Catch broken signup and onboarding before it costs you trials

Use plus addressing (e.g. test+timestamp@yourdomain.com) or create a bypass for your test account. Some teams use a shared test mailbox that the automation can read.

For your dedicated test account, configure a CAPTCHA bypass or use test keys that always pass. Most CAPTCHA providers support this for testing.

Every 10–15 minutes is a good starting point. Signup is where growth happens — catching a break within 15 minutes is dramatically better than hearing about it from users hours later.

Use a dedicated test inbox (e.g., Gmail/Google Workspace, Mailosaur, or a catch-all domain) and have the synthetic check fetch the newest message, extract the OTP/link, and continue the flow. Best practice: tag messages with a unique run ID in the email subject (e.g., “Verify your account – run=abc123”) so the check can reliably pick the right email even if multiple runs overlap. Also alert on email delivery latency (time from form submit to email received) because “signup broken” is often actually “email delayed or blocked.”

Create a dedicated “synthetic monitoring” tenant/workspace and generate unique emails per run using plus addressing (e.g., qa+20260227-1530@yourdomain.com) or a catch-all domain (e.g., 20260227-1530@synthetics.yourdomain.com). Pair it with automatic cleanup: delete the user at the end of the run via an admin API, or expire synthetic accounts via TTL policies. If deletion isn’t possible, keep a single reusable user for login checks and a separate, rotating user for signup checks, to avoid ‘already exists’ failures.

Put synthetic checks on an allowlist and use a dedicated “monitoring bypass” configuration: reCAPTCHA test keys in non-prod, a server-side bypass for specific IP ranges, or a feature flag that disables bot challenges for the synthetic tenant only. Also configure pacing (e.g., run every 10–15 minutes, not every minute) and use stable user agents. If you must keep CAPTCHA in place, monitor the pre-CAPTCHA steps (page load, form validation, API responses) and add a separate canary check that validates the CAPTCHA widget loads rather than completing it.

Assert the user can reach the first ‘value moment’ reliably. Practical assertions: the welcome screen renders, required fields validate correctly, the “Create workspace/project” step succeeds (HTTP 200 + expected UI state), and the user lands on the dashboard with a known element present (e.g., “New Project” button). Add timing thresholds for each step (e.g., verification email < 60s, dashboard load < 5s) so you catch performance regressions that quietly kill conversion.

Split checks into layered steps: (1) core signup and first login (your systems), (2) optional integrations (Google OAuth, Stripe checkout) executed less frequently or in a sandbox mode, and (3) post-signup events (webhooks, provisioning). For OAuth, use a dedicated test IdP account and keep scopes minimal. For Stripe, use test mode + test cards and assert webhook completion (e.g., subscription becomes active within N seconds). When third parties fail, the check should capture screenshots/console logs and label the failure domain (your app vs provider).

Add a small suite of negative-path synthetic checks: invalid email formats, weak passwords, password mismatch, required fields blank, and boundary cases (very long company names, unicode characters, phone formats). Assert specific error messages and that the submit button state behaves correctly. These checks are fast and often catch frontend validation bugs introduced by UI refactors or localization changes.