Guide · Signup funnels
How to reduce signup friction without losing lead quality
Which signup fields to cut, which to defer until after the account exists, and how to keep sales happy while more people finish the form.
What each extra field costs
Each field is a small decision and a small risk: what will they do with my phone number, why do they need my company size. Baymard Institute’s checkout research puts numbers on the same effect in e-commerce: the average checkout in 2024 had 5.1 steps and 11.3 form fields, 17% of users had abandoned an order because the checkout was too long or complicated, and the total number of fields mattered more than the number of steps.[1]
A SaaS signup is not a checkout, but the mechanism is the same: the visitor is being asked to do work before they get anything. In the Leak library this is The conversion form asks for more than it needs.
Which fields to cut, keep or defer
| Field | Usually | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Keep | Needed to create the account and reach the user. | |
| Password | Keep, or replace with single sign-on | Google or Microsoft sign-in removes the field entirely. |
| Full name | Defer | Useful for the product, not for creating the account. |
| Company name | Defer or infer | Often readable from the email domain. |
| Company size, role | Defer to onboarding | Asked in context, it also personalises the first session. |
| Phone number | Cut from self-serve signup | Signals a sales call; ask on the demo form instead. |
Deferring is not deleting. A one-question onboarding screen after signup (“What do you want to do first?”) collects the same data at a moment when the visitor already has an account and a reason to answer.
Keeping lead quality
The worry behind long signup forms is real: sales wants to know who is worth a call. Three ways to keep that without the fields:
Qualify on behaviour
A user who invited two teammates and connected a data source is a better lead than one who picked “51–200” in a dropdown.
Enrich from the email domain
The company, its size and its industry can often be looked up from a work email, without asking.
Split self-serve and sales
Keep the trial signup short and keep a separate demo form for people who want a call. Each can ask what it needs.
State the commitment
Fewer fields only help if the visitor knows what they are agreeing to. Is a card required? Does the trial end on its own or roll into a paid plan? When this is missing, Leakly reports The commitment being asked for is not stated. Put the answer next to the button, in one line: “14-day trial · no card required · cancel anytime”.
How to test the change
Measure two numbers before and after: the share of visitors who start the form and finish it, and the share of new accounts that reach a first meaningful action in the product. If the first rises and the second holds, the removed fields were friction, not qualification.
Frequently asked questions
How many fields should a signup form have?
As few as the first session needs. For most self-serve SaaS products that is an email and a password, or a single sign-on button.
Is single sign-on always better?
It removes the password field and the confirmation email, which usually helps. Keep an email option for people who do not want to connect a work account.
Will sales lose the data they need?
Not if qualification moves rather than disappears: ask in onboarding, enrich from the email domain and qualify on what users do in the product.
Sources
- 1.Baymard Institute, Checkout optimization: 5 ways to minimize form fields in checkout (2024). baymard.com/blog/checkout-flow-average-form-fields
- 2.Nielsen Norman Group, Marking required fields in forms. nngroup.com/articles/required-fields
Written by
Leakly Team
Editorial team at Leakly
The people who build Leakly’s audit rules. Every guide is checked against the Leak library before it is published, and every figure is linked to its source.
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