Is Grafana Cloud or Helicone better?

Neither clearly leads. Grafana Cloud starts at Free and Helicone at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.

Which is cheaper, Grafana Cloud or Helicone?

Grafana Cloud starts at Free and Helicone at Free.

Does Grafana Cloud or Helicone run on more platforms?

Grafana Cloud runs on Web (Chrome, Edge, Firefox, Safari), API. Helicone runs on web, api.

Can I use Grafana Cloud for free?

Both have a free tier, so you can try either at no cost before committing.

What is Grafana Cloud best used for?

Grafana Cloud is most often used for infrastructure monitoring, application monitoring, log aggregation, distributed tracing. Of those, infrastructure monitoring and application monitoring are not what Helicone is typically brought in for.

What can Grafana Cloud do that Helicone cannot?

Grafana Cloud covers Grafana Dashboards, Prometheus Metrics, Loki Logs, Tempo Traces. Helicone covers Request dashboard and tracking, Sessions and segments, Helicone Query Language (HQL), Prompt datasets and improvement.

Cloud & Infrastructure · head to head

Grafana Cloud vs Helicone

Grafana Cloud

Cloud & Infrastructure

Composable observability platform

From: Free
Rated: -

Full review Website

Helicone

AI Tools

Open-source LLM observability and gateway platform for AI applications

From: Free
Rated: -

Full review Website

The short version

Each has a real cost: Grafana Cloud active Series (AS) billing model is difficult to predict and control; misconfiguration can cause sudden spikes and unexpected bills; Helicone the free Hobby plan is capped at 10,000 requests per month, which teams with production traffic can exceed quickly.
They diverge on capability: Grafana Cloud covers Grafana Dashboards, Helicone covers Request dashboard and tracking.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Grafana Cloud and Helicone actually diverge.

Attributes where Grafana Cloud and Helicone differ
Attribute	Grafana Cloud	Helicone
Pricing model	Unknown	freemium
Platforms	Web (Chrome, Edge, Firefox, Safari), API	web, api
Category	Cloud & Infrastructure	AI Tools
Founded	2014	Unknown

Identical on both: starting price (Free), free tier (Yes), user rating (Not yet rated).

What each one covers

Drawn from each product's published feature list. An absence here means we hold no record of it - not that the product lacks it.

Only in Grafana Cloud

Grafana Dashboards
Prometheus Metrics
Loki Logs
Tempo Traces
Alerting
OnCall
Synthetic Monitoring
Incident Management

Only in Helicone

Request dashboard and tracking
Sessions and segments
Helicone Query Language (HQL)
Prompt datasets and improvement
Playground
Rate limits and alerts

What people use each for

The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.

Grafana Cloud

Infrastructure monitoringnot Helicone
Application monitoringnot Helicone
Log aggregationnot Helicone
Distributed tracingnot Helicone

Helicone

Monitoring cost and latency of production LLM applicationsnot Grafana Cloud
Debugging multi-step agent sessionsnot Grafana Cloud
Managing and iterating on prompts across a teamnot Grafana Cloud
Routing requests across multiple LLM providersnot Grafana Cloud

Where each one falls short

Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.

Grafana Cloud

Active Series (AS) billing model is difficult to predict and control; misconfiguration can cause sudden spikes and unexpected bills
Reduced control and customization compared to self-hosted Grafana instances
Data sovereignty concerns for organizations requiring on-premises data retention
Limited reporting types compared to traditional BI tools for compliance and audit requirements

Helicone

The free Hobby plan is capped at 10,000 requests per month, which teams with production traffic can exceed quickly.
Advanced compliance features like SOC 2 and HIPAA are only available starting at the $799/month Team plan.
Usage beyond the free tier is billed on top of the base subscription, adding cost unpredictability at scale.
On-premises deployment is restricted to the custom Enterprise tier.

Pricing, plan by plan

Grafana Cloud

Free

FreeFree
- 10k active series (metrics)
- 50GB logs/traces per month
- 3 active users
Pro$19/month
- Usage-based pricing beyond free tier
- 8 USD per active visualization user
- Included Grafana Alerting
Enterprise$25000/year
- Minimum annual commitment
- Full-service deployment options
- Premium support

Helicone

Free

HobbyFree
- 10,000 free requests
- 1 GB storage
- 1 seat
Pro$79/month
- 10K free requests included, usage-based beyond
- 7-day free trial
- Unlimited playgrounds and workspaces
Team$799/month
- 5 organizations
- SOC 2 and HIPAA compliance
- Dedicated Slack channel access
Enterprise$undefined/mo
- Custom MSAs and SAML SSO
- On-premises deployment
- Bulk cloud discounts

Which should you pick?

Choose Grafana Cloud if

You need grafana dashboards.
You want to start without paying.
You work on Web (Chrome, Edge, Firefox, Safari), API.
You also want prometheus metrics.

Grafana Cloud review

Choose Helicone if

You need request dashboard and tracking.
You want to start without paying.
You work on web, api.
You also want sessions and segments.

Helicone review

Questions people ask

Is Grafana Cloud or Helicone better?: Neither clearly leads. Grafana Cloud starts at Free and Helicone at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Grafana Cloud or Helicone?: Grafana Cloud starts at Free and Helicone at Free.
Does Grafana Cloud or Helicone run on more platforms?: Grafana Cloud runs on Web (Chrome, Edge, Firefox, Safari), API. Helicone runs on web, api.
Can I use Grafana Cloud for free?: Both have a free tier, so you can try either at no cost before committing.
What is Grafana Cloud best used for?: Grafana Cloud is most often used for infrastructure monitoring, application monitoring, log aggregation, distributed tracing. Of those, infrastructure monitoring and application monitoring are not what Helicone is typically brought in for.
What can Grafana Cloud do that Helicone cannot?: Grafana Cloud covers Grafana Dashboards, Prometheus Metrics, Loki Logs, Tempo Traces. Helicone covers Request dashboard and tracking, Sessions and segments, Helicone Query Language (HQL), Prompt datasets and improvement.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Grafana Cloud: What are the exact limits of Grafana Cloud's free tier?

Grafana Cloud free tier includes 10,000 active series for metrics, 50GB logs and traces per month, 3 active visualization users, and 14-day retention with community support. No credit card required.

Source

Helicone: What does Helicone cost?

Helicone offers a free Hobby plan, a Pro plan at $79/month, a Team plan at $799/month, and custom Enterprise pricing, with usage-based charges applying beyond included request limits.

Source

Grafana Cloud: How is Grafana Cloud billed, and what are the per-unit costs?

Grafana Cloud Pro tier starts at $19/month platform fee plus usage-based charges. Metrics cost $6.50 per 1,000 active series above free limits, logs and traces are charged per GB ingested, and visualization users are $8 per active user.

Source

Helicone: Is there a free plan, and what are its limits?

The free Hobby plan includes 10,000 requests per month, 1 GB of storage, 1 seat, and 1 organization, aimed at kickstarting AI projects.

Source

Grafana Cloud: Can I use Grafana Cloud for open-source Grafana deployments?

Grafana Cloud is the managed cloud service version. Open-source Grafana is free and can be self-hosted indefinitely on your own infrastructure.

Source

Helicone: Are there discounts available?

Helicone offers 50% off the first year for qualifying startups, discounts for non-profits, a $100 annual credit for open-source projects, and free access for students.

Source

Grafana Cloud: What observability signals does Grafana Cloud include?

Grafana Cloud includes metrics (via Mimir), logs (via Loki), traces (via Tempo), profiles, and synthetics, with unified querying and visualization across all signals.

Source

Grafana Cloud: Does Grafana Cloud include alerting and how is it priced?

Yes, Grafana Alerting is included at no additional charge across all tiers. Rule storage, evaluation, and notification delivery are covered by the platform fee with no per-alert or per-notification fees.

Source

Grafana Cloud vs Helicone

Grafana Cloud

Helicone

The short version

Where they differ

What each one covers

Only in Grafana Cloud

Only in Helicone

What people use each for

Grafana Cloud

Helicone

Where each one falls short

Grafana Cloud

Helicone

Pricing, plan by plan

Grafana Cloud

Helicone

Which should you pick?

Choose Grafana Cloud if

Choose Helicone if

Questions people ask

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Related pages

More on Grafana Cloud

More on Helicone

Keep looking

Other head to heads