SaaS Launch Infrastructure SOP
From empty droplet to paying customers, the conservative way. The exact DigitalOcean, Node.js, PM2, Nginx, PostgreSQL with PgBouncer, Stripe, and Amazon SES setup we repeat for every SaaS we launch.
Built for: Technical founders and small teams launching a Node.js SaaS, including those building with AI coding assistants.
What's inside
- Droplet provisioning and hardening: SSH keys, firewall, fail2ban, automatic security updates, swap
- Node.js LTS and PM2 with a production ecosystem file, log rotation, and zero-downtime reloads
- Nginx reverse proxy with TLS, security headers, websockets, and rate limiting on auth routes
- Managed PostgreSQL with PgBouncer: per-app roles, pool sizing math, transaction-mode pitfalls, restore drills
- Stripe billing with verified webhooks, idempotency, and the subscription events that actually matter
- Amazon SES with SPF, DKIM, DMARC, custom MAIL FROM, sandbox exit, and bounce handling
- The building blocks every SaaS needs: 2FA, audit logs, admin dashboard, usage metering, outbound webhooks, status page, referrals
- A 51-item pre-launch checklist and runbooks for deploy, rollback, secret rotation, and database restore
Stop rebuilding the same infrastructure from memory
Every SaaS needs the same foundation: a hardened server, a process manager that restarts cleanly, a reverse proxy with TLS, a database that doesn’t run out of connections, billing that survives retries, and email that lands in the inbox. This SOP is the checklist we follow every time, written down in the order you do it, with the commands and config files included.
Conservative on purpose
Every setting leaves headroom. Pools are sized with a buffer, processes restart before they run out of memory, and every change has a rollback. It is the setup you want on the night your launch post takes off.
Current as of October 2026
Targets Ubuntu 26.04 LTS and the Node.js 26 LTS line, with notes for falling back to Node 24. Vendor-specific details are drawn from DigitalOcean, Stripe, AWS, and PM2 documentation, and commands are marked as examples to adapt to your app.
SaaS Launch Infrastructure SOP
Download it today and put it to work this week.