What Does a Launch QA Audit Include? The Full Deliverable

A launch QA audit is a fixed-scope round of testing before go-live. It includes functional testing of your critical journeys on desktop and real phones, payments in test mode, login and data-access checks, and smoke checks for security, accessibility and performance. You receive a ranked bug report with severity, reproduction steps, evidence and a suggested fix for each issue, split into what to fix before launch and what can wait.

If you want that audit run before you go live, see how RAITHub would test this below, or the pre-launch QA overview.

What gets tested in a launch audit?

The journeys where a failure is expensive, not every screen. A good audit concentrates on the paths that lose money, data or trust, because those are what you cannot afford to have break in front of a real user.

Area	What is checked	On what
Functional journeys	Sign-up, onboarding and the core workflow, with empty, error and edge states	Desktop and real phones
Payments	Successful, declined and refunded payments in test mode, plus double payments and webhooks	Gateway test mode
Auth and data access	Password reset, sessions, roles, and whether one user can read another's data	Two accounts, a deliberate attempt
Security smoke check	Exposed keys, missing access rules and open endpoints, against OWASP guidance	Application level, not a pentest
Accessibility and performance	Keyboard use, labels and contrast; page speed and a light load check	Smoke checks, not a full audit

The full journey-by-journey version is the pre-launch QA checklist, and the order to run the checks in is in how to test a web app before launch.

What do I actually receive at the end?

A deliverable you can act on, not a verbal "looks fine." A proper launch audit hands you:

• A ranked bug report in your own tracker, each issue with severity, reproduction steps, evidence and a suggested fix.
• A go/no-go view, splitting what must be fixed before launch from what can wait.
• A fixed quote to fix the issues, if you want the auditor to do it rather than your own team.

The ranking is the valuable part. It turns a long list of findings into a decision: fix these three before launch, schedule those five for next week, ignore the rest for now.

How long does a launch audit take, and what do I need to provide?

A launch audit is fixed in scope and dates before it starts, so you know the timeline up front rather than paying for an open-ended review. The length depends on how many journeys, devices and payment flows are in scope; a small app with one core workflow is a short engagement, while a multi-role product with several paid tiers is longer. To make it efficient, you provide a working build on a staging environment, test accounts for each role, access to the gateway's test mode, and a short note on the journeys that matter most. The better that brief, the more the audit spends finding real bugs rather than working out how the app is meant to behave.

What you do not need to provide is a test plan; writing one is part of the audit. A good auditor maps the risky journeys first, agrees them with you, and only then starts testing, so the report reflects your priorities and not a generic checklist.

What does a launch audit deliberately not include?

Being clear about the edges keeps expectations honest.

• Not a certified penetration test. The security work is an application-level smoke check against OWASP guidance and produces no attestation. If you need a certified pentest, use a certified vendor.
• Not legal accessibility certification. The accessibility smoke check is not a full WCAG 2.2 AA audit and certifies nothing against ADA, EAA or Section 508.
• Not exhaustive coverage. It is a focused pass over the critical paths, not a test of every screen, browser and edge case.
• Not a fix. The audit finds and reports; fixing is a separate step, done by your team or quoted separately.

How much of this you can judge yourself, and where a tester adds the most, is in can AI test my app.

Buy, build or hire?

Route	Choose this when
Run the audit yourself from a checklist	Pre-seed, a simple product, and you will work through the critical paths carefully
A freelancer for one pass	You want human eyes on many devices for one launch and can supply the plan
A fixed-price launch audit	You want a ranked, evidence-backed report before users or investors see the app
An ongoing QA plan	You are past launch and shipping often enough to need testing on every release

Whether you need the audit at all comes down to how to tell if your app is ready to launch.

How RAITHub would test this

A RAITHub launch audit is exactly the deliverable described above, fixed in scope and dates.

• Scope: the critical journeys agreed up front, on desktop and real phones, covering payments in test mode, auth and data access.
• Smoke checks: a basic security pass against OWASP guidance, plus accessibility and performance smoke checks.
• A ranked report: every issue with severity, reproduction steps, evidence and a suggested fix, split into fix-before-launch and can-wait.
• Fixes, by you or RAITHub: fix from the steps, or have the same engineers fix them under a separate fixed quote.

Timeline: the audit is fixed in scope and dates before it starts. For proof of the method, PropDesk runs 1,024 automated tests and Sundor Skin 530+. There is no standalone pre-launch case study yet, so judge it on the free call and a written scope. See QA as a Service. The next step is a free 15-minute audit, then a written fixed quote; RAITHub publishes no rates.

Planning a launch? Request a launch QA audit.

Frequently asked questions

What does a launch QA audit include?

Functional testing of your critical journeys on desktop and real phones, payments in test mode, login and data-access checks, and smoke checks for security, accessibility and performance. You receive a ranked bug report with severity, reproduction steps, evidence and a suggested fix for each issue.

What do I receive at the end of the audit?

A ranked bug report in your tracker, a go/no-go view splitting what to fix before launch from what can wait, and a fixed quote to fix the issues if you want the auditor to do it. The ranking turns a list of findings into a launch decision.

Does a launch audit include fixing the bugs?

No. The audit finds and reports; fixing is a separate step. You can fix from the reproduction steps with your own team, or have the auditor fix the issues under a separate fixed quote. Keeping finding and fixing separate keeps the report objective.

Is a launch audit a penetration test?

No. The security work is an application-level smoke check against OWASP guidance and produces no attestation. If you need a CREST- or PCI-certified penetration test or a compliance report, use a certified pentest vendor; a launch audit does not replace one.

Does it certify my app is accessible?

No. A launch audit includes an accessibility smoke check for keyboard use, labels and contrast, but it is not a full WCAG 2.2 AA audit and certifies nothing against ADA, EAA or Section 508. A full accessibility audit is a separate, deeper piece of work.

How is a launch audit different from ongoing QA?

A launch audit is a one-off checkpoint before go-live. Ongoing QA is a monthly plan that retests the key journeys on every release, so a later deploy does not break what you launched. Many teams buy the audit first, then move to a plan once they are shipping regularly.