# Guidance vs Outlines — Fit & Features

Canonical: https://trutool.co/compare/guidance-vs-outlines
Author: Snehil (https://trutool.co/authors/snehil)

Compare Guidance and Outlines by use case, features, limitations, and evaluation questions.

## Compare fit, features, and limitations

### Guidance
Control language model generation with structured programming patterns.
Best fit: Developers composing agents, structured model outputs, and tool workflows.
- Constrained generation
- Prompt programming
- Model integration
Before you choose: Check licensing, provider compatibility, maintenance, and tool permissions. Test failure recovery before enabling agent actions.
Pricing: https://guidance.readthedocs.io/en/latest/
- [Read Guidance profile](https://trutool.co/tools/guidance): Read Guidance profile

### Outlines
Generate structured outputs from language models with schema constraints.
Best fit: Developers composing agents, structured model outputs, and tool workflows.
- Structured generation
- Schema constraints
- Model integrations
Before you choose: Check licensing, provider compatibility, maintenance, and tool permissions. Test failure recovery before enabling agent actions.
Pricing: https://dottxt-ai.github.io/outlines/latest/
- [Read Outlines profile](https://trutool.co/tools/outlines): Read Outlines profile