Pre-Launch QA Checklist: 12 Things to Test Before Your Website or App Goes Live

Developers test what they built; customers use it in ways nobody planned. That gap is why independent QA matters. Whether you are launching a business website, an online store or a mobile app, these are the checks our testing team runs before every release.

1. Every form and button works

Submit every contact, enquiry, sign-up and checkout form with real and wrong data. Check the confirmation message, the email that follows and where the data lands (CRM, inbox, sheet).

2. Payments and checkout

Run test-mode payments for each method (cards, UPI, wallets), plus failed and cancelled payments. Confirm order emails, invoices and stock updates.

3. Real mobile phones, not just a resized browser

Test on the Android and iPhone models your customers actually use — different screen sizes and OS versions. Most traffic is mobile, and layout bugs hide there.

4. Major browsers

Chrome, Safari, Edge and Firefox. Safari on iPhone is where many date pickers, videos and sticky menus break.

5. Speed on a normal connection

Load key pages on a 4G connection, not office Wi-Fi. Large images and too many scripts are the usual cause of slow pages.

6. Links, images and 404s

Click every menu and footer link, check for broken images and set up redirects for any old URLs so you don't lose search rankings.

7. Login, passwords and sessions

Sign up, log in, reset a password, log out and log back in. Check what happens when a session expires in the middle of a task.

8. APIs and integrations

Test the connections to payment gateways, WhatsApp, CRM, shipping and email services — including what the user sees when one of them is down.

9. Basic security

HTTPS everywhere, no test or admin pages left public, sensible password rules, and no personal data exposed in URLs or error messages.

10. SEO basics

Page titles, meta descriptions, one H1 per page, a sitemap and analytics installed — so the launch actually brings visitors.

11. Regression after every fix

Each bug fix can break something else. Re-run the key journeys (search → cart → pay, enquiry → confirmation) after every round of fixes.

12. User acceptance (UAT) with real users

Ask a few real customers or staff to complete everyday tasks without help. Where they hesitate is where your users will drop off.

A simple bug report saves days

For every issue, record the steps to reproduce it, the device and browser, a screenshot or screen recording, and how serious it is. Developers fix clear bug reports faster, and you can see at a glance what must be fixed before launch.

• Critical — blocks sales or sign-ups: fix before launch.
• Major — wrong behaviour with a workaround: fix in the first update.
• Minor — cosmetic: schedule it.

Need an independent test before you launch?

Our Software Testing & QA team — led by a QA lead with 11+ years of experience testing large mobile and web applications — runs fixed-price test cycles for websites, apps and APIs, with a clear go / no-go report. We work with startups, agencies and businesses in India, the Gulf, the UK and the USA.

"The cheapest bug to fix is the one you find before your customers do."