Staxly

Zed vs Helicone

High-performance code editor, built in Rust, with AI + collaboration
vs. Open-source LLM observability — 1-line integration via proxy

Zed editor ↗Helicone website ↗

Pricing tiers

Zed

Free
$0. Full editor, extensions, collaboration. AI assistant with BYO API key or limited free tier.
Free
Zed Pro (trial)
$0 limited trial. Zed-hosted AI with Claude/GPT, 150 interactions/mo on Sonnet-tier models.
$0 base (usage-based)
BYO API Key
$0 for Zed. Full AI assistant with your own Claude / GPT / Gemini / Ollama keys — passthrough cost only.
$0 base (usage-based)
Zed Pro
$10/user/mo. 500 Claude Sonnet interactions + unlimited edit-predictions, priority routing.
$10/mo
Zed Business
$20/user/mo. 1,000+ Claude Sonnet interactions, org-level billing, priority support.
$20/mo
Zed editor ↗

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 Zed vs hobby on Helicone.

MetricZedHelicone
No overlapping quota metrics for these tiers.

Features

Zed · 20 features

  • Agent Panel — Multi-step AI tasks with tool use.
  • AI Assistant — Inline edits + agent panel.
  • Channels (Multiplayer) — Real-time shared editing.
  • Editor — Core Rust-based editor.
  • Edit Prediction (Zeta) — Next-edit prediction model.
  • Extensions (WASM) — WASM-based extension system.
  • GitHub Copilot Support — Works alongside Copilot subscription.
  • Git Integration — Diff view, branches, blame.
  • Integrated Terminal — Built-in shell.
  • LSP Support — Works with all LSP language servers.
  • MCP Support — Connect to any MCP server.
  • Multibuffer — Edit multiple files in one view.
  • Remote Dev (SSH) — Edit remote filesystems natively.
  • Screen Share — Share editor view live.
  • Sub-16ms Latency — GPU-accelerated rendering.
  • Tasks — Configurable build/test/run tasks.
  • Themes — Built-in + community themes.
  • Tree-sitter Syntax — Incremental parsing for instant highlighting.
  • Vim Mode — First-class Vim/Helix bindings.
  • Voice Channels — Talk while pair programming.

Helicone · 16 features

  • Alerts — Thresholds on error rate, latency, cost, usage. Pro+.
  • Async Logging — Log AFTER the LLM call via SDK — zero added latency.
  • Cost Tracking — Automatic cost calculation per call by provider/model.
  • Dashboard — Request tables, aggregate metrics, cost breakdowns.
  • Evaluators — LLM-as-judge + custom evaluators on runs.
  • Experiments — A/B test different models/prompts.
  • HQL (SQL over traces) — Query your logged data with SQL. Pro+.
  • PII Redaction — Automatically scrub emails, credit cards, etc. from logs.
  • Prompt Caching — Cache identical requests → save money.
  • Prompts & Versions — Store + version + A/B test prompts.
  • Proxy Mode — 1-line integration via base URL swap. Captures all requests.
  • Rate Limiting — Per-user + per-key rate limit policies.
  • Reports — Scheduled email reports with KPIs.
  • Self-Hosting — Docker + k8s deployment.
  • Sessions — Group related calls (chat sessions, agent runs).
  • User Metrics — Per-user cost + usage segmentation.

Developer interfaces

KindZedHelicone
CLIzed CLI (shell integration)Helicone CLI
SDK—helicone (npm), helicone-python
REST—Async Logging API, Helicone Proxy, Query API (HQL)
OTHERCommand Palette (cmd+shift+p), Multiplayer / Channels, Remote Development (SSH), Zed AI Assistant, Zed Editor, Zed ExtensionsHelicone Dashboard, Webhooks
Staxly is an independent catalog of developer platforms. Some links to Zed 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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