Who Flipt is for#
Platform teams standardizing feature flags
Use Flipt when multiple services need a shared flag system that can run near the application and fit existing observability tooling.
Skip if:
Your team wants a fully managed dashboard with built-in experimentation reports and no service ownership.
Security-sensitive product teams
Use Flipt when user targeting data and evaluation traffic should stay inside your own network or cloud account.
Skip if:
Your policies allow cloud evaluation and your main need is advanced product analytics.
GitOps-heavy engineering teams
Use Flipt when flag definitions should move through pull requests, code review, and audited deployment workflows.
Skip if:
Non-technical operators need to change flags without touching Git or deployment workflows.
The problem it solves#
Feature flag systems become expensive and risky when every evaluation depends on a vendor cloud. High-traffic applications can generate large evaluation volume, while regulated teams may not want user targeting context sent outside their infrastructure. Teams also lose change review discipline when flag state lives only in a SaaS dashboard instead of the same workflow as application configuration.
How it solves it#
Self-hosted flag evaluation
Runs inside your own infrastructure, so services can evaluate flags without sending targeting data to an external API. This lowers latency for internal systems and keeps feature management closer to the application runtime.
Git-native configuration
Supports declarative storage backends, including filesystem, Git, object storage, and OCI. Teams can review flag changes through pull requests instead of treating production flag state as dashboard-only data.
Broad API and storage support
Provides REST and gRPC APIs plus storage options including SQLite, PostgreSQL, MySQL, CockroachDB, Redis, ClickHouse, and LibSQL. That gives platform teams room to fit Flipt into an existing stack.
Operational telemetry hooks
Prometheus metrics, OpenTelemetry support, audit logging, and webhooks make feature flag changes observable alongside the rest of a production platform.
Strengths and trade-offs#
Strengths
- Built for infrastructure ownershipFlipt can run as a single binary and does not require a managed control plane for core use. That suits teams that already operate internal platforms and want feature management under the same controls.
- GitOps path for flag changesDeclarative storage lets teams keep feature definitions in version control. Compared with dashboard-first tools, this improves review, rollback, and change history for production behavior.
- No vendor evaluation hopBecause evaluation can happen in your environment, Flipt avoids the extra network dependency of cloud-only flag services. This matters for internal services, private deployments, and latency-sensitive checks.
Trade-offs
- -You operate the serviceSelf-hosting means your team owns upgrades, backups, storage configuration, authentication, and uptime. LaunchDarkly remains easier if you want a managed service with analytics and experimentation built in.
- -GPL-3.0 deployment reviewFlipt's repository license is GPL-3.0, so teams that modify or redistribute the service should review copyleft obligations before standardizing on it.
Install and self-host#
curl -fsSL https://get.flipt.io/install | shWhat it's built on#
- Languages
- GoTypeScript
- Frameworks
- React
FAQ#
What is Flipt used for?
Flipt is used to manage feature flags, targeting rules, and runtime configuration from a self-hosted service. Teams use it to separate feature release from code deployment.
Can Flipt run without a third-party cloud?
Yes. Flipt can be deployed inside existing infrastructure, so feature flag data does not need to leave your servers.
Does Flipt support GitOps?
Yes. Flipt supports declarative storage backends and GitOps-friendly workflows, which lets teams manage flag state through repository changes.
Similar open-source tools#
OpenFlags
Self-hosted feature flags for React, Bun, and Node.js
GrowthBook
Open source A/B testing and feature flag platform
Unleash
LaunchDarkly alternative with SDK for 30+ languages, self-hosted
Flagsmith
Open source feature flags and remote config, self-hosted
agent-toolkit-for-aws
Empower AI agents to build and manage AWS applications
hiring-agent
AI-powered resume evaluation and scoring tool