head to head · open source
vllm vs Helicone
vllm has 96,158 GitHub stars, 24,317 forks, 7,953 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Helicone has 6,254 stars, 701 forks, 156 open issues and last shipped 6 days ago. vllm leads on adoption by 1,438% (96,158 vs 6,254 stars). vllm is written in Python under Apache-2.0; Helicone is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0. vllm has attracted 25% as many forks as stars, Helicone 11%. vllm was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (gpt, llm), so they are genuine substitutes rather than adjacent tools.
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
| vllm | Helicone | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 96K | ★ 6.3K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Python | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-10-28 |
| Forks | ⑂ 24K | ⑂ 701 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick vllm if
- You weight community size — 96K stars and counting
- You want the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick Helicone if
- You want the Helicone 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 Helicone fits your workflow better
About vllm
Easy, fast, and cheap LLM serving for everyone 🔥 We have built a vLLM website to help you get started with vLLM. Please visit vllm.ai to learn more. For events, please visit vllm.ai/events to join us. About vLLM is a fast and easy to use library for LLM inference and serving. Originally developed in the Sky Computing Lab at UC Berkeley, vLLM has grown into one of the most active open source AI projects built and maintained by a diverse community of many dozens of academic institutions and companies from over 2000 contributors. vLLM is fast with: State of the art serving throughput Efficient management of…
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 →
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Frequently asked questions
Is vllm or Helicone more popular?
vllm has 96,158 GitHub stars and Helicone has 6,254. vllm has the larger community by that measure.
Are vllm and Helicone free?
Both are open source. vllm is licensed under Apache-2.0 and Helicone under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between vllm and Helicone?
vllm is written in Python and Helicone 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, vllm or Helicone?
Choose vllm if you want the larger community (96,158 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose Helicone if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.