Helicone vs LangSmith
Compare Helicone and LangSmith for provider routing, application tracing and prompt evaluation.
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Helicone includes an AI gateway; LangSmith focuses on connected tracing, evaluation and prompt engineering.
Helicone
Start here when provider access is part of the purchase.
LangSmith
Start here when tracing and experiments drive your release process.
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For shared conversation review and application debugging.
At a glance
| Evaluation dimension | Helicone | LangSmith |
|---|---|---|
| Architecture starting point | AI Gateway and request operations | Application tracing and development workflow |
| Prompt work | Prompt management and gateway integration | Prompt engineering and evaluation |
| Data extraction | ETL tooling and REST API | SDK queries and bulk exports with eligibility |
| First proof | Provider failure plus complete application context | Trace diagnosis plus baseline/candidate comparison |
See your workflow in Lunary.
Explore conversations, traces and prompt versions with our team.
Decide whether routing must change
Helicone provides a common model-provider interface. LangSmith provides application tracing; treat any gateway replacement as a separate requirement.
Test a prompt release
Helicone offers prompts and datasets; LangSmith offers prompt engineering and evaluations. Compare a candidate with a baseline and identify the version your application served.
Plan the data move
Helicone documents ETL exports with optional bodies. LangSmith offers SDK queries and eligible bulk exports; preserve session IDs, payloads and prompt context.
Questions & answers
Is Helicone only a proxy?
No. It also documents prompts, datasets, custom logging and data access.
Does LangSmith require LangChain?
No. It supports framework-independent tracing.
By Lunary · Documentation reviewed Sep 16, 2026
Sources & methodology (10)
Based on vendor documentation, not an independent benchmark or hands-on rating. Features and plans can change.
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