Skip to main content
Introducing Respan Router

Braintrust vs Traceloop (2026)

vs

Overview

Rating
10.0 / 10
Rating
10.0 / 10
Best For
Teams that want structured evals, experiments, and datasets tied to production traces
Best For
Teams already using Datadog/Splunk wanting LLM observability
Product Summary

Braintrust is an LLM evaluation and observability platform. Compare its evals, tracing, pricing, pros and cons, and alternatives.

Product Summary

The OpenTelemetry standard for AI. Pipes LLM telemetry into Datadog, Splunk, or any OTel backend.

Starting Price
Free
Starting Price
open-source
Free Trial
No
Free Trial
No
Free Version
Yes
Free Version
No

Key features

Core capabilities each platform advertises.

BraintrustBraintrust
  • Experiments comparing prompts and models
  • Code-based and LLM-as-judge scorers
  • Datasets built from production traces
  • Production logging and tracing
TraceloopTraceloop
  • OpenTelemetry
  • OpenLLMetry
  • Vendor-neutral
  • OTel integration

Strengths and tradeoffs

What each tool does well, and the limitations to keep in mind.

BraintrustBraintrust

Pros

  • Unlimited users on every plan, including free
  • Production traces, datasets, and experiments connect in one eval workflow
  • Framework-agnostic SDKs across multiple languages
  • Loop agent drafts scorers and datasets from your own data

Cons

  • Processed data and scores bill separately, and both grow with eval volume
  • 14-day retention on Starter and 30 days on Pro
  • Gateway is in public preview with no SLA
  • Self-hosting and custom data export are Enterprise only
TraceloopTraceloop

Pros

  • Acquired by ServiceNow for $60-80M providing strong financial backing and integration opportunities
  • Built on OpenTelemetry standards with open-source OpenLLMetry SDK
  • Recognized as Gartner Cool Vendor demonstrating industry validation
  • One-line code integration for quick setup and deployment
  • Enterprise-ready with SOC 2, HIPAA compliance and multiple deployment options

Cons

  • ServiceNow acquisition may lead to platform changes, pricing adjustments, or strategic shifts
  • Small team of 9 employees may be absorbed into larger ServiceNow organization affecting support
  • Limited transparent pricing information following acquisition
  • Uncertainty around long-term product roadmap under new ownership

Braintrust or Traceloop — which should you choose?

Choose Braintrust if you want

  • Iterating on prompts with production data
  • Running evaluations across model versions
  • Building golden datasets from production traffic
  • Human review of LLM outputs

Choose Traceloop if you want

Data not available

Compare Braintrust and Traceloop on your own traffic

10KFree traces/mo
1,000+Models
5 minSetup

Respan lets you trace LLM and agent calls across any model or framework, A/B test prompts on production traffic, and route requests across 1,000+ models through one gateway.

Try Respan free

Other popular comparisons