vioscaleAI
Comparison

Helicone vs Portkey

On the evidence we track, Portkey leads this comparison with a composite score of 79/100. Scores are only directly comparable because these tools share a category; the full breakdown and every source is below.

Helicone full profile →Portkey full profile →
Machine formatsMarkdownJSONGraphQLMarkdown is open. JSON and GraphQL need a free key.
Helicone41
★Portkey79
Score
vioscaleAI score
Helicone41 / 100low · 22%
Portkey79 / 100medium · 74%
Pricing
Free tier
Helicone–
Portkey✓
Model
Helicone–
Portkeyfreemium
Price level
Helicone–
Portkeymid
Starting price
Helicone–
Portkey$49
Transparent
Helicone–
Portkey✓
Integrations
Count
Helicone2
Portkey1,600
Security
Certifications
Gdpr
Helicone–
Portkey✓
Hipaa
Helicone–
Portkey✓
Iso27001
Helicone–
Portkey✓
Soc2
Helicone–
Portkey✓
Trust center
Reliability
Status page
Helicone✓
Portkey✓
Adoption
Package downloads weekly
Helicone396
Portkey–
License
Spdx
HeliconeApache-2.0
Portkey–
Language
Primary
HeliconePython
Portkey–
Market
Availability
Helicone–
PortkeyAvailable worldwide
Content
Faq
Helicone–
Portkey6 items

Capabilities

Feature-by-feature on the axes that matter for mlops & llmops tools. “-” means undocumented, not absent.

Core
Tool role
HeliconeLLM observability / eval
PortkeyModel gateway / router
Deployment
Self-hostable / OSS core
Helicone-
Portkey✓
Managed cloud available
Helicone-
Portkey✓
On-prem / VPC deployment
Helicone-
Portkey✓
Observability
LLM tracing / observability
Helicone✓
Portkey✓
Evaluation (offline / LLM-judge / human)
Helicone-
Portkey✓
Dev
Prompt management + versioning
Helicone-
Portkey✓
Tracking
Experiment tracking / model registry
Helicone-
Portkey✓
Serving
Model serving / inference endpoint
Helicone-
Portkey✓
Interop
OpenTelemetry / OpenLLMetry compatible
Helicone-
Portkey-
Framework-agnostic
Helicone-
Portkey✓
Gateway
Multi-provider model support
Helicone✗
Portkey✓
Data
No-train-on-customer-data guarantee
Helicone-
PortkeyUnknown

What each one is

The product in its own terms, so the numbers below have context.

Helicone

A Python wrapper that automatically captures and logs all OpenAI API calls for monitoring and analysis.

Independently observed

Portkey

Leader

Platform providing API gateway functionality, observability with logging and traces, safety guardrails, access governance, and prompt version management for teams deploying AI applications at scale.

Independently observed

Pricing

List pricing as published by each vendor, with the date we read it. Always verify at the source before you buy.

Helicone

Pricing not documented yet.

Portkey

Leader
from $49/moHybridFree tier

Free tier with 10k logs/month. Production at $49/month with usage overages. Enterprise custom pricing for compliance-focused organizations.

  • DeveloperFree
    • Universal API & Key Management
    • Routing, Fallbacks, Load Balancing, Retries
    • 3 Prompt Templates with Playground, Versioning, Variables
    • Logs, Traces, Feedback, Custom Metadata, Filters
    • Simple Caching
    • +3 more
  • Production$49/month + $9 per 100k request overage
    • Universal API, Fallbacks, Load Balancing, Retries
    • Unlimited Prompt Templates with Playground, API Deployment, Versioning, Variables
    • Logs, Traces, Feedback, Metadata, Filters, Alerts
    • LLM & Partner Guardrails
    • Role-Based Access Control, Service Account API Keys
    • +3 more
  • EnterpriseContact sales
    • Custom retention periods for logs and metrics
    • Advanced Evaluation Templates with custom guardrail hooks
    • Role-Based Access Control, SSO (Okta), Granular Budget & Rate Limits
    • Private Cloud Deployment, VPC Hosting, Data Export to Data Lakes
    • SOC2 Type 2, GDPR, HIPAA compliance certifications
    • +3 more
as of verify ↗

Platform & deployment

Where each product runs and how it can be hosted. A dash means undocumented, not unsupported.

Platforms
Web
Helicone–
Portkey✓
CLI
Helicone–
Portkey✓
Deployment
Cloud / SaaS
Helicone–
Portkey✓
Self-hosted
Helicone–
Portkey✓
On-premise
Helicone–
Portkey✓
Hybrid
Helicone–
Portkey✓

Integrations

What each product connects to. Counts come from the vendor's own integration directory where one exists.

In common (1)
  • OpenAI

Helicone

2 total - 1 not shared
  • Helicone
Independently observed

Portkey

Leader
16 total - 15 not shared
  • Google Cloud (Vertex AI, Gemini)
  • Azure
  • AWS
  • GCP
  • Langgraph
  • CrewAI
  • Strands Agents
  • Google ADK
  • Anthropic
  • Claude
  • Mistral
  • Google
  • MongoDB
  • Vertex AI
  • Claude Code
Independently observed
Still deciding?

Helicone or Portkey: which one depends on you

A composite score cannot know your constraints. Describe them and both get re-weighted against what you actually need, with the evidence behind every position.

Free to run, no account needed to start. How the evaluation works

Comparison generated from independently-sourced facts. Every value links to its source and retrieval date. See the method.