diff --git a/docs/docs/self-hosting/manage/production.md b/docs/docs/self-hosting/manage/production.md
index 50d09273d4..0d4b5d86ef 100644
--- a/docs/docs/self-hosting/manage/production.md
+++ b/docs/docs/self-hosting/manage/production.md
@@ -1,10 +1,14 @@
 ---
-title: Production Checklist
+title: Production Setup
 ---
 
 As soon as you successfully deployed ZITADEL as a proof of concept using one of our [deployment guides](/docs/self-hosting/deploy/overview),
 you are ready to configure ZITADEL for production usage.
 
+
+## TL;DR
+We created a [Production Checklist](./productionchecklist.md) as a technical step by step guide.
+
 ## High Availability
 
 We recommend running ZITADEL highly available using an orchestrator that schedules ZITADEL on multiple servers,
@@ -135,3 +139,4 @@ DefaultInstance:
 - Learn how to configure ZITADEL via the [Console user interface](/guides/manage/console/overview).
 - Probably, you also want to [apply your custom branding](/guides/manage/customize/branding), [hook into certain events](/guides/manage/customize/behavior), [customize texts](/guides/manage/customize/texts) or [add metadata to your users](/guides/manage/customize/user-metadata).
 - If you want to automatically create ZITADEL resources, you can use the [ZITADEL Terraform Provider](/guides/manage/terraform/basics).
+
diff --git a/docs/docs/self-hosting/manage/productionchecklist.md b/docs/docs/self-hosting/manage/productionchecklist.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..0be75d1c08
--- /dev/null
+++ b/docs/docs/self-hosting/manage/productionchecklist.md
@@ -0,0 +1,60 @@
+---
+title: Production Checklist
+---
+
+
+To apply best practices to your production setup we created a step by step checklist you may wish to follow.
+
+### Infrastructure Configuration
+
+- [ ] make use of configmanagement such as Terraform to provision all of the below
+- [ ] use version control to store the provisioning
+- [ ] use a secrets manager to save your sensible informations
+- [ ] reduce the manual interaction with your platform to an absolute minimum 
+#### HA Setup
+- [ ] High Availability for ZITADEL containers
+  - [ ] use container orchestrator such as Kubernetes or
+  - [ ] use serverless architecture such as Knative or a hyperscaler equivalent (e.g. CloudRun from Google)
+  - [ ] separate `zitadel init` and `zitadel setup` for fast startup times when [scaling](/docs/self-hosting/manage/updating_scaling) ZITADEL
+- [ ] High Availability for database 
+  - [ ] follow the [Production Checklist](https://www.cockroachlabs.com/docs/stable/recommended-production-settings.html) for CockroachDB if you selfhost the database or use [CockroachDB cloud](https://www.cockroachlabs.com/docs/cockroachcloud/create-an-account.html)
+  - [ ] configure backups on a regular basis for the Database
+  - [ ] test a restore scenario before going live
+  - [ ] secure database connections from outside your network and/or use an internal subnet for database connectivity
+- [ ] High Availability for critical infrastructure components (depending on your setup)
+  - [ ] Loadbalancer
+  - [ ] [Reverse Proxies](https://zitadel.com/docs/self-hosting/manage/reverseproxy/reverse_proxy)
+  - [ ] Web Application Firewall
+
+#### Networking
+- [ ] Use a Layer 7 Web Application Firewall to secure ZITADEL that supports **[HTTP/2](/docs/self-hosting/manage/http2)**
+  - [ ] secure the access by IP if needed
+  - [ ] secure the access by rate limits for specific endpoints (e.g. API vs frontend) to secure availability on high load. See the [ZITADEL Cloud rate limits](https://zitadel.com/docs/apis/ratelimits) for reference.
+  - [ ] doublecheck your firewall for IPv6 connectivity and change accordingly
+
+### ZITADEL configuration
+- [ ] configure a valid [SMTP Server](/docs/guides/manage/console/instance-settings#smtp) and test emails
+- [ ] Add [Custom Branding](/docs/guides/manage/customize/branding) if required
+- [ ] configure a valid [SMS Service](/docs/guides/manage/console/instance-settings#sms) such as Twilio if needed
+- [ ] configure your privacy policy, terms of service and a help Link if needed
+- [ ] secure your [masterkey](https://zitadel.com/docs/self-hosting/manage/configure)
+- [ ] declare and apply zitadel configuration using the zitadel terraform [provider](https://github.com/zitadel/terraform-provider-zitadel) 
+
+### Security
+- [ ] use a FQDN and a trusted valid certificate for external [TLS](/docs/self-hosting/manage/tls_modes#http2) connections
+- [ ] make use of different service accounts to secure ZITADEL within your hyperscaler or Kubernetes 
+- [ ] make use of a CDN service if needed to ease maintainability and firewall/DNS/WAF configuration
+- [ ] make use of a [security scanner](https://owasp.org/www-community/Vulnerability_Scanning_Tools) to test your application and cluster
+
+### Monitoring
+Use an appropriate monitoring solution to have an overview about your ZITADEL instance. In particular you may want to watch out for things like:
+
+- [ ] CPU and memory of ZITADEL and the database
+- [ ] open database connections
+- [ ] running instances of ZITADEL and the database
+- [ ] latency of requests
+- [ ] requests per second
+- [ ] requests by URL/endpoint
+- [ ] lifetime of TLS certificates
+- [ ] ZITADEL and database logs
+- [ ] ZITADEL [metrics](/docs/apis/observability/metrics)
diff --git a/docs/sidebars.js b/docs/sidebars.js
index ad9370bf14..710ebbd2c6 100644
--- a/docs/sidebars.js
+++ b/docs/sidebars.js
@@ -271,6 +271,7 @@ module.exports = {
       collapsed: false,
       items: [
         "self-hosting/manage/production",
+        "self-hosting/manage/productionchecklist",
         "self-hosting/manage/configure/configure",
         "self-hosting/manage/reverseproxy/reverse_proxy",
         "self-hosting/manage/custom-domain",