TL;DR: GrowthBook fits teams that want unlimited flags and traffic on a free Starter cloud plan (seats capped) or self-host, then Pro at $40/seat/month. Flagsmith fits teams that want unlimited flags on Free with 50,000 requests/month, then Start-Up for a million requests. LaunchDarkly fits companies that will pay usage (service connections and client MAU) rather than a cheap seat. Unleash fits teams that will self-host the open-source core or buy Unleash Enterprise.
Feature-flag software is the control plane that turns a feature on for some users without a full deploy. Experimentation often sits in the same product. It is not product analytics as a category.
Every entry uses the same fields: published pricing, unit (seats vs requests vs MAU), self-host, free/trial and the main limitation. The order below is not a quality ranking. Printed $0 production paths first (GrowthBook Starter, Flagsmith Free). LaunchDarkly usage and Unleash Enterprise follow.
Feature flag software compared at a glance
| Provider | Published pricing | Unit | Best for | Link |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| GrowthBook | Cloud Starter Free. Pro $40/seat/month. Enterprise quote. Self-host Starter is free | Seats, not MAU | Flags plus experiments without a per-user tax | Visit β |
| Flagsmith | Free: 50k requests/mo, 1 member. Start-Up: 1M requests. Scale-Up 5M+. Extra API calls from $50 per million | API requests | A public request ladder and optional self-host | Visit β |
| LaunchDarkly | Developer free with usage caps. Foundation is usage: $10 per service connection/mo and $8.33 per 1k client-side MAU/mo on launchdarkly.com/pricing. Enterprise quote | Connections + MAU | Teams that want LaunchDarklyβs targeting and will pay usage | Visit β |
| Unleash | Open-source self-host. Paid Unleash cloud/Enterprise on getunleash.io/pricing | Self-host ops or Enterprise seats | Engineering teams that want to run the OSS core | Visit β |
Read on 15 September 2026. GrowthBook Pro is $40/seat on the live cloud grid (older posts still say $20). Flagsmith Start-Up has been listed around $45/mo on Flagsmithβs own compare pages β confirm the toggle on flagsmith.com/pricing.
Two vendors let you run flags at $0 with a cap. LaunchDarkly bills the fleet. Unleash bills ops or Enterprise.
Seats, requests and MAU are not interchangeable
GrowthBook charges people who administer flags. Flagsmith charges API requests. LaunchDarkly charges connections and client-side MAU. Comparing β$40β to β$10 per connectionβ without a worksheet is how finance gets a surprise.
The four providers in detail
1. GrowthBook
SEATS, NOT END USERS
Best for: product and data teams that want flags and experiments on a warehouse-friendly stack without paying per monthly active user.
| Published pricing | Cloud Starter Free (seat and project caps). Pro $40/seat/month, up to 50 users, 3 projects, unlimited flags/experiments/traffic. Enterprise quote. Self-host Starter free |
| Unit | Admin seats. Traffic is unlimited on the published Pro card |
| Self-host | Yes. That is a different ops bill |
| Free plan / trial | Permanent Starter |
| Main limitation | Pro is $40/seat now. Visual editor, bandits and safe rollouts sit on Pro, not Starter |
- Count flag admins, not customers, when you model Pro.
- Bring-your-own warehouse is the architectural reason to pick GrowthBook over a closed SaaS.
- Do not assume Starter includes SSO and approval workflows β those are Enterprise language.
2. Flagsmith
REQUEST LADDER
Best for: teams that want unlimited flag definitions on a printed request cap and may self-host later.
| Published pricing | Free: 50,000 requests/mo, 1 member, 1 project. Start-Up: 1,000,000 requests, 3 members. Scale-Up: 5,000,000+ and 5β20 members at extra per-member rates. Additional API calls from $50 per million |
| Unit | SDK/API requests per month |
| Self-host | Yes (open-source core) |
| Free plan / trial | Permanent Free with a request cap |
| Main limitation | A chatty mobile client will burn 50k requests faster than a server-side flag check |
- Instrument request volume before you call Free βenough.β
- Scheduled flags, 2FA and integrations sit on Start-Up in Flagsmithβs public grid.
- Governance (change requests, SAML) is Scale-Up/Enterprise, not Free.
3. LaunchDarkly
USAGE: CONNECTIONS AND MAU
Best for: organisations that want LaunchDarklyβs targeting, experimentation add-on and a usage invoice they can forecast from MAU.
| Published pricing | Developer free with caps. Foundation: no seat fee; $10 per service connection per month; $8.33 per 1k client-side MAU per month; 5k AI runs included then $5 per extra 1k. Enterprise quote. 14-day trial then pay-as-you-go on the public page |
| Unit | Service connections + client-side MAU + optional AI runs |
| Self-host | Not the default story. This is a SaaS control plane |
| Free plan / trial | Developer after trial, with ingestion stops at printed caps |
| Main limitation | Client-side MAU is the line that surprises consumer apps. Five connections are not βthe whole company is freeβ |
- Inventory server-side SDKs Γ environments. That is the connection count.
- Experimentation includes 100k MAU on the marketing page β extra experiment MAU is not free air.
- Do not compare LaunchDarkly Foundation to GrowthBook Starter $0 without a MAU worksheet.
4. Unleash
OSS CORE OR ENTERPRISE
Best for: engineering teams that want to run Unleash themselves, or buy Enterprise for SSO, SLA and hosted control.
| Published pricing | Open-source self-host. Paid cloud/Enterprise on getunleash.io/pricing (historically seat-based on Enterprise; confirm live) |
| Unit | Your cluster, or Enterprise commercial terms |
| Self-host | Yes β that is the default open-source path |
| Free plan / trial | OSS is free software. Cloud trials exist |
| Main limitation | Self-host is not $0 total cost. You own upgrades, HA and backups |
- Choose OSS only if someone already runs similar JVM/Node services.
- Enterprise is the row for procurement, not a hobby flag file.
- SDKs are the lock-in. Changing flag vendors is an engineering project.
Kurums Match: which one fits your situation
We want flags and experiments without paying per user
GrowthBook Starter, then Pro at $40/seat when you need the visual editor and bandits.
We can count API requests and want a public ladder
Flagsmith Free until 50k requests, then Start-Up.
We already standardised on LaunchDarkly targeting
Stay. Model connections Γ MAU. Do not assume Developer free covers production MAU.
We will self-host
GrowthBook, Flagsmith or Unleash OSS. Budget the cluster.
Buying tip: write last monthβs client-side MAU, server SDK Γ environment count, and admin headcount. Send that one sheet to every vendor.
How this comparison was put together
Vendor pricing pages, 15 September 2026. GrowthBook Pro $40/seat and LaunchDarkly connection/MAU units are from those pages. No paid placement. Kurums did not run a production flag fleet on all four.
Order is printed $0 path first. No badge reflects a commercial relationship.
Frequently asked questions
Is GrowthBook still $20/seat?
The live cloud card printed $40/seat/month on the check date. Use that number.
Are feature flags the same as A/B tests?
Flags can power tests. Dedicated experiment stats sit on GrowthBook Pro and LaunchDarkly experiment rows.
Can PostHog replace these?
PostHog sells flags as a product module. This page is flag-specialist packaging. See the product-analytics comparison for PostHogβs event bill.
Did we test targeting latency?
No. Run an SDK spike in your region before you bet a launch on it.
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