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revopsse· llm-observability

Helicone

Last reviewed: 2026-05-23

Our take

Helicone is the right pick for AI SaaS founders who need observability without LangChain commitment. The 1-line proxy approach is genuinely faster to integrate than LangSmith's SDK. The cost-per-customer analytics ($/customer-month) is the killer feature for usage-based AI pricing models. We use Helicone on AI side projects.

Who it's for: AI SaaS founders. Engineers wiring up LLM observability without framework lock-in.

Pricing

Custom

Free (10k requests/mo). Pro $20/mo (100k). Team $200/mo (1.5M). Enterprise custom.

As of 2026-05-23

Try it

Visit Helicone →

Features

  • 1-line LLM proxy logging
  • Cost + latency dashboards
  • User rate limiting
  • Caching
  • Prompt versioning

Pros

  • 1-line integration (drop-in proxy)
  • Cheap + open-source option
  • Cost-per-customer analytics

Cons

  • Proxy adds latency (~50ms typical)
  • Less mature eval workflow than LangSmith
  • Smaller community

Integrations

OpenAIAnthropicAnyscaleCohereany HTTP LLM

Alternatives

LangSmith

llm-observability

Head-to-head comparisons

Updated 2026-05-23. We don't test every claim hands-on; pricing and feature data scraped live from vendor pages. Independent — no vendor PR.