Helicone was acquired by Mintlify in March 2026 and is now in maintenance mode. Stockyard is actively developed.
Helicone built a strong LLM observability platform that processed 14.2 trillion tokens. In March 2026, Mintlify acquired them and moved the project to maintenance mode, meaning security patches and bug fixes only, no new features.
If you are starting a new project, Helicone is a risky bet. If you are already using Helicone, you should evaluate alternatives before the platform stagnates further.
| Feature | Stockyard | Helicone |
|---|---|---|
| Status | Active development | Maintenance mode (acquired by Mintlify, March 2026) |
| Deployment | Single ~25MB Go binary | Docker: ClickHouse + Postgres required |
| External deps | None (embedded SQLite) | ClickHouse + Postgres |
| Self-hosted | Yes, any tier | Enterprise only |
| Open source | Proxy: Apache 2.0 / Platform: BSL 1.1 | MIT (5.4k stars) |
| Providers | 40+ | Any OpenAI-compatible via headers |
| Pricing | Free unlimited, paid from $0.99/mo per tool | Free 10k req/mo, Pro $79/mo, Team $799/mo |
| Cost tracking | ✓ Per-request | ✓ Per-request |
| Caching | ✓ Built-in | ✓ Via gateway |
| Rate limiting | ✓ Built-in | ✓ Via gateway |
| Failover | ✓ Built-in | Not built-in |
| Model aliasing | ✓ | Not built-in |
| Audit trail | ✓ Hash-chained | Request logs |
| Red-team testing | ✓ Feral (5 free / 29 paid) | None |
| Prompt management | ✓ Tack Room | ✓ Prompts |
Data reflects publicly available documentation as of March 2026.
Stockyard is actively developed. Helicone is not. That alone is a strong reason to choose Stockyard for new projects.
Beyond the acquisition, Stockyard ships as a single binary with embedded SQLite. No ClickHouse cluster to manage, no Postgres connection pool to tune. The hash-chained audit ledger and built-in red-team testing (Feral) have no Helicone equivalent.
Stockyard also costs less. The free tier has no request limit, and the individual tools from $0.99/mo vs Helicone's $79/mo Pro.
If you are already running Helicone in production and it meets your needs, there is no urgent reason to migrate today. The maintenance mode commitment covers security patches, so it will not suddenly stop working.
Helicone also has a more mature observability UI with features like HQL (Helicone Query Language), sessions, and a playground that Stockyard's Lookout dashboard has not fully replicated yet. If observability depth is your primary concern and you are comfortable with the acquisition risk, Helicone still works.
Helicone is a proven platform, but it is no longer being actively developed. Stockyard is younger but actively shipping features weekly. For new projects, Stockyard is the safer long-term bet.