Skip to content
Log inGet started

What percent of apps use a setup checklist after signup?

  • By Ali Abouelatta
  • n = 809
  • Published
  • Updated
  • 2 min read
  • onboarding · signup · ux-patterns · mobile · saas
Read as Markdown

Short answer

About 13% of tracked apps — 107 of 809 — ship a checklist-tagged activation screen source[1]. That is a strict lower bound from tag matching; a broad "get started" matcher inflates to 413 apps (51%), but most of those are welcome-screen CTAs, not real multi-step checklists source[2]. For a defensible number, use 107 apps / 13%.

The quotable stat
107 of 809 tracked apps (13%) ship a setup-checklist activation screen — Lazyweb Research, July 2026.

Bar chart · Apps with a checklist

Apps with a checklist — Who actually builds them

One block is about 0.7 Apps with a checklist

Health & Fitness
19
News
10
Productivity
8

The defensible number vs the inflated one

Two matchers give very different answers, and the gap is the whole story source[1]source[2]:

MatcherAppsShare of 809Use it?
Strict (%checklist%)10713%Yes — headline
Broad (checklist OR "get started" / "getting started")41351%No — inflated

The broad matcher sweeps in "get started" welcome buttons (e.g. tags like 'get started screen') that are single-CTA splash screens, not the multi-step "3 of 5 tasks complete" checklists teams actually mean. If a competitor claims "half of apps use setup checklists," they are almost certainly counting welcome screens.

Who actually builds them

Among the 107 checklist apps, the pattern concentrates in a few categories with enough companies to be meaningful source[3]:

CategoryApps with a checklist
Health & Fitness19
News10
Productivity8

Only these three clear N>=8; all other categories (Shopping 7, Travel 7, Education 7, Finance 6, and below) are too thin for per-category rates and should be read as absolute counts only source[3]. Named examples ranked by screenshot count include finch (26), kahoot (20), quizlet (16), speechify (15), and duolingo (8) source[4].

How to apply it

If you are in Health & Fitness, News, or Productivity, a setup checklist is a well-trodden pattern with peers to benchmark against. Outside those categories it is comparatively rare, so shipping one is a differentiator rather than a convention-match — weigh the build cost accordingly. Do not justify the investment with the 51% figure; the honest peer prevalence is 13%.

Caveats

The 13% is a tag-match lower bound: apps with a checklist that was never screenshotted or never tagged 'checklist' are missed source[1]. Category counts below N=8 are absolute counts only, never percentages source[3]. Screenshot counts per app (e.g. finch's 26) reflect how many captured screens carried the tag, not usage frequency source[4].

Real in-market screens

Screens from real, in-market apps, tracked by Lazyweb Research.

  • Testflight home screen — real in-market example tracked by Lazyweb Research
    Testflight1206 × 2622opens the full image
  • Matter Onboarding screen — real in-market example tracked by Lazyweb Research
    Matter1206 × 2622opens the full image
  • Strava home screen — real in-market example tracked by Lazyweb Research
    Strava1206 × 2622opens the full image
  • Hinge Health home screen — real in-market example tracked by Lazyweb Research
    Hinge Health1206 × 2622opens the full image

The numbers

#StatComputed from
[1]107 apps / 13% (0.132) with checklist-tagged screensetup_checklist_strict 107 companies; setup_checklist_strict_pct 0.132 = 107/809
[2]413 apps / 51% broad matcher (inflated, do not headline)pattern_prevalence_by_company setup_checklist_broad 413 companies; 413/809=0.51; flagged OVERBROAD
[3]Health & Fitness 19, News 10, Productivity 8 apps with checklists (only N>=8)checklist_by_category: Health & Fitness 19, News 10, Productivity 8; Shopping/Travel/Education 7 each, Finance 6, etc. (N<8)
[4]finch 26, kahoot 20, quizlet 16, speechify 15, duolingo 8 checklist screenshotsqualitative named_examples setup_checklist ranked by screenshot count

Methodology

Universe is 809 mobile apps (July 2026); checklist prevalence computed by matching the tag 'checklist' and deduping by company, then splitting by app-store category. The strict matcher is a lower bound; the broad 'get started' matcher is reported only to show inflation.

Sources

  1. [1]

    Lazyweb Research analysis of 809 tracked apps (mobile-app screenshot corpus), July 2026

    Strict checklist matcher: screenshots whose tags contain 'checklist', deduped by company.

    Back to text

  2. [2]

    Lazyweb Research analysis of 809 tracked apps (mobile-app screenshot corpus), July 2026

    Broad matcher adds 'get started'/'getting started' tags; flagged as inflated by welcome-screen CTAs.

    Back to text

  3. [3]

    Lazyweb Research analysis of 107 checklist apps (mobile-app screenshot corpus), July 2026

    Company counts by app-store category; only Health & Fitness, News, Productivity clear N>=8.

    Back to text

  4. [4]

    Lazyweb Research analysis of 107 checklist apps (mobile-app screenshot corpus), July 2026

    Named examples ranked by checklist-tagged screenshot count.

    Back to text

Source: Lazyweb Research — proprietary analysis of real, in-market app screens. Cite as Lazyweb Research, 2026-07-07.

Explore the evidence

Keep reading

Related questions

  1. Which empty-state and activation patterns are most common in mobile apps?

  2. Which app categories are most likely to use a setup checklist?

  3. How do apps get a new user to their first meaningful action?

  4. How common is a dedicated cold-start (first-run) screen, and which apps use one?

  5. Sample content vs social seeding: which empty-state fill pattern is more common?

  6. What do top apps show a brand-new user on an empty home screen?

  7. Which app categories invest most in a dedicated cold-start screen?

  8. On web/SaaS products, which in-product surfaces host empty states and first-run guidance?

More in Empty states and activation patterns →