Helicone
coding
Open-source LLM observability and AI gateway in one line of code.
Pricing
Free plan
Rating
—
Votes
0
Head-to-head comparison
Helicone vs Portkey
Compare Helicone and Portkey side by side across pricing, features, ratings, pros, cons, best-fit use cases, and alternatives.
Portkey
coding
Open-source AI gateway and control plane for production Gen AI.
Pricing
Free plan
Rating
—
Votes
0
Feature comparison
Feature
Helicone
Portkey
Category
coding
coding
Pricing
Free plan
Free plan
Free plan
API access
Mobile app
Browser extension
Team collaboration
Custom training
Self-hosted option
Offline mode
Multi-language support
Helicone pros and cons
Extremely easy integration via a one-line base-URL swap
Open source under Apache 2.0 and free to self-host
Tiny Docker image that runs almost anywhere
Gateway features like caching, failover, and rate limiting cut cost and improve reliability
Product is in maintenance mode after the Mintlify acquisition, with no roadmap
Long-term hosted-service viability is uncertain and migration may be needed
Usage-based overages mean the Pro price is a floor, not a cap
Portkey pros and cons
Fully open-source, self-hostable gateway for data control and no lock-in
Access to more than 1,600 models through one API
Broad feature set spanning observability, guardrails, routing, prompts, and cost control
Transparent, relatively cheap entry with free and ~$49 tiers
Adds a network hop and dependency in the critical request path
Log-volume-based pricing can get complex or expensive at scale
Free-tier logging caps and short retention are tight for real debugging
Which one should you choose?
Best overall signal
Helicone
Selected using Toolglade popularity signals such as views and votes.
Best value signal
Helicone
Selected using free-plan availability and engagement signals.
Best for
Helicone
- quick LLM request logging
- self-hosted observability
- gateway caching and failover
- cost and usage monitoring
- Teams wanting simple, cheap LLM logging
Portkey
- routing across many LLMs
- production reliability and fallbacks
- AI governance and guardrails
- cost and usage control
- Teams routing production traffic across many LLMs
FAQ
Is Helicone better than Portkey?
It depends on your use case. Compare category fit, pricing, feature availability, and ratings before choosing.
Which tool has a free plan?
Helicone and Portkey offer a free plan based on current Toolglade data.