Agenta vs promptfoo
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 | promptfoo |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Read-the-docs project |
| Health score | 89 · Excellent | 97 · Excellent |
| Category | Self-Hosted AI | Self-Hosted AI |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Language | TypeScript | TypeScript |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Easy |
| Min. RAM | 2,048 MB | 1,024 MB |
| Deployment | docker | bare-metal, binary, source |
| GitHub stars | ★ 4,777 | ★ 25,409 |
| First released | 2023 | 2023 |
| Replaces | LangSmith | LangSmith |
What are Agenta and promptfoo?
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
promptfoo
promptfoo is a developer-friendly tool for testing and evaluating prompts, models, and RAG systems. It supports automated evaluations, comparisons, and security red-teaming with a local web viewer.
- Automated prompt evals
- Model comparison matrix
- Red-teaming and security tests
- Local web viewer
Agenta vs promptfoo: key differences
Both projects are written in TypeScript. Promptfoo is the lighter option, starting around 1,024 MB of RAM against 2,048 MB for Agenta. Promptfoo has the considerably larger community, at 25,409 GitHub stars versus 4,777. Agenta lists first-class Docker deployment; promptfoo does not.
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 promptfoo if…
- Simple YAML configs
- Red-teaming built in
- Runs fully locally
Watch out for
- CLI-centric workflow
- Node.js required
Frequently asked questions
Is Agenta or promptfoo better?
promptfoo is the stronger all-round pick: it has both the larger community and the simpler easy setup. Consider Agenta if its specific feature set fits your needs better.
Are Agenta and promptfoo free and open-source?
Yes. Agenta is licensed under MIT and promptfoo under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Agenta and promptfoo with Docker?
Agenta: yes. promptfoo: check the project docs for container support.
Which is lighter on resources, Agenta or promptfoo?
promptfoo 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.