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How best to implement a private beta

Hi IH,

I am looking at releasing my side project (https://crashcatch.com – you can join waiting list if you’re interested) at some point in Q1 this year.

Before doing a big release I want to see if I can first do a private beta release to get some initial feedback before making it public.

I have a few people in the waiting list – not that many unfortunately, but that’s hopefully mostly because I suck at marketing 😭

I was wondering what the best way is of implementing a private beta.

I’ve come up with a couple of ideas but not sure if these are expected or if there are a better ways to implement:

  • Make the site public but only notify a few people so they can sign up, and once I have enough users, just redirect the sign up page to a coming soon page. I would just need to put up with someone coming across it by chance and signing up without me emailing them – although I would expect this is somewhat unlikely to happen.

  • Notify the user that a private beta is available, and if they want to sign up, ask them for some details such as their name, email address they want to use (if different to the waiting list) and then I register for them on their behalf. Therefore keeping the registration page closed publicly but the main website publicly accessible.

If you have any suggestions on how best to implement a private beta, anything would be greatly appreciated.

For those of you that are interested in what Crash Catch is. It’s a simple and lightweight service with several libraries for various different project types, ranging from PC/Server software, such as C++ and C#, mobile such as Android (iOS coming soon) and web, such as ReactJS and PHP. The idea is you integrate one of these libraries into your development project, and the library will automatically send crash and error reports that you can view on the website. The idea is keep this is simple and lightweight for fellow indiehackers and small startups, so is designed to be affordable and not need to spend a small fortune like other services, and potentially getting bogged down in features that you aren’t going to use.

If you are interested or have any questions you can drop me an email or DM on Twitter (linked on IH profile) or of course in the comments here and if you want to receive a notification when the private beta/signups are open, you can register your interest at https://crashcatch.com.

Thanks

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    Personally, if I were doing it, I'd go with the first way since it requires less work on your part, time which you can spend improving you product.

    1. 1

      Thanks for the feedback. Yea that was my thinking as well as it's a quick easy win without having to code something specifically.

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