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The Helicone Blog

Thoughts about the future of AI - from the team helping to build it.

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Claude 3.5 Sonnet vs OpenAI o1: A Comprehensive Comparison

Discover how Claude 3.5 Sonnet compares to OpenAI o1 in coding, reasoning, and advanced tasks. See which model offers better speed, accuracy, and value for developers.

Lina Lam

Claude 3.5 Sonnet vs OpenAI o1: A Comprehensive Comparison
Comparing CrewAI vs. Dify - Which is the Best AI Agent Framework?
compare-7 minute read

Comparing CrewAI vs. Dify - Which is the Best AI Agent Framework?

What's the difference between CrewAI and Dify? Here's a comprehensive comparison of their main features, use cases and how developers can monitor their agents with Helicone.

Lina Lam

Google's Gemini-Exp-1206 is Outperforming GPT-4o and O1
news-8 minute read

Google's Gemini-Exp-1206 is Outperforming GPT-4o and O1

Released in December 2024, Gemini-Exp-1206 is quickly beating the performance of OpenAI gpt-4o, o1, claude 3.5 Sonnet and Gemini 1.5. Delve into key features, benchmarks, applications and what the hype is all about.

Lina Lam

Llama 3.3 just dropped — is it better than GPT-4 or Claude-Sonnet-3.5?
news-8 minute read

Llama 3.3 just dropped — is it better than GPT-4 or Claude-Sonnet-3.5?

Meta just released their newest AI model with significant optimizations in performance, cost efficiency, and multilingual support. Is it truly better than its predecessors and the top models in the market?

Lina Lam

O1 and ChatGPT Pro —  here's everything you need to know
news-6 minute read

O1 and ChatGPT Pro — here's everything you need to know

OpenAI has recently made two significant announcements: the full release of their o1 reasoning model and the introduction of ChatGPT Pro, a new premium subscription tier. Here's a TL;DR on what you missed.

Lina Lam

GPT-5: Release Date, Features & Everything You Need to Know
insight-10 minute read

GPT-5: Release Date, Features & Everything You Need to Know

GPT-5 is the next anticipated breakthrough in OpenAI's language model series. Although its release is slated for early 2025, this guide covers everything we know so far, from projected capabilities to potential applications.

Lina Lam

How to test your LLM prompts (with examples)
how-to-10 minute read

How to test your LLM prompts (with examples)

How do you measure the quality of your LLM prompts and outputs? In this blog, we talk about how you can evaluate LLM performance and effectively test your prompts.

Lina Lam

Comparing CrewAI vs. AutoGen for Building AI Agents
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Comparing CrewAI vs. AutoGen for Building AI Agents

CrewAI and AutoGen are two notable frameworks in the AI agent landscape. We will cover the key differences, example implementations and share our recommendations if you are starting out in agent-building.

Lina Lam

Out with Golden Datasets: Here's Why Random Sampling is Better
insight-6 minute read

Out with Golden Datasets: Here's Why Random Sampling is Better

Crafting high-quality prompts and evaluating them requires both high-quality input variables and clearly defined tasks. In a recent webinar, Nishant Shukla, the senior director of AI at QA Wolf, and Justin Torre, the CEO of Helicone, shared their insights on how they tackled this challenge.

Lina Lam

Building a RAG-Powered PDF Chatbot with LLMs and Vector Search
how-to-20 minute read

Building a RAG-Powered PDF Chatbot with LLMs and Vector Search

Build a smart chatbot that can understand and answer questions about PDF documents using Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG), LLMs, and vector search. Perfect for developers looking to create AI-powered document assistants.

Kavin Desi

Choosing Between LlamaIndex and LangChain
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Choosing Between LlamaIndex and LangChain

Building AI agents but not sure which of LangChain and LlamaIndex is a better option? You're not alone. We find that it’s not always about choosing one over the other.

Lina Lam

Top 10 AI Inferencing Platforms in 2024
guide-12 minute read

Top 10 AI Inferencing Platforms in 2024

In this guide, we compare features, pricing, and performance of top OpenAI alternatives to help you choose the best AI Inference APIs for your projects.

Lina Lam

The Case Against Fine-Tuning
insight-15 minute read

The Case Against Fine-Tuning

Discover the strategic factors for when and why to fine-tune base language models like LLaMA for specialized tasks. Understand the limited use cases where fine-tuning provides significant benefits.

Justin Torre

Debugging RAG Chatbots and AI Agents with Sessions
how-to-6 minute read

Debugging RAG Chatbots and AI Agents with Sessions

Have you ever wondered at which stage in the multi-step process does your AI model start hallucinating? Perhaps you've noticed consistent issues with a specific part of your AI agent workflow?

Lina Lam

Braintrust Alternative? Braintrust vs Helicone
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Braintrust Alternative? Braintrust vs Helicone

Compare Helicone and Braintrust for LLM observability and evaluation in 2024. Explore features like analytics, prompt management, scalability, and integration options. Discover which tool best suits your needs for monitoring, analyzing, and optimizing AI model performance.

Cole Gottdank

Optimizing AI Agents: How Replaying LLM Sessions Enhances Performance
how-to-15 minute read

Optimizing AI Agents: How Replaying LLM Sessions Enhances Performance

Learn how to optimize your AI agents by replaying LLM sessions using Helicone. Enhance performance, uncover hidden issues, and accelerate AI agent development with this comprehensive guide.

Cole Gottdank

What We've Shipped in the Past 6 Months
company-8 minute read

What We've Shipped in the Past 6 Months

Join us as we reflect on the past 6 months at Helicone, showcasing new features like Sessions, Prompt Management, Datasets, and more. Learn what's coming next and a heartfelt thank you for being part of our journey.

Cole Gottdank

Prompt Engineering: Tools, Best Practices, and Techniques
guide-4 minute read

Prompt Engineering: Tools, Best Practices, and Techniques

Writing effective prompts is a crucial skill for developers working with large language models (LLMs). Here are the essentials of prompt engineering and the best tools to optimize your prompts.

Lina Lam

Five questions to determine if LangChain fits your project
insight-15 minute read

Five questions to determine if LangChain fits your project

Explore five crucial questions to determine if LangChain is the right choice for your LLM project. Learn from QA Wolf's experience in choosing between LangChain and a custom framework for complex LLM integrations.

Cole Gottdank

6 Awesome Platforms & Frameworks for Building AI Agents (Open-Source & More)
guide-12 minute read

6 Awesome Platforms & Frameworks for Building AI Agents (Open-Source & More)

Today, we are covering 6 of our favorite platforms for building AI agents — whether you need complex multi-agent systems or a simple no-code solution.

Lina Lam

Portkey Alternatives? Portkey vs Helicone
compare-4 minute read

Portkey Alternatives? Portkey vs Helicone

Compare Helicone and Portkey for LLM observability in 2024. Explore features like analytics, prompt management, caching, and integration options. Discover which tool best suits your needs for monitoring, analyzing, and optimizing AI model performance.

Cole Gottdank

5 Powerful Techniques to Slash Your LLM Costs by Up to 90%
how-to-6 minute read

5 Powerful Techniques to Slash Your LLM Costs by Up to 90%

Building AI apps doesn't have to break the bank. We have 5 tips to cut your LLM costs by up to 90% while maintaining top-notch performance—because we also hate hidden expenses.

Lina Lam

Behind 900 pushups, lessons learned from being #1 Product of the Day
insight-6 minute read

Behind 900 pushups, lessons learned from being #1 Product of the Day

By focusing on creative ways to activate our audience, our team managed to get #1 Product of the Day.

Lina Lam

How to Win #1 Product of the Day on Product Hunt
guide-10 minute read

How to Win #1 Product of the Day on Product Hunt

Discover how to win #1 Product of the Day on Product Hunt using automation secrets. Learn proven strategies for automating user emails, social media content, and DM campaigns, based on Helicone's successful launch experience. Boost your chances of Product Hunt success with these insider tips.

Cole Gottdank

Helicone vs. Arize Phoenix: Which is the Best LLM Observability Platform?
compare-5 minute read

Helicone vs. Arize Phoenix: Which is the Best LLM Observability Platform?

Compare Helicone and Arize Phoenix for LLM observability in 2024. Explore open-source options, self-hosting, cost analysis, and LangChain integration. Discover which tool best suits your needs for monitoring, debugging, and improving AI model performance.

Cole Gottdank

Langfuse Alternatives? Langfuse vs Helicone
compare-6 minute read

Langfuse Alternatives? Langfuse vs Helicone

Compare Helicone and Langfuse for LLM observability in 2024. Explore features like analytics, prompt management, caching, and self-hosting options. Discover which tool best suits your needs for monitoring, analyzing, and optimizing AI model performance.

Cole Gottdank

4 Essential Helicone Features to Optimize Your AI App's Performance
guide-5 minute read

4 Essential Helicone Features to Optimize Your AI App's Performance

This guide provides step-by-step instructions for integrating and making the most of Helicone's features - available on all Helicone plans.

Lina Lam

How to redeem promo codes in Helicone
how-to-2 minute read

How to redeem promo codes in Helicone

On August 22, Helicone will launch on Product Hunt for the first time! To show our appreciation, we have decided to give away $500 credit to all new Growth user.

Lina Lam

The Emerging LLM Stack: A New Paradigm in Tech Architecture
insight-7 minute read

The Emerging LLM Stack: A New Paradigm in Tech Architecture

Explore the emerging LLM Stack, designed for building and scaling LLM applications. Learn about its components, including observability, gateways, and experiments, and how it adapts from hobbyist projects to enterprise-scale solutions.

Justin Torre

The Evolution of LLM Architecture: From Simple Chatbot to Complex System
insight-6 minute read

The Evolution of LLM Architecture: From Simple Chatbot to Complex System

Explore the stages of LLM application development, from a basic chatbot to a sophisticated system with vector databases, gateways, tools, and agents. Learn how LLM architecture evolves to meet scaling challenges and user demands.

Justin Torre

What is Prompt Management?
guide-5 minute read

What is Prompt Management?

Iterating your prompts is the #1 way to optimize user interactions with large language models (LLMs). Should you choose Helicone, Pezzo, or Agenta? We will explore the benefits of choosing a prompt management tool and what to look for.

Lina Lam

Meta Releases SAM 2 and What It Means for Developers Building Multi-Modal AI
news-4 minute read

Meta Releases SAM 2 and What It Means for Developers Building Multi-Modal AI

Meta's release of SAM 2 (Segment Anything Model for videos and images) represents a significant leap in AI capabilities, revolutionizing how developers and tools like Helicone approach multi-modal observability in AI systems.

Lina Lam

What is LLM Observability & Monitoring?
insight-9 minute read

What is LLM Observability & Monitoring?

Explore LLM observability and monitoring in production. Learn how it differs from traditional observability, key challenges in LLM systems, and common features of observability tools. Discover insights on ensuring reliability and improving AI applications.

Lina Lam

Compare: The Best LangSmith Alternatives & Competitors
compare-8 minute read

Compare: The Best LangSmith Alternatives & Competitors

Observability tools allow developers to monitor, analyze, and optimize AI model performance, which helps overcome the 'black box' nature of LLMs. But which LangSmith alternative is the best in 2024? We will shed some light.

Lina Lam's headshot

Lina Lam

Handling Billions of LLM Logs with Upstash Kafka and Cloudflare Workers
technical deep dive-15 minute read

Handling Billions of LLM Logs with Upstash Kafka and Cloudflare Workers

We desperately needed a solution to these outages/data loss. Our reliability and scalability are core to our product.

Cole Gottdank's headshot

Cole Gottdank

Best Practices for AI Developers: Full Guide (June 2024)
guide-6 minute read

Best Practices for AI Developers: Full Guide (June 2024)

Achieving high performance requires robust observability practices. In this blog, we will explore the key challenges of building with AI and the best practices to help you advance your AI development.

Lina Lam's headshot

Lina Lam

I built my first AI app and integrated it with Helicone
guide-6 minute read

I built my first AI app and integrated it with Helicone

So, I decided to make my first AI app with Helicone - in the spirit of getting a first-hand exposure to our user's pain points.

Lina Lam's headshot

Lina Lam

How to Understand Your Users Better and Deliver a Top-Tier Experience with Custom Properties
how-to-6 minute read

How to Understand Your Users Better and Deliver a Top-Tier Experience with Custom Properties

In today's digital landscape, every interaction, click, and engagement offers valuable insights into your users' preferences. But how do you harness this data to effectively grow your business? We may have the answer.

Lina Lam's headshot

Lina Lam

Helicone vs. Weights and Biases
compare-5 minute read

Helicone vs. Weights and Biases

Training modern LLMs is generally less complex than traditional ML models. Here's how to have all the essential tools specifically designed for language model observability without the clutter.

Lina Lam's headshot

Lina Lam

Insider Scoop: Our Co-founder's Take on GitHub Copilot
insight-4 minute read

Insider Scoop: Our Co-founder's Take on GitHub Copilot

No BS, no affiliations, just genuine opinions from Helicone's co-founder.

Cole Gottdank's headshot

Cole Gottdank

Lina Lam's headshot

Lina Lam

Insider Scoop: Our Founding Engineer's Take on PostHog
insight-3 minute read

Insider Scoop: Our Founding Engineer's Take on PostHog

No BS, no affiliations, just genuine opinions from the founding engineer at Helicone.

Stefan Bokarev's headshot

Stefan Bokarev

Lina Lam's headshot

Lina Lam

A step by step guide to switch to gpt-4o safely with Helicone
guide-5 minute read

A step by step guide to switch to gpt-4o safely with Helicone

Learn how to use Helicone's experiments features to regression test, compare and switch models.

Scott Nguyen's headshot

Scott Nguyen

An Open-Source Datadog Alternative for LLM Observability
compare-4 minute read

An Open-Source Datadog Alternative for LLM Observability

Datadog has long been a favourite among developers for its application monitoring and observability capabilities. But recently, LLM developers have been exploring open-source observability options. Why? We have some answers.

Lina Lam's headshot

Lina Lam

A LangSmith Alternative that Takes LLM Observability to the Next Level
compare-4 minute read

A LangSmith Alternative that Takes LLM Observability to the Next Level

Both Helicone and LangSmith are capable, powerful DevOps platform used by enterprises and developers building LLM applications. But which is better?

Lina Lam's headshot

Lina Lam

Why Observability is the Key to Ethical and Safe Artificial Intelligence
insight-5 minute read

Why Observability is the Key to Ethical and Safe Artificial Intelligence

As AI continues to shape our world, the need for ethical practices and robust observability has never been greater. Learn how Helicone is rising to the challenge.

Scott Nguyen's headshot

Scott Nguyen

Introducing Vault: The Future of Secure and Simplified Provider API Key Management
feature-3 minute read

Introducing Vault: The Future of Secure and Simplified Provider API Key Management

Helicone's Vault revolutionizes the way businesses handle, distribute, and monitor their provider API keys, with a focus on simplicity, security, and flexibility.

Cole Gottdank's headshot

Cole Gottdank

Life after Y Combinator: Three Key Lessons for Startups
insight-4 minute read

Life after Y Combinator: Three Key Lessons for Startups

From maintaining crucial relationships to keeping a razor-sharp focus, here's how to sustain your momentum after the YC batch ends.

Scott Nguyen's headshot

Scott Nguyen

Helicone: The Next Evolution in OpenAI Monitoring and Optimization
company-3 minute read

Helicone: The Next Evolution in OpenAI Monitoring and Optimization

Learn how Helicone provides unmatched insights into your OpenAI usage, allowing you to monitor, optimize, and take control like never before.

Scott Nguyen's headshot

Scott Nguyen

Helicone partners with AutoGPT
company-3 minute read

Helicone partners with AutoGPT

Helicone is excited to announce a partnership with AutoGPT, the leader in agent development.

Justin Torre's headshot

Justin Torre

Generative AI with Helicone
external-3 minute read

Generative AI with Helicone

In the rapidly evolving world of generative AI, companies face the exciting challenge of building innovative solutions while effectively managing costs, result quality, and latency. Enter Helicone, an open-source observability platform specifically designed for these cutting-edge endeavors.

George Bailey's headshot

George Bailey

(a16z) Emerging Architectures for LLM Applications
external-5 minute read

(a16z) Emerging Architectures for LLM Applications

Large language models are a powerful new primitive for building software. But since they are so new—and behave so differently from normal computing resources—it's not always obvious how to use them.

Matt Bornstein's headshot

Matt Bornstein

Rajko Radovanovic's headshot

Rajko Radovanovic

(Sequoia) The New Language Model Stack
external-4 minute read

(Sequoia) The New Language Model Stack

How companies are bringing AI applications to life

Michelle Fradin's headshot

Michelle Fradin

Lauren Reeder's headshot

Lauren Reeder