MVP Testing: How to Do QA Properly on a Startup Budget

Your MVP is almost ready to launch. But should you spend weeks on comprehensive testing? Hire a QA team? Or just ship it and fix bugs as they come?

Testing is one of those areas where startups often swing between extremes: either obsessive testing that delays launch indefinitely, or zero testing that results in embarrassing bugs in front of early users.

Neither is right. Here's how to test your MVP effectively without burning through your budget or timeline.

The MVP Testing Philosophy

The goal of MVP testing isn't zero bugs—it's ensuring critical paths work reliably enough that users can experience your core value proposition.

• Test ruthlessly: Payment flows, authentication, core features, data integrity
• Test lightly: Edge cases, cosmetic issues, rarely-used features
• Skip (for now): Performance optimization, comprehensive browser support, accessibility edge cases

What MUST Work: The Critical Path

1. Authentication Flow

• Users can sign up with valid credentials
• Users can log in after signing up
• Password reset works (send and complete)
• Sessions persist appropriately
• Logout actually logs users out

Nothing kills trust faster than auth bugs. Test this thoroughly.

2. Payment Processing

• Checkout completes successfully
• Payment is actually captured (check Stripe dashboard)
• Confirmation email sends
• Failed payment shows appropriate error
• Subscription status updates correctly

Use Stripe's test cards to simulate various scenarios: successful payment, declined card, expired card, insufficient funds.

3. Core Value Feature

Whatever your product's main thing is—that MUST work. If you're a task manager, creating and completing tasks must be bulletproof. If you're a marketplace, listings and transactions must work.

4. Data Integrity

• User data saves correctly
• Data displays accurately after save
• Edits persist properly
• Deletes actually delete (or soft-delete as intended)
• Data is isolated between users/tenants

Types of Testing (And What to Prioritize)

Manual Testing (Do This)

The most cost-effective testing for MVPs. You or someone on your team actually uses the product.

• The "fresh eyes" test: Have someone who hasn't seen the product try to complete key tasks without guidance
• The happy path test: Walk through the ideal user journey
• The angry path test: Deliberately try to break things

Smoke Testing (Do This)

Quick verification that core functionality works after each deployment:

• Can users sign up?
• Can users log in?
• Does the main feature work?
• Do payments process?

Automated Testing (Be Selective)

Worth automating: Critical API endpoints, complex business logic, catastrophic-if-broken features

Not worth automating (yet): UI interactions, features you might cut, low-impact edge cases

Cross-Browser Testing (Minimal)

For MVP, test on: Chrome (desktop), Safari (desktop and mobile), Chrome (mobile). That covers 90%+ of users.

The MVP Testing Checklist

Authentication

• Sign up with email works
• Sign up with social login works (if applicable)
• Login works
• Password reset email sends
• Password reset completes successfully
• Logout works

Core Features

• Main feature #1 works end-to-end
• Main feature #2 works end-to-end
• Data saves correctly
• Data displays correctly
• Edits save properly
• Deletes work properly

Payments (If Applicable)

• Checkout page loads
• Test card payment succeeds
• Payment appears in Stripe dashboard
• User gets access/confirmation
• Declined card shows error message

Free and Cheap Testing Tools

Browser Testing

• Chrome DevTools: Device simulation, network throttling, built-in
• BrowserStack Free: Limited free testing on real devices
• Responsively App: Free, shows multiple viewports simultaneously

API Testing

• Postman: Free for individual use, essential for API testing
• Insomnia: Clean alternative to Postman

Error Monitoring (Critical)

• Sentry: Free tier catches JavaScript and backend errors
• LogRocket: Session replay to see what users experienced

Install error monitoring before launch. You can't fix bugs you don't know about.

When to Ship With Known Bugs

Ship anyway if:

• Bug affects rarely-used feature
• Bug is cosmetic only
• Workaround exists and is acceptable
• Fix would significantly delay launch

Don't ship if:

• Bug affects payments or billing
• Bug causes data loss
• Bug blocks core functionality
• Bug is a security vulnerability

Bug Triage: What to Fix First

P0 - Fix immediately: Payment broken, auth broken, core feature broken, security vulnerability, data loss

P1 - Fix within 24 hours: Core feature partially broken, major UX issues

P2 - Fix this week: Minor feature issues, UX annoyances, edge cases

P3 - Fix eventually: Cosmetic issues, rare edge cases

Common MVP Testing Mistakes

• Testing too much: Comprehensive test suites that take weeks to build
• Testing too little: Shipping without even checking if signup works
• Only testing happy path: Real users do unexpected things
• Testing on localhost only: Production environments behave differently
• Ignoring mobile: Mobile traffic is often 50%+
• No error monitoring: Flying blind without Sentry or equivalent