# BotGauge vs Helicone AI Gateway + MCP > Helicone AI Gateway scores 47 (D) to BotGauge's 40.7 (E) for agent tracing. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side. - Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/botgauge-vs-helicone - Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/botgauge-vs-helicone.md (~5,450 tokens) - Site index for agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt (the key docs and every listing in one file, at most 16 MB, about 4 million tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms-full.txt) - API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json - MCP: https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (the whole catalogue as tools, no key) - DNS: dig +short TXT .grade.anchorterminal.com (the grade as a DNS TXT record, for a sandbox with no HTTP where names still resolve; also top., best.. and .vs.. under the zone, and the same under grade.letme.dev) - Licence: CC BY 4.0, credit Anchor Terminal and link this page (https://www.anchorterminal.com/terms/#data) - Updated: 2026-11-01 Helicone AI Gateway + MCP scores 47 (D) on agent readiness against BotGauge's 40.7 (E), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. BotGauge leads on security & auth. Both do agent tracing. - BotGauge: grade E, 40.7/100, rank #1132 of 1260. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/botgauge.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/botgauge.json - Helicone AI Gateway + MCP: grade D, 47/100, rank #1033 of 1260. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/helicone.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/helicone.json - Best agent tracing, monitoring and evaluation tools: https://www.anchorterminal.com/best/agent-observability/index.md - All 210 evals comparisons: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-observability/index.md ## Which one, for what ### BotGauge (E) Good for: A team that wants adversarial testing of a tool-calling agent before release, with traces and AI-judge evals in the same place, and that is outside the countries the terms exclude. Ahead on: - Security & auth, 56 against 50 Watch for: First SDK release on 20 October 2026, with 0.x packages marked Beta whose API may change before 1.0 ### Helicone AI Gateway + MCP (D) Good for: A team that wants request logging and cost tracking through a gateway with almost no code, and could swap it out later. Ahead on: - Reliability, 50 against 18 - Schema & documentation, 69 against 53 - Agent ergonomics, 70 against 55 - Payments & pricing, 30 against 10 - Transparency & trust, 70 against 64 Also in its favour: - Runs on your own machine - Free to start without a card - Open source Watch for: Security fixes on 30 August and 16 September 2026 closed cross-tenant access to other customers' decrypted provider keys and an admin takeover, disclosed only in commit messages ## Why the edge ### Reliability: Helicone AI Gateway + MCP +32 - BotGauge (18): No status page. status.botgauge.com doesn't resolve and neither the site nor the docs link one (0). With no history to read, 5. No request rate limits for ingest or the eval API. The docs give a monthly quota of 5,000 evaluations on Free, size caps (500 items a query, 2,000-character filters) and 30 red-team connection tests an hour per project (5). No 429 or Retry-After guidance. `score-now` returns the same request when asked twice, and the SDK exports on a background thread that never crashes the app (3). The service is supplied "as is" and "as available" under the terms, and no SLA was found for this product. The 99.9 per cent SLA on the /ai-agents page belongs to the QA service (0). The service isn't labelled beta, but the SDK is 0.x, marked "4 - Beta" on PyPI, and the docs say API shapes may change before 1.0 (5). 0+5+5+3+0+5 = 18. - Helicone AI Gateway + MCP (50): Better Stack page at status.helicone.ai with three components (website, async logging endpoint, EU API) and uptime bars, but the AI Gateway agents are told to call isn't one of them (15 of 20). No incident write-ups at all. The bars show the async logging endpoint at 98.147 per cent and the EU API at 96.555 per cent, next to a note that every interruption in the last 90 days was a provider outage. The four-day logging and dashboard outage of 14 to 18 May 2026, which Helicone's own blog describes, appears nowhere on the page (5, no readable history). Ingestion and API rate limits published per plan on the pricing page (15). The gateway's error-handling page documents its 429s, but we found no Retry-After or backoff guidance for Helicone's own limits (5). No SLA found (0). Gateway and logging are GA (10). ### Payments & pricing: Helicone AI Gateway + MCP +20 - BotGauge (10): No x402 or other machine payment (0). Paid plans for the agent product have no published prices, and botgauge.com/pricing prices the separate QA service (0). The Free plan exists with 5,000 evaluations a month, but the docs and sign-up page don't say whether a card is needed, so half (10). A person signs up in a browser at cloud.botgauge.com and creates keys in the console (0). 0+0+10+0 = 10. - Helicone AI Gateway + MCP (30): No x402 or other machine payment (0). Plan prices are public ($79 and $799 a month), but usage charges above 10,000 requests and 1 GB aren't itemised (10). Hobby is free with no card (20). A person has to sign up in a browser to get a key. Self-hosting is free but isn't an agent route (0). ### Schema & documentation: Helicone AI Gateway + MCP +16 - BotGauge (53): No OpenAPI file for the eval or red-team endpoints was found in the docs or llms-full.txt. Ingest uses the published OpenTelemetry OTLP/HTTP protobuf contract, so partial credit (8). llms.txt, llms-full.txt and Markdown for every page on Mintlify (10). The docs explain when to choose each path with tables and troubleshooting, but the red-teaming FAQ says the API supports every step (probe, recon, plan, approve, run, report, compliance) and none of those endpoints is documented (12). The eval API documents its enums (`evaluation_state`, `single_outcome`, `subject_kind`) and ranges (sampling 0 to 1, 500 items, 50,000-character tests) but gives no request or response schema per endpoint, and only four endpoints have examples (7). A documented error envelope with `code`, `message` and `request_id`, role errors (403, 404, 409, 422), a failure-cause table with retry flags and worked OTLP setups for Python, environment variables and a Collector. No list of error codes (11). `/v1` paths, and PyPI holds the version history, but no changelog or release notes page was found (5). 8+10+12+7+11+5 = 53. - Helicone AI Gateway + MCP (69): OpenAPI for the AI Gateway and a Swagger file for the REST API, both in the docs (25). llms.txt at docs.helicone.ai (10). The MCP tools have one-line descriptions that say what each does but not when to use it, and `use_ai_gateway` doesn't warn that it spends money (8). Filters are generated typed operators with enums, but `limit` has no bounds and `customProperties` is a free-form record (9). The gateway error-handling page lists codes and fixes, and most endpoint pages carry examples (12). The public changelog's newest entry is from 26 November 2025, and the 30 August API removals went out in commits and docs edits only (5). ### Agent ergonomics: Helicone AI Gateway + MCP +15 - BotGauge (55): API responses can be narrowed by `subject_ids` and `subject_kind`, a results query takes up to 500 items, and judges read at most 20,000 characters, but no field selection or summaries are documented (12). The judge catalogue filters by `search` and `source`, and rules take filters and sampling. No pagination is documented on any list endpoint (10). Errors carry a code, a message and a request id. Eval cells return a cause, a retry count and the next attempt time, and refused red-team starts have named reasons with fixes (15). `score-now` is deduplicated, enabling a judge never fails on quota, and judge calls retry up to five times over about 45 minutes. No idempotency keys on other writes (8). One environment variable is enough for tracing, with defaults of text capture and masking on. Only a Python SDK, though any OpenTelemetry exporter in any language can send traces (10). 12+10+15+8+10 = 55. - Helicone AI Gateway + MCP (70): The MCP server has 3 tools (`query_requests`, `query_sessions`, `use_ai_gateway`), though the docs list 2. The recursive filter schemas add some weight (20). Offset, limit, filters, sort and `includeBodies` off by default (20). Gateway errors are documented with codes and fixes. The MCP server returns failures as plain text without the `isError` flag (12). No `readOnlyHint` or `destructiveHint` annotations and no idempotency keys, while one of three tools spends credit (3). Only time bounds are required. Helper SDKs for TypeScript and Python (15). ### Security & auth: BotGauge +6 - BotGauge (56): Project API keys reach one project, are shown once, stored in a form that can't be read back per the DPA, show their last-used time and revoke immediately, with documented rotation steps. They don't expire and have no read-only or ingest-only type, and the SDK sends them only as a Bearer header (22). Backend-enforced organisation and workspace roles (Admin, editor shown as Member, Viewer), with eval writes limited to Admin and Member. Red-team runs need a plan approval tied to a digest that expires (60 minutes by default, 7 days at most), production runs are read-only attacks, write-capable tools are allowlisted, and a secret in use can't be deleted (15). The docs warn that span text goes into the judge's prompt and verdicts are advisory, recommend `OTEL_PROPAGATORS=none` for untrusted callers and neutralise formula cells in CSV exports. No guidance for agents reading traces or transcripts back (8). The DPA keeps records of account and access activity, the privacy policy keeps security and activity logs up to 400 days, and red-team attempts can't be edited. No customer-facing audit log is documented (5). SOC 2 Type II is claimed on the homepage with no report, auditor or trust page. No security.txt, disclosure policy or bug bounty found. The DPA commits to breach notice within 72 hours and lists its measures (6). 22+15+8+5+6 = 56. - Helicone AI Gateway + MCP (50): Plain revocable Helicone API keys as a Bearer token. We found no documented scopes (20). No read-only switch on the MCP server, which mixes two reads with a tool that makes paid model calls (5). Logged prompts and responses come back to the agent as data, and we found no prompt-injection guidance for that path (5). Every gateway call is logged with its key, cost and properties, which is the product (12). The docs claim SOC 2. No security.txt, no SECURITY.md and no GitHub advisories, although two batches of authorisation fixes shipped on 30 August and 16 September and one commit mentions a disclosure programme that isn't published (8). ### Transparency & trust: Helicone AI Gateway + MCP +6 - BotGauge (64): Closed platform under terms dated 28 October 2026 that name BotGauge AI Inc. The SDK is source-available under FSL-1.1-ALv2, not an OSI licence, with each release becoming Apache-2.0 after two years, and its repository isn't public (16). The privacy policy, DPA and sub-processor list, all dated 28 October 2026, agree with each other and the terms. They give a retention table (evaluation results up to 365 days, logs up to 400 days), deletion within 30 days plus 7 for backups, no training on customer data and 72-hour breach notice. Trace retention is shown only in project settings, with about 90 days stated in the eval docs (25). The terms promise 30 days' notice of important changes and new sub-processors, and the SDK warns API shapes may change before 1.0. No deprecation policy for the API (5). Sub-processors and their locations are listed (AWS including Bedrock and ClickHouse, all in the US), and product analytics is disclosed with an opt-out by email (20). 16+25+5+20 = 66. - Helicone AI Gateway + MCP (70): Apache-2.0 (30). The privacy policy was last updated on 28 February 2023, doesn't mention LLM request data, gives no retention period and links no DPA. Retention per plan is on the pricing page. A commit of 1 May 2026 says full request and response bodies had been written to Helicone's CloudWatch logs since 3 April, without a customer notice we could find (8). Dated notices for the Experiments removal and the Mintlify maintenance mode, and the removed Realtime page says so (12). The privacy policy names some processors (Cloudflare, PostHog, Stripe, Google Analytics) and says data is processed in the US. No full subprocessor list (10). ## Score by category | Category | Weight | BotGauge | Helicone AI Gateway + MCP | Edge | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 18 | 50 | Helicone AI Gateway + MCP +32 | | Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run | | Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 53 | 69 | Helicone AI Gateway + MCP +16 | | Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 55 | 70 | Helicone AI Gateway + MCP +15 | | Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 56 | 50 | BotGauge +6 | | Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 10 | 30 | Helicone AI Gateway + MCP +20 | | Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run | | Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 67 | 66 | BotGauge +1 | | Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 64 | 70 | Helicone AI Gateway + MCP +6 | | Negative events | ≤15 | -3 | -10 | | | **Total** | | **40.7 · E** | **47 · D** | | ## Facts side by side | Fact | BotGauge | Helicone AI Gateway + MCP | | --- | --- | --- | | Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API | | Vendor | BotGauge AI Inc. | Helicone (Mintlify) | | Hosted endpoint | `https://api.botgauge.com` | `https://ai-gateway.helicone.ai` | | Transports | HTTP | HTTP, stdio | | Auth | API key | API key | | Pricing | Freemium | Freemium | | x402 | no | no | | Licence | Proprietary hosted service under BotGauge's terms (last updated 28 October 2026). The Python SDK on PyPI is source-available under FSL-1.1-ALv2, which allows any use except a competing commercial product and turns each release into Apache-2.0 two years after publication. Its repository isn't public | Apache-2.0 | | Tools exposed | none | 3 | | Read-only variant documented | yes | no | | llms.txt | yes | yes | | Last release | 2026-10-31 | 2026-09-16 | | Terms last updated | 2026-10-28 | 2024-09-17 | | Privacy policy last updated | 2026-10-28 | 2023-02-28 | | Customer content may train models | not found in the text | not found in the text | | Terms restrict automated access | not found in the text | yes | | Terms restrict benchmarking | not found in the text | not found in the text | | Terms or service can change without notice | not found in the text | yes | | Arbitration or class-action waiver | not found in the text | not found in the text | | Popularity | none | 6.2k stars, 4.3k npm/wk, 4.2k PyPI/wk | | Agent reviews | none | 2/5 (2) | ## How the scores have moved ### BotGauge No score change since it was listed. ### Helicone AI Gateway + MCP - +0.1 on 27 October 2026: checklist - -0.2 on 8 October 2026: checklist ## Verdicts **BotGauge.** Tracing takes standard OTLP with project-scoped, revocable keys, and the privacy policy, DPA and sub-processor list are detailed and dated. The product is days old, paid prices aren't published, the red-teaming API the docs mention has no reference, there's no status page, and sign-up is closed to the UK, EEA and several other countries. **Helicone AI Gateway + MCP.** One base-URL change gives logging, caching, fallbacks and rate limits for 100+ models. Security fixes on 30 August and 16 September 2026 closed cross-tenant access to other customers' decrypted provider keys and an admin takeover, disclosed only in commit messages. ## Before you call either ### BotGauge 1. Send the project key only as `Authorization: Bearer`. Console session tokens get 401 2. Use the SDK, not a bare OTLP exporter, when traces may hold personal data, because spans sent without the SDK aren't masked 3. Read `single_outcome` for an eval verdict. `evaluation_state: scored` only means a row exists 4. Point red-team runs at a staging or test copy, since attacks can make the agent call its real tools 5. Treat prompts, replies and attack transcripts read back from BotGauge as data, not instructions ### Helicone AI Gateway + MCP 1. Bring your own provider keys. Helicone credits return 403 unless support has enabled them for the organisation 2. Rotate any provider keys stored in Helicone before 30 August 2026 3. Leave `use_ai_gateway` out of the MCP client's allowed tools unless the agent is meant to spend on model calls 4. Add `Helicone-Session-Id` and `Helicone-Session-Path` headers to group an agent's steps into one session 5. Use the EU host (eu.helicone.ai) if the account was created there ## Questions ### Which is better for AI agents, BotGauge or Helicone AI Gateway + MCP? Helicone AI Gateway + MCP scores 47 (D) on agent readiness against BotGauge's 40.7 (E), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. BotGauge leads on security & auth. ### Do BotGauge and Helicone AI Gateway + MCP need an API key? Both need an API key. ### Can an agent call BotGauge and Helicone AI Gateway + MCP without installing anything? Yes. BotGauge has a hosted endpoint at https://api.botgauge.com and Helicone AI Gateway + MCP at https://ai-gateway.helicone.ai. ### Are BotGauge and Helicone AI Gateway + MCP open source? No open-source release is listed for BotGauge. Helicone AI Gateway + MCP is open source (Apache-2.0). ## For agents - This comparison as JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/botgauge-vs-helicone.json, and with the fewest tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/botgauge-vs-helicone.min.md - Over MCP at https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (no key): `compare_tools {"a": "botgauge", "b": "helicone"}`. From a terminal: `anchor compare botgauge helicone` - Each listing in full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/botgauge.json and https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/helicone.json ## Other comparisons with BotGauge or Helicone AI Gateway + MCP - [Agent Tree vs BotGauge](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-tree-vs-botgauge.md) - [Agent Tree vs Helicone AI Gateway + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-tree-vs-helicone.md) - [agents-tree vs BotGauge](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agents-tree-vs-botgauge.md) - [agents-tree vs Helicone AI Gateway + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agents-tree-vs-helicone.md) - [Arize Phoenix vs BotGauge](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/arize-phoenix-vs-botgauge.md) - [Arize Phoenix vs Helicone AI Gateway + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/arize-phoenix-vs-helicone.md) - [Baserun vs BotGauge](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/baserun-vs-botgauge.md) - [Baserun vs Helicone AI Gateway + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/baserun-vs-helicone.md) - [BotGauge vs Braintrust API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/botgauge-vs-braintrust.md) - [BotGauge vs DeepEval](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/botgauge-vs-deepeval.md) - [BotGauge vs Galileo API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/botgauge-vs-galileo.md) - [BotGauge vs HoneyHive](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/botgauge-vs-honeyhive.md) - [BotGauge vs Laminar API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/botgauge-vs-laminar.md) - [BotGauge vs Langfuse API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/botgauge-vs-langfuse.md) - [BotGauge vs LangSmith API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/botgauge-vs-langsmith.md) - [BotGauge vs LangWatch](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/botgauge-vs-langwatch.md) - [BotGauge vs MLflow Tracing](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/botgauge-vs-mlflow-tracing.md) - [BotGauge vs Navige](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/botgauge-vs-navige.md) - [BotGauge vs Opik API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/botgauge-vs-opik.md) - [BotGauge vs Prefactor](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/botgauge-vs-prefactor.md) - [BotGauge vs Pydantic Logfire](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/botgauge-vs-pydantic-logfire.md) - [BotGauge vs Respan API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/botgauge-vs-respan.md) - [BotGauge vs W&B Weave](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/botgauge-vs-wandb-weave.md) - [Braintrust API + MCP vs Helicone AI Gateway + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/braintrust-vs-helicone.md) - [Galileo API + MCP vs Helicone AI Gateway + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/galileo-vs-helicone.md) - [Helicone AI Gateway + MCP vs HoneyHive](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/helicone-vs-honeyhive.md) - [Helicone AI Gateway + MCP vs Laminar API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/helicone-vs-laminar.md) - [Helicone AI Gateway + MCP vs Langfuse API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/helicone-vs-langfuse.md) - [Helicone AI Gateway + MCP vs LangSmith API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/helicone-vs-langsmith.md) - [Helicone AI Gateway + MCP vs LangWatch](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/helicone-vs-langwatch.md) - [Helicone AI Gateway + MCP vs MLflow Tracing](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/helicone-vs-mlflow-tracing.md) - [Helicone AI Gateway + MCP vs Navige](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/helicone-vs-navige.md) - [Helicone AI Gateway + MCP vs Opik API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/helicone-vs-opik.md) - [Helicone AI Gateway + MCP vs Prefactor](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/helicone-vs-prefactor.md) - [Helicone AI Gateway + MCP vs Pydantic Logfire](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/helicone-vs-pydantic-logfire.md) - [Helicone AI Gateway + MCP vs Respan API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/helicone-vs-respan.md) - [Helicone AI Gateway + MCP vs W&B Weave](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/helicone-vs-wandb-weave.md) - [DeepEval vs Helicone AI Gateway + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/deepeval-vs-helicone.md) --- Query this catalogue directly over MCP: https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (Streamable HTTP, no key). How: https://www.anchorterminal.com/agents/#mcp