head to head · open source
Helicone vs OpenLIT
Helicone has 6,259 GitHub stars, 702 forks, 156 open issues and last shipped 8 days ago. OpenLIT has 2,902 stars, 456 forks, 60 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. Helicone leads on adoption by 116% (6,259 vs 2,902 stars). Helicone is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0; OpenLIT is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0. Helicone has attracted 11% as many forks as stars, OpenLIT 16%. OpenLIT was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee.
Two open source projects, one decision. Both are free and self-hostable — the differences are community size, license terms, language stack and release pace.
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Side by side
| Helicone | OpenLIT | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 6.3K | ★ 2.9K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-10-28 | 2026-11-03 |
| Forks | ⑂ 702 | ⑂ 456 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Helicone if
- You weight community size — 6.3K stars and counting
- You want the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick OpenLIT if
- You want the OpenLIT feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and OpenLIT fits your workflow better
About Helicone
Docs • Changelog • Bug reports • See Helicone in Action! (Free) Helicone is an AI Gateway & LLM Observability Platform for AI Engineers 🌐 AI Gateway : Access 100+ AI models with 1 API key through the OpenAI API with intelligent routing and automatic fallbacks. Get started in 2 minutes. 🔌 Quick integration : One line of code to log all your requests from OpenAI, Anthropic, LangChain, Gemini, Vercel AI SDK, and more. 📊 Observe : Inspect and debug traces & sessions for agents, chatbots, document processing pipelines, and more 📈 Analyze : Track metrics like cost, latency, quality, and more. Export to PostHog in…
read the full Helicone overview →
About OpenLIT
Open source observability & evaluation for AI agents Trace, evaluate, debug, and optimize AI applications and coding agents with OpenTelemetry. ⭐ Star 🚀 Quickstart 📚 Docs Documentation · Quickstart · Examples · Join Slack See what your AI agents are actually doing AI applications are no longer just LLM calls. A production agent can involve: OpenLIT gives you visibility across the entire workflow. Trace every LLM call, tool invocation, prompt, agent step, token, cost, error, and evaluation — using OpenTelemetry. ⚡ Get started in 5 minutes 1. Start OpenLIT Open: 2. Install the SDK Python: TypeScript: 3…
read the full OpenLIT overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Helicone or OpenLIT more popular?
Helicone has 6,259 GitHub stars and OpenLIT has 2,902. Helicone has the larger community by that measure.
Are Helicone and OpenLIT free?
Both are open source. Helicone is licensed under Apache-2.0 and OpenLIT under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Helicone and OpenLIT ?
Helicone is written in TypeScript and OpenLIT in TypeScript. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, Helicone or OpenLIT ?
Choose Helicone if you want the larger community (6,259 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose OpenLIT if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.