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Bifrost vs Helicone

Two fact sheets from our own research, side by side — pricing, platforms, API access and status re-checked by us rather than quoted from the vendors.

The short answer

Free plan
Both have one
Public API
Both have one
Higher Trust score
Bifrost — 86 vs 80 for Helicone
Best fit
Bifrost: Platform teams that want one internal endpoint for many model providers · Helicone: Developers who want cost, latency and usage logs for LLM calls with minimal code changes
Platforms
Bifrost: Linux, macOS, Windows · Helicone: Web

From our own records as of each tool's last check. Anything we have not confirmed is left out rather than guessed. How we verify

BifrostOpen-source Go gateway that fronts many LLM providers with one OpenAI-compatible API, fallbacks, budgets and an MCP gateway.HeliconeOpen-source LLM observability and AI gateway that logs every request, tracks cost and latency, caches and fails over between providers.

Side by side

FactBifrostHelicone
CategoryAI Gateways & RoutingLLM Observability & Evaluation
Pricing modelFreemiumFreemium
Starts at—$79/mo
Public APIYesYes
Trust score86 / 10080 / 100
PlatformsAPI, Linux, macOS, WindowsWeb, API
CompanyH3 Labs Inc (Maxim AI)Helicone, Inc.
Launched20252023
Last verifiedOct 2, 2026Oct 29, 2026

What our research says

Bifrost

Bifrost is a credible open-source option when you want to centralise provider keys, fallbacks and spend limits without writing your own proxy. The vendor's headline speed comparison with LiteLLM comes from its own benchmark, so test it on your own traffic before treating it as settled.

Pros

  • Drop-in: change the base URL of an existing SDK client
  • Automatic provider fallback, semantic caching and virtual-key budgets in the free edition
  • Includes an MCP gateway for agent tool access
  • Apache-2.0 licensed with active commits

Cons

  • Guardrails, cluster mode, adaptive load balancing and SSO are enterprise-only
  • Enterprise pricing is not published
  • The enterprise trial is by request access rather than self-serve signup

Helicone

Helicone is a quick way to get request logs, cost tracking and caching on top of LLM calls with a one-line base-URL change, and the open-source code means you can run it yourself. Its ownership has changed twice in 2026 and the public changelog has been quiet since late 2025, so teams choosing a long-term observability platform should weigh that against more actively developed options.

Pros

  • Proxy or gateway integration takes one line of configuration
  • Free tier with 10,000 requests a month and an open-source self-host option
  • Built-in caching, rate limits and automatic provider fallbacks
  • Session view for multi-step agent traces and HQL for custom queries

Cons

  • Free plan keeps data for only 7 days and Pro for one month
  • Usage-based charges on top of the plan fee make bills harder to predict
  • Ownership uncertainty: acquired by Mintlify in March 2026, then announced as separated again with no details

Which one fits

Choose Bifrost if you need

  • Platform teams that want one internal endpoint for many model providers
  • Companies that need budgets and virtual keys per team or project
  • Self-hosted setups that must run inside a VPC or on-premise

Choose Helicone if you need

  • Developers who want cost, latency and usage logs for LLM calls with minimal code changes
  • Teams that need a gateway with caching and provider fallback alongside logging
  • Companies that prefer an Apache-2.0 tool they can self-host

Bifrost vs Helicone: the questions people ask

Is Bifrost cheaper than Helicone?

Helicone starts at $79/mo. Bifrost has a free tier; what its paid plans cost is not confirmed by us yet.

Does Bifrost or Helicone have a free tier?

Both: Bifrost has a free tier, and Helicone has a free tier.

Which has a public API, Bifrost or Helicone?

Both ship a public API, so either can be built on; the fact table above shows the platforms each one runs on.

More comparisons

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