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Braintrust vs Vellum
Braintrust and Vellum are tools for teams building AI products: Braintrust scores an AI app's outputs so a team can catch a change that made it worse, and Vellum versions prompts and workflows and tests them before they go live. Our editors read both companies' own sites, then read what AI engineers say about the two tools in public reviews, community boards and chat forums. The table below compares price, limits and features.
| What buyers compare | Braintrust | Vellum |
|---|---|---|
| Price per monthSources 3, 4 | Starter $0. Pro $249. Enterprise: quote | Assistant plans: Mighty $30, Super $100, Ultra $200, plus usage credits ($1 per credit). Workflow and evaluation platform pricing is not on the pricing page |
| Free plan or trialSources 3, 4 | Free Starter plan, no credit card. 6 to 12 months of Pro free for qualifying startups | Free start, with the first tasks included |
| How usage is countedSources 3, 4 | Starter: 1 GB processed data then $4 per GB, 10,000 scores then $2.50 per 1,000, 14-day retention. Pro: 5 GB then $3 per GB, 50,000 scores then $1.50 per 1,000, 30-day retention | Credits pay for AI responses, web searches and image generation. Plans set the computer size and storage |
| Seats and usersSources 3, 4 | Unlimited users, projects, datasets and experiments on every plan | Not published |
| Integrations and featuresSources 3, 4 | Model credits included ($10 Starter, $100 Pro), then token rates. Built-in Loop agent runs evals and drafts test cases | Assistant email and subdomain on Super and Ultra |
| Security and deploymentSources 3, 4 | Enterprise: on-premises or hosted deployment, custom retention and export, role-based access | The Vellum assistant is open source and can be self-hosted with no platform fee |
| Best forSources 1, 2 | AI product teams that change prompts or models often and will keep a scored dataset | Product and ML teams that want versioned prompts and workflows, test suites and a check before changes go live, all in one workspace |
List prices in US dollars per month before tax, as published on each vendor's site on October 16, 2026, billed monthly unless the cell says otherwise. "Quote" means the vendor sets the price through its sales team. A green check marks a row where the published data shows a clear edge.
Which one fits
Braintrust publishes usage rates for evaluation, while Vellum's pricing page now lists only its assistant plans.
Choose Braintrust if
- You change prompts or models often and want each change scored against a saved dataset before it ships.
- You want to start free with the whole team. Starter includes unlimited users and 10,000 scores per month.
- You can predict your bill from usage. Braintrust publishes rates for processed data, scores and retention on each plan.
Choose Vellum if
- You want prompts, workflows and test suites versioned in one workspace, with a check before a change goes live.
- You want something you can run yourself. The Vellum assistant is open source and has no platform fee when self-hosted.
- You are a product team that needs a visual workflow builder, along with code.
What buyers say
“Braintrust is better when you care about repeatable dataset evals. Vellum is better when non-engineers need a prompt UI and A/B testing more than deep eval harnesses.”
fakewrld_999 · r/LocalLLaMA · · source
“Vellum felt like prompt management with light evals. Braintrust felt like eval-first, I’d pick based on whether the bottleneck is collaboration or regression testing.”
No-Brick9938 · r/AIQuality · · source
“Our engineers live in Braintrust because each change is scored against a dataset. Vellum's visual builder is friendlier for product managers, so we use it for prototyping prompts.”
Head of applied AI, Series B customer support platform
Representative buyer view
Verdict
Pick Braintrust (7.8 out of 10, Recommend) if your main need is scoring every prompt or model change against a saved dataset before it ships. Pick Vellum (7.0 out of 10, Conditional recommend) if you want prompts, workflows and test suites versioned in one workspace, with a visual builder that product people can use alongside code.
Methodology
We read the Braintrust and Vellum pricing pages and product sites on October 16, 2026 and recorded every published price, limit and plan feature. A cell reads "Not published" when the vendor does not state that detail on its site, and rows where neither vendor publishes anything were left out.
Scores, best-fit notes and buyer quotes come from the AIR reviews of each product, which weight practitioner reviews at 40%, hands-on product checks at 35%, pricing at 15% and docs at 10%. Paid reviews and pay-for-play sites are excluded. Quotes marked Representative buyer view are written by AIR to reflect buyer feedback and carry no source link.