Feature flags are a best practice. Every modern engineering team should use them. But the market leader — LaunchDarkly — has a pricing model that's designed for enterprises with dedicated platform teams, not for startups watching their burn rate.
Let's break down the four reasons LaunchDarkly doesn't make sense for small teams, and what to use instead.
Per-seat pricing punishes growth
LaunchDarkly charges per seat. Every developer, PM, or QA engineer who needs access adds to your bill. Hire 5 people? Your feature flag bill goes up $50/month. With ToggleTown, pricing is flat — $29/month for your whole team, whether that's 3 people or 30.
Core features locked behind Enterprise
Want A/B experiments? SSO? Custom roles? On LaunchDarkly, those require the Enterprise plan and a sales conversation. ToggleTown includes experiments, audit logs, team roles, and webhooks on every paid plan. No feature gating, no upgrade pressure.
Annual contracts with minimums
LaunchDarkly's Pro plan typically requires an annual contract with minimum seat commitments. For a startup that might not exist in 12 months, that's a risky commitment. ToggleTown is month-to-month. Cancel anytime. No minimums.
"Talk to sales" as a gatekeeping strategy
Try to sign up for LaunchDarkly's Pro plan. You can't — you have to book a sales call. That's a deliberate friction point designed for enterprise procurement, not for a developer who wants to ship a feature flag today. ToggleTown is fully self-serve. Sign up, create a flag, ship.
The math, side by side
| Scenario | ToggleTown | LaunchDarkly |
|---|---|---|
| 5-person team | $29/mo (flat) | ~$50/mo |
| 10-person team | $29/mo (flat) | ~$100/mo |
| 20-person team | $29/mo (flat) | ~$200/mo |
| 50-person team | $29/mo (flat) | ~$500/mo |
| Experiments | Included | Enterprise only |
| Audit logs | Included | Pro+ |
| Signup | Self-serve | Sales call (Pro+) |
| Contract | Monthly, cancel anytime | Annual minimum |
LaunchDarkly pricing based on publicly available information as of 2025. Actual pricing may vary.
When LaunchDarkly makes sense
To be fair, LaunchDarkly is excellent for its target market. If you're a company with 100+ developers, a dedicated platform engineering team, and the budget for enterprise tooling, LaunchDarkly's breadth of features (25+ SDKs, advanced governance, relay proxy) justifies the cost.
But if you're a startup with 3-20 developers who just need feature flags, targeting rules, and maybe A/B experiments — you're paying for complexity you'll never touch.
What to use instead
ToggleTown is built specifically for startups and small teams:
- Flat pricing at $29/month — unlimited team members
- Self-serve signup — no sales calls, no procurement
- Month-to-month billing — cancel anytime
- Experiments, audit logs, webhooks, and scheduling included on every paid plan
- Set up in 5 minutes — not 5 meetings
There's a free tier with up to 5 flags if you want to try it out first. Read the 5-minute tutorial to get started.