beta running; a quote asked of every beta user
[ ] Waitlist or early-access form live on your own site
[ ] List of people to tell started: users, peers, your communities
[ ] Analytics events for signup, trial start and payment
THE LAST THREE WEEKS
[ ] Product site: pricing as text, signup and payment tested in live mode
[ ] Every page: its own title, description and share card
[ ] Listing texts written once: tagline, short and long description
[ ] Images: logo, screenshots, share card
[ ] Directory kit ready: categories, accounts, one inbox
[ ] Launch offer on the page, with its end date
[ ] Posts drafted for each channel, each written for its audience
[ ] Launch-day platform chosen and its rules read
LAUNCH WEEK
[ ] Feature freeze: fix what blocks signup or payment, nothing else
[ ] Launch post, email and social posts scheduled
[ ] Directories filed
[ ] Helpers briefed: who answers where, answers to the usual questions
[ ] Share cards checked on every page you will post
LAUNCH DAY
[ ] Launch live on one platform; the whole day kept free for it
[ ] Your list emailed; the drafted posts published
[ ] Every comment and email answered within the hour
[ ] Signups and payments watched, each one's source noted
THE 30 DAYS AFTER
[ ] Days 1 and 2: people thanked one by one; earned badge placed
[ ] Week 1: listings noted as they go live; the later launch dates run
[ ] Week 2: each live listing opened, its URL and rel checked
[ ] Every badge a directory asked for still in place
[ ] Week 3: numbers written down: signups by source, trials, paid
[ ] Week 4: leads followed up; the next launch moment pickedThe directory part of a launch, done for you
Most of this list is yours: the plan, the beta, the day itself. The listings are the part to hand over whole. Submitator files the launch sites and directories you pick from the 189 we submit to, each of which earned its row once a submission of ours to it ran end to end; 580+ startups have been submitted with us so far.
You pick each one in the dashboard with its Domain Rating on screen. We write a description for each, cut to its form, and fill every form on our side, where the CAPTCHAs are handled and never reach you. One badge component goes on your site once and loads whichever badge a directory asks for; keeping every badge live is then our job, with no commit per directory. We also push each live listing page through IndexMachine, the free indexing ($25 value) that comes with Starter, Growth and Scale; there is nothing for you to set up, and whether a page gets indexed stays Google's call.
Most directories are delivered in 24 to 48 hours and every directory within 21 days at most. When a directory rejects your product, you get one more to pick by default (All Directories aside, since it already holds the whole catalog), and a refund can be requested within 30 days of purchase, on the conditions in our terms. The plans are paid once: 30 directories for $29, 60 for $49, 100 for $79, and All Directories at $149 for the whole catalog plus each directory added later. Launchtory's Featured publishing is $29 for seven days on its homepage; the same $29 here covers 30 directories, Launchtory among them if you pick it.
Where the numbers come from. The catalog: our export of 3 November 2026 through its three category groups, intercepts set aside (189 rows, 76 of them launch sites and startup directories); followed is our admin's dofollow record on a row no count of live listings has flagged, and DR is the Ahrefs figure the export carried. Product Hunt's ugc link: our guide to it and our post on its link. Queues and the prices that skip them: each site's own pricing page, read with a plain GET on 10 November 2026; Launchtory's Featured publishing reads “Seven days on the homepage and in your category.” at $29.00 with “Review within 24 hours after payment confirmation”, and nothing here says a plan buys it. BetaList: its criteria as our guide read them on 18 October 2026. Search results: Google US for product launch checklist and SaaS launch checklist, 10 November 2026. Our founder's account: Uneed's free line and a launch there through us, the descriptions, the CAPTCHAs, the badge component and its upkeep, the end-to-end rule for joining the catalog and the IndexMachine push. Plans, the indexing bonus and the startups count: our pricing and home pages; delivery, the rejection credit and refunds: our terms. No sentence here promises a ranking, a Domain Rating or indexing. Domain Rating by Ahrefs
FAQ
What should a product launch checklist include?
Five stages in time order: eight to four weeks out, the last three weeks, launch week, launch day and the 30 days after. The early stages book what waits on other people (launch-site slots, beta testers); the late ones check the listings and write the numbers down. Of the 76 launch sites we submit to, our catalog records a followed link at 40.
How far in advance should you plan a product launch?
About eight weeks for a SaaS or AI tool launched by its founder, and longer for a free slot on a launch site with a long line: on 10 November 2026 OpenHunts put its free queue at about 60 weeks and Firsto at about 180 days. Each sells a paid date, and at two of the seven sites we read a badge on your site skips the line.
What is a beta launch?
Opening the product to a first group of users before the public launch, usually by invitation, to find what breaks and collect the first quotes. Most launch sites and directories list public products, so they come after it; BetaList is built for the beta stage itself.
What is the difference between a soft launch and a public launch?
A soft launch opens the product quietly to a limited audience, with no date and no announcement. A public launch is dated and announced in one week, on launch sites, to your list and in your communities. The soft one comes first, so the public one shows a product that has met real users.
How do you launch a SaaS with no marketing team?
Shrink the launch to what one person can carry: one audience, one page, one offer and one number to watch. Spend launch day on one platform answering every comment and give the month after to the listings that stay up. The directories are the part to hand off: Submitator files 30 of them for $29, each one picked by you and each with a description written for it.
Keep reading
Their $29: seven days. Our $29: 30 directories.
Launchtory charges $29 for seven days of Featured publishing. Submitator is $29 for 30 directories you pick and $79 for 100, one payment, with a description written for each and every badge kept live.