A agentindex
Comparison

Helicone vs LangSmith

A like-for-like, spec-level comparison. Both entries are verified against their docs and repo.

Helicone

Proxy-based LLM observability with instant cost tracking.

  • + Fastest setup via a drop-in proxy
  • + Automatic cost and rate-limit tracking
  • − Eval features lighter than competitors
  • − Proxy model adds a hop

LangSmith

LangChain's observability and eval platform.

  • + Best-in-class when you already use LangChain
  • + Strong tracing UX
  • − Proprietary and cloud-only
  • − Vendor lock-in to LangChain
Spec Helicone LangSmith
Role Observability Observability
Tags observability, llm-gateway, persona-platform-engineer observability, evaluation, persona-data-scientist, persona-platform-engineer
License Apache-2.0 Proprietary
Open source Yes No
Self-hostable Yes No
MCP support No No
Pricing freemium freemium
Price Free tier Free
Usage cost No model cost No model cost
Models multi multi
Languages typescript python, typescript
GitHub stars 5.9k —
Last activity 2026-06-11 —