Before users can love your product, they have to log in, and they won’t wait long to do it. In today’s competitive SaaS landscape, the first login experience often determines whether users stick around or bounce for good.
To understand how much onboarding friction is too much, we surveyed 439 SaaS users about their most recent sign-up. Their answers paint a clear picture of how speed, trust, and security expectations influence user retention before the product even gets a chance.
Modern SaaS users are quick to judge and even quicker to leave. While expectations are high, friction in the onboarding experience remains a dealbreaker.
Nearly half of users (48%) have abandoned a SaaS product simply because the sign-up process took too long. Even before reaching the product, 36% gave up at the email verification stage. The takeaway? Every second counts during onboarding.
When asked what matters most during onboarding, 32% of SaaS users said security, while 15% prioritized speed and 46% said both were equally important. This balance of speed and reassurance sets the tone for a user’s entire experience. Miss the mark, and they’re gone.
Once they’ve signed up, 21% of users expect full access to a new SaaS product within one minute, and 16% want it immediately. Slow access is one of the top reasons why users drop off during SaaS product onboarding. Confusing UX or unclear sign-up steps also drive people away from using your software.
First impressions don’t just affect sign-ups. They also determine long-term trust in your SaaS product. A login that feels “off” can make users walk away before they’ve even seen what your software does.
Over half of respondents (58%) said they’ve refused to sign up for a SaaS product because the login experience felt sketchy. Due to onboarding frustrations, 19% went so far as to rage-quit before ever using the product. This is a sobering reminder that SaaS teams must treat login UX like a product feature, not an afterthought.
Some friction with verification steps is worse than others. CAPTCHA ranked as the most frustrating one, followed by multi-step ID checks and clunky email verification processes. Poor UX in these moments erodes trust quickly, especially when users are still deciding whether your product is worth their time.
The good news is that not all added security causes frustration. When asked what makes a SaaS login feel secure and trustworthy, two-factor authentication, at 74%, was the top answer. If done well, security features can increase confidence without sacrificing usability.
You don’t get many chances to make things right after a rough start, and in SaaS, one bad login can mean the end of the road.
More than half (53%) said they’d give a SaaS product just one more shot after a bad login experience, but no more than that. That’s a pretty thin margin for error. Another 15% wouldn’t come back ever again.
Even if users stick around, long-term engagement is shaky. After 30 days, 51% of users were only using 25-50% of the SaaS tools they signed up for. This signals that first impressions don’t just influence sign-up. They can also shape how and whether users build habits with your product.
The onboarding experience sets the entire tone for a user’s relationship with your product. When friction outweighs value, whether through delays, poor UX, or untrustworthy logins, users leave before they ever get to know what your product can do. With users ready to quit after one bad experience, SaaS teams can’t afford to overlook the first login. Optimizing for trust, speed, and seamless access isn’t just best practice—it’s a survival strategy.
We surveyed 439 SaaS users on May 17, 2025, about their most recent sign-up experience. The survey explored onboarding time, login preferences, and friction points to uncover where, when, and why users drop off before fully trying a product.
Frontegg makes customer identity and access management effortless by extending controls beyond engineering. Developers are freed from routine authentication tasks, while teams like Customer Success, Product, and Infosec can manage user access, security policies, and compliance settings without relying on engineering.
By distributing ownership of identity, Frontegg reduces developer toil, strengthens security and compliance, and enhances the customer experience. Developers focus on innovation, teams move faster without bottlenecks, and businesses scale securely. The result is a win-win.
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