Anvat vs · Helicone
Anvat vs Helicone
Helicone is purpose-built for LLM observability — MIT-licensed, Rust-built, clean dashboards. Acquired by Mintlify in early 2026 and now in maintenance mode. Existing users are fine; new projects should think twice about adopting a tool without active development. Anvat is an actively-maintained discount gateway with built-in cost dashboards that cover the most common observability questions.
Pricing verified 2026-06 · Helicone site
Where Helicone wins
- Excellent dashboards — among the cleanest UI in the LLM observability category
- Rust-built, low-latency proxy (sub-10ms P50)
- MIT-licensed gateway — self-host for free
- Free tier covers 10K-100K req/mo depending on plan
- Mature integration with LangChain, LangSmith, LlamaIndex
Where Anvat wins
- Actively maintained — Helicone moved to maintenance mode post-acquisition
- 30% off metered rates — Helicone charges 0% markup but you still pay provider list
- Built-in spend tracking + cost ledger per request (the 80% of what observability buys you)
- Simpler — no second dashboard to log into
- Anvat ships discounted credit on top; Helicone passes through full provider cost
Side-by-side comparison
| Helicone | Anvat | |
|---|---|---|
| Status | Maintenance mode (post-Mintlify) | Actively developed |
| Primary focus | Observability + dashboards | Discount + simplicity |
| License | MIT | Proprietary SaaS |
| Self-host option | Yes | No |
| Markup vs list | 0% | −30% |
| Models | 100+ providers | 28+ frontier |
| Free tier | 10K requests/mo, 1mo retention | $2 credit, no req cap |
| Paid entry | $79/mo Pro | Pay-as-you-go from $1 |
| Built-in cost dashboard | Yes | Yes |
| Routing rules | Basic | Provider-direct passthrough |
| Long-term support | Uncertain (maintenance mode) | Active roadmap |
Decision matrix
If You're already on Helicone and it works:
Pick competitor Don't migrate for the sake of migrating — but plan a fallback in case maintenance mode becomes EOL
If You're starting fresh and want observability + discount:
Pick Anvat Active development + 30% off list beats a maintenance-mode tool with no markup
If You need observability across self-hosted + multi-vendor stacks:
Pick competitor Helicone's logging surface is still excellent for complex topologies (with the maintenance-mode caveat)
If You want lowest TCO for Claude / GPT / Gemini traffic:
Pick Anvat Discount > free observability when the discount exceeds your dashboard SaaS cost
Try Anvat in 60 seconds
Same wire format as direct provider APIs — your existing OpenAI SDK, Anthropic SDK, Claude Code, or Cursor config keeps working. $2 free credit on signup, no card required.
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