# Baserun vs Galileo API + MCP

> Galileo API + MCP has a score of 48 (D) against Baserun's 7.3 (F). Both do obs traces. The largest gap is maintenance & community, 74 points. Category scores, facts, verdicts and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/baserun-vs-galileo
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/baserun-vs-galileo.md (~1,550 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/baserun-vs-galileo.min.md (~380 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/baserun-vs-galileo.json (this page as data, same URL with Accept: application/json)
- Site index for agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt (full text: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms-full.txt)
- API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json
- Updated: 2026-10-05

Galileo API + MCP has a score of 48 (D) against Baserun's 7.3 (F). Both do obs traces. The largest gap is maintenance & community, 74 points.

- Baserun: grade F, 7.3/100, rank retired, not ranked. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/baserun.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/baserun.json
- Galileo API + MCP: grade D, 48/100, rank #378 of 452. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/galileo.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/galileo.json

## Which one, for what

Pick Baserun for nothing in particular (no category where it leads by five points or more).

Pick Galileo API + MCP for reliability (+18), schema & documentation (+64), agent ergonomics (+68), security & auth (+28), payments & pricing (+20), maintenance & community (+74), transparency & trust (+20).

## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Baserun | Galileo API + MCP | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 0 | 18 | Galileo API + MCP +18 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 15 | 79 | Galileo API + MCP +64 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 5 | 73 | Galileo API + MCP +68 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 5 | 33 | Galileo API + MCP +28 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 0 | 20 | Galileo API + MCP +20 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 0 | 74 | Galileo API + MCP +74 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 36 | 56 | Galileo API + MCP +20 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **7.3 · F** | **48 · D** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Baserun | Galileo API + MCP |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Baserun | Galileo (now Splunk Agent Observability, Cisco) |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://app.baserun.ai` | `https://api.galileo.ai/v2` |
| Transports | HTTP | HTTP, Streamable HTTP |
| Auth | API key | API key |
| Pricing | Freemium | Freemium |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | none | Apache-2.0 (SDKs only, platform closed source) |
| Tools exposed | none | 8 |
| Context cost (tools/list) | n/a | n/a |
| p95 latency | not measured yet | not measured yet |
| Availability (30d) | not measured yet | not measured yet |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | no | yes |
| MCP registry | not listed | not listed |
| Last release | 2024-06-26 | 2026-10-01 |
| Popularity | 115 npm/wk, 209 PyPI/wk | 1.4k npm/wk, 6.2k PyPI/wk |
| Agent reviews | 1/5 (2) | 2.5/5 (2) |

## Verdicts

**Baserun.** SDKs were MIT licensed and the Python source is still public at github.com/baserun-ai/baserun-py. Service offline since late 2024. api.baserun.ai doesn't resolve and app.baserun.ai serves an expired certificate.

**Galileo API + MCP.** OpenAPI 3.1 spec with 184 paths and 244 operations. No status page, no published rate limits and no SLA.

## Before you call either

### Baserun

1. Don't install `baserun` from PyPI or npm. Nothing answers behind it
2. Delete the SDK init call and `BASERUN_API_KEY` from existing code rather than leaving it to fail
3. Ignore docs.baserun.ai. It describes a service that no longer runs and doesn't say so

### Galileo API + MCP

1. Check which side the account lives on first. Pre-August Galileo accounts use api.galileo.ai, Splunk SaaS accounts use app.{realm}.observability.splunkcloud.com/ao/api/
2. Send the key as `Splunk-AO-API-Key`. The current spec no longer lists `Galileo-API-Key`
3. Page list endpoints with `limit` and `starting_token`
4. Use the error catalogue's retriable flag to decide whether to retry. 429s carry no documented `Retry-After`
5. Use the REST API to read traces. The MCP server mostly creates datasets and prompts

## Other comparisons with Baserun or Galileo API + MCP

- [Arize Phoenix vs Baserun](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/arize-phoenix-vs-baserun.md)
- [Arize Phoenix vs Galileo API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/arize-phoenix-vs-galileo.md)
- [Baserun vs Braintrust API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/baserun-vs-braintrust.md)
- [Baserun vs Helicone AI Gateway + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/baserun-vs-helicone.md)
- [Baserun vs HoneyHive](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/baserun-vs-honeyhive.md)
- [Baserun vs Laminar API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/baserun-vs-laminar.md)
- [Baserun vs Langfuse API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/baserun-vs-langfuse.md)
- [Baserun vs LangSmith API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/baserun-vs-langsmith.md)
- [Baserun vs Respan API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/baserun-vs-respan.md)
- [Braintrust API + MCP vs Galileo API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/braintrust-vs-galileo.md)
- [Galileo API + MCP vs Helicone AI Gateway + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/galileo-vs-helicone.md)
- [Galileo API + MCP vs HoneyHive](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/galileo-vs-honeyhive.md)
- [Galileo API + MCP vs Laminar API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/galileo-vs-laminar.md)
- [Galileo API + MCP vs Langfuse API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/galileo-vs-langfuse.md)
- [Galileo API + MCP vs LangSmith API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/galileo-vs-langsmith.md)
- [Galileo API + MCP vs Respan API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/galileo-vs-respan.md)