Sign Up vs Sign In: How Many Steps Does Each Take?

Across 149 signup flows and 118 signin flows tracked by Lazyweb Research, signup averages 6.2 steps versus 4.7 for signin — about 1.5 steps, or 32%, longer.^[1]^[2] Median signup is 5 steps (range 2-16); median signin is 4 (range 2-15).

Signup flows average 6.2 steps vs 4.7 for signin — 32% longer — across 149 signup and 118 signin flows (Lazyweb Research, July 2026).

Lazyweb Research · n=149 · Published 2026-07-07

signuponboardingmobileux-patternsexperiments

The finding

Signup flows average 6.2 steps (median 5, range 2-16) across 149 flows from 146 companies.^[1] Signin flows average 4.7 steps (median 4, range 2-15) across 118 flows from 112 companies.^[2] Signup is roughly 1.5 steps — about 32% — longer than signin.^[3]

Signup vs signin length

Flow	Flows	Mean steps	Median	Range
Signup	149	6.2	5	2-16 ^[1]
Signin	118	4.7	4	2-15 ^[2]

The extra ~1.5 steps in signup is where profile fields, consent, verification, and onboarding prompts accumulate.

How to apply it

Treat 6 steps as the tracked norm for signup and ~5 for signin — if your signup runs to 10+ steps you are in the long tail (the max observed is 16).^[1] Every step you can defer past account creation moves you toward the shorter end of the distribution. Because signin is where returning users live, keeping it near the 4-5 step median matters for reactivation, not just first-run conversion.^[2]

Caveats

Steps are counted per merged flow (positions via ROW_NUMBER, never raw step values), and flows are matched by name regex on flow titles.^[1] The family's earlier '6.4 steps' sketch does not match the final pull; the correct signup average is 6.2.^[1]

The numbers

Stat	Computed from
6.2 steps avg (median 5, range 2-16), n=149 flows / 146 companies	signup_vs_signin_steps: signup
4.7 steps avg (median 4, range 2-15), n=118 flows / 112 companies	signup_vs_signin_steps: signin
~1.5 steps / 32% longer	signup_vs_signin_steps: 6.2 vs 4.7 = 1.5 diff, 1.5/4.7=32%

Methodology. Universe: 149 signup and 118 signin flows (name-regex merged) across tracked apps. Steps counted per canonical flow, July 2026. Caveat: flows matched by title regex; signup avg is 6.2 (not the 6.4 in the earlier family sketch).

Sources & citations

[1] Lazyweb Research analysis of 267 auth flows (149 signup + 118 signin flows across ~800 tracked apps), July 2026. Flow length = COUNT of steps per merged flow_canonical_id; signup vs signin split by name regex on flow titles; positions via ROW_NUMBER. ↩

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