Langfuse vs Helicone 2026: Self-Hosted Trace Units Against Metered Requests
Quick verdict: Langfuse is our overall pick for langfuse vs helicone.
Langfuse ($29/mo, 100K units, 90-day retention, self-host option) is a tracing and evaluation platform; Helicone ($79/mo, unlimited seats) is a request-level log with caching and a gateway.
| Tool | Rating | Pricing | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Langfuse Best overall Best for teams | 4.3/5 | Free $29/mo (Core) | Langfuse is the open-source-first LLM observability platform: free Hobby with 50K units a … |
| Helicone Best free | 3.8/5 | Free $79/mo (Pro) | Helicone is the request-level observability and gateway layer priced per request: Hobby fr… |
Bottom line: Langfuse if you need traces, evaluations and the option to run the thing yourself. Helicone if you need to see and cache raw provider requests, route them, and get alerting without instrumenting your application. Helicone is roughly a third of the price of most platform options and much narrower; Langfuse costs more and does more. Both are legitimate picks for different layers - they often sit side by side. Note that Helicone is now part of Mintlify.
Pricing and details
Langfuse · 4.3/5
Free plan available · $29/mo (Core)
Usage is billed in units (100K units included on paid tiers, then $8 per additional 100K, lower at volume); a separate self-hosted pricing page exists for on-prem deployments
No published annual rate; Pro carries an optional Teams add-on at $300/mo for SSO, SSO enforcement and fine-grained RBAC
Langfuse is the open-source-first LLM observability platform: free Hobby with 50K units a month, Core at $29/mo for 100K units and 90-day retention, Pro at $199/mo with three-year retention, Enterprise at $2,499/mo.
Score breakdown
Pros
- A real free tier with no credit card: 50K units a month, all platform features, 30 days of data access and 2 users
- Core at $29/mo is by far the cheapest paid step in the cluster, with unlimited users on every paid tier
- Cloud and self-hosted deployment from the same product, so privacy-sensitive teams have a real path instead of a sales call
- Published discounts for startups, research and students, plus a documented open-source project track
Cons
- Core retains data for 90 days only - three-year retention needs the $199 Pro plan
- No deployment runtime or autonomous debugging engine, so it covers tracing and evaluation but not the agent platform around them
- The optional Teams add-on for SSO and fine-grained RBAC is another $300/mo on top of Pro
Pricing verified 2026-10-03
Helicone · 3.8/5
Free plan available · $79/mo (Pro)
Requests are the billing unit and usage-based pricing applies on top of every paid tier; storage beyond 1 GB is usage-billed, and Helicone announced it has joined Mintlify
No published annual rate; published discounts are 50% off year one for startups under 2 years old and under $5M raised, org-size-based non-profit discounts, a $100 first-year credit for open-source companies and free plans for students
Helicone is the request-level observability and gateway layer priced per request: Hobby free with 10,000 requests a month, Pro at $79/mo, Team at $799/mo, and usage-based pricing on top.
Score breakdown
Pros
- The easiest adoption story in the cluster - a one-line integration, the clearest interface of the five, and no framework lock-in since it sits at the request layer
- Straightforward request-based pricing with a published calculator: 10K free requests, then usage-based billing on every paid tier
- Caching, rate limits, automatic fallbacks and a gateway ship in the same product, so observability and routing are one purchase
- Real discount programs: 50% off year one for startups under 2 years old and under $5M raised, org-size non-profit discounts, a $100 credit for open-source companies, free for students
Cons
- Narrowest scope: its own pricing page rates its tracing, UI, experiments and evaluation as limited or average against the other four
- 7-day retention on Hobby and only 1 month on Pro, with 3 months on the $799 Team plan
- Ingest ceilings are low by comparison - 10 logs/min on Hobby against 1,000 on Pro and 30,000 on Enterprise
Pricing verified 2026-10-03
Frequently asked questions
Which is better overall, Langfuse or Helicone?
Langfuse is our overall pick (4.3/5 vs 3.8/5). Langfuse ($29/mo, 100K units, 90-day retention, self-host option) is a tracing and evaluation platform; Helicone ($79/mo, unlimited seats) is a request-level log with caching and a gateway.
Do Langfuse and Helicone offer free plans?
Langfuse and Helicone have a free tier. Langfuse paid plans start at $29/mo (Core); Helicone paid plans start at $79/mo (Pro).
What does Langfuse cost?
$29/mo (Core) — Usage is billed in units (100K units included on paid tiers, then $8 per additional 100K, lower at volume); a separate self-hosted pricing page exists for on-prem deployments. Prices were last verified on 2026-10-03.