Langfuse
Langfuse is an open-source LLM engineering platform for traces, evals, and prompt management. Hobby $0. Core $29 / seat / month. Pro $199 / seat / month. Enterprise is custom. Cloud usage after included units is listed as $8 / 100k units. The repo langfuse/langfuse showed about 21,670 stars. The old "15k stars" and "Free + paid, unspecified" table are stale.
Compare LangSmith if you want LangChain's own cloud ($39 Plus / $1,400 Startup).
Key Features
- Tracing: LLM calls, tools, and agent steps. SDKs for Python and JS/TS.
- Evals and prompts: Datasets, LLM-as-judge, prompt versions.
- Self-host or cloud: OSS on your infra, or managed cloud with EU/US regions on the marketing pages.
- Usage meter: Cloud bills extra units after the plan's included events. Confirm the current unit definition on the pricing page.
Use Cases
- Teams that must self-host traces.
- Agent builders already on LangGraph, CrewAI, or the OpenAI Agents SDK.
- People who found $199 Pro cheaper or dearer than LangSmith Startup. Do the math on seats vs $1,400.
Limitation: included event counts differ by plan and were not all copied here. Confirm the table before you promise a free Hobby volume.
Pricing
langfuse.com/pricing on 2026-08-17:
| Plan | Price | Notes from that page |
|---|---|---|
| Hobby | $0 | Cloud starter. Limited included units. |
| Core | $29 / seat / month | Team cloud. Then $8 / 100k units. |
| Pro | $199 / seat / month | Higher limits and extras. Same usage meter after the included bucket. |
| Enterprise | Custom | Sales. |
| Self-host | $0 for the OSS core | You pay your own infra. |
Getting Started
- Read langfuse.com or the GitHub README.
docker composefor self-host, or create a Hobby cloud project.- Send traces from your agent SDK.
- Move to Core when Hobby units run out, not before.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is it still just "free + paid"?
No. Core is $29 and Pro is $199 per seat.
15k stars still right?
No. About 21,670 on 2026-08-17.
LangSmith or Langfuse?
LangSmith if you want LangChain deploy in the same bill. Langfuse if you want OSS self-host.
Alternatives
- LangSmith: LangChain Cloud seats and Engine.
- LangGraph: The runtime, not the tracer.
- OpenAI Agents SDK: Built-in tracing if you stay on OpenAI.
Tips
- Quote $29 / $199, not "cloud paid tiers".
- Count seats times usage. The $8 / 100k line is the surprise bill.
- Confirm star count before a comparison slide.
Conclusion
Langfuse is still the OSS tracer, now with a public $0 / $29 / $199 cloud grid. Start at langfuse.com/pricing, then decide whether LangSmith is the better hosted fit.
Comments
No comments yet. Be the first to comment!
Related Tools
Related Insights
Anthropic Subagent: The Multi-Agent Architecture Revolution
Deep dive into Anthropic multi-agent architecture design. Learn how Subagents break through context window limitations, achieve 90% performance improvements, and real-world applications in Claude Code.
Stop Cramming AI Assistants into Chat Boxes: Clawdbot Picked the Wrong Battlefield
Clawdbot is convenient, but putting it inside Slack or Discord was the wrong design choice from day one. Chat tools are not for operating tasks, and AI isn't for chatting.
Grok Bot and Hermes Bot: one person finally gets a think tank and a secretariat
Grok Bot now ships with Cursor Pro+. Hermes Bot runs on a VPS. They are not smarter chat boxes. The think tank advises, the secretariat executes, and you still make the call.