A review of LaunchDarkly
LaunchDarkly is a feature flag management platform designed to help development teams control and manage feature flags in their software projects. It provides functionalities such as feature toggles, remote config, and user targeting, allowing teams to release features gradually and monitor their impact on users.
Before looking at alternatives, we need to understand what are LaunchDarkly's strengths and what are its weaknesses.
Pricing
The entry price for LaunchDarkly is pretty low at $100/yr for the starter plan. This plan has limited features, but it's a good way to get started for a small teams. As your team grows, you will need to pay for more seats, and this is where LaunchDarkly can get really expensive quickly.
Here is what your team would pay for LaunchDarkly based on its size (plus additional cost related to more advanced features only available in larger plans):
- Price for 5 seats: $500/yr
- Price for 10 seats: $2 000/yr
LaunchDarkly has a free 14 days trial for you to get your hands on the product to build your own opinion.
Features
The starter plan of LaunchDarkly has all the feature you would expect from a feature flag service: kill-switches, MFA, A/B testing, unlimited environments, progressive rollout, remote config and unlimited feature-flags. This should be perfectly fine for any team just starting out.
Unfortunately, some more advanced features will require you to move await from the starter plan and make a significant jump in pricing. For instance, features such as duplicate flags, unlimited projects or reviews start at $1 000 a year. Some features are not even listed on the pricing page, you will need to talk to a LaunchDarkly sales representative to get a quote. Surprisingly, this includes custom roles and flag scheduling.
Overall, as long as you stick to the starter plan you should be good, but be prepared to significantly increase your bill as your company succeeds.
Ease of use
This is where LaunchDarkly falls short. Beside pricing, this is probably the number one reason people tend to look away from LaunchDarkly. The UI is clunky, and it can be hard to get simple things done quickly.
To be fair, LaunchDarkly has been around for a long time and had a lot of iterations. This can make the UI a bit overwhelming for new users. To help you compare it with alternatives, we've recorded a video on each solution where we try to enable a feature flag for 20% of users in France. Here is the result for LaunchDarkly:
Here are the ratings from people who use LaunchDarkly for both the ease of use and the setup time (the higher the better). We will compare those metrics with other alternatives later on in this post:
- Setup time: 4.1/5
- Ease of use: 3.5/5
Our top pick#1 Tggl.io
Tggl.io is often cited as a great alternative to LaunchDarkly for its ease of use for developers and product managers. It has a modern UI and a simple and competitive pricing model that makes it easy to get started. Tggl.io is also known for its great customer support.
Here is the same workflow in Tggl where we enable a flag for 20% of users in France:
As you can see, Tggl is more straightforward than LaunchDarkly here, it is easier to use and gets je job done faster. Here are what users think of Tggl:
- Setup time: 4.8/5
- Ease of use: 4.9/5
We also have put together an in-depth comparison between LaunchDarkly and Tggl where we compare pricing and list all features on a more granular level.
Regarding price, Tggl starts off a bit more expensive than LaunchDarkly but you get 5 seats out of the box. And as your team and usage grow, LaunchDarkly actually becomes mores expensive quickly:
- Price for 5 seats: €180/yr
- Price for 10 seats: €530/yr
#2 Unleash
Unleash is also a great alternative to LaunchDarkly, providing a complete set of features, including remote config, unlimited feature-flags, MFA, progressive rollout, kill-switches and A/B testing.
Note that some features are only available in higher plans. You will need to talk to a Unleash sales representative to get a quote for some more advanced features like unlimited projects, reviews, custom roles, unlimited environments, unlimited seats and flag scheduling.
Here is the video where we enable a flag for 20% of users in France using Unleash:
Here is what people who are using Unleash think about the product (the higher the better):
- Setup time: 3.8/5
- Ease of use: 3.2/5
For those seeking additional information, we've prepared an in-depth comparison between LaunchDarkly and Unleash. You'll find a complete overview of features and pricing for both platforms available here.
When it comes to price, Unleash is actually cheaper than LaunchDarkly, and the difference increases as your team and usage grows:
- Price for 5 seats: $960/yr
- Price for 10 seats: $1 860/yr
#3 Split
Split is another contender against LaunchDarkly, offering a great set of features to get you started with feature flags, like progressive rollout, unlimited feature-flags, kill-switches, MFA, unlimited environments and A/B testing.
Note that some features are only available in higher plans. This includes features such as unlimited projects, flag scheduling, custom roles or remote config that start at $7 200 a year and audit log that start at $3 960 a year. You will need to talk to a Split sales representative to get a quote for some more advanced features like reviews.
Here is the video where we enable a flag for 20% of users in France using Split:
Here is what people who are using Split think about the product (the higher the better):
- Setup time: 3.9/5
- Ease of use: 3.5/5
If you want to delve deeper into the details, we've crafted an in-depth comparison between LaunchDarkly and Split. You'll discover a comprehensive list of features and pricing for both services on this page.
When it comes to price, Split is actually more expensive than LaunchDarkly, and the difference increases as your team and usage grows:
- Price for 5 seats: $3 960/yr
- Price for 10 seats: $3 960/yr
#4 Flagsmith
Another great alternative to LaunchDarkly is Flagsmith, including all features you would expected from a feature flag service, such as remote config, A/B testing, unlimited projects, progressive rollout, unlimited environments, kill-switches and unlimited feature-flags.
Note that some features are only available in higher plans. This includes features such as flag scheduling or MFA that start at $540 a year and reviews, custom roles or audit log that start at $2 400 a year.
Here is the video where we enable a flag for 20% of users in France using Flagsmith:
Here is what people who are using Flagsmith think about the product (the higher the better):
- Setup time: 4.2/5
- Ease of use: 3.4/5
If you're interested in learning more, we've compiled a comprehensive comparison between LaunchDarkly and Flagsmith. You can access a detailed list of features and prices for both services here.
When it comes to price, Flagsmith is actually more expensive than LaunchDarkly, and the difference increases as your team and usage grows:
- Price for 5 seats: $2 400/yr
- Price for 10 seats: $3 600/yr
Conclusion
LaunchDarkly is often criticised for its price point and not so easy to use UI, but as you can see there are many options to choose from. And even tho in this test we ranked Tggl.io the highest, other alternatives also have a comparable feature set.