Where Helicone fits
Helicone is the strongest choice when observability is the job. If you want to see every request and response, trace multi-step agents by session, run evals, experiment with prompts, and watch cost and latency per model — with an open-source stack you can self-host — Helicone is purpose-built for it. It is deliberately a thin, one-line integration on top of accounts you already run, so adopting it changes nothing about who you pay for inference.
Where Kunavo wins
Kunavo removes the provider accounts and the per-provider math. Top up one wallet and call Claude, Gemini, GPT, plus image, video and audio, at 30–70% under each provider's list price depending on the model — no Anthropic Console, no Google Cloud project, one invoice. Generation endpoints are first-class, the native Anthropic Messages API is on the same key, and checkout is Stripe-native with local methods (Apple/Google Pay, ACH, SEPA, Alipay, WeChat Pay). Helicone tells you what your calls cost; Kunavo makes those calls cheaper and consolidates the bill.
How to pick (or use both)
Pick Helicone if deep observability, evals and an open-source, self-hostable stack over your own keys is the priority. Pick Kunavo if you want resold inference on one prepaid wallet at 30–70% under list, first-class multimodal, and one invoice. They compose: put Helicone's proxy in front of Kunavo (base URL https://api.kunavo.com/v1) to log, trace and evaluate the exact calls running through Kunavo's discounted catalog.