# 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.

Guide · Signup funnels · By Leakly Team · Published Oct 26, 2026 · 4 min read · https://leakly.ai/guides/reduce-signup-friction

## The short answer

Ask at signup only for what the first session needs, usually an email and a password or a single sign-on button. Move qualification questions such as company size, role or phone number to after the account exists, where they can be asked in context, and route sales on what people do in the product rather than on what they typed into a form.

- Every field must be needed for the next step, not for a later one.
- Qualification can move after signup without being lost.
- Say what signing up commits the visitor to, next to the button.

## 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](https://leakly.ai/library/UX_FORM_001).

## Which fields to cut, keep or defer

| Field | Usually | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Email | 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:

1. **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.
2. **Enrich from the email domain.** The company, its size and its industry can often be looked up from a work email, without asking.
3. **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](https://leakly.ai/library/TRUST_RISK_001). Put the answer next to the button, in one line: “14-day trial · no card required · cancel anytime”.

> **Example finding (illustrative): The signup form asks for a phone number and company size before an account exists**
> high priority · `UX_FORM_001` · example.com/signup · Signup form · Desktop and mobile
>
> - **Why it matters:** Four required fields stand between the visitor and the product, two of which only matter to sales. Visitors who are only evaluating tend to stop here.
> - **Recommended fix:** Keep email and password, or single sign-on. Move company size and role to a one-question onboarding step; drop the phone number from self-serve signup.
> - **Confidence:** Medium. Based on the form itself; no analytics connected.
>
> Leak library: [The conversion form asks for more than it needs](https://leakly.ai/library/UX_FORM_001)

> **Label every field.** A placeholder that disappears when the visitor starts typing is not a label. Inputs without a programmatic label are harder to fill in and invisible to screen readers; the Leak library tracks it as [Form fields are unlabelled](https://leakly.ai/library/UX_FORM_002). Nielsen Norman Group also recommends marking required fields explicitly rather than only the optional ones.[^2]

## 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.

**See how your signup form scores** Leakly counts the fields on your conversion form, checks labels and commitments, and shows the evidence. [Analyze your website](https://leakly.ai/analyze)

## 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). https://baymard.com/blog/checkout-flow-average-form-fields
[^2]: Nielsen Norman Group, Marking required fields in forms. https://www.nngroup.com/articles/required-fields/

---

Source: https://leakly.ai/guides/reduce-signup-friction