Email-First Sign-up Forms in 2026

A Hands-On Benchmark of 10 Leading SaaS Products

Author note
This article is based on manual testing of live signup flows for 10 well-known SaaS products.
No vendor documentation or marketing claims were used as a substitute for real interaction.

Executive summary

After manually testing the signup flows of 10 popular SaaS platforms, several patterns are clear:

Email-first signup is the default - but execution varies widely
Most teams allow disposable emails initially, but differ in how fast and if they detect them
CAPTCHAs are almost never used on the first attempt
Submit latency correlates more with frontend orchestration than validation logic

This report focuses on observable behavior, not assumptions about internal systems.

Why this benchmark exists

Sign-up forms are often discussed in theory. This benchmark exists to answer a simpler question:

What do real, high-traffic SaaS products actually do in production today?

Instead of relying on UX blogs or vendor claims, this benchmark:

Uses real signup attempts
Measures submit latency
Tests disposable email behavior
Identifies blocking vs async validation paths

What was tested (scope)

This benchmark covers 10 SaaS products.
Each signup flow was tested manually under normal network conditions.

What we tested

Email-first availability
Disposable email acceptance
Blocking vs async validation
Account creation timing
CAPTCHA presence
Minimum required fields
Submit latency
Disposable detection latency (where observable)

What we did not test

Internal risk scoring logic
Post-signup account enforcement
Email deliverability reputation systems
Long-term account survival

These are not observable without privileged access and are therefore excluded.

Methodology

Test setup

Fresh browser sessions
No logged-in state
No ad blockers disabled
Single submit attempt per product
Disposable email domains used where applicable

Definitions used

Account created: user reaches dashboard or next onboarding step
Blocking validation: signup does not proceed until validation completes
Async validation: account is created before validation outcome is enforced
Disposable detection latency: time until disposable email is flagged (if visible)

This methodology is designed to be reproducible.

Benchmark results (10 companies)

Company	Signup URL	Initial Comments	Email-first signup available (Y/N)	Email verification method (Link / OTP / None / Unknown)	Progressive profiling found during testing (Y/N/Partial)	CAPTCHA on first attempt (Y/N/Unknown)	Social signup required? (Y/N)	Minimum fields at signup	Disposable email accepted initially (Y/N)	Signup blocked before account creation (Y/N)	Disposable Detection Latency (ms)	Submit latency (ms)	External validation call before submit (Y/N)	Account created before verification (Y/N)	Async or blocking validation (Async / Blocking / Unknown)
Stripe	https://dashboard.stripe.com/register	Dashboard register page is email-first registration (creates account from email). The signup UI is minimal and payment onboarding is a later step.	Y	Unknown	Unknown	N	N	No (Email, Name, Password, Country)	N	Y	-	392	Y	N	Async
Notion	https://www.notion.so/signup	Notion offers “Continue with email” on primary signup page alongside social - email-first option is explicit; additional workspace setup happens after initial signup (progressive).	Y	Unknown	Unknown	N	N	Yes (Email)	N	Y	-	490	Y	N	Async
Airtable	https://airtable.com/signup	Signup flow accepts email on the primary page; workspace/organization details are collected post-signup (progressive).	Y	Unknown	Yes	N	N	Yes	Y	Y	383	429	Y	N	Async
Shopify	https://accounts.shopify.com/signup?	Shopify’s free-trial signup prompts for email/business info first and continues through multi-step store setup - email-first onboarding.	Y	Unknown	Yes	N	N	Yes	Y	Y	-	1480	Y	N	Async
Dropbox	https://www.dropbox.com/en_GB/register	Dropbox signup uses email as the username field and collects name/password; activation via email follows (email-first).	Y	Link	No	N	N	Yes	Y	N	-	1260	N	Y	Unknown
Canva	https://www.canva.com/en_in/signup/	Canva shows “Continue with email” as an explicit primary option; further profile steps occur after account creation.	Y	Unknown	Yes	N	N	Yes	Y	Y	396	-	Y	N	Async
Mailchimp	https://login.mailchimp.com/signup/	Mailchimp’s signup form is email-first (business email field visible); product onboarding and audience setup occur later.	Y	Link	Yes	N	N	Yes	Y	N	-	5430	N	Y	Unknown
Vercel	https://vercel.com/signup	Vercel supports “Sign up with Email” (OTP flow documented in account docs). Email OTP is used (so verification happens but via separate step) - minimal critical path.	Y	OTP	Yes	N	N	Yes	Y	Y	2350	-	Y	N	Async
Netlify	https://app.netlify.com/signup	Netlify signup includes email-based account creation (dashboard flow); account setup and team details are progressive.	Y	Unknown	Unknown	N	N	Yes	Y	Y	-	906	Y	N	Async
Supabase	https://supabase.com/dashboard/sign-up	Supabase explicitly shows Email + Password signup on signup form and docs; verification options are part of the auth system - email-first and developer-oriented.	Y	Link	No	N	N	Yes	Y	N	-	1250	N	Y	Unknown

Observations from the data

10 out of 10 products allow email-first signup without mandating social authentication.

2. Disposable emails are usually allowed initially

Most products allowed proceeding with the signup flow with a disposable email on the first attempt, indicating a preference for async enforcement over blocking. The blocking happened in subsequent steps/screens. Products like Dropbox, MailChimp, Supabase allowed complete account creating using disposable emails.

3. Blocking validation is non-existent

None of the products used blocking validation on the initial input. In some cases, the error message clearly mentioned that use of disposable emails is not allowed.

4. CAPTCHA is no longer a first-line defense

CAPTCHA never appeared on the first attempt, suggesting invisible or behavior-based bot mitigation.

5. Submit latency varies widely

Frontend orchestration and UX decisions often dominated perceived latency more than validation itself. Average submit latency observed was 1454.63 ms.

1. Do not block on email intelligence

Allow signup first.
Flag later.
Enforce progressively.

2. Design for partial trust

Accounts do not need full trust at creation time.

Use:

Feature gating
Rate limits
Verification thresholds

3. CAPTCHA should be conditional

CAPTCHA is now a response, not a default.

You might want to trigger it only after suspicious behavior.

4. Measure what actually matters

Instead of:

Signup success rate

Measure:

Activation rate
Disposable email ratio
Time-to-first-value
Support cost per signup cohort

Why async validation is winning in 2026

Async validation:

Preserves conversion
Handles flaky dependencies
Scales with traffic
Allows nuanced enforcement

This benchmark strongly suggests that blocking validation is already declining among high-scale SaaS products.

Limitations of this study

Only 10 products tested
Manual testing (not automated replay)
Single attempt per product
Internal enforcement not observable

Final thought

Sign-up forms are no longer about collecting data.
They are about starting relationships at scale.

The companies that win in 2026:

Let users in quickly
Observe silently
Enforce intelligently
Optimize for long-term value

Email-First Sign-up Forms in 2026 - Benchmarking Report