ShipSilently vs LaunchDarkly
Flat, predictable pricing that runs anywhere, versus the deepest, most expensive platform in the category.
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LaunchDarkly is the category's most mature feature-management platform, and for large enterprises with heavy experimentation and governance needs it is hard to beat. But its usage-based pricing, billed per service connection and per 1,000 monthly active contexts, is also the most common reason teams come looking for an alternative. ShipSilently charges one flat $49/mo and runs on any runtime.
Pick LaunchDarkly if…
you need a mature experimentation/stats engine, advanced progressive delivery (guarded rollouts, auto-rollback), and enterprise governance (SAML, SCIM, custom RBAC, SOC 2) today.
Pick ShipSilently if…
you want predictable flat pricing that does not balloon with microservices or user growth, a flag tool that runs on any runtime, and a 5-minute setup.
At a glance
| ShipSilently | LaunchDarkly | |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price | $0 free · $49/mo flat (Pro) | $0 free (Developer) |
| Entry paid tier | $49/mo flat | Foundation: $12/mo per service connection + $10 / 1k client-side MAU |
| Pricing model | Flat, no per-seat, per-MAU or per-request metering | Usage-based: per service connection + per 1k MAU |
| Runtime / lock-in | Runs on any runtime (Cloudflare edge backend) | Edge SDKs are provider-specific (Cloudflare / Vercel) |
| Experimentation | ❌ Roadmap (Q3 2026) | ✅ Mature stats engine (paid add-on) |
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
LaunchDarkly
Usage-based: billed per server-side service connection (~$12/connection/mo) plus per 1,000 client-side monthly active contexts (MAU). Seats are unlimited on paid tiers; experimentation is a separate add-on. Enterprise & Guardian are custom/contact-sales.
Sourced from launchdarkly.com/pricing/ · verified June 23, 2026
Evaluation tier with hard usage caps.
- 3 environments
- 5 service connections
- 1,000 client-side MAU
- Core flag targeting
Public, usage-metered tier, cost scales with infra + users.
- Unlimited seats, projects & environments
- SAML SSO
- Per service-connection + per-MAU billing
- Experimentation sold as a paid add-on (~$3 / 1k MAU)
Governance + release automation; median contract ~$72k/yr (Vendr).
- Scheduled changes & approval workflows
- SAML, SCIM provisioning, custom roles (RBAC)
- Audit logs, SOC 2 Type II, ISO 27001
- Pricing is quote-only (opaque)
Advanced progressive delivery on top of Enterprise.
- Guarded rollouts & automatic rollback
- Failure detection / release monitoring
What you'd actually pay
Tiny team, 3 engineers, one backend service, 50k MAU
A handful of Kubernetes pods (≈8 service connections) and ~50,000 monthly active users on the client side.
≈12× cheaper on ShipSilently before any experimentation add-on.
Scaling SaaS, 8 engineers, microservices, 250k MAU
Autoscaling microservices average ~30 service connections; 250,000 client-side MAU.
The per-connection charge is the trap: each pod is billable, so autoscaling inflates the bill.
Enterprise renewal
A team on a legacy plan being moved to current pricing, a widely reported pattern.
Renewal shock, reported 10–20% step-ups and "doubling" off legacy plans, is the #1 reason teams evaluate alternatives.
Break-even: ShipSilently Pro stays $49/mo flat. LaunchDarkly Foundation passes $49/mo at roughly 4 service connections, or ~5,000 client-side MAU, so almost any production deployment with more than a couple of pods or a few thousand users is already paying more.
Full feature comparison
| Feature | ShipSilently | LaunchDarkly |
|---|---|---|
| Core flagging | ||
| Boolean flags | ||
| Multivariate flags | ||
| Percentage rollouts | ||
| Attribute / rule targeting | Attribute & rule based | Very advanced |
| Instant kill switch | Instant, edge-propagated | |
| Real-time updates | SSE streaming | Streaming |
| Runtime & SDKs | ||
| Runs on any runtime (no platform lock-in) | Any runtime, no platform lock-in | Edge SDKs are Cloudflare/Vercel-specific |
| Global edge delivery | Cloudflare global edge | CDN + edge integrations |
| Breadth of SDKs | JS/TS + Go (more on roadmap) | 25–30+ SDKs |
| REST API | ||
| Workflow & lifecycle | ||
| Evaluation analytics | Pro | |
| Audit log | Pro (basic) | Full |
| Scheduled changes | Roadmap | Enterprise |
| Approval workflows | Q4 2026 roadmap | Enterprise |
| Experimentation | ||
| Built-in A/B experiments | Q3 2026 roadmap | Mature, paid add-on |
| Stats engine (CUPED / sequential) | Roadmap | |
| Guarded rollouts / auto-rollback | Roadmap | Guardian tier |
| Enterprise & security | ||
| SAML SSO | Roadmap | Foundation+ |
| SCIM provisioning | Roadmap | Enterprise |
| Custom RBAC | Team roles only | Enterprise |
| SOC 2 Type II | Roadmap | + ISO 27001 |
| Self-host / on-prem | 2027 roadmap | Relay Proxy only |
| Pricing | ||
| Free tier | 100k evals/mo | Tight caps |
| Flat, predictable price | Flat $49/mo | Usage-metered |
| No per-seat fee | Never per-seat | Seats free; meters elsewhere |
| No per-connection / per-MAU metering | Flat $49 | Both metered |
| Public pricing for all tiers | Enterprise/Guardian quote-only | |
✅ 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 LaunchDarkly genuinely beats us, and where we beat them.
Pick LaunchDarkly when…
- Experimentation depth, the most mature stats engine in the category (CUPED variance reduction, sequential testing, SRM detection).
- Advanced progressive delivery, guarded rollouts with automatic rollback and failure detection (Guardian tier).
- Enterprise governance available today, SAML, SCIM, custom RBAC, scheduled changes and approval workflows.
- Compliance, annual SOC 2 Type II, ISO 27001 and a FedRAMP path.
- 25–30+ battle-tested SDKs across nearly every language and platform.
Pick ShipSilently when…
- Predictable cost, one flat $49/mo that does not move when you add pods or users.
- No per-connection trap, autoscaling microservices do not inflate your bill.
- Runs on any runtime, no Cloudflare- or Vercel-specific edge SDK required.
- Five-minute setup with no sales process or annual contract.
- Transparent pricing on every tier, no "contact sales" to learn the number.
Migrating from LaunchDarkly
Concept mapping
| LaunchDarkly | ShipSilently |
|---|---|
| Project / Environment | Environment |
| Feature flag (boolean / multivariate) | Flag (boolean / multivariate) |
| Targeting rules & segments | Targeting rules |
| Percentage rollout | Percentage rollout |
| SDK key / client-side ID | API key (server / client scope) |
| Context / user attributes | Evaluation context attributes |
Things to plan for
- Experimentation data does not transfer, ShipSilently does not yet ship experiments, so keep LaunchDarkly running for any in-flight tests until our Q3 2026 release.
- Re-issue SDK keys and swap the client init; flag keys can be kept identical to minimise code churn.
- If you rely on SAML/SCIM/RBAC today, stay on LaunchDarkly Enterprise, those are on the ShipSilently roadmap, not shipped.
- Export your existing flags via the LaunchDarkly REST API and recreate them; most teams script this in an afternoon.
FAQ
Is ShipSilently cheaper than LaunchDarkly?
For almost any real deployment, yes. ShipSilently Pro is a flat $49/mo. LaunchDarkly Foundation bills ~$12 per service connection plus ~$10 per 1,000 client-side MAU, so a single backend with a few pods and a few thousand users already costs more, and Enterprise contracts run into five and six figures per year.
Does ShipSilently charge per seat or per request?
Neither. Pricing is flat: unlimited team members, and Pro includes 10M evaluations/month with overage at $0.01 per 10k. There is no per-seat, per-MAU or per-service-connection meter.
Why is LaunchDarkly so expensive at scale?
Its bill scales on two axes that grow with success: service connections (each server-side SDK connection, effectively each pod or VM) and client-side monthly active users. Teams on Kubernetes routinely report large jumps as they autoscale; one publicly documented case went from ~$10k to ~$45k/year.
Can I self-host ShipSilently?
No. ShipSilently is fully managed on Cloudflare; self-host is on our 2027 roadmap. LaunchDarkly is also not truly self-hostable (it offers a Relay Proxy for caching, not on-prem). If on-prem is a hard requirement today, look at Unleash or Flagsmith.
Does ShipSilently do experimentation like LaunchDarkly?
Not yet, built-in A/B experiments with a stats engine are on our Q3 2026 roadmap. If experimentation is core to how you ship today, LaunchDarkly (or Statsig) is the better choice and we will say so.
How hard is it to migrate from LaunchDarkly?
Flagging concepts map almost one-to-one (projects→environments, flags→flags, targeting→targeting). Most teams export flags via the LaunchDarkly REST API, recreate them, and swap the SDK init in an afternoon. Keep LaunchDarkly for any live experiments until our experimentation ships.
Try ShipSilently free
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