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LLM gateways and observability · November 2026 Edition

Helicone vs Langfuse

Zero of fourteen models named Helicone first on the direct prompt; zero named Langfuse. Helicone was named by seven of the fourteen models and Langfuse by thirteen and both carry 16 labels, so the shares below are directly comparable.

Helicone

accepted challenger

Named in one category this edition.

Langfuse

accepted challenger

Named in four categories this edition.

First-choice share4%2%Of first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, 0 to 100.
Negative rate6%0%Negative labels as a share of the product's labels, 0 to 100.
Rank in category#4#7A position in a field of 9; printed, not drawn.
Labels1616Equal, which is what makes the shares comparable.
The two percentage rows are drawn on one 0 to 100 track, Helicone reading right to left. Rank and label count are printed, not drawn.Portkey was named alongside these two in fourteen of the fourteen direct answers. LiteLLM vs Helicone · LiteLLM vs Langfuse · Portkey vs Helicone

Share is the count of first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts over all fourteen models, for a mid-market B2B company; rank is within the category; every quote names the model and the prompt it came from. Both figures come from the LLM gateways and observability page.

By framing

How many of the fourteen models made each the first choice, per way of asking, and how many argued against it.
HeliconeFirst choices, of fourteen modelsLangfuse
Direct00
Paraphrase21
Comparative00
Budget-constrained00
Scale-constrained00
Negative001 against Helicone
Bars are first choices, 0 to 14 each sideModels that argued againstA model can name both, so the two sides of a row do not sum to fourteen.

Across every category in the November 2026 Edition, Helicone and Langfuse were named in the same answer twenty-two times, of the 58 answers naming Helicone and the 54 naming Langfuse. In those answers Langfuse took the first choice two times and Helicone four.

Every model, every framing

The eighty-four answers behind the chart above, one cell each: where Helicone and Langfuse stood in it.
ModelDirectParaphraseComparativeBudget-constrainedScale-constrainedNegative
Claude Haiku 4.5
GPT-5.4 mini
Gemini 3.5 Flash
Perplexity Sonar
Grok 4.20
Mistral Small
DeepSeek V4 Flash
Llama 4 Maverick
Qwen 3.7 Flash
Kimi K2
GLM 4.7 FlashX
MiniMax M2.5
GPT-6 Luna
Muse Glimmer 30B
Helicone Langfuse first choice named as an alternative argued againstblank: not namedEach cell is one answer, Helicone on the left and Langfuse on the right.

The direct prompt

The plain question, one answer per model, grouped by where Helicone and Langfuse stood in it.

Neither was the first choice, one was named

1 of 14 modelsThe answer put something else first and named one of the two as an alternative.
MiniMax M2.5LiteLLM alternatives: Cloudflare AI Gateway, Helicone, OpenRouter, Portkey

Neither was named

13 of 14 modelsThe answer made no first choice from these two in this category.
Claude Haiku 4.5Nexos.ai, Portkey alternatives: Bifrost, LiteLLM, OpenRouter
GPT-5.4 miniOpenRouter alternatives: Kong AI Gateway, LiteLLM, Portkey
Gemini 3.5 FlashLiteLLM, Portkey alternatives: Bifrost, Cloudflare AI Gateway
Perplexity SonarPortkey alternatives: Bifrost, LiteLLM, OpenRouter
Grok 4.20Portkey alternatives: Cloudflare AI Gateway, LiteLLM
Mistral SmallLiteLLM, Portkey alternatives: OpenRouter, Requesty
DeepSeek V4 FlashBifrost, Portkey alternatives: Amazon Bedrock, Azure API Management, LiteLLM
Llama 4 MaverickFastRouter alternatives: Concentrate, LiteLLM, OpenRouter, Portkey
Qwen 3.7 FlashLiteLLM, Portkey alternatives: Bifrost, Cloudflare AI Gateway, Kong AI Gateway, OpenRouter
Kimi K2Portkey alternatives: FastRouter, Kong AI Gateway, LiteLLM, TrueFoundry AI Gateway
GLM 4.7 FlashXLiteLLM alternatives: Bifrost, Kong AI Gateway, Portkey
GPT-6 LunaPortkey alternatives: Cloudflare AI Gateway, LiteLLM
Muse Glimmer 30BLiteLLM, Portkey alternatives: Kong AI Gateway, TrueFoundry AI Gateway

Bold names in an answer are the products the judge labeled a first choice; a model naming several gives each of them that label. The full answer text for every row is in the record.

By buyer segment

The same question asked on behalf of a different buyer. Each standing is computed within its segment and they are never added together. The figures above are the mid-market standing, which is the one the category orders by.
Small business
Helicone leads by seven points.
Helicone10%#3 of 9
Langfuse3%#6 of 9
The full small business standing →
Mid-marketThe figures above
Helicone leads by two points.
Helicone4%#4 of 9
Langfuse2%#7 of 9
The full mid-market standing →
Enterprise
The order flips: Langfuse leads at enterprise.
Langfuse4%#5 of 10
Helicone0%#9 of 10
The full enterprise standing →

What the models said about Helicone

Every negative label with a quote, up to three, then the highest-weighted positives, up to three. Four of five in this category shown.

“Managed/third-party hosted gateways with weak privacy controls (e.g., some observability-focused ones like early PromptLayer or Helicone variants)” Grok 4.20 · negative prompt · soft negative
“My top pick for a typical mid-sized B2B company: Start with Helicone.” Qwen 3.7 Flash · paraphrase prompt · first choice
“I recommend Helicone as the best all-around choice” Kimi K2 · paraphrase prompt · first choice
“Excellent observability, caching, and cost analytics | Stronger on monitoring than routing; paid plans for advanced usage” Grok 4.20 · budget prompt · alternative

What the models said about Langfuse

Every negative label with a quote, up to three, then the highest-weighted positives, up to three. Two of two in this category shown.

“Top Recommendation: Langfuse + Bifrost” GLM 4.7 FlashX · paraphrase prompt · first choice
“Langfuse (top if you prioritize open-source/self-hosting): Excellent framework-agnostic tracing” Grok 4.20 · paraphrase prompt · alternative
Also compared

Comparisons are drawn for the top eight products in each category, each against each. The output is the models' output; nothing here is a recommendation by the index.