GNU Make vs LaunchDarkly comparison

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GNU Make

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Mar 5, 2025

GNU Make and LaunchDarkly serve different niches within the software development sector, with GNU Make focusing on build automation, while LaunchDarkly specializes in feature management. LaunchDarkly holds an advantage in comprehensive feature management and modern deployment flexibility.

Features: GNU Make automates complex build processes, manages dependencies effectively, and integrates with third-party tools like Automake. LaunchDarkly offers feature flagging, experimentation, and granular access controls, optimizing deployment cycles and providing robust feature management.

Room for Improvement: GNU Make could improve with enhanced support for non-command line interfaces and more extensive documentation. It also lacks advanced configuration management features found in some competitors. LaunchDarkly could benefit from improved pricing flexibility for smaller teams and enhanced real-time analytics. Additionally, expanding its integration capabilities with other development tools would be advantageous.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: GNU Make's deployment is simplified due to its command-line interface, but it lacks dedicated support services. LaunchDarkly provides a cloud-based solution with extensive support and documentation, offering a deployment model more suited to modern development workflows.

Pricing and ROI: GNU Make is open-source, offering a cost-effective solution with minimal setup expense, ideal for smaller projects. LaunchDarkly, with a higher cost, justifies its expense through increased development speed and reduced deployment risk, providing significant ROI over time.

To learn more, read our detailed GNU Make vs. LaunchDarkly Report (Updated: November 2025).

GNU Make vs. LaunchDarkly

November 2025

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Helped 881,707 peers since 2012

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Categories and Ranking

GNU Make

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

7.4

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Build Automation (16th)

LaunchDarkly

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

5.8

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Feature Management (3rd), AI Software Development (18th)

Mindshare comparison

GNU Make and LaunchDarkly aren’t in the same category and serve different purposes. GNU Make is designed for Build Automation and holds a mindshare of 1.7%, up 0.6% compared to last year.
LaunchDarkly, on the other hand, focuses on Feature Management, holds 18.8% mindshare, up 11.1% since last year.

Build Automation Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
GNU Make	1.7%
GitLab	9.0%
GitHub Actions	8.1%
Other	81.2%

Build Automation

Feature Management Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
LaunchDarkly	18.8%
Harness	23.7%
Optimizely	16.5%
Other	41.0%

Feature Management

Featured Reviews

Josh Call

Software Engineer at a computer software company with 201-500 employees

Enhances productivity with efficient dependency handling and a straightforward setup

GNU Make is used as a build system tool. Most people don't use GNU Make directly but utilize other systems like CMake to generate Make files, which are then run by GNU Make. This is common for tasks like compiling C++ code. In the industry, AI developers, for example, use GNU Make in their work…

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reviewer2769948

Staff Software Engineer at a wholesaler/distributor with 10,001+ employees

Has increased developer confidence by enabling safe production releases using targeted feature toggles

I wish we were using more targeting in our feature toggles and I wish we were using more feature toggles as well as feature toggle dependencies. Making one feature toggle or one set of feature toggles dependent on another one would allow us to turn them all on or turn them all off at one time. For improvements in LaunchDarkly, managing team members and access to those team members was challenging. We could add team members through Terraform and do it programmatically, and then modify it through the user interface. However, once we started modifying things through the interface, we weren't able to go back to using any configuration programmatically for the team members. It made it challenging to orchestrate team member management. The other aspect I wasn't particularly fond of was when they started adding AI to the interface and deployment interface. It reminded me of old school wizards when installing software and simplified the interface too much, removing some of the engineering control I preferred.

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Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Pros

"GNU Make is such an essential tool that it is almost impossible to imagine working without it. Not having it, developers would probably have to resort to doing everything manually or via shell scripts."

"Setup is extremely straightforward."

"I have not encountered any scalability issues with GNU Make. It is as scalable as the project's structure is, and then some."

"Full-featured syntax allows building strategies as simple or as complex as one wishes, and declarative approach fits the task really well. Wide adoption also means that everybody knows what GNU Make is and how to use it."

"Makefiles are extremely easy to work with using any preferred editor. GNU Make can be run directly from the terminal, not requiring any time wasted on clicking."

"The initial setup of GNU Make is straightforward."

"It has really helped during the series of product lines and faster deployment and faster development."

"The ability to turn off a flag is crucial when a task is not complete, especially if there is an error in a commit."

"The setup is easy."

"From the development side, it allows us to manage multiple things."

"I like that it offers the ability to control the flags."

"These features in my current project have helped my team because they allow us to specifically target users to start turning on functionality, we can monitor the behavior and make sure that it's behaving as expected when the feature toggle is turned on, and then we can increase the usage."

"I appreciate that we can release any feature in production and maintain control over it."

"The initial setup is very easy."

Cons

"GNU Make requires using the Tab symbol as the first symbol of command line for execution. In some text editors this can be problematic, as they automatically insert spaces instead of tabs."

"GNU Make does not provide traditional customer support."

"Vanilla GNU Make does not support any kind of colored output. A wrapper named colormake exists to work around this, but native (opt-in) support would be welcome."

"We need experience to use it, and the initial setup can be difficult. Also, sometimes it has breakdowns."

"Fetching information about multiple flags in a single action would be beneficial."

"The feature where one feature flag is dependent on another could be explored more for our usage."

"I strongly believe they need to develop a strategy for handling situations where LaunchDarkly goes down."

"I have used LaunchDarkly for around two and a half years and I haven't faced any issues with it."

"When the system has an excessive number of feature flags, managing them can become cumbersome."

"Managing team members and access to those team members was challenging. We could add team members through Terraform and do it programmatically, and then modify it through the user interface. However, once we started modifying things through the interface, we weren't able to go back to using any configuration programmatically for the team members."

"Right now, no improvements are needed."

Pricing and Cost Advice

"There is no price for this product. No licensing. It’s open-source."

"GNU Make is free and open source software."

Information not available

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

No data available

University

17%

Manufacturing Company

11%

Financial Services Firm

11%

Retailer

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

No data available

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	3
Midsize Enterprise	1
Large Enterprise	5

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for GNU Make?

GNU Make is a free solution that comes with Linux, which positively impacts operational costs by eliminating licensing fees.

What needs improvement with GNU Make?

I am not familiar enough with it to suggest any specific new features or areas for improvement. It occupies its niche well.

What is your primary use case for GNU Make?

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for LaunchDarkly?

At my current organization, I have no experience with licensing and setup cost. However, at my previous organization, I wasn't making any decisions but got some visibility into the pricing and usag...

What needs improvement with LaunchDarkly?

What is your primary use case for LaunchDarkly?

Currently, my main use case for LaunchDarkly is as a consumer. The application that I'm using uses LaunchDarkly as feature toggles. We toggle our flags on and off depending on what environment they...

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Comparisons

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Compared 15% of the time

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Harness vs LaunchDarkly

Compared 51% of the time

Chef vs LaunchDarkly

Compared 17% of the time

Travis CI vs LaunchDarkly

Compared 15% of the time

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Product Reports

Download GNU Make product report

Build Automation

January 2026

Download LaunchDarkly product report

January 2026

Overview

Make is a tool which controls the generation of executables and other non-source files of a program from the program's source files.

GNU

LaunchDarkly is acclaimed for its feature flag management, enabling safer, high-velocity code deployment and precise control over rollouts. Organizations use it to test, deploy, and manage features across user segments, performing canary releases and quick rollbacks without new code deployment. Users praise its robust flag system, real-time updates, detailed targeting, comprehensive analytics, and strong integration capabilities, significantly enhancing development efficiency and productivity.