Feature Flags Pricing Comparison 2026: Stop Paying Per Seat
The Enterprise Pricing Problem
Feature flags pricing has become absurdly complex. The core concept is simple — a conditional check that's controlled remotely — yet the industry has converged on pricing models that charge five or six figures per year for what is fundamentally a key-value store with targeting rules.
LaunchDarkly charges per Monthly Active User (MAU). Statsig charges per event. Optimizely bundles feature flags into a full experimentation platform you might not need. For a team of 10 developers with a growing product, the annual cost of feature flags can exceed what you pay for your entire cloud infrastructure.
This isn't sustainable. And the market is responding — new tools with transparent, predictable pricing are gaining traction precisely because developers are tired of "contact sales" being the only way to find out what something costs.
Feature Flags Pricing Models Explained
There are four main pricing models in the feature flags market:
Per Seat (Per Developer)
You pay for each team member who accesses the dashboard. Simple to understand, but it creates a perverse incentive: teams limit who can manage flags, which slows down the release process.
Who uses it: GrowthBook, some Flagsmith plans
Per MAU (Monthly Active Users)
You pay based on how many unique users evaluate flags in your application. This punishes success — the more users you acquire, the more you pay for feature flags, even if your flag usage stays constant.
Who uses it: LaunchDarkly, Statsig
Per Config Fetch / Event
You pay per API call or flag evaluation. More predictable than MAU, but can still surprise you if you increase polling frequency or add more clients.
Who uses it: ConfigCat (config fetches)
Flat Tier (Per Request Bands)
You pick a plan based on request volume. The price is fixed within each tier, so you know exactly what you'll pay. No surprises when you add users, team members, or flags.
Who uses it: Rollgate
Feature Flags Pricing Comparison Table
| Rollgate | LaunchDarkly | Flagsmith | ConfigCat | GrowthBook | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Free tier | 500K req/mo, 3 projects, unlimited flags | Limited trial | 50K req/mo | 10 flags | Free (self-hosted) |
| Entry plan | €39/mo (Starter) | ~$700/mo (est.) | ~$45/mo | ~$84/mo | $99/mo |
| Mid plan | €99/mo (Pro) | Custom quote | ~$125/mo | Custom | $199/mo |
| Enterprise | €299/mo (Growth) | $25K-150K/yr | Custom | Custom | Custom |
| Pricing unit | SDK requests | MAU | Requests + seats | Config fetches | Seats |
| Price scales with | API traffic | User growth | Traffic + team size | Polling frequency | Team size |
Disclaimer: Competitor pricing changes frequently. The figures above are estimates based on publicly available information as of March 2026. Always check each vendor's pricing page for current rates.
What's Included at Each Rollgate Tier
| Feature | Free (€0) | Starter (€39-45/mo) | Pro (€99-119/mo) | Growth (€299-349/mo) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| SDK requests/mo | 500K | 1M | 3M | 12M |
| Flag evaluations/mo | 5M | 10M | 30M | 120M |
| Projects | 3 | 5 | 10 | Unlimited |
| Flags | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Environments | 3 | 5 | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Team members | 3 | 5 | 15 | 50 |
| SSE connections | 1 | 25 | 100 | 500 |
| Audit log retention | 3 days | 14 days | 90 days | 1 year |
| Scheduled changes | — | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| 1-click rollback | — | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| RBAC | — | — | Yes | Yes |
| SLA | — | — | — | 99.9% |
The annual billing option saves roughly 15-18% on each paid plan.
The Real Cost: A 10-Developer Team with 2M Requests/Month
Let's make this concrete. Your team:
- 10 developers with dashboard access
- 50,000 Monthly Active Users
- 2 million SDK requests per month (polling every 30 seconds across web + mobile)
- 3 environments (dev, staging, production)
- 15 active feature flags
Rollgate: €99/month (Pro)
The Pro plan covers 3M requests/month, 10 projects, 15 team members, and unlimited flags. All environments included. Scheduled changes and rollback included.
Annual: €99 × 12 = €1,188/year (or €1,068 with annual billing)
LaunchDarkly: Estimated $8,000-12,000/month
LaunchDarkly prices by MAU. At 50K MAU, you're well past the starter tier. Enterprise contracts typically start at $25K/year for small teams and scale significantly with MAU growth. With 50K MAU, expect quotes in the $100K-150K/year range.
Annual: $96,000-$150,000/year (estimated, check their sales team for exact pricing)
Flagsmith: Estimated $125-250/month
Flagsmith's cloud pricing includes per-seat and per-request components. For 10 seats and 2M requests, expect mid-tier pricing.
Annual: ~$1,500-$3,000/year (estimated)
ConfigCat: Estimated $150-300/month
ConfigCat charges per config fetch. With 2M requests/month and 10 team members, you'll likely need a mid-to-high tier plan.
Annual: ~$1,800-$3,600/year (estimated)
GrowthBook: $199/month (Pro)
GrowthBook charges per seat. The Pro plan at $199/month covers up to 20 seats with premium features.
Annual: $2,388/year
Cost Summary
| Tool | Estimated Annual Cost | Cost vs Rollgate |
|---|---|---|
| Rollgate | ~€1,100/year | — |
| Flagsmith | ~$1,500-3,000/year | 1.4-2.7x |
| ConfigCat | ~$1,800-3,600/year | 1.6-3.3x |
| GrowthBook | ~$2,400/year | 2.2x |
| LaunchDarkly | ~$96,000-150,000/year | 87-136x |
These are rough estimates for comparison purposes. Actual costs depend on your specific usage patterns, negotiated contracts, and plan selection. Rollgate's pricing is publicly listed; for other tools, check their websites or contact their sales teams.
The gap is largest with LaunchDarkly because MAU-based pricing fundamentally scales differently than request-based pricing. As your product grows from 50K to 500K users, your LaunchDarkly bill grows 10x. Your Rollgate bill stays the same — or moves one tier up if your request volume increases.
Why Request-Based Pricing Makes More Sense
MAU-based pricing charges you for users who might evaluate a flag once per session. Request-based pricing charges you for actual API usage. The difference matters because:
Your user count grows faster than your flag usage. When you go from 10K to 100K users, your feature flag evaluation patterns don't change 10x. You still have the same polling intervals, the same SDKs, the same flags. Your request volume grows, but not linearly with users — especially with local caching and SSE.
You can control request volume. Increase polling interval from 30s to 60s, and you cut requests in half. Enable SSE, and you eliminate most polling requests entirely. You can't control how many users sign up.
It's predictable. A polling client at 30s intervals generates approximately 86K requests per month. Multiply by your client count and you know your tier. With MAU pricing, a viral marketing campaign can triple your bill overnight.
Here's a typical Rollgate integration — the SDK handles polling and caching automatically:
import { RollgateProvider, useFlag } from '@rollgate/sdk-react';
function App() {
return (
<RollgateProvider
apiKey="rg_client_your_key"
options={{
pollingInterval: 30000, // 30s default
enableSSE: true, // real-time updates, reduces polling
}}
>
<FeatureFlaggedApp />
</RollgateProvider>
);
}
function FeatureFlaggedApp() {
const showNewUI = useFlag('redesigned-ui', false);
const maxUploadSize = useFlag('max-upload-mb', 10);
return (
<div>
{showNewUI ? <NewUI maxUpload={maxUploadSize} /> : <CurrentUI />}
</div>
);
}
One SDK connection, one polling interval, all flags cached locally. Whether you have 1,000 or 1,000,000 users, each client makes the same number of requests.
How to Calculate Your Feature Flags Cost
Before you commit to a tool, estimate your actual usage:
-
Count your SDK clients: How many servers, browser instances, or mobile apps will connect? Each one polls independently.
-
Determine your polling interval: Default is usually 30 seconds. At 30s, one client = ~86K requests/month. At 60s = ~43K. With SSE, polling is minimal.
-
Multiply:
clients × requests_per_client = monthly_requests -
Pick the tier that covers your volume.
Example: You have 3 API servers + 1 web frontend. With 30s polling, that's 4 × 86K = 344K requests/month. Rollgate Free (500K) covers this. You pay nothing.
Scaling example: Your product grows to 20 API servers + 5 frontend instances. That's 25 × 86K = 2.15M requests/month. Rollgate Pro (3M) at €99/month covers this. On LaunchDarkly, the cost would depend on how many end users those 20 servers handle — potentially tens of thousands of dollars per month.
Stop Overpaying for Feature Flags
Feature flags should be a line item, not a line of the budget. The core technology — flag evaluation, targeting rules, SDK communication — isn't complex enough to justify enterprise pricing for most teams.
Rollgate offers transparent, flat-tier pricing with no surprises. The free tier (500K requests/month) is generous enough for small teams and side projects. Paid plans start at €39/month and include scheduled releases and instant rollback.
Check the full pricing at rollgate.io or try the live demo.
For more context on choosing a feature flag tool, see our LaunchDarkly alternative comparison, ConfigCat alternative guide, and gradual rollout strategies.