Home / Comparisons
LangSmith vs Helicone
Quick verdict
Key difference: Helicone is open-source while LangSmith is proprietary; LangSmith is OpenTelemetry-native (no lock-in) while Helicone uses a proprietary SDK.
Side-by-side comparison from the Agent Observability Index: licensing, self-hosting, pricing model and integrations — no vendor copy, primary sources linked.
| LangSmith | Helicone | |
|---|---|---|
| One-liner | Closed-source tracing, evals and monitoring platform from the LangChain team, deepest integration with LangChain/LangGraph but usable via OTel from any stack. | Proxy/gateway-based LLM logging with one-line setup, unified cost and latency visibility across providers; now under Mintlify ownership. |
| Category | Observability & Tracing | Observability & Tracing |
| OpenTelemetry-native | Yes | No |
| Open source | No | Yes |
| Self-hostable | Yes | Yes |
| Pricing model | freemium | freemium |
| Pricing notes | Free developer seat; Plus ~$39/seat/mo plus usage-based trace billing; self-hosting is enterprise-only | Free tier + per-seat paid plans; reported in maintenance mode after Mintlify acquisition (Mar 2026) |
| Frameworks | langchain, langgraph, openai-sdk, opentelemetry | openai-sdk, anthropic, langchain, litellm, vercel-ai |
| GitHub stars | — | 5.8k |
| Maturity (GitHub signal) | — (no public repo) | 97/100 (Mature) |
| Funding / ownership | LangChain raised $125M Series B (2025) at ~$1.25B valuation | YC W23; acquired by Mintlify (Mar 2026) |
How to choose
- Choose Helicone if open-source licensing or full data control is a hard requirement.
- Both link to primary pricing sources below — verify current tiers before committing; this market shifts monthly.
Frequently asked questions
Is LangSmith or Helicone open source?
LangSmith: No. Helicone: Yes.
Can LangSmith and Helicone be self-hosted?
LangSmith: Yes. Helicone: Yes.
LangSmith vs Helicone: which should I choose?
Key difference: Helicone is open-source while LangSmith is proprietary; LangSmith is OpenTelemetry-native (no lock-in) while Helicone uses a proprietary SDK.