# Waitlist page, launch site or full site: what to put up before you launch

Canonical: https://openfile.pro/blog/waitlist-page-or-full-launch-site

Most products need less website before launch than founders think. What to put up depends on how much you can show yet.

- By UV, Framer Expert, Bengaluru
- Published: 2026-10-01
- Category: Playbooks
- Reading time: 6 min

Most products need less website before launch than founders think. If all you have is a promise, one page with an email field is enough. If you have screenshots or a beta people can try, put a launch site around it, and build the full site once you have pricing and more than one thing to sell.

The usual mistake is building the third kind of site at the first stage, then rewriting every page once real users tell you what the product is for.

## The short version

- With only a promise, one page and an email field is enough. WaitlistOS is free and does exactly that.
- Once people can see the product, add a launch site: Reely from $99, or Streaks from $49 for a mobile app.
- Build the full site when you have pricing and more than one thing to sell. Talos, from $129, has 15 pages.
- Use your own domain and an email tool from day one, and moving up a stage loses nothing.

## Which site do you need at each stage?

| Stage | What you can show | What the site has to do | Pages | Template |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Idea or private beta | A promise, maybe a sketch | Collect emails | 1 | [WaitlistOS](https://openfile.pro/template/waitlistos), free |
| Product nearly ready | Screenshots, a demo, a likely price | Collect signups and answer questions about price | 8, including Pricing, Community and Signup success | [Reely](https://openfile.pro/template/reely), from $99 |
| Mobile app between TestFlight and the App Store | Screens, release notes, a store date | Keep testers up to date and send people to the stores | 7, including Changelog and Press | [Streaks](https://openfile.pro/template/streaks), from $49 |
| Full product with pricing and several offers | Plans, products, articles | Explain each product and sell it | 15, including six product pages, Pricing and Blog | [Talos](https://openfile.pro/template/talos), from $129 |

Streaks' store badges are stand-ins, so swap in Apple's and Google's official ones. If you sell one product on one plan, Talos is more site than you need. And if you already have a website, a signup form on an existing page does the first stage for nothing.

## What does a waitlist page need?

- **An email field at the top and again at the bottom.** Some people sign up from the headline, others only after reading. WaitlistOS has a signup in the hero and another at the end.
- **Three steps on how it works.** What it does, who it is for, and what happens after someone joins. The last one is easy to forget.
- **Honest proof.** A named quote from a beta tester, a screenshot, a pilot customer's logo. If you have none yet, delete the section rather than fill it with stand-ins.
- **A short FAQ.** Roughly when it launches, what it might cost, and what you will do with their email.

### What to leave off

- **A signup count you can't back up.** It is easy to spot, and hard to take back once someone has repeated it.
- **A countdown with no real date behind it.** When it reaches zero and nothing ships, everyone on the list learns the date was made up.

## When should you move up a stage?

Let your visitors tell you.

- **People keep asking what it will cost.** You need a pricing page, even a provisional one. Reely has one built in.
- **Someone wants to write about you.** They will ask for screenshots, a logo and a line about you. Streaks has a press page for that.
- **Testers ask what changed.** A changelog answers it once for everyone.
- **You sell more than one thing.** When the home page is explaining two products or three plans at once, it is time for the full site.

If none of these has happened, stay where you are. One page you keep current beats eight you haven't touched since you published them.

## Where do the waitlist emails go?

Framer's own forms can send each submission to an email address, a Google Sheet or a webhook, which is an address another tool listens on. For signups, Framer also has an email input that connects to services such as Loops and Mailchimp.

I'd send signups to an email tool from the first day, not to your inbox. Loops or Mailchimp keeps the list in one place, handles unsubscribes and lets you write to everyone at launch. A Google Sheet is fine for a short test. A folder of notification emails is a list you will copy out by hand later.

Whichever template you use, open its form, set where it sends and what people see afterwards. Reely has a Signup success page for that. Then publish and sign up yourself from a phone before you share the link.

## How do you move from a waitlist page to the full site?

Keep two things: your list and your address. Neither lives inside the template, so moving up is mostly about not breaking them.

- **Use your own domain from the start.** A custom domain needs a paid Framer plan, but every link you share to the free address is one to chase later. [What a Framer site costs](https://openfile.pro/blog/how-much-does-a-framer-website-cost) has the plan prices.
- **Keep the list in the email tool.** Export a CSV of your contacts before the switch, as a backup (Loops and Mailchimp both let you), and point the new site's form at the same list.
- **Move the plan, then the domain.** A remixed template is a new Framer project. Move your site plan to it from your workspace's Billing settings, which takes the domain off the old project, then connect the domain in Site Settings, under Hosting, then Domains. Framer says the DNS records stay the same.
- **Keep the home page at the root.** The new home page sits where the waitlist did, so most shared links keep working. If you shared paths the new site drops or renames, add redirects in Site Settings, under Hosting, then Redirects. Not every Framer plan includes them, so check yours.
- **Sign up once on the new site** and check you land in the same list before you tell anyone.

Then work through the new template in the order from [what to change first](https://openfile.pro/blog/what-to-change-first-in-a-framer-template). Done that way, the people who signed up first notice nothing except a bigger site.

## Questions people ask

### Is one page enough for SEO?

Before launch, signups usually come from links you share, not from search. One page with a clear title, description and headline is enough to be found by name. Add pages for search once you have more to say, like pricing or a changelog.

### Can I use a free Framer domain before launch?

Yes, Framer's free plan publishes to a free Framer domain, which is fine for testing. A custom domain needs a paid site plan (Basic was $10 a month billed yearly, or $15 billed monthly, when I checked in October 2026), so connect your own before you share the link widely.

### Should a waitlist page show pricing?

Only if you have decided it. A price you change before launch annoys the people who signed up because of it. If you only know the shape of it, a line like "free during the beta, paid plans after" answers the question without a number.

### How long should a waitlist run?

There is no right length, but a list goes cold if you never write to it. Send a short update every few weeks with something real in it, like a screenshot or a date. If the wait stretches to months, open a small beta to the earliest signups.

### What is the difference between a waitlist page and a landing page?

A waitlist page asks for an email because there is nothing to buy yet. A landing page usually sells something that exists, with a price and a button to start. Most launch sites are both for a while: a landing page with a waitlist form until you open the doors.

## Templates in this post

- [WaitlistOS](https://openfile.pro/template/waitlistos): Free
- [Reely](https://openfile.pro/template/reely): From $99
- [Streaks](https://openfile.pro/template/streaks): From $49
- [Talos](https://openfile.pro/template/talos): From $129