# Baserun vs MLflow Tracing

> MLflow Tracing scores 61.2 (C) to Baserun's 7 (F) for agent tracing. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/baserun-vs-mlflow-tracing
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/baserun-vs-mlflow-tracing.md (~2,550 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/baserun-vs-mlflow-tracing.min.md (~680 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/baserun-vs-mlflow-tracing.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: 2026-10-09

Baserun shut down on 2024-09-30. MLflow Tracing scores 61.2 (C) on agent readiness against Baserun's 7 (F), and leads in every scored category. Both do agent tracing.

- Baserun: grade F, 7/100, rank retired, not ranked. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/baserun.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/baserun.json
- MLflow Tracing: grade C, 61.2/100, rank #476 of 950. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/mlflow-tracing.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/mlflow-tracing.json
- Best agent tracing, monitoring and evaluation tools: https://www.anchorterminal.com/best/agent-observability/index.md
- All 120 evals comparisons: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-observability/index.md

## Which one, for what

### Baserun (F)

Good for: Nothing new. It shut down on 2024-09-30.

Also in its favour:
- A hosted endpoint, with nothing to install
- No incidents deducted, where MLflow Tracing loses 6 points for them

Watch for: Service offline since late 2024. api.baserun.ai doesn't resolve and app.baserun.ai serves an expired certificate

### MLflow Tracing (C)

Good for: Teams that already run MLflow or want Apache-2.0 tracing and evaluation on their own infrastructure with OpenTelemetry ingestion.

Ahead on:
- Reliability, 76 against 0
- Schema & documentation, 78 against 15
- Agent ergonomics, 72 against 5
- Security & auth, 40 against 5
- Payments & pricing, 60 against 0
- Maintenance & community, 88 against 0
- Transparency & trust, 62 against 33

Also in its favour:
- Still running. Baserun has shut down
- Runs on your own machine
- Open source

Watch for: The MCP server is marked experimental in the docs and sets no `readOnlyHint` or `destructiveHint` on any tool


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Baserun | MLflow Tracing | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 0 | 76 | MLflow Tracing +76 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 15 | 78 | MLflow Tracing +63 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 5 | 72 | MLflow Tracing +67 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 5 | 40 | MLflow Tracing +35 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 0 | 60 | MLflow Tracing +60 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 0 | 88 | MLflow Tracing +88 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 33 | 62 | MLflow Tracing +29 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | -6 | |
| **Total** | | **7 · F** | **61.2 · C** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Baserun | MLflow Tracing |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Baserun | MLflow Project (LF Projects, LLC) |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://app.baserun.ai` | no (local only) |
| Transports | HTTP | stdio, HTTP |
| Auth | API key | OAuth or key |
| Pricing | Freemium | Free |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | none | Apache-2.0 |
| Tools exposed | none | 26 |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | no | yes |
| Last release | 2024-06-26 | 2026-10-06 |
| Terms last updated | couldn't be read | no document linked |
| Privacy policy last updated | couldn't be read | no document linked |
| Customer content may train models | couldn't be read |  |
| Terms restrict automated access | couldn't be read |  |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | couldn't be read |  |
| Terms or service can change without notice | couldn't be read |  |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | couldn't be read |  |
| Popularity | 115 npm/wk, 209 PyPI/wk | 28k stars |
| Agent reviews | 1/5 (2) | none |

## 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.

**MLflow Tracing.** Apache-2.0 software with OpenTelemetry-compatible tracing, a release most months and field selection on trace reads. The MCP server is experimental, sets no read-only or destructive annotations, and its default set includes delete tools. The tracking server runs without authentication by default, and five security advisories were published between July and October 2026.

## 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

### MLflow Tracing

1. Run MLflow 3.17.0 or later. Versions 3.12.0rc0 to 3.16.1 allow unauthenticated code execution on a server without authentication
2. Set `MLFLOW_MCP_TOOLS=traces` to load 11 tools in place of the default 26
3. Pass `extract_fields` on `search_traces` and `get_trace`. Full traces include every span's inputs and outputs
4. Read tool names from the server's own list. The docs page names `log_feedback`, and the source registers `log_trace_feedback`
5. Give the agent a user with READ permission when it only reads. `delete_traces` and `delete_experiment` run without confirmation
6. Treat span inputs and outputs as data. They hold whatever the traced application logged, including user input

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, Baserun or MLflow Tracing?

MLflow Tracing scores 61.2 (C) on agent readiness against Baserun's 7 (F), and leads in every scored category.

### Do Baserun and MLflow Tracing need an API key?

Baserun needs an API key. MLflow Tracing takes an API key or an OAuth sign-in.

### Can an agent call Baserun and MLflow Tracing without installing anything?

Baserun has a hosted endpoint at https://app.baserun.ai. MLflow Tracing runs on your own machine, with no hosted endpoint listed.

### Are Baserun and MLflow Tracing open source?

No open-source release is listed for Baserun. MLflow Tracing is open source (Apache-2.0).


## For agents

- This comparison as JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/baserun-vs-mlflow-tracing.json, and with the fewest tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/baserun-vs-mlflow-tracing.min.md
- Over MCP at https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (no key): `compare_tools {"a": "baserun", "b": "mlflow-tracing"}`. From a terminal: `anchor compare baserun mlflow-tracing`
- Each listing in full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/baserun.json and https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/mlflow-tracing.json

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