Comparison

Everstack vs Helicone

Both are proxies that trace by routing rather than by instrumentation, and both are Apache-2.0 with no enterprise directory, so the licence is a tie. The differences that matter are which tier unlocks supported on-prem deployment, and how far each one goes past logging the model call.

EverstackEverstack
vs
HeliconeHelicone
View pricingRead documentation

What is Helicone?

Helicone is an open source LLM observability platform and gateway, Apache-2.0 licensed, with 6,116 GitHub stars as of August 2026 and a YC W23 pedigree. Integration is a base URL change plus an auth header. Mintlify acquired it in posts dated 3 March 2026, and both companies say it now runs in maintenance mode, which they define as security updates, bug fixes and new models continuing to ship.

Why teams choose Everstack

  • On-prem deployment is the default, not an enterprise upgrade
  • The gateway that produces the traces also runs agents, sandboxes and evaluations
  • Per-tenant policy is enforced in the request path, not reported on afterwards

Helicone: Strengths & Limitations

Strengths

  • Apache-2.0 across the repository, with no separately licensed enterprise directory. That is a cleaner licence story than several better-known alternatives.
  • Still shipping under maintenance mode. Both Helicone and Mintlify state that security updates, bug fixes and new models keep landing, and commits do still arrive.
  • Genuinely one line of code to start. The proxy integration is about as low-friction as this category gets.
  • A well-shaped free tier at 10,000 requests, which is enough to evaluate properly rather than just look at a demo.
  • 6,116 GitHub stars and a YC W23 pedigree, with a mature hosted product behind it.

Limitations

  • Acquired by Mintlify, announced 3 March 2026. Helicone's own post says its services will remain live for the foreseeable future in maintenance mode, and Mintlify's says the same. Both define maintenance mode as security updates, bug fixes and new models continuing to ship, which rules out new feature work rather than the product.
  • Commit volume matches that. The repository ran between 37 and 76 commits a month in the four months before the acquisition, and between 1 and 6 a month since April 2026. The README mentions none of it, so a reader landing on the repository sees a normal active project.
  • On-prem deployment is listed under the Enterprise tier on the pricing page, which is contact-us pricing.
  • SOC 2 and HIPAA compliance sit on the Team tier at $799 per month.
  • The product is observability. Agent execution, isolated sandboxes and workflow orchestration are outside its scope.
  • SAML SSO is Enterprise only.

Everstack advantage

Self-hosting without a tier conversationGateway, runtime, sandboxes and evals in one planeApache-2.0 on both sides, so licence is not the differentiatorPublished pricing at every tier

The facts, side by side

Licence, deployment model and list price, taken from each vendor's own documentation. Every source is linked at the bottom of this page.

FactEverstackHelicone
LicenceApache-2.0 across the repository.Apache-2.0, verified against the LICENSE file in Helicone/helicone. No separate enterprise directory. This is a genuinely clean licence, and a point in Helicone's favour.
Maintenance statusActive.Maintenance mode, in the company's own words, after Mintlify's acquisition announced 3 March 2026. Helicone defines maintenance mode as security updates, bug fixes and new models continuing to ship. The commit history agrees: 37 to 76 a month in the four months before the acquisition, 1 to 6 a month since April 2026.
Self-hosted or on-premThe default. Run the Apache-2.0 build with Docker or Kubernetes, no tier required.On-prem deployment is listed under the Enterprise tier, which is contact-us pricing. The Apache-2.0 code is available regardless, but the supported on-prem path is a sales conversation.
Published pricingStarter $0, Build $20/month, Scale $100/month, Enterprise custom (August 2026).Hobby free with 10,000 requests and 1 GB storage, Pro $79/month with unlimited seats, alerts and HQL, Team $799/month with 5 organizations plus SOC 2 and HIPAA, Enterprise contact-us with SAML SSO and on-prem (August 2026).
Compliance tierSelf-host inside your own compliance boundary, which is usually the point.SOC 2 and HIPAA are listed on the Team tier at $799/month.
Multi-provider routing and fallbackYes, in the request path.Helicone is an LLM gateway as well as an observability platform, so requests do pass through it.
Agent runtime and isolated executionStateful sessions, tools, approvals, child agents, plus Docker, Firecracker and Kubernetes sandboxes.Out of scope.
Community sizeSmall, and smaller than Helicone's.6,116 GitHub stars as of 31 August 2026.

Licence and activity read from the Helicone/helicone repository and the GitHub API, pricing from helicone.ai/pricing, all on 31 August 2026. Prices change; verify before you buy.

Feature comparison

Direct capability comparison across key dimensions

FeatureEverstackHelicone
Observability
Request logging and tracing
Cost and token attribution
OpenTelemetry-native tracesPartial
Alerts and reportsPro and above
Gateway
OpenAI-compatible endpoint
Multi-provider routing
Caching
Governance
SAML SSOEnterprise planEnterprise
SOC 2 and HIPAA coverageSelf-hosted, inside your boundaryTeam, $799/month
Deployment
Supported on-prem deploymentEnterprise
Runtime
Stateful agent sessions
Isolated code execution
Workflows with approvals
Quality
Datasets and evaluation runsExperiments
Human annotation queues

The same job, in both products

Working code rather than adjectives. Each snippet follows the quickstart published by the product it belongs to.

Send a traced request through the gateway

Both are proxies, so both trace by routing rather than by instrumentation. The integration shape is nearly identical, which makes this an unusually cheap migration in either direction.

Everstack

call.py
from openai import OpenAIimport osclient = OpenAI(    base_url="https://{instance}.{region}.everstack.ai/openai/v1",    api_key=os.environ["EVERSTACK_API_KEY"],)response = client.chat.completions.create(    model="gpt-4o-mini",    messages=[{"role": "user", "content": "Summarise this report"}],)

Helicone

call.py
from openai import OpenAIimport osclient = OpenAI(    base_url="https://oai.helicone.ai/v1",    api_key=os.environ["OPENAI_API_KEY"],    default_headers={        "Helicone-Auth": f"Bearer {os.environ['HELICONE_API_KEY']}",    },)response = client.chat.completions.create(    model="gpt-4o-mini",    messages=[{"role": "user", "content": "Summarise this report"}],)

Key evaluation questions

What to ask when comparing Helicone to Everstack

QuestionEverstackHelicone
Is supported on-prem deployment gated by tier?No. Self-hosting is the default path.On-prem is listed under the Enterprise tier on the pricing page.
Is the licence clean, with no enterprise directory?Yes, Apache-2.0 throughout.Yes, Apache-2.0 throughout. This one is a tie.
What does SOC 2 and HIPAA coverage cost?Self-hosting puts the data inside your own boundary, which is usually why teams self-host.Listed on the Team tier at $799 per month.
Can it execute agent code in isolation?Yes, with Docker, Firecracker and Kubernetes backends.No, that is outside its scope.

Feature-by-feature analysis

Where each product is genuinely stronger, row by row

Getting on-prem

Everstack wins
Everstack

Self-hosting is the default path. Run the Apache-2.0 build with Docker or Kubernetes; support is sold separately but the code is not gated.

Helicone

The code is Apache-2.0 and you can run it, but on-prem deployment appears under the Enterprise tier on the pricing page, which is contact-us.

Why Everstack

If a deployment constraint is why you are shopping, the difference between a supported default and an enterprise line item usually matters more than the licence text.

Licence cleanliness

Close call
Everstack

Apache-2.0 across the repository.

Helicone

Apache-2.0 across the repository, with no separately licensed enterprise directory.

How to choose

This is a genuine tie, and worth saying plainly. Helicone's licence is cleaner than several better-known alternatives in this category.

Scope past the request

Everstack wins
Everstack

The same control plane runs agent sessions, isolated sandboxes, memory, workflows and evaluations, all sharing a trace.

Helicone

Observability and gateway. Agent execution and sandboxing happen elsewhere.

Why Everstack

Only relevant if you actually have those problems. If you do not, the narrower tool is the better engineering decision.

Integration friction

Close call
Everstack

A base URL change and an API key.

Helicone

A base URL change plus a Helicone-Auth header. Genuinely one line, and their marketing claim on this is accurate.

How to choose

Both are trivial. Neither should decide anything.

Moving from Helicone to Everstack

Both products are proxies that trace by routing, so the integration shapes are close and the migration is mostly configuration. The work is in re-creating alerting and any custom properties you rely on.

  1. 1

    Swap the base URL and drop the auth header

    Everstack authenticates with its own API key rather than a Helicone-Auth header alongside a provider key, so the header goes away.

  2. 2

    Re-create custom properties as metadata

    Helicone-Property headers map to Everstack request metadata, which is also what drives custom trace columns.

  3. 3

    Rebuild alerts and saved views

    Alerting rules and any HQL queries you depend on need re-expressing. Budget real time for this if you have built dashboards on them.

  4. 4

    Dual-write while you compare

    Run both proxies for a release and compare request counts and cost totals before turning Helicone off.

What breaks

  • Helicone-specific headers, including Helicone-Auth, Helicone-Property-* and caching headers, have no direct equivalent and need re-expressing.
  • HQL queries and anything built on them do not port.
  • Helicone's session and prompt objects are a different model.

What does not carry over

  • Historical request logs. There is no bulk importer, so keep Helicone readable for your retention window.
  • Saved dashboards, alerts and reports.
  • Experiment history.

Read this part first

When to choose Helicone instead

Helicone has one of the cleanest licence stories in this category, and its maintenance-mode commitment still covers security updates, bug fixes and new models. Weigh that yourself: it constrains new feature work rather than ending the product. Pick Helicone over Everstack when any of these is true.

  • Observability is the whole problem and you want the lowest-friction integration available. One header and a base URL is hard to beat.
  • You want the hosted product and the published tiers suit you. $79 per month for unlimited seats is straightforward pricing that Everstack does not undercut on features per dollar at that tier.
  • You value a single Apache-2.0 licence with no enterprise directory. Helicone has exactly that, and so do we, so this is a tie rather than a differentiator.
  • You need SOC 2 or HIPAA coverage on a hosted product today and would rather buy it than build the compliance boundary yourself.
  • You want a larger community and a longer production track record than a younger project can offer.
  • You do not need agent execution, sandboxes or workflow orchestration. Buying a platform for a logging problem is over-buying.

Frequently asked questions

Common questions about choosing between Everstack and Helicone

Ready to get started?

See how Everstack compares to Helicone for your specific use case.

View pricingRead docs

Sources & References

Helicone/helicone repositoryHelicone licence (Apache-2.0)Helicone pricingHelicone: joining MintlifyMintlify acquires HeliconeEverstack licence (Apache-2.0)

Last reviewed: August 31, 2026. This comparison is for informational purposes and reflects our understanding of competitor capabilities based on publicly available documentation.

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