Agenta vs Arize Phoenix
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted self-hosted ai options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
| Feature | Agenta | Arize Phoenix |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 89 · Excellent | 93 · Excellent |
| Category | Self-Hosted AI | Self-Hosted AI |
| License | MIT | Elastic-2.0 |
| Language | TypeScript | Python |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 2,048 MB | 1,024 MB |
| Deployment | docker | docker, source |
| GitHub stars | ★ 4,777 | ★ 11,594 |
| First released | 2023 | 2023 |
| Replaces | LangSmith | LangSmith, Helicone |
What are Agenta and Arize Phoenix?
Agenta
Agenta is an end-to-end LLMOps platform that combines prompt management, evaluation and observability for building production LLM applications. It can be fully self-hosted with Docker Compose.
- Prompt playground
- Evaluation suite
- Observability tracing
- Self-hosted with Docker
Arize Phoenix
Phoenix by Arize is an open-source observability platform for experimentation, evaluation and troubleshooting of LLM and ML applications. It runs as a self-hosted server collecting OpenTelemetry traces from AI apps.
- LLM tracing and spans
- Built-in evaluators
- OpenTelemetry-based
- Self-hostable
Agenta vs Arize Phoenix: key differences
Agenta is written in TypeScript, while Arize Phoenix is built with Python. Licensing differs — MIT for Agenta versus Elastic-2.0 for Arize Phoenix. Arize Phoenix is the lighter option, starting around 1,024 MB of RAM against 2,048 MB for Agenta. Arize Phoenix has the considerably larger community, at 11,594 GitHub stars versus 4,777.
Why pick each one
Choose Agenta if…
- Released under the MIT license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Active community (4.8k GitHub stars)
- Written in TypeScript
Choose Arize Phoenix if…
- Released under the Elastic-2.0 license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Mature project with 11.6k GitHub stars
- Written in Python
Frequently asked questions
Is Agenta or Arize Phoenix better?
Neither is universally better. Arize Phoenix has the larger community; both share a medium setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are Agenta and Arize Phoenix free and open-source?
Yes. Agenta is licensed under MIT and Arize Phoenix under Elastic-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Agenta and Arize Phoenix with Docker?
Agenta: yes. Arize Phoenix: yes.
Which is lighter on resources, Agenta or Arize Phoenix?
Arize Phoenix has the smaller minimum footprint at 1,024 MB of RAM, compared to about 2,048 MB for Agenta. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.