# Flagsmith vs Unleash

Canonical: https://inetgeek.com/compare/flagsmith-vs-unleash/

Every value below is read from Flagsmith's and Unleash's own documentation. See https://inetgeek.com/methodology/ for how.

## At a glance

| Criterion | Flagsmith | Unleash |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Free tier | Yes | No |
| Kind of free offer | Free tier | Free trial |
| Entry paid plan | $40 a month for Start-up paid yearly, or $45 monthly. That raises the allowance to 1,000,000 requests and three team members. | $75 per seat per month on pay-as-you-go. With no free plan behind it, a three-person team starts at $225 a month. |
| Pricing model | API requests. Every call your application makes to read flags counts, so the bill tracks traffic rather than team or audience — $50 per million above the plan's allowance, decreasing with volume. Seats are capped per plan on top: one on Free, three on Start-up. | Per seat, $75 a month each — the opposite axis to every other member here. Client-side MAU and service connections are unlimited on every plan, so audience size and traffic cost nothing; the bill is a function of how many people touch the tool. |
| Self-hostable | Supported | Supported |
| Users included | Unlimited identities and segments under a fair usage policy. Flagsmith does not meter your audience at all — only the API requests your application makes to read flags. | Unlimited client-side monthly active users on every plan, alongside unlimited service connections. The audience is free; the seats are not. |

## Where they differ

### Free tier

- Flagsmith: Yes ([source](https://www.flagsmith.com/pricing))
- Unleash: No ([source](https://www.getunleash.io/pricing))

### Kind of free offer

- Flagsmith: Free tier ([source](https://www.flagsmith.com/pricing))
- Unleash: Free trial ([source](https://www.getunleash.io/pricing))

### Entry paid plan

- Flagsmith: $40 a month for Start-up paid yearly, or $45 monthly. That raises the allowance to 1,000,000 requests and three team members. ([source](https://www.flagsmith.com/pricing))
- Unleash: $75 per seat per month on pay-as-you-go. With no free plan behind it, a three-person team starts at $225 a month. ([source](https://www.getunleash.io/pricing))

### Pricing model

- Flagsmith: API requests. Every call your application makes to read flags counts, so the bill tracks traffic rather than team or audience — $50 per million above the plan's allowance, decreasing with volume. Seats are capped per plan on top: one on Free, three on Start-up. ([source](https://www.flagsmith.com/pricing))
- Unleash: Per seat, $75 a month each — the opposite axis to every other member here. Client-side MAU and service connections are unlimited on every plan, so audience size and traffic cost nothing; the bill is a function of how many people touch the tool. ([source](https://www.getunleash.io/pricing))

### Users included

- Flagsmith: Unlimited identities and segments under a fair usage policy. Flagsmith does not meter your audience at all — only the API requests your application makes to read flags. ([source](https://www.flagsmith.com/pricing))
- Unleash: Unlimited client-side monthly active users on every plan, alongside unlimited service connections. The audience is free; the seats are not. ([source](https://www.getunleash.io/pricing))

## Which should you choose?

Pick Flagsmith if Self-hosting, or a small team with modest traffic. It is open source with a documented self-hosted path, and Start-up is $40 a month billed yearly — the cheapest paid entry of the four. Identities and segments are unlimited, so your audience is never the thing that costs.

Pick Unleash if A small team serving a large audience, and wanting the option to run it yourself. Client-side MAU and service connections are unlimited on every plan, so neither traffic nor audience moves the price — only headcount does, at $75 a seat.

Consider something else: Flagsmith — Your application reads flags often. API requests are the meter, so every evaluation is on the bill at $50 per million above the allowance — and the free plan's 50,000 requests a month is roughly one user refreshing a page a few thousand times. Seats are capped too: one on free, three at $40.

Consider something else: Unleash — The team is bigger than the audience, or you want to try before paying. There is no free plan at all, only a 14-day trial, so three people start at $225 a month before a single flag is read. API traffic is still capped at 53 million requests, then $5 per million.

## Documented by only one

- What the free plan includes: Flagsmith: 50,000 API requests a month and ONE team member, with unlimited flags, environments and segments under a fair usage policy.
- Credit card to start: Unleash: No
- When the free offer ends: Flagsmith: The paid plans carry a 14-day free trial; the $0 plan itself does not expire.
- Retention window: Unleash: 90 days of feature flag metrics on both published plans.
- Rate limits: Unleash: 53 million API requests a month on the cloud plan, then $5 per million — a ceiling the per-seat price does not remove.

## Questions this comparison answers

**Entry paid plan: Flagsmith or Unleash?**

Flagsmith: $40 a month for Start-up paid yearly, or $45 monthly. That raises the allowance to 1,000,000 requests and three team members.
Unleash: $75 per seat per month on pay-as-you-go. With no free plan behind it, a three-person team starts at $225 a month.

**Free tier: Flagsmith or Unleash?**

Flagsmith: Yes
Unleash: No

**Should I choose Flagsmith or Unleash?**

Pick Flagsmith if Self-hosting, or a small team with modest traffic. It is open source with a documented self-hosted path, and Start-up is $40 a month billed yearly — the cheapest paid entry of the four. Identities and segments are unlimited, so your audience is never the thing that costs.
Pick Unleash if A small team serving a large audience, and wanting the option to run it yourself. Client-side MAU and service connections are unlimited on every plan, so neither traffic nor audience moves the price — only headcount does, at $75 a seat.