Staxly

Turso vs Helicone

Edge SQLite — libSQL at the speed of light
vs. Open-source LLM observability — 1-line integration via proxy

Turso websiteHelicone website

Pricing tiers

Turso

Free
100 DBs, 5 GB storage, 500M row reads/mo, 10M row writes/mo. No credit card.
Free
Developer
Unlimited DBs, 9 GB storage, 2.5B reads, 25M writes.
$5/mo
Scaler
24 GB storage, 100B reads, 100M writes. Teams + DPA support. Price is annual-billed.
$25/mo
Pro
50 GB storage, 250B reads, 250M writes. Teams, DPA, SSO, BYOK, HIPAA, SOC2, priority support. Annual billed.
$417/mo
Enterprise
White-glove support + unlimited usage + dedicated infra.
Custom
Turso website

Helicone

Hobby (Free)
10,000 requests/month. 7-day retention. 1 seat. Basic monitoring.
Free
Startup Discount
<2 years, <$5M funding: 50% off first year.
$0 base (usage-based)
Self-Hosted (OSS)
MIT-licensed. Run Helicone yourself for free.
$0 base (usage-based)
Pro
$79/month. 10k free + usage-based. Unlimited seats. Alerts, reports, HQL query language. 1-month retention.
$79/mo
Team
$799/month. 5 orgs, SOC-2 + HIPAA compliance, dedicated Slack, 3-month retention.
$799/mo
Enterprise
Custom MSA, SAML SSO, on-prem deploy, bulk discounts, forever retention.
Custom
Helicone website

Free-tier quotas head-to-head

Comparing free on Turso vs hobby on Helicone.

MetricTursoHelicone
databases100 DBs
row reads month500000000 reads/month
row writes month10000000 writes/month
storage gb5 GB

Features

Turso · 11 features

  • BranchingCreate DB branches from a primary for staging/test envs.
  • BYOK EncryptionBring your own encryption key (Pro+).
  • Edge RoutingRequests route automatically to the nearest replica group.
  • Embedded ReplicasClient-side local SQLite file that syncs from the primary — reads are <1ms local
  • libSQLTurso's open-source SQLite fork with HTTP, WebSocket, and multi-writer support.
  • libSQL Server (sqld)Self-hostable server component. Runs libSQL as a service.
  • Multi-DatabaseCreate thousands of DBs cheaply — perfect for per-tenant / per-customer isolatio
  • Point-in-Time RestoreRollback DB to any moment within backup window.
  • Scheduled BackupsAutomated point-in-time backups.
  • SQLite CompatibilityDrop-in SQLite — same SQL dialect, same file format.
  • Teams & RBACOrg-level access control for Scaler+ tiers.

Helicone · 16 features

  • AlertsThresholds on error rate, latency, cost, usage. Pro+.
  • Async LoggingLog AFTER the LLM call via SDK — zero added latency.
  • Cost TrackingAutomatic cost calculation per call by provider/model.
  • DashboardRequest tables, aggregate metrics, cost breakdowns.
  • EvaluatorsLLM-as-judge + custom evaluators on runs.
  • ExperimentsA/B test different models/prompts.
  • HQL (SQL over traces)Query your logged data with SQL. Pro+.
  • PII RedactionAutomatically scrub emails, credit cards, etc. from logs.
  • Prompt CachingCache identical requests → save money.
  • Prompts & VersionsStore + version + A/B test prompts.
  • Proxy Mode1-line integration via base URL swap. Captures all requests.
  • Rate LimitingPer-user + per-key rate limit policies.
  • ReportsScheduled email reports with KPIs.
  • Self-HostingDocker + k8s deployment.
  • SessionsGroup related calls (chat sessions, agent runs).
  • User MetricsPer-user cost + usage segmentation.

Developer interfaces

KindTursoHelicone
CLITurso CLIHelicone CLI
SDKgo-libsql, @libsql/client, libsql-experimental (Python), libsql-rs, libsql-swifthelicone (npm), helicone-python
RESTlibSQL HTTP, Platform APIAsync Logging API, Helicone Proxy, Query API (HQL)
MCPTurso MCP
OTHERlibSQL WebSocket, SQLite wire protocolHelicone Dashboard, Webhooks
Staxly is an independent catalog of developer platforms. Some links to Turso and Helicone may be affiliate links — Staxly may earn a commission if you sign up through them, at no extra cost to you. Pricing is verified against vendor pages at publication time — reconfirm before buying.

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