ShipSilently vs Flagsmith
Managed, flat and unlimited-seat, versus an open-source tool you can self-host but that meters API requests and tiers your seats.
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Flagsmith's superpower is that it's genuinely open source: you can self-host it and own your data. Its hosted plans, though, meter API requests and cap seats per tier (1 → 3 → 5, then $50/seat), which is where the bill surprises high-traffic teams. ShipSilently is fully managed, flat at $49/mo, with unlimited seats and 10M evaluations included.
Pick Flagsmith if…
you want to self-host for data residency, you need SOC 2 / SSO / RBAC today, or running your own infrastructure is a feature, not a cost.
Pick ShipSilently if…
you want zero ops, flat pricing that does not move with request volume, unlimited seats, and a 5-minute managed setup.
At a glance
| ShipSilently | Flagsmith | |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price | $0 free · $49/mo flat | $0 free (50k req, 1 seat) · $45/mo Start-Up |
| Pricing model | Flat, unlimited seats | Per-API-request + seat caps per tier |
| Included volume (entry paid) | 10M evals / mo | 1M requests / mo (Start-Up) |
| Hosting | Fully managed (Cloudflare) | SaaS or self-host (you run it) |
| Open source | ❌ (self-host 2027 roadmap) | ✅ BSD-3 / self-hostable |
Pricing compared
ShipSilently
Flat monthly, no per-seat, no per-MAU, no per-request metering
Side projects and indie developers getting started.
- 100,000 evaluations / month
- Up to 10 feature flags
- 2 environments
- JavaScript / TypeScript SDK
- Community support
Growing teams that ship fast and need confidence at scale.
- 10M evaluations / month (overage $0.01 per 10k)
- Unlimited feature flags
- Unlimited environments
- Unlimited team members, no per-seat fee
- JS / TypeScript + Go SDKs
- Targeting, percentage rollouts & instant kill switch
- Evaluation analytics & audit log
- Email support
Large orgs needing dedicated infra, higher volume and an SLA.
- Unlimited evaluations
- Everything in Pro
- Dedicated Slack & SLA
- Custom data retention
Flagsmith
Hybrid: metered on API requests per month with seat caps per tier (Start-Up 3 seats, Scale-Up 5 seats then ~$50/seat). Self-hosting the open-source edition avoids request metering but you own the infrastructure. ~11% annual discount.
Sourced from flagsmith.com/pricing · verified June 23, 2026
Unlimited flags/segments, but tight request + seat caps.
- 50,000 requests / mo
- 1 seat
- Unlimited flags, environments, identities, segments
A/B testing, scheduled flags, integrations.
- 1M requests / mo
- 3 seats
- Overage ~$7 per 100k requests
- 2FA, email support
Governance + SSO; seats get expensive past 5.
- 5M+ requests / mo
- 5 seats (then ~$50/seat, up to 20)
- SAML/SSO, RBAC, change requests, audit logs
Air-gapped / self-host, LDAP/SCIM, SLA.
- Unlimited requests
- 20+ seats
- Air-gapped & self-host options
- LDAP / SCIM, SLA
What you'd actually pay
Small team, 8 engineers
Eight people who all need dashboard access on the hosted plan.
≈9× cheaper on ShipSilently once your team passes the seat cliff.
High-traffic backend, 100M evaluations / mo
A busy API doing ~100M flag evaluations a month.
Per-request metering is the trap at scale; ShipSilently caps the surprise with cheap flat overage.
Privacy-first team that wants to self-host
Data residency is non-negotiable and they have ops capacity.
Here Flagsmith genuinely wins. We recommend it for self-host.
Break-even: ShipSilently Pro is $49/mo flat with 10M evaluations and unlimited seats. Flagsmith hosted passes that as soon as you need more than ~3 seats (Start-Up) or cross ~1M requests/mo, and the Scale-Up jump to $300/mo for 5 seats is steep. Self-hosting Flagsmith is "free" in licence but costs you infrastructure and on-call.
Full feature comparison
| Feature | ShipSilently | Flagsmith |
|---|---|---|
| Core flagging | ||
| Boolean flags | ||
| Multivariate flags | ||
| Percentage rollouts | ||
| Segment / attribute targeting | Attribute & rule based | Unlimited segments |
| Instant kill switch | Instant, edge-propagated | |
| Real-time updates | SSE streaming | Polling / edge cache |
| Runtime & SDKs | ||
| Runs on any runtime | Any runtime, no platform lock-in | |
| Global edge delivery | Cloudflare global edge | Edge API, ~8 DCs |
| Breadth of SDKs | JS/TS + Go (more on roadmap) | 15+ SDKs |
| REST API | ||
| Workflow & lifecycle | ||
| Evaluation analytics | Pro | Basic |
| Audit log | Pro (basic) | Paid / Enterprise for full |
| Scheduled changes | Roadmap | Start-Up+ |
| Change requests / approvals | Q4 2026 roadmap | Scale-Up+ |
| Experimentation | ||
| Built-in A/B experiments | Q3 2026 roadmap | Via multivariate segments |
| Stats / results engine | Roadmap | Basic |
| Hosting, enterprise & security | ||
| Open source | 2027 roadmap | BSD-3 |
| Self-host / on-prem | 2027 roadmap | Docker / Helm / air-gapped |
| SAML SSO | Roadmap | Scale-Up+ |
| RBAC | Team roles only | Scale-Up+ |
| SOC 2 Type II | Roadmap | |
| Pricing | ||
| Free tier | 100k evals/mo | 50k req, 1 seat |
| Flat, predictable price | Flat $49/mo | Request-metered + seats |
| Unlimited seats | Seat caps per tier | |
| No per-request metering | Flat tier + overage | Per-request |
| Zero infrastructure to run | Managed | Managed or self-run |
✅ supported · ~ partial / limited · ❌ not available. We mark ShipSilently's own gaps honestly, see our roadmap for what's shipping next.
Where each tool wins
Honest is faster than balanced, so here's where Flagsmith genuinely beats us, and where we beat them.
Pick Flagsmith when…
- Genuinely open source (BSD-3) and self-hostable via Docker/Helm, full data residency and no vendor lock-in.
- SOC 2 Type II, SAML SSO, RBAC and change-request governance available today (paid tiers).
- 15+ SDKs and a global Edge API with failover.
- Air-gapped / on-prem deployment for regulated environments.
Pick ShipSilently when…
- Flat $49/mo with unlimited seats, no 1→3→5 seat cliff or $50/seat surcharge.
- A 10M-evaluation tier with cheap flat overage instead of per-request metering.
- Zero infrastructure to run, patch or scale, fully managed.
- Faster real-time propagation over SSE.
Migrating from Flagsmith
Concept mapping
| Flagsmith | ShipSilently |
|---|---|
| Project / Environment | Environment |
| Feature / Remote config | Flag |
| Segment | Targeting rule |
| Identity / traits | Evaluation context attributes |
| Environment API key | API key |
Things to plan for
- If you self-host Flagsmith today, moving to ShipSilently trades ops work for a managed service, plan to decommission your Postgres + app infra.
- Flagsmith identities/traits map to ShipSilently evaluation context; recreate segments as targeting rules.
- Keep Flagsmith if SOC 2, SSO or self-host are hard requirements now, those are roadmap on ShipSilently.
FAQ
Is ShipSilently cheaper than Flagsmith?
For most teams on the hosted plans, yes. ShipSilently is $49/mo flat with unlimited seats; Flagsmith Start-Up is $45/mo but caps you at 3 seats and 1M requests, and Scale-Up jumps to $300/mo for 5 seats. Self-hosting Flagsmith has no licence fee but real infrastructure cost.
Does ShipSilently meter API requests like Flagsmith?
No per-request meter. Pro includes 10M evaluations/month with overage at $0.01 per 10k. Flagsmith hosted bills on API requests per month, which is what makes high-traffic backends expensive.
Can I self-host ShipSilently like Flagsmith?
Not today, self-host is on our 2027 roadmap. Flagsmith is open source (BSD-3) and self-hostable now. If data residency or air-gapped deployment is required, Flagsmith is the right call and we will say so.
Does Flagsmith have a free tier?
Yes, 50,000 requests/month and 1 seat, with unlimited flags and segments. ShipSilently's free tier is 100k evaluations, 10 flags and 2 environments. For a solo dev, either can be $0.
Does ShipSilently have SSO and SOC 2 like Flagsmith?
Not yet, SSO and SOC 2 are on the roadmap, not shipped. Flagsmith offers SSO/RBAC on Scale-Up and is SOC 2 Type II accredited today.
How do seats work?
ShipSilently includes unlimited team members on every paid plan. Flagsmith caps seats per tier (1/3/5) and charges roughly $50/seat beyond Scale-Up's five, a common reason growing teams switch.
Try ShipSilently free
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