A soft-start method for a switching regulator is provided. In the soft-start method, a first gate drive signal for limiting an inrush current is provided, by a control circuit, to a switching circuit in a first soft-start stage. After the control circuit determines that a mode switching condition is satisfied according to an output voltage and an output current, a second drive signal for increasing a rise rate of an output voltage is provided to the switching circuit so that the output voltage increases with a faster rise rate and reaches a predetermined voltage at a second soft-start stage.