LangSmith
Ranked 2 of 3 LLM observability platforms by recommenders
Developers use it for technical tracing and post-hoc debugging and cost tracking of LLM and agent runs. Critics mostly point to a weak UI and rising cost.
Developers use it for technical tracing and post-hoc debugging and cost tracking of LLM and agent runs. Critics mostly point to a weak UI and rising cost.
14 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 6
- criticize it
- 8
- approval share
- 43%
Recommended in 4 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 6 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, not met.
- 0.7 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, not met.
- Recommended in 4 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Gets expensive quickly
“gets quite expensive quite fast”
Comment from 27 Dec 2025 in “All I Want for Xmas Is Your Secrets: LangGrinch Hits LangChain (CVE-2025-68664)” “paying huge amount of money for both”
Comment from 3 Jul 2026 on Hacker News
Other LLM observability platforms people recommend
The two most recommended other LLM observability platforms, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
See all 3 LLM observability platforms, rankedWhat people said
12 of the 14 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“they tell 'which' agent failed, but my tool (Argus) tells 'why' that agent failed.”
“I wasnt satisfied with what langfuse, langsmith are offering”
“None of them detect repeated contexts in subsequent steps”
“paying huge amount of money for both”
“the strength of Langsmith is its technical tracing, not its visualizations, ui, or usability”
“Now I know my gripes with that product.”
“host models on things like LangSmith and OpenRouter for a fraction of the cost”
“LangSmith needs a cloud account to see my own traces.”
“Langfuse/LangSmith are useful for cost tracking and debugging post-hoc.”
“each individual turn looked fine in langsmith but the overall flow was completely broken”
“gets quite expensive quite fast”
“Langsmith is creeping further and further into Langchain|graph and it makes me hesitant to invest”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.