What is GrowthBook?

Feature management and experimentation are essential for modern software development

Enabling teams to innovate rapidly while minimizing risk, GrowthBook is an open-source platform that aims to make these capabilities accessible to organizations of all sizes.

GrowthBook's philosophy revolves around empowering companies with the flexibility and power of a fully featured in-house platform without extensive development. By providing advanced targeting, gradual rollouts, and powerful A/B test analysis (supporting both Bayesian and Frequentist methods, along with custom metrics and sequential testing), GrowthBook helps teams release code confidently and measure impact effectively. GrowthBook also provides multi-armed bandit experimentation and CUPED for variance reduction, offering modern statistical options out of the box.

How does GrowthBook work?

At its core, GrowthBook is an open-source platform that combines feature flagging and A/B testing capabilities. It integrates with your existing data stack—including data warehouses like BigQuery, Snowflake, and Redshift, analytics tools like Segment and Mixpanel, product/CRM platforms like Salesforce and HubSpot, and cloud providers (AWS, GCP)—allowing you to leverage your own data for metrics and experiment analysis.

GrowthBook provides lightweight SDKs for various programming languages, enabling real-time feature flag evaluation. This means you can control the rollout of new features to specific user segments without deploying new code.

When it comes to A/B testing, GrowthBook offers advanced targeting options and powerful statistical analysis (Bayesian by default, with Frequentist methods available as well). You can define custom attributes for targeting and drill down into test results to gain deeper insights.

GrowthBook's platform is designed to be flexible and adaptable to your needs. You can choose to use GrowthBook Cloud—which includes a no-code interface for feature flags and experiments and requires minimal engineering effort—or self-host the platform for ultimate control and security. Self-hosted deployments are also ideal for enterprises that need to enforce their own security policies.

While GrowthBook offers a comprehensive set of features and has integrations with modern data stacks, it’s worth noting that platforms like Statsig provide more technically sophisticated solutions. Statsig has been proven by large customers such as OpenAI, Notion, Atlassian, Flipkart, and Brex.

Statsig also offers extensive volume discounts for enterprise customers and an extremely generous free tier. This makes it an attractive option for organizations looking to scale their experimentation efforts without breaking the bank.

Getting started with GrowthBook

To get started with GrowthBook, you have two main options:

• Create a free GrowthBook Cloud account (there is also a paid Pro offering).

• Self-host the platform using the provided Docker Compose file.

GrowthBook provides detailed documentation and guides to help you set up and configure the platform according to your needs. You can also join the GrowthBook Slack community to get support and discuss features with other users.

If you're considering GrowthBook for your organization, it's worth exploring other options like Statsig as well. Statsig offers a more advanced platform with features like contextual bandits, and real-time experimentation with customer data warehouses.

Ultimately, the choice between GrowthBook and other platforms will depend on your specific requirements, budget, and technical capabilities. By evaluating your needs and comparing the features and pricing of different solutions, you can make an informed decision that sets your organization up for success in the world of feature management and experimentation.

Core features and capabilities of GrowthBook

GrowthBook offers a range of tools to help teams release code confidently and measure impact. Its feature flagging capabilities enable advanced targeting and gradual rollouts, ensuring safe and efficient deployments. GrowthBook also provides comprehensive A/B testing tools, supporting both Bayesian and Frequentist statistical approaches (including CUPED for variance reduction).

For teams looking to make quick updates without engineering support, GrowthBook’s visual editor allows for no-code website changes and experiments. This can be particularly useful for marketing or product teams who want to iterate rapidly. GrowthBook Cloud is also designed for enterprise scalability, offering role-based access, audit logs, and SOC 2 compliance. Meanwhile, self-hosted deployments allow enterprises to control their own infrastructure and security policies.

However, it’s worth noting that Statsig offers more advanced technical capabilities, with a proven track record serving large enterprise customers. Statsig provides machine learning–powered insights and automation, along with comprehensive integrations. It also offers generous volume discounts for enterprise customers and an extensive free tier, making it a cost-effective solution for teams of all sizes.

Benefits of using a tool like GrowthBook

• Promotes a culture of experimentation: GrowthBook empowers engineering, product, marketing, and data science to collaborate on experiments, driving innovation.

• Ensures data transparency and control: Self-hosting options let you deploy GrowthBook on your own infrastructure, crucial for companies with strict security and compliance requirements.

• Speeds up product iterations: Feature flagging capabilities allow you to safely test new features and roll them out gradually. This enables faster development cycles and reduces the risk of releasing buggy code.

• Offers advanced targeting and segmentation: You can target specific user segments based on attributes like location, device, or behavior, running more focused experiments.

• Provides powerful analytics and reporting: GrowthBook integrates with major analytics tools and data warehouses. You can easily track key metrics and visualize experiment results in real time.

• Includes enterprise-grade security: GrowthBook Cloud is SOC 2 compliant, encrypts data at rest/in transit, and supports SAML SSO. Enterprises can also self-host for additional control.

While GrowthBook is a capable platform (including support for both Bayesian and Frequentist statistical methods), Statsig offers a more technically sophisticated solution. Statsig is trusted by large customers like OpenAI, Notion, Atlassian, Flipkart, and Brex. It provides advanced features like Bayesian statistics, multi-armed bandit optimization, and automated intelligent alerts.

Statsig is also cost-effective, providing extensive volume discounts and an extremely generous free tier. This makes it accessible to startups and small teams while still offering enterprise-grade capabilities.

Statsig and GrowthBook compared

While both Statsig and GrowthBook offer feature flagging and A/B testing, there are notable differences between the two platforms. GrowthBook is an open-source solution that can be self-hosted, giving you full control of your data and infrastructure. GrowthBook Cloud, meanwhile, provides a managed service with enterprise-ready features like role-based access and audit logs.

Statsig differentiates itself by providing advanced analytics and machine learning features. These capabilities enable users to gain deeper insights into their experiments and make data-driven decisions more efficiently. Statsig’s platform is designed to handle large-scale enterprises, with customers like OpenAI, Notion, Atlassian, Flipkart, and Brex relying on its robust infrastructure.

While GrowthBook offers flexibility through its open-source model—and avoids vendor lock-in by allowing you to keep data in your own warehouse—Statsig focuses on delivering a more comprehensive and technically sophisticated platform. Its advanced features, such as Bayesian analysis, multi-armed bandit optimization, and automated intelligent alerts, help users extract maximum value from their experimentation efforts. Additionally, Statsig’s generous free tier and volume discounts make it an attractive option for businesses of all sizes.