Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

Unleash VS LaunchDarkly

Compare Unleash VS LaunchDarkly and see what are their differences

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Unleash logo Unleash

Unleash is an open-source feature management platform. We are private, secure, and ready for the most complex setups out of the box.

LaunchDarkly logo LaunchDarkly

LaunchDarkly is a powerful development tool which allows software developers to roll out updates and new features.
  • Unleash Landing page
    Landing page //
    2021-06-12

As a highly flexible feature management platform, Unleash is built to reduce the risk of releasing new features and accelerate software development.

Whether you’re a small team or a large enterprise, Unleash enables you to innovate faster and make data-driven decisions that enhance your user experience.

With market-leading data governance, robust change and access controls, SaaS or self-hosted deployment options, multi-region support, and the flexibility of open-source, you have the freedom to choose the setup that works best for you while maintaining full control over your data.

  • LaunchDarkly Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-09-12

Unleash

$ Details
freemium $75.0 / Monthly ("Enterprise Pay-as-you-go", "5 users")
Platforms
Linux JavaScript Java .Net Go Elixir Python Ruby
Release Date
2019 January

Unleash features and specs

  • Flexibility
    Unleash provides a highly flexible feature management system that allows teams to enable or disable features without deploying new code. This is particularly useful for A/B testing, gradual rollouts, and quick feature toggles.
  • Open Source
    Being an open-source platform, Unleash allows you to review the source code, contribute to improvements, and avoid vendor lock-in. This provides a greater degree of transparency and control.
  • Multiple Environment Support
    Unleash supports multiple environments (development, staging, production) out of the box, enabling seamless management of feature releases across different stages of software development and deployment.
  • Strong Community
    As an open-source project, Unleash boasts a strong community that contributes to its constant improvement and provides support through forums, documentation, and other channels.
  • Privacy and Security
    Unleash allows self-hosting, which can be a significant advantage for organizations concerned about data privacy and security. Self-hosting ensures that no feature flag data leaves your infrastructure.

LaunchDarkly features and specs

  • Comprehensive Feature Flag Management
    LaunchDarkly offers a robust platform for feature flag management, allowing for granular control over which features are enabled for different user segments.
  • Real-time Feature Control
    Changes to feature flags can be made in real-time, reducing the need for redeploys and allowing for instant rollouts and rollbacks.
  • Scalability
    LaunchDarkly is built to handle large-scale deployments and can manage tens of millions of feature flags efficiently.
  • Team Collaboration
    The platform includes features that facilitate team collaboration, such as role-based access control and detailed audit logs.
  • Integration Capabilities
    LaunchDarkly supports integrations with a wide range of DevOps and CI/CD tools, making it easier to incorporate into existing workflows.
  • Advanced Targeting
    The platform allows for sophisticated targeting rules and user segmentation, enabling highly personalized feature rollouts.

Possible disadvantages of LaunchDarkly

  • Cost
    LaunchDarkly can be expensive, especially for smaller organizations or startups with limited budgets.
  • Learning Curve
    The platform can be complex to set up and use effectively, requiring a learning curve for new users.
  • Dependency on Internet Connectivity
    Real-time updates and functionality depend on an internet connection, which may be a limitation for some use cases.
  • Vendor Lock-in
    Once integrated, switching to another feature flag service can be time-consuming and difficult due to the level of integration and customization.
  • Limited Offline Support
    Offline support is not as robust as some other solutions, potentially affecting scenarios where intermittent connectivity is expected.
  • Enterprise Focus
    While powerful, some features and pricing models are more geared towards enterprise users, potentially alienating smaller or non-enterprise customers.

Unleash videos

Why Unleash? Why Now?

LaunchDarkly videos

How LaunchDarkly Enables Product Managers to Test in Production

More videos:

  • Review - Getting Started with Feature Flags - #1 LaunchDarkly Feature Flags
  • Review - Show & Tell with LaunchDarkly's Edith Harbaugh: Mobile Feature Flags

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Unleash and LaunchDarkly)
Developer Tools
40 40%
60% 60
Feature Flags
39 39%
61% 61
Release Management
100 100%
0% 0
A/B Testing
25 25%
75% 75

User comments

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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare Unleash and LaunchDarkly

Unleash Reviews

The 8 best free and open-source feature flag services
BlogBackSign inBlogThe 8 best free and open-source feature flag servicesPosted byThe best open-source feature flag tools1. PostHogWhat is PostHog?Supported librariesHow much does it cost?2. UnleashWhat is Unleash?Supported SDKsHow much does it cost?3. GrowthBookWhat is GrowthBook?Supported SDKsHow much does it cost?4. FlagsmithWhat is Flagsmith?Supported SDKsHow much does it...
Source: posthog.com

LaunchDarkly Reviews

Top Mobile Feature Flag Tools
LaunchDarkly is another dedicated feature flag management tool that offers extensive features. They support a variety of platforms and languages and boast clients like Microsoft, Atlassian, and Invision. Like Rollout, LaunchDarkly offers all the features of an enterprise-grade tool but, unlike Rollout, reserves the security features for the “Enterprise” plan. Out of the box,...
Source: instabug.com
Feature Toggling Tools for $100 or less
A differentiating factor is the functionality to schedule releases through the console, LaunchDarkly and FeatureFlow have incorporated this into their front end. Another front-end feature of interest is user segmentation management, which is available with LaunchDarkly, Rollout, and Bullet train subscriptions.
Source: medium.com

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, LaunchDarkly should be more popular than Unleash. It has been mentiond 37 times since March 2021. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

Unleash mentions (4)

  • KILLSWITCH
    So my first instinct is to setup some sorta feature-flag thing within a CMS so managers can flip the boolean, I'm exploring getunleash.io and GrowthBook.io and we already use Contentful.com within the app but they're saying they "really don't think we need to use any third party thing for a killswitch"... Source: almost 2 years ago
  • Need your opinion
    We are an Open Source Feature Flagging solution called Unleash, and we are looking to get some feedback from the community on a decision we are trying to make. We are considering offering our developers the option to either write technical content through a Community Content Program for us for a $200 fee, or to donate that amount to charity. Source: over 2 years ago
  • How we use analytics as a privacy focused OSS company
    TLDR: Privacy is really important for us at Unleash. Here you will find the full story on how we ended up with an analytics solution that does not collect personal data and has very short retention. Whenever we evaluate a new feature at Unleash, we always start with one question. How does this fit with our values? This question is powerful. It can quickly qualify or disqualify a feature from consideration, putting... - Source: dev.to / almost 3 years ago
  • Best A/B testing, experimentation platform for Mobile
    Have seen Unleash used: getunleash.io and people seemed happy with it. Source: almost 4 years ago

LaunchDarkly mentions (37)

  • How to Add Paid Features to Your SaaS Apps
    This kind of goes without saying since it's the opposite of the first don't I listed, but it's worth restating and giving some examples. Using tools from third parties means taking advantage of what they have done so you don't have to do that work. This means you are free to build things that make your app special. I like to use feature flag tools for this. Some examples are LaunchDarkly, Split, and AWS App... - Source: dev.to / about 1 year ago
  • Pivoting a million dollar DevTool startup
    Taplytics is a broad A/B testing platform for marketing teams. While DevCycle is a feature flagging tool built for developers. Taplytics actually has feature flagging, but DevCycle is much more focused and plans to compete directly with incumbents like LaunchDarkly by building a better developer experience (more on how later). But with Taplytics they built so many features and every customer was using them in a... - Source: dev.to / over 1 year ago
  • Arc Update - 1.20.1 (43987)
    I had a custom rule added to Little Snitch that blocked the following domains: launchdarkly.com, clientstream.launchdarkly.com, mobile.launchdarkly.com. Source: over 1 year ago
  • Feature flags implementation in Nest.js 😻
    There are however Saas to implement directly a feature management system. Several solutions exist like LaunchDarkly, Flagsmith or Unleash.io. Using a SaaS (Software as a Service) feature flagging solution offers the advantage of a faster and more straightforward implementation process. These services are readily available and can be quickly integrated into your project. - Source: dev.to / over 1 year ago
  • Boost DX, Enhance UX, and Skyrocket Profits! Dive into a sub-50ms world with Edge Feature Flags 🚀
    Currently, there are numerous feature flag systems available. Options include our own company's open-source system, "Bucketeer", and the renowned SaaS "LaunchDarkly" among others. When comparing these, the following considerations might come into play:. - Source: dev.to / over 1 year ago
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What are some alternatives?

When comparing Unleash and LaunchDarkly, you can also consider the following products

Flagsmith - Flagsmith lets you manage feature flags and remote config across web, mobile and server side applications. Deliver true Continuous Integration. Get builds out faster. Control who has access to new features. We're Open Source.

ConfigCat - ConfigCat is a developer-centric feature flag service with unlimited team size, awesome support, and a reasonable price tag.

Split.io - In a world where product development teams are pressured to do more with less, Split’s Feature Data Platform™ gives you the confidence to move fast without breaking things.

Optimizely - A/B testing you'll actually use.

Hypertune - Type-safe feature flags, A/B testing, analytics and app configuration, with Git-style version control and local, synchronous, in-memory flag evaluation

Growth Book - The Open Source A/B Testing Platform