📖 The AI Tool Bible

Langfuse vs LangSmith

A side-by-side look at pricing, capabilities, pros, cons, and our editorial scores.

 
Langfuse
Evaluation
LangSmith
Evaluation
TaglineOpen-source LLM observability, prompt management, and evaluation in one platform.LangChain's eval + observability platform.
CategoryEvaluationEvaluation
PricingFreemium· Free self-host & Hobby tier; Core $29/mo, Pro $199/mo, Enterprise $2,499/moFreemium· Free starter; Plus $39/mo per seat
ModelModel-agnosticPlatform (any LLM)
Editorial score—8.7 / 10
Use cases
llm-observabilityprompt-managementllm-evaluationagent-tracingrag-debugging
LLM tracingevalsLangChain integration
Pros
  • Fully open source and self-hostable at no cost
  • Tracing, prompts, and evals in one platform instead of three
  • Built on OpenTelemetry with SDKs for Python and JS
  • Integrates with OpenAI SDK, LangChain, LlamaIndex, and 100+ libraries
  • Generous free Hobby tier with no credit card required
  • Tight LangChain integration
  • Strong tracing UX
  • Mature dataset/eval flows
  • Reasonable per-seat pricing
Cons
  • Cloud pricing by 'units' is opaque until you instrument and measure
  • Self-hosting Postgres + ClickHouse stack is non-trivial to operate
  • Pro/Enterprise jump ($29 to $199 to $2,499) leaves a gap for mid-size teams
  • Best value if you're on LangChain
  • UI can feel dense
Websitelangfuse.comwww.langchain.com
Pick Langfuse if
  • ✅ Fully open source and self-hostable at no cost
  • ✅ Tracing, prompts, and evals in one platform instead of three
  • ✅ Built on OpenTelemetry with SDKs for Python and JS
  • ✅ Integrates with OpenAI SDK, LangChain, LlamaIndex, and 100+ libraries
Pick LangSmith if
  • ✅ Tight LangChain integration
  • ✅ Strong tracing UX
  • ✅ Mature dataset/eval flows
  • ✅ Reasonable per-seat pricing
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