# Helicone AI Gateway + MCP vs Respan API + MCP (slim)

> Respan API + MCP has a score of 65.9 (B) against Helicone AI Gateway + MCP's 47.1 (D). Both do obs traces. The largest gap is reliability, 23 points. Category scores, facts, verdicts and agent notes side by side.

- Full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/helicone-vs-respan.md (~1,700 tokens) · this version ~330 tokens · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/helicone-vs-respan.json · canonical https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/helicone-vs-respan
- Index: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt · API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json · Updated: 2026-10-05

Respan API + MCP has a score of 65.9 (B) against Helicone AI Gateway + MCP's 47.1 (D). Both do obs traces. The largest gap is reliability, 23 points.

- Helicone AI Gateway + MCP: D 47.1, rank #387 of 452 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/helicone.min.md
- Respan API + MCP: B 65.9, rank #165 of 452 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/respan.min.md
- Pick Helicone AI Gateway + MCP for transparency & trust (+10). Pick Respan API + MCP for reliability (+23), schema & documentation (+20), security & auth (+16), maintenance & community (+19).

| Category | Helicone AI Gateway + MCP | Respan API + MCP |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability (16%) | 50 | 73 |
| Performance (10%) | pending | pending |
| Schema & documentation (13%) | 69 | 89 |
| Agent ergonomics (13%) | 70 | 66 |
| Security & auth (14%) | 50 | 66 |
| Payments & pricing (10%) | 30 | 30 |
| Task success (10%) | pending | pending |
| Maintenance & community (7%) | 66 | 85 |
| Transparency & trust (7%) | 71 | 61 |