FAQ
Questions founders ask.
If yours isn't here, the contact form goes straight to the person who built this.
About the score
Is the free scan really free?
Yes. The free scan gives you your full score out of 100, the verdict, all 9 dimension scores and roughly 30 % of the individual findings — worst first, with the top blocker fully explained. Just your email, no password, no card. The LaunchFix unlocks every finding with a fix-first plan — $39.
How many free scans do I get?
Your first scan needs only your email. After that, a free email sign-in lets you keep scanning: 3 free scans per email in total, with your scan history kept in one place. Buying a LaunchFix for a site opens scanning back up.
What does my score out of 100 mean?
90 or more is Launch Ready, 80 to 89 is Almost Ready, 60 to 79 is Needs Work, and below 60 is Not Ready. A failing launch-blocker check caps the verdict at Almost Ready whatever the number says. The score covers your public launch page against the LaunchGraded Standard, not your traffic or revenue.
Do I need to install anything on my site?
No. There is no script, plugin or tag to add. We read the public page the way a first-time visitor would, so any publicly reachable URL can be scanned.
Who is LaunchGraded for?
Founders who are about to launch. Solo founders use it to catch anything obvious before launch day, startup teams to work from one shared, prioritised checklist, and agencies and studios to audit a client site before hand-over and prove the quality. Running one standard across a whole accelerator cohort is planned, not available yet.
Why is my live, profitable site scoring low?
LaunchGraded scores your public launch surface against the LaunchGraded Standard — not your traffic, revenue or product. A site can be doing well commercially and still have a noindex tag, no visible pricing path or no social proof. The score tells you what a first-time visitor and a search engine see, which is exactly what you'd want to fix before sending more traffic.
Does AI decide my score?
No. Every one of the 51 checks is a published rule with a fixed weight, run the same way every time, so two scans of the same page agree. AI appears in two labelled places only — an optional overview paragraph on the paid report and LaunchDay's launch story — and neither touches the score.
What does "deterministic" mean here?
Same input, same output. Each check looks for specific, documented things on your page and awards fixed points when it finds them. Rescan without changing anything and the score is the same; change something and the difference is real. The only moving part is Lighthouse's performance measurement, which we read from Google's own API and which can vary a little between runs — the affected checks are marked as scaled on the methodology page.
How is the score calculated?
9 dimensions, 51 checks, 100 points, published in full on the methodology page along with the weights, the pass conditions and the verdict bands. Nothing is hidden and nothing is graded on a curve.
What happens after I fix things?
Rescan. Every scan is stored against your site, so you see exactly what moved and what didn't. Once you clear 90 with no blockers you can opt in to a public certificate and an embeddable badge.
I think a check is wrong. What do I do?
Tell us. Every failing finding says what we looked for and didn't find, and has a "Think this is wrong?" link that sends us the URL and the check. A detection miss is the one thing that can make a score look silly, so we fix the heuristic, not argue.
About the report
What's in LaunchFix that isn't in the free scan?
Every finding, pass and fail, with why it matters, how to fix it and the technical detail for each; a fix-first plan (the five things to do first) and quick wins under an hour; what's already strong and why to protect it; paste-ready fix code for the findings it can be written for (tags, structured data, robots.txt, sitemap, llms.txt, security headers), filled from your own page; a Markdown prompt for your coding agent with every fix; a labelled AI-assisted overview; PDF, Markdown and CSV export; and mark-as-fixed tracking between scans.
Is the report written by AI?
The findings aren't — they come from templates written by us, keyed to each check, with your site's specific evidence filled in. One paragraph at the top, the overview, is AI-assisted and labelled as such. It summarises the findings; it never changes them.
Can I share the report with my team or a developer?
Yes. Export it as PDF, Markdown or CSV, or share the link from your account. The Markdown export pastes cleanly into an issue tracker; the CSV has one row per check.
How long does a scan take?
Usually under two minutes. Slow sites or a busy Lighthouse queue can push that to five. We email you the link when it's ready, so you can close the tab.
Privacy & scanning
What does LaunchGraded read on my site?
Only public pages, the same way a first-time visitor or Googlebot would: the page you submit, its HTML and metadata, a Lighthouse run, robots.txt and a random-path 404 probe. We never log in, submit forms, or read anything behind authentication. Our crawler identifies itself as LaunchGradedBot and respects robots.txt.
Do you store my email or my site's content?
We store the URL you submit, the score and the facts behind each check (the same facts you see in the report). Your email is stored because a scan needs one, and only to send you the result and your report. Nothing is sold or shared.
Can I scan a site that isn't mine?
Yes — any public URL. The score is the same whoever submits it. Certificates, though, are only ever issued to the site owner.
Can I have my data deleted?
Yes. Use the contact form with the category "Delete my data" and we'll remove your scans, reports and email from our systems.
Billing
Can I get a refund on the report?
If something goes wrong with your order — a failed generation, a report that doesn't match what you paid for — contact us and we'll make it right, including a refund where appropriate. The free scan is there so you can see what you're buying before you buy it.
Is the $39 a subscription?
No. It's a one-off payment for one site's report. Rescans of that site are free; a report for a different site is a separate purchase.
What currency do you charge in?
US dollars, through Stripe. Your bank converts at its own rate; there's no extra fee from us.
LaunchDay
Does LaunchDay post on my behalf?
No, and that's deliberate. Hacker News, Reddit and Indie Hackers penalise anything that reads as agency-run. We draft the copy for each platform, check it against that platform's limits and give you exact posting steps; you publish in your own voice.
What do I actually receive from LaunchDay?
A listing core (headline, three description lengths, tags, categories, keywords, pricing model and alternatives) written once, a table for each of twelve platforms listing which text goes in which box in the order its form asks, a launch-day plan, a launch email and a DM, and a LaunchFix of your site. Every field is checked against its platform's limit. Delivered within 24 hours of your order, usually in minutes.
Do you guarantee a Product Hunt ranking or a number of signups?
No. Nobody honest can. We promise professional, platform-appropriate copy and a plan that misses nothing — not the outcome.