Agentic Index
LangChain vs Vellum (2026)
LangChain and Vellum both help teams build production LLM applications, split by who builds: LangChain is the code first open source ecosystem with LangSmith observability from a free tier to 39 dollars a seat a month plus pay as you go traces, while Vellum is a collaborative development platform where product teams and engineers build workflows together, free tier with no card, Pro self serve reported around 500 dollars a month with machine and storage tiers, model tokens passed through at cost, and enterprise adding VPC and compliance.
Engineering owned stacks default to LangChain; mixed product and engineering teams that want a shared workbench justify Vellum's platform pricing.
Choose LangChain if
- Your engineers own the stack and want open source foundations.
- Seat pricing from 39 dollars with usage traces fits your scale.
- The largest ecosystem of integrations and patterns matters.
Choose Vellum if
- Product managers and engineers building together is your operating model.
- Token passthrough at cost keeps model economics clean.
- Enterprise compliance packaging (BAA, VPC, SOC 2) is required.
| At a glance | LangChain | Vellum |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Agent infrastructure | Agent builder |
| Entry price | From $39/seat/mo · free tier | Free tier (no card); Pro self serve, reported around $500/mo with machine and storage tiers; Enterprise custom; model tokens passed through at cost |
| Free / trial | Free (Developer tier) | Free tier, no card: about 50 prompt and 25 workflow executions per day, 1 seat |
| Pricing confidence | public partial | public partial |
| Feature | L LangChain |
V Vellum |
|---|---|---|
| Action & orchestration | ||
|
Integrations & Tool Calling Ability to connect agents to real systems through native integrations, OAuth-authenticated actions, custom tools, APIs, webhooks, or MCP-compatible tools. |
Full / Explicit | Full / Explicit |
|
Workflow Orchestration Ability to sequence, branch, retry, route, and combine deterministic workflow nodes with autonomous agent steps. |
Full / Explicit | Full / Explicit |
|
Triggers & Channel Coverage How agents wake up and where they work: schedules, webhooks, message events, CRM events, inbox events, chat, email, voice, and collaboration tools. |
Partial | Partial |
| Knowledge & context | ||
|
Knowledge Grounding & RAG Ability to ground agent behavior in company data through document ingestion, retrieval, external knowledge APIs, semantic search, or RAG layers. |
Full / Explicit | Partial |
|
Memory & State Persistence Ability to persist context across a run, conversation, workflow, user, team, or longer-term memory layer. |
Full / Explicit | Partial |
| Control & trust | ||
|
Human Oversight & Guardrails Approval steps, consent checkpoints, escalation rules, structured guardrails, policy constraints, and pause/resume controls. |
Full / Explicit | Full / Explicit |
|
Security, Identity & Governance RBAC, SSO, auditability, encryption, least-privilege tool access, compliance posture, and data handling policy. |
Partial | Partial |
|
Observability & Auditability Traces, logs, execution histories, metrics, audit events, and debugging detail for production agent behavior. |
Full / Explicit | Full / Explicit |
|
Deployment & Data Residency Deployment modes and options, including SaaS, dedicated cloud, VPC, on-prem, hybrid, local runtime, and self-hosting. |
Full / Explicit | Full / Explicit |
| Solution readiness | ||
|
Prebuilt Agents, Templates & Packs Ready-made workflows, packaged employees, templates, blueprints, industry solutions, and role-specific agents that reduce time-to-value. |
Partial | Partial |
| Platform extensibility | ||
|
Model Flexibility & Routing Ability to work across multiple foundation models, route tasks to different models, or let buyers bring their own providers and keys. |
Full / Explicit | Full / Explicit |
|
APIs, SDKs & MCP Extensibility Composability layer: stable APIs, SDKs, MCP tool consumption/serving, custom tools, and integration into internal systems. |
Full / Explicit | Full / Explicit |
|
Testing, Debugging & Optimization Testing, debugging, scoring, retries, fallbacks, quality gates, and optimization loops for improving agent workflows before and after deployment. |
Full / Explicit | Full / Explicit |
| Specialist automation | ||
|
Browser & Computer Use Browser, desktop, or remote/local computer control for workflows that cannot be handled through stable APIs alone. |
No / Not documented | No / Not documented |
Pricing snapshot
Sourced from the Index pricing dataset · open each vendor's profile for full detail.
| Pricing | L LangChain |
V Vellum |
|---|---|---|
|
Entry price Lowest public entry point |
From $39/seat/mo · free tier | Free tier (no card); Pro self serve, reported around $500/mo with machine and storage tiers; Enterprise custom; model tokens passed through at cost |
|
Pricing confidence How public the numbers are |
Public, partial | Public, partial |
|
Billing Primary billing axis |
hybrid | hybrid (subscription machine and storage tiers plus model tokens at cost) |
|
Variable cost Workload / overage exposure |
High variable cost | Medium variable cost |
|
Free tier / trial Try before you buy |
Free tier
|
Free tierTrial
|
|
Buying motion Self-serve vs sales call |
Mixed | Mixed |
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