If you're evaluating LaunchDarkly, ConfigCat, and Eppo as potential feature management solutions, you're not alone. These platforms are popular choices, each with their own strengths and potential drawbacks.
To help you make a well-informed decision, let's dive into a brief comparison of these three contenders, exploring their unique features, target audiences, and areas where they excel — or fall short.
Let’s settle the Launchdarkly vs. ConfiCat vs. Eppo debate. Here’s a quick TL;DR chart if you’re pressed for time.
LaunchDarkly vs. ConfigCat vs. Eppo: Head-to-head
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LaunchDarkly
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ConfigCat
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Eppo
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Core
focus
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Feature management and experimentation
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Feature flag management
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Feature management and
experimentation
|
Ideal
user
|
Engineering teams prioritizing
granular feature control and security
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Teams of all sizes, budget-conscious
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Any team that needs to prove
the impact of their features and
changes via experimentation
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Strengths
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Real-time updates, advanced
targeting, enterprise-grade security
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Unlimited users/MAUs, free plan,
easy to use
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Warehouse-native architecture, focus
on rigorous experimentation,
and user-friendly interface
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Weaknesses
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Complex setup, high cost with
add-ons, experimentation
features lack trustworthiness
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No robust experimentation features.
Fewer advanced features, and
potential scalability concerns
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Only offers WYSIWYG support for
marketers via CMS integrations vs.
a “visual editor”
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Pricing
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Tiered pricing with add-ons,
starting at $8.33/seat/month
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Usage-based with free and
paid plans
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Custom quotes, but considered
cost-effective
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LaunchDarkly is an experimentation and feature management platform that gives software development teams precise control over feature releases.
It serves as a dynamic control panel, enabling teams to activate or deactivate features for specific user segments without needing code redeployment. This reduces deployment risk and facilitates targeted rollouts and testing.
Some of LaunchDarkly’s standout features:
- Instantaneous updates: LaunchDarkly's unique architecture ensures real-time propagation of feature flag changes across all environments, giving teams immediate control and responsiveness.
- Granular targeting: The platform's advanced targeting engine lets businesses personalize feature visibility based on user attributes, behaviors, demographics, location, and other custom-defined criteria.
- Experimentation capabilities: LaunchDarkly supports A/B and multivariate testing, enabling teams to measure the impact of different feature variations and make data-driven decisions.
- Enterprise-grade security: LaunchDarkly prioritizes security with features like audit logs, role-based access control, and compliance with industry standards such as SOC 2, GDPR, CCPA, and HIPAA.
Pricing
LaunchDarkly has three distinct pricing tiers:
- Starter: This basic plan starts at $10 per user per month and provides core feature flagging capabilities.
- Pro: Starting at $20 per user per month, this plan includes additional features like experimentation and advanced targeting.
- Enterprise: This plan is customized to meet specific enterprise requirements. For a custom quote, you’ll need to contact their sales team.
Who is it good for?
LaunchDarkly is well-suited for development teams who value agility and precision in feature releases. Its real-time updates and advanced targeting options are especially beneficial for managing complex rollouts.
Its robust security features also make it suitable for organizations with stringent security needs.
It's important to note that LaunchDarkly can be complex to set up and use, particularly for those new to feature management. The platform's pricing can also be a factor for some teams, especially when considering the cost of add-ons.
Some users have reported challenges with integrating LaunchDarkly into their existing systems and workflows.
While LaunchDarkly is a powerful tool for feature management, it's crucial to evaluate its complexity and cost against your specific needs and resources. If ease of use and affordability are top priorities, alternative solutions might be worth considering.
ConfigCat is a feature flag service that aims to simplify feature management, making it accessible and affordable for teams of all sizes. It provides a full suite of tools for controlling feature rollouts, targeting specific user segments, and conducting experiments.
ConfigCat’s key features and capabilities include:
- User-friendly interface: ConfigCat boasts an intuitive dashboard for managing feature flags, making it easy for teams to get started and scale their usage.
- Unlimited team size and MAUs: Unlike many competitors, ConfigCat allows unlimited team members and monthly active users on all plans, including the free tier.
- Forever free plan: ConfigCat provides a feature-rich free plan with no time restrictions, enabling teams to explore and utilize the platform without financial commitment.
- Data governance: ConfigCat gives users the choice to keep their data within the EU to comply with GDPR, or utilize their global CDN with geo-location-based load-balancing.
- Free security features: All ConfigCat plans come with essential security features like audit logs, two-factor authentication, and single sign-on (SSO).
- Transparent pricing: ConfigCat's pricing is straightforward, with no hidden fees. The cost is based on the number of config JSON downloads, ensuring users only pay for what they use.
Pricing
ConfigCat offers several pricing tiers:
- Free: A forever free plan with feature flags for everyone. The tradeoff is you get significantly fewer feature flags, just one webhook, and the audit log retention is just seven days.
- Pro: Provides more environments and flags for €79 per month.
- Smart: Offers unlimited resources for €249 per month.
- Enterprise dedicated: This plan starts at €699 per month and is tailored for custom agreements.
- Enterprise dedicated hosted or on-premise: Private cloud options managed by ConfigCat or the user, starting at €3,799 per month.
Who is it good for?
ConfigCat is a solid choice for teams seeking a user-friendly and cost-effective feature flag solution. Its unlimited team size and MAUs make it particularly appealing to growing organizations.
The forever free plan allows teams to fully explore the platform's capabilities before committing to a paid plan. Additionally, its focus on data governance and included security features can be attractive to teams with specific compliance requirements.
But keep in mind this platform doesn’t have the robust experimentation capabilities that the other alternatives have. While ConfigCat provides a complete feature set, some advanced functionality found in other platforms (like complex multivariate testing) might be more limited.
Eppo is a complete experimentation platform. It’s designed to empower businesses to run experiments and improve their key business metrics.
It goes beyond simply collecting data; Eppo is built to cultivate a culture of experimentation within organizations, allowing them to test hypotheses, iterate rapidly, and optimize their products and services.
While it's a favorite among data science teams, Eppo's user-friendly interface makes it accessible and valuable for all business users, regardless of their technical background.
Here’s what Eppo’s most important capabilities look like:
- Warehouse-native integration: Eppo's unique advantage lies in its direct integration with popular data warehouses like BigQuery and Snowflake. This lets businesses leverage their most accurate and current data for experiment analysis, bypassing the need for complex (and sometimes unreliable) data pipelines.
- Comprehensive experimentation suite: Eppo offers a wide array of experimentation tools, ranging from basic A/B tests to more sophisticated techniques like multi-armed bandits. This allows for diverse hypothesis testing and product optimization based on real user behavior.
- Data accuracy and statistical rigor: The platform's warehouse-native architecture ensures businesses are working with the most reliable data. Additionally, Eppo employs advanced statistical methods, including its proprietary CUPED++ algorithm, to accelerate experimentation without compromising on statistical validity.
- Advanced feature flagging: Eppo's feature flagging capabilities enable teams to safely test and release new features to targeted user groups, minimizing risk and maximizing impact.
- Intuitive user interface: Eppo's clean and user-friendly interface makes it easy for both technical and non-technical users to design, launch, and analyze experiments, fostering a culture of data-driven decision-making.
Pricing
Eppo offers custom pricing, tailored to the specific needs of each business. Interested parties can contact their sales team for a personalized quote.
Who is it good for?
Eppo is a versatile platform suitable for a variety of teams and businesses:
- Data teams: The platform's warehouse-native integration and emphasis on statistical rigor make it a perfect match for data scientists and analysts who prioritize reliable experimentation and data-driven insights.
- Product teams: Eppo's experimentation and feature flagging tools empower product managers and developers to test new ideas, validate hypotheses, and confidently roll out features.
- Businesses of all sizes: While Eppo offers enterprise-ready features that cater to large organizations, its user-friendly design and customizable pricing make it an attractive option for smaller businesses embarking on their experimentation journey.
Eppo is a robust and adaptable platform that can drive growth and optimization for businesses across all kinds of industries. Its unique blend of features, commitment to statistical rigor, and user-friendly interface position it as a strong contender in the experimentation platform market.
Which should you choose?
The ideal experimentation platform for your team depends on your specific goals, budget, and technical expertise. Let's draw some comparisons to help you make an informed decision:
Focus and strengths
- LaunchDarkly: Specializes in feature management for engineering teams. It excels at real-time feature flag updates and provides granular targeting capabilities. It's best suited for teams prioritizing fine-grained control over feature releases and requiring robust security features.
- ConfigCat: Offers a user-friendly, full-featured feature flag service. It stands out for its unlimited team size and MAUs on all plans, including a forever-free tier. ConfigCat is ideal for teams seeking an easy-to-use and cost-effective solution with a focus on data governance.
- Eppo: Focuses on experimentation and data-driven decision-making. Its warehouse-native architecture, comprehensive experimentation suite, and emphasis on statistical rigor make it the top choice for teams who want to test and iterate rapidly with confidence in their data.
Cost and value
- LaunchDarkly: Offers tiered pricing with add-ons, which can become expensive for smaller teams or those needing extra features like experimentation or data export.
- ConfigCat: Provides transparent, predictable pricing based on usage (config JSON downloads). It offers a forever-free plan and various paid plans to accommodate different needs and budgets.
- Eppo: Pricing is not publicly listed, as it's customized to each business. However, it's generally considered a cost-effective option.
Ease of use and integrations
- LaunchDarkly: Can have a steeper learning curve, particularly for those new to feature management. Some users have reported challenges with integrating it into existing systems.
- ConfigCat: Boasts an intuitive interface designed for easy setup and use, even for those without extensive technical backgrounds.
- Eppo: Offers a clean, user-friendly interface that simplifies designing, launching, and analyzing experiments. Its warehouse-native architecture facilitates seamless integration with existing data infrastructure.
Next steps
Having examined LaunchDarkly, ConfigCat, and Eppo's strengths and limitations, you're now better equipped to determine your organization's optimal experimentation platform.
If your primary focus is on driving revenue growth and improving customer retention through rigorous, data-driven experimentation, Eppo emerges as a compelling solution.
Eppo's distinctive approach to experimentation sets it apart by offering a fully-fledged toolkit designed to deliver measurable business impact:
- Streamlined experiment design: Eppo simplifies the creation of sophisticated experiments, combining powerful feature flagging with intuitive tools to address complex scenarios such as multi-environment releases and layered experiments.
- Confident launches and real-time monitoring: With Eppo's robust diagnostics and real-time monitoring capabilities, you can launch experiments with confidence, ensuring smooth execution and immediate identification of any potential issues.
- Actionable experiment analysis: Eppo's advanced statistical engine transforms raw experiment data into meaningful insights, making it easy to interpret results and uncover hidden patterns that can fuel further optimization efforts.
Book a demo and Explore Eppo.
LaunchDarkly vs. ConfigCat vs. Eppo: Which platform fits your organization best? Compare features, pricing, and pros/cons.