Bifrost vs Helicone
Bifrost
getmaxim.ai
Helicone
helicone.aiSide by side
| Figure | Bifrost | Helicone |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | $79/mo |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | Yes | Yes |
| Open source | Yes | — |
| Web | Yes | Yes |
| Windows | Yes | — |
| macOS | Yes | — |
| Linux | Yes | — |
| API | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hosted | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 2 | 4 |
| Spec score · LLM Gateway Software | 9.0 (#2) | 8.3 (#9) |
| Spec score · LLM gateways | 9.0 (#4) | 8.3 (#12) |
| Compliance | The maker states support for SOC 2 Type II, ISO 27001, HIPAA and GDPR requirements. | Helicone states that its cloud is SOC 2, HIPAA, and GDPR compliant. |
| Model access | Bifrost unifies access to 20+ AI providers through a single OpenAI-compatible API. | Its gateway provides access to more than 100 models through the OpenAI SDK by changing the model name. |
| Observability | Built-in observability includes OpenTelemetry support and a dashboard for request monitoring. | Helicone visualizes multi-step LLM interactions, logs requests in real time, and helps identify error root causes. |
| Support | OSS includes documentation, community, and self-management support, while Enterprise offers SLA-backed support and direct access to engineers. | The pricing page lists community support through GitHub and Discord. |
Plans
In their own words
Bifrost
Bifrost is an AI gateway and control plane for directing, governing, and securing traffic involving model calls, MCP tools, and agents. It connects to more than 20 AI providers through one OpenAI-compatible API. Routing tools include weighted load balancing, retries, automatic provider failover, and semantic caching. Virtual keys let teams apply permissions, budgets, rate limits, and routing rules by consumer. Bifrost can connect with external MCP servers and present their tools to clients such as Claude Desktop. Its documented SDK integrations include OpenAI, Anthropic, Google GenAI, LiteLLM, and LangChain. Request monitoring, Prometheus metrics, and OpenTelemetry tracing integrations provide observability. The free OSS edition is for developers, small teams, and self-managed deployments; it can run via NPX, Docker, Kubernetes, or Go binary. Enterprise adds SSO, role-based access, audit logs, guardrails, vault integrations, and private VPC deployments. Enterprise pricing is custom, with a 14-day trial on an enterprise license.
Helicone
Helicone routes, debugs, and analyzes AI applications through a gateway and observability tools. The gateway provides access to more than 100 models through the OpenAI SDK by changing the model name, and supports load balancing, automatic failovers, and response caching across providers. Helicone logs requests in real time and visualizes multi-step LLM interactions to help locate error causes. Listed integrations include OpenAI, Anthropic, Azure, LiteLLM, Anyscale, Together AI, and OpenRouter. It can run in customer infrastructure through single-click deployment or a production-ready Helm chart; Helicone also states that its cloud is SOC 2, HIPAA, and GDPR compliant. A LangGraph integration tracks calls, sessions, performance, and costs, while an API cost calculator covers more than 300 models and providers. The free Hobby plan includes 10,000 requests, 1 GB storage, one seat, one organization, and seven days of retention. Pro costs $79.00 per month. A seven-day trial is advertised. Helicone says its services remain live in maintenance mode following acquisition by Mintlify, with security updates, new models, and bug and performance fixes continuing.