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Show HN: FFlags – Feature flags as code, served from the edge
Hi HN,
I'm the creator of FFlags. I built this because I wanted a feature flagging system that gave me the performance and reliability of an enterprise-scale solution without the months of dev time or the vendor lock-in.
The core ideas are:
1. Feature Flags as Code: You define your flag logic in TypeScript. This lets you write complex rules, which felt more natural as a developer myself than using a complex UI for logic.
2. Open Standard: The platform is built on the OpenFeature standard (specifically the Remote Evaluation Protocol). The goal is to avoid vendor lock-in and the usual enterprise slop. You're not tied to my platform if you want to move.
3. Performance: It uses an edge network to serve the flags, which keeps the wall-time latency low (sub-25ms) for globally distributed applications.
I was trying to avoid the heavy cost and complexity of existing enterprise tools while still getting better performance than a simple self-hosted solution.
There's a generous free tier ($39 per million requests after that, with no flag/user limits). I'm looking for feedback on the developer experience, the "flags-as-code" approach, and any technical questions you might have.
Thanks for taking a look.
- srijanshukla18 1y agoGreat product! Actually a big point that I've seen in enterprises.
- tushr 1y agoThank-you! Do let me know how was your experience if you to use it.
- swatimodi 1y agoLove that it is build on open standards, i hate vendor lockins. Will pitch this at my org with a POC :)
- tushr 1y agoThat was the main pain-point I faced in the orgs I have worked with. When I came to know about the OpenFeature I was instantly gravitated towards building this on open standards.
- shiandow 1y agoThis product is probably not intended for me but at this stage I'm not even sure I know what a feature flag is any more. I thought feature flags were just toggles so you could turn features on and off. I wouldn't know how to implement those as anything other than code. Or why you would need an external service. What problem is this solving?
- BrandoElFollito 1y agoI had the same question after quickly reading the docs. I am probably not directly an intended user but I sure would be glad to understand what this is (as an amateur dev)
- tushr 1y agoYou can checkout my reply to the same comment. I have explained it in terms which is easy understand for everyone.
- SSchick 1y agoA lot of "engineers" nowadays don't know the concept of per-user/customers configs and how to build/expose them to non-technical staff. The main appeal of feature flags is simplicity and being a low-hanging way to apply per-customer/user configuration, few platforms allow true a/b testing (amplitude comes to mind but I'm sure there are more).
- mcapodici 1y agoFeature flag can (usually does??) have another meaning, as a technical feature rollout mechanism, so you can roll back quickly without a deployment. A way to manage risk on teams that make hundreds of commits/deploys a week. You can then often send a certain % of traffic through the feature or not to look for early warnings. I don't like feature flags for config. Just build a config system into the product UI - a settings page basically! That might have some bits you configure as the site owner, and some that are self-service.
- jofzar 1y ago
- hermanschaaf 1y agoLove the simple landing page! How big is the free tier? The pricing slider seems to show that you pay $39 for anything more than 0 requests.
- tushr 1y agoAah! That's a miss from my end. I had it on my previous landing page. It is 100k requests a month. But, I am not adding any cap right now. I monitor the system all the time so if it goes above the free tier limit significantly I will notify.
- baduiux 1y agoCool product and great landing page. This is quite off topic: how did you make the code animation in the Feature Flag as Code section? I reminded me of prezi.com (with their slide animations). Would love to know!
- ricardobayes 1y agoWhy does this need to be a dependency? In my view feature flags are core enough not to be outsourced to a third party. Although, there are companies using libraries for "isEven" so there might be a market for it.
- tushr 1y agoThat's a fair point! Basic feature flags are just toggles, true and false. But they quickly become complex as you onboard new customers and scale. You need percentage rollouts to make sure things are working before everyone starts using the features. It only makes sense for engineers to spend time building actual features and testing them in production rather than spending bandwidth on building a feature flag management tool or managing the service for the same. This is a typical build vs buy debate. :D
- killerstorm 1y agoI thought it's satire. Like "/dev/null as a service".
- miggy 1y agoOne of the key aspects of feature flag systems is enabling A/B analysis, measuring the impact of features on metrics like click-through rate, session duration, and revenue. This doesn’t seem to be mentioned in the highlights. Is the product targeting these kinds of insights?
- tushr 1y agoThese features are in pipeline. It is currently targeting the developers to help them with rollbacks and release management.
- puranas 1y agoGreat product glad its built on open standards!