Question 1

What's the difference between a Feature Flag and a configuration setting?

Accepted Answer

A configuration setting usually changes how something works (like a timeout, theme, or API endpoint). A feature flag is specifically used to turn a feature on or off (or expose it to certain users) without deploying new code. In practice, feature flags are often stored and delivered using configuration systems, but the intent is different: flags control feature availability and rollout.

Question 2

When should I use Feature Flags?

Accepted Answer

Use feature flags when you want safer releases and more control over who sees a change. Common cases include: gradual rollouts (1% → 10% → 100%), canary releases, A/B testing, enabling features per customer tier, turning off risky features quickly during incidents, and separating deployment from release (deploy code today, enable it later). Avoid using flags for permanent behavior differences unless you have a plan to manage them long-term.

Question 3

How much do Feature Flags cost?

Accepted Answer

Cost depends on how you implement them. If you use a managed feature-flag platform, pricing is typically based on seats, environments, monthly active users, requests, or advanced targeting/experimentation features. If you build it using an existing configuration store, you’ll pay for configuration reads/writes, hosting, and operational overhead (monitoring, reliability, and on-call). Also consider indirect costs: engineering time, complexity, and the need to remove old flags.

Feature Flag

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