Compare / Helicone vs Phoenix
Helicone vs Phoenix
Pick Helicone if you want an Apache-2.0 observability proxy. Pick Phoenix only if you accept Elastic License 2.0. Langfuse remains the published LangSmith stack.
Facts checked 21 Oct 2026. License, language, and GitHub activity come from the catalog or the project's own repo. "Not in the catalog row" means the public catalog dump does not store that number.
Helicone in the catalog Phoenix in the catalog Start on Railway
How they compare
| Helicone | Phoenix | |
|---|---|---|
| License | Apache-2.0 (catalog) source | Elastic License 2.0 (catalog) — not OSI source |
| Language | TypeScript (catalog) | Python (catalog) |
| GitHub activity | 6,231 stars in the catalog source | 11,939 stars in the catalog source |
| Self-host | Named on /stacks/langfuse-observe. Proxy in front of the model API. | Self-host allowed. ELv2 forbids offering it as a hosted service to third parties. |
| Best for | An OSI Apache-2.0 proxy. | ELv2 evals if you accept that license. |
Self-hosting and resource needs
Neither is the default lander. The published LangSmith path is /stacks/langfuse-observe. Helicone is Helicone/helicone. Phoenix is Arize-ai/phoenix. Do not call Phoenix the OSS path.
FAQ
- Why not Langfuse?
- Langfuse is the published LangSmith replacement — /compare/langfuse-vs-helicone and /compare/langfuse-vs-phoenix.
- Is Phoenix open source?
- Not OSI. Elastic License 2.0.
- Are these free?
- Helicone is Apache-2.0. Phoenix is ELv2. You pay hosting and tokens.
- How do I deploy a tracer?
- Start at /stacks/langfuse-observe unless you already run Helicone or Phoenix.
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