Helicone vs Lunary: Which is Better in 2026?
A comprehensive comparison of Helicone and Lunary covering features, pricing, use cases, and which tool is the right choice for your needs.
⚡ Quick Verdict
Choose Helicone if:
- →You need request logging and replay or cost and latency tracking
Choose Lunary if:
- →You want more affordable paid plans (from $20/mo)
- →You need a broader feature set (6 features vs 5)
- →You need event logging with searchable traces for production and staging or cost, latency and quality tracking in one place
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Helicone vs Lunary: At a Glance
Pricing Comparison: Helicone vs Lunary
Understanding the pricing differences between Helicone and Lunary is crucial for making the right choice. Here's how their plans compare side by side.
Lunary Pricing
💡 Pricing takeaway: Both Helicone and Lunary offer free tiers, making it easy to try before you buy. Visit each tool's website for the latest pricing details.
Feature-by-Feature Comparison
Here's how every feature from Helicone and Lunary stacks up.
What Makes Each Tool Unique
🔵 Unique to Helicone
Features available in Helicone but not in Lunary:
- ✓Request logging and replay
- ✓Cost and latency tracking
- ✓Prompt versioning
- ✓A/B testing for prompts
- ✓User session tracking
🟣 Unique to Lunary
Features available in Lunary but not in Helicone:
- ✓Event logging with searchable traces for production and staging
- ✓Cost, latency and quality tracking in one place
- ✓Versioned prompt management decoupled from application code
- ✓AI playground for testing prompt variants on saved data
- ✓Human review, topic clustering and custom dashboards
- ✓Self-hosting with SSO, RBAC and PII masking on enterprise
Use Case Recommendations
Best for: Helicone
Open-source LLM observability platform. Helicone logs all your LLM requests, tracks costs and latency, runs prompt experiments, and detects issues — with a single line of code added to your existing OpenAI or Anthropic calls.
Ideal use cases:
- •Teams or individuals who need request logging and replay
- •Teams or individuals who need cost and latency tracking
- •Teams or individuals who need prompt versioning
- •Teams or individuals who need a/b testing for prompts
- •Anyone focused on LLM observability workflows
- •Anyone focused on prompt monitoring workflows
Best for: Lunary
Lunary is an observability and prompt-management platform for applications built on LLMs, covering the gap between a prototype that works in a notebook and a deployment you can be accountable for. It logs production and staging traffic as events, gives you searchable traces of what the model was asked and what it returned, tracks cost and latency, and surfaces how real users are actually interacting with a chatbot — which is routinely different from how the team assumed they would. Prompt management is versioned and separated from the application code, so a prompt change does not require a redeploy, and an AI playground lets you test variants against saved data before promoting one. Human review and topic clustering turn the raw log into something a product owner can act on, and Smart Views, custom dashboards and CSV/JSONL export cover the reporting layer. The platform is available self-hosted for teams whose data cannot leave their infrastructure, with SSO, granular access control, PII masking and data-warehouse connectors on the enterprise tier. It is a fit for small AI teams who need real observability without adopting a heavyweight enterprise APM, and the free tier covers personal projects at 10,000 events per month across three projects.
Ideal use cases:
- •Teams or individuals who need event logging with searchable traces for production and staging
- •Teams or individuals who need cost, latency and quality tracking in one place
- •Teams or individuals who need versioned prompt management decoupled from application code
- •Teams or individuals who need ai playground for testing prompt variants on saved data
- •Anyone focused on observability workflows
- •Anyone focused on prompt-management workflows
🤖 Other AI Agent Infrastructure Tools to Consider
Helicone and Lunary aren't the only options. Here are other popular tools in the same space:
SuperAGI
Open-source autonomous AI agent framework with visual dashboard — 14K GitHub stars
MetaGPT
Multi-agent AI framework simulating software teams — 45K GitHub stars, builds full apps from prompts
Cerebras
Fastest LLM inference powered by the Wafer Scale Engine.
Scale AI
AI data platform for training data and model evaluation.
Roboflow
End-to-end computer vision platform for developers.
Labelbox
Enterprise data labeling platform for ML training datasets.
Is one of these your tool?
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Frequently Asked Questions
Is Helicone better than Lunary?
It depends on your needs. Helicone offers 5 key features including Request logging and replay and Cost and latency tracking, while Lunary provides 6 features including Event logging with searchable traces for production and staging and Cost, latency and quality tracking in one place. Helicone uses a freemium model with a free tier, while Lunary is freemium with free access available. Choose based on which features and pricing model align with your requirements.
Is Helicone cheaper than Lunary?
Helicone doesn't have standard paid plans, while Lunary starts at $20/month. Both tools offer free tiers, so you can try each before committing. Always check the official websites for the most current pricing.
Can I use Helicone and Lunary together?
Yes, many users combine Helicone and Lunary in their workflow. Helicone excels at request logging and replay, while Lunary shines with event logging with searchable traces for production and staging. Using both allows you to leverage the strengths of each tool, though this means managing two subscriptions — though free tiers can help manage costs.
What's the main difference between Helicone and Lunary?
While both are ai agent infrastructure tools, Helicone emphasizes request logging and replay, whereas Lunary is known for event logging with searchable traces for production and staging. The best choice depends on your specific workflow and feature priorities.
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