A startup CTO deploys a new billing system on a Monday. It's been tested in staging but production is different. Within an hour, 15% of customers see broken invoices. The team scrambles to write a hotfix, test it, and deploy — total downtime: 3 hours. If they'd had a feature flag, they could have toggled the new billing off in 10 seconds.
LaunchDarkly dominates enterprise feature flags with $150M+ ARR and a $3B valuation. But they charge per-seat ($10-20/seat/mo), making it $50-100/month for a small team just to get basic toggles. ConfigCat ($8-79/mo) offers a cheaper alternative but their UI feels like a database admin tool.
The gap: a feature flag service that feels like Linear — fast, clean, opinionated. Flat pricing at $15-39/mo regardless of team size. Boolean flags, percentage rollouts, and user targeting. Set up in 5 minutes with an NPM package. No config files, no YAML, no complexity.
💰 Revenue Blueprint
Three-tier value ladder to monetize from day one
2 projects, 10 flags, boolean only, 1K evaluations/day
5 projects, 50 flags, percentage rollouts, user targeting, audit log, Slack notifications
Unlimited projects and flags, A/B testing, analytics, SSR support, edge SDK, team roles, API
Why Now?
Trunk-based development and CI/CD are mainstream. Feature flags are now considered best practice, not luxury. Edge computing needs flags that resolve at the edge.
📊 Market Evidence
The Market Gap
LaunchDarkly ($10/seat+) is expensive. Flagsmith (open-source) requires self-hosting. ConfigCat works but UX is dated. No clean, flat-rate feature flag service at $15/mo.
Revenue Examples
$150M+ ARR, $3B valuation
Profitable bootstrapped business
🏆 Competitor Landscape
How existing players stack up in this market
| Competitor | Pricing | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| LaunchDarkly | $10-20/seat/mo | Market leader, $3B valuation |
| ConfigCat | $8-79/mo | Budget alternative, dated UX |
| Flagsmith | Free (self-hosted) | Open-source, requires hosting |
Market leader, $3B valuation
Budget alternative, dated UX
Open-source, requires hosting
Launch Strategy
1) Open-source the client SDK. 2) Launch on HN: 'Feature flags without the enterprise tax.' 3) Target r/webdev, r/devops, dev Twitter. 4) Free tier for hobby projects. 5) Blog: 'How feature flags saved our deploy (and how to add them in 5 minutes).'
🛠️ Recommended Tech Stack
Suggested tools and technologies to build this idea
Why this stack: Go delivers sub-millisecond flag evaluations at the edge. Redis caches flag states for instant reads. Lightweight SDKs integrate with any tech stack.
Strengths
- ✓Feature flags are becoming standard practice
- ✓Flat pricing is clear differentiator
- ✓Very sticky — removing flags is risky
- ✓Low support burden once SDK is stable
Risks
- ⚠Vercel/Netlify could add native feature flags
- ⚠Open-source alternatives improving
- ⚠LaunchDarkly could launch indie tier
Score Breakdown
Good market signals with room for growth
Market (20%) + Revenue (20%) + Trend (15%) + Competition (15%) + Build (15%) + Pricing (15%)
LaunchDarkly $150M+ ARR proves massive demand
ConfigCat profitable, LaunchDarkly dominant
CI/CD and trunk-based development growing
LaunchDarkly dominant, several alternatives exist
Fast — simple key-value with targeting logic
Flat pricing vs per-seat is compelling
🚀 Start Building
Copy a prompt into your favorite AI coding tool and start building this idea right now.
Build a SaaS product called "Feature Flag Service". ## Product Overview Toggle features without deploys. Simple feature flags for small teams. $15-39/mo. ## Problem LaunchDarkly ($10/seat/mo min) is the enterprise standard for feature flags but a 5-person team pays $50/mo for basic toggles. Most small teams hard-code feature flags as environment variables or skip them entirely, leading to risky big-bang deploys. ## Solution Clean feature flag service with a beautiful dashboard, SDK for all major frameworks, gradual rollouts, and simple boolean or percentage-based targeting. Flat pricing, not per-seat. ## Target Audience Small dev teams, startups, indie hackers who want safer deployments ## Tech Stack - Next.js 15 (App Router) with TypeScript - Tailwind CSS v4 for styling - Supabase for auth, database, and storage - Vercel for deployment - shadcn/ui for UI components - Framer Motion for animations ## MVP Features to Build 1. Landing page with clear value proposition 2. User authentication (sign up, sign in, forgot password) 3. Core product functionality based on the solution above 4. Dashboard for users to manage their data 5. Pricing page with at least 2 tiers (free + paid) 6. Basic settings/profile page ## Known Competitors LaunchDarkly, ConfigCat, Flagsmith ## Key Risks to Address Vercel/Netlify could add native feature flags Open-source alternatives improving LaunchDarkly could launch indie tier ## Deployment 1. Set up Supabase project and configure environment variables 2. Deploy to Vercel with `npx vercel --prod` 3. Set up custom domain 4. Configure Supabase RLS policies for security ## Instructions Start by creating the project structure, then build the landing page first. Use server components where possible. Make it mobile-responsive from the start. Focus on getting the core value loop working before adding polish.