Single-Binary Self-Hostable Feature Flag Service With No Postgres Dependency And No Analytics Vendor Lock-In For Teams Burned By LaunchDarkly's MAU Pricing
LaunchDarkly's MAU pricing model produced a Reddit-famous $40,000/year quote for basic flagging, Statsig is free but ties you into their analytics stack, and Unleash is genuinely free but needs a Postgres instance you have to operate. There is no single-binary, drop-in, SQLite-backed feature flag service you can run on a $5 VPS with no managed database, no telemetry phone-home, and no analytics tie-in.
Look at how the 5/2 single-static-binary thesis applies here directly. The product is a Go (or Rust) binary, SQLite by default, optional Postgres for HA, gRPC + REST + WebSocket SDKs for the common languages, a TUI for local management, and zero phone-home. Sell SDKs for niche stacks (Elixir, Crystal, Zig) on Lemon Squeezy. Don't try to be a fourth feature-flag SaaS.
landscape (3 existing solutions)
Unleash is heavy, Statsig is non-free in data terms, Flipt is the closest spiritual match but stops short. There is room for a polished, single-binary, SQLite-or-Postgres-optional flag service whose entire business model is 'no analytics, no telemetry, you self-host.'