Helicone vs LangSmith
A side-by-side look at scores, pricing and features — with RECATOOLS' ASEAN-aware verdict for each.
Helicone
Open-source LLM observability, now in maintenance mode
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LangSmith
LangChain's platform for tracing, evaluating and deploying agents
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| RECATOOLS Score | 7.6 / 10 | 7.9 / 10 |
| Capability | ||
| Value for money | ||
| Ease of use | ||
| ASEAN readiness | ||
| API quality | ||
| Pricing | Open Source | Freemium |
| Free tier | Apache-2.0 open-source stack, free to self-host with Docker; maintenance-only updates. Hosted Hobby tier (10,000 requests/mo) is closed to new sign-ups | Developer: $0 for 1 seat with 5k base traces a month, then pay as you go |
| Paid from | Hosted Pro listed at $79/mo, but new sign-ups have been disabled since March 2026 | $39/seat/month (Plus, 10k base traces a month included), then usage |
| Has API | ✓ | ✓ |
| Open source | ✓ | ✗ |
| Free to use | ✓ | ✓ |
| Users | — | — |
| Founded | 2023 | 2023 |
| Maker | Mintlify (acquired March 2026) | LangChain Inc. |
| Verdict | Helicone was one of the lowest-friction ways to see what your LLM calls cost. Since Mintlify acquired it in March 2026 it has been in maintenance mode, with security fixes and new-model support but no new features, and n... |
LangSmith is the most complete option for teams already on LangChain or LangGraph, where tracing works almost out of the box, and it is no longer tied to that stack: SDKs and OpenTelemetry bring in any framework. Evals,... |
| Full review → | Full review → |
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Comparisons cover up to 4 tools. Scores are RECATOOLS editorial assessments; verify current pricing on each vendor's site.