Helicone vs Sentry
Both are observability & tracing tools. Here is how they actually differ on price, billing model and deployment.
Helicone
An open-source, proxy-based LLM gateway and observability tool - now in maintenance mode after Mintlify acquired it in March 2026. Security and bug fixes only, no roadmap. Not a safe pick for new buyers.
Sentry
Excellent error tracking that keeps appearing in LLM observability roundups where it does not belong. Its AI product, Seer, is a code-debugging agent billed per contributor - not an LLM tracing or evaluation platform.
| Helicone | Sentry | |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Observability & Tracing | Observability & Tracing |
| Our rating | 2/5 | 2/5 |
| Starting price | $79/mo | $26/mo |
| Billing meter | request | event |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free self-hosting | No or paid tier only | No or paid tier only |
| Best for | Almost nobody new - existing users who need a light open-source logging proxy and understand it's frozen. New buyers should look elsewhere. | Error tracking and front-end debugging, which it does superbly. It is not the right tool for observing or evaluating LLM applications, and should be paired with one rather than substituted for one. |
Our verdict on Helicone
Helicone was a clean, open-source, proxy-based observability tool - but Mintlify acquired it in March 2026 and put it in maintenance mode. Security patches, bug fixes and new-model support still ship, but there's no roadmap and Mintlify is actively helping customers migrate off. That makes it a dead end for new adopters, no matter how tidy the product is. We rate it low purely on that basis. If you're already on it, plan your exit. If you're evaluating it fresh, don't.
Full Helicone review →Our verdict on Sentry
We are including Sentry because it keeps appearing in LLM observability comparisons, and the most useful thing we can tell you is that it does not belong in them. Sentry is an outstanding error tracking and performance monitoring product. What it is not is an LLM observability platform. It does not do prompt and completion capture, token accounting, per-model cost attribution or output-quality evaluation in the way this category means those terms. The confusion comes from Seer, Sentry's AI product, which roundups see and file as AI observability. Seer is a code debugging agent - it looks at your errors and proposes fixes - billed at $40 per active contributor per month, where an active contributor is anyone opening two or more pull requests to a Seer-enabled repository in a billing cycle. That is a developer productivity tool, not agent observability. Run Sentry for your application errors, absolutely. Run something else for your LLM calls.
Full Sentry review →Frequently Asked Questions
What is the main difference between Helicone and Sentry?
Helicone: Almost nobody new - existing users who need a light open-source logging proxy and understand it's frozen. New buyers should look elsewhere. Sentry: Error tracking and front-end debugging, which it does superbly. It is not the right tool for observing or evaluating LLM applications, and should be paired with one rather than substituted for one. Both sit in Observability & Tracing, so the decision usually comes down to billing model and deployment rather than raw capability.
Which is cheaper, Helicone or Sentry?
It depends entirely on your workload shape, because they meter differently - Helicone bills on request and Sentry bills on event. Published starting prices are $79/mo and $26/mo respectively, but those numbers are not comparable until you apply them to the same traffic. Use our cost calculator to model both against your own request volume and span count.
Can I self-host Helicone or Sentry?
Helicone: No or paid tier only. Sentry: No or paid tier only. Free self-hosting means no licence fee, not no cost - you still own the infrastructure, upgrades and on-call.