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Tools/Portkey/vs LiteLLM
Portkey

Portkey

gateway
vs
LiteLLM

LiteLLM

gateway

Portkey vs LiteLLM — Comparison

17 integrations10 featuresMerger / Acquisition
10 integrations10 features10,659 npm/wkVenture (Round not Specified)
The Bottom Line

Portkey and LiteLLM offer distinct advantages in the AI gateway category. Portkey is particularly recognized for its robust functionality and high user satisfaction with a 4.6 average rating from 19 reviews and 11,123 GitHub stars. On the other hand, despite recent security concerns, LiteLLM is a popular choice with developers, boasting 41,659 GitHub stars and 10,659 npm downloads per week, indicating a strong developer community engagement.

Best for

Portkey is the better choice when your organization prioritizes stable, high-rated tools with industry recognition and comprehensive end-to-end LLM orchestration capabilities for Fortune 500 companies.

Best for

LiteLLM is the better choice when your team requires a scalable solution for managing multiple LLMs with a focus on cost tracking, especially for those with a strong community following and utilizing AWS credits.

Key Differences

  • 1.Portkey has a clear focus on end-to-end orchestration of LLMs and governance, while LiteLLM emphasizes cost tracking and managing multiple LLMs.
  • 2.LiteLLM has significantly more community engagement with 41,659 GitHub stars compared to Portkey's 11,123.
  • 3.While Portkey is praised for its robust functionality and a higher average rating of 4.6/5, LiteLLM is facing challenges with its security reputation.
  • 4.Portkey integrates with commercial cloud providers like AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud, whereas LiteLLM's integrations include more development-focused tools like Langfuse and Arize Phoenix.
  • 5.Portkey is highly rated by industry leaders and trusted by large organizations, whereas LiteLLM, despite its recent security issue, maintains a broad developer base and a high number of npm downloads.

Verdict

Portkey is a strong choice for enterprises seeking a reliable and highly rated tool with comprehensive AI governance capabilities, ideal for large organizations. In contrast, LiteLLM may appeal more to developer teams focused on managing and optimizing multiple LLMs while leveraging existing AWS investments, assuming security concerns are addressed. Organizations should weigh their need for community engagement against security implications when choosing LiteLLM.

Overview
What each tool does and who it's for

Portkey

Democratize and productionize Gen AI across your entire org with Portkey

Portkey is highly praised for its robust functionality and ease of use, consistently receiving ratings between 4.5 and 5 out of 5 from users. The most frequent complaints revolve around occasional glitches, which seem to affect a minority of users based on the overall high scores. While there is limited information on pricing sentiment, the overall reputation of Portkey remains positive, with strong endorsements visible through social media mentions and high satisfaction ratings.

LiteLLM

LLM Gateway (OpenAI Proxy) to manage authentication, loadbalancing, and spend tracking across 100+ LLMs. All in the OpenAI format.

LiteLLM is generally appreciated for its capabilities as an AI coding tool, particularly among users with AWS credits. However, it has recently faced significant criticism due to a security breach involving credential-stealing malware linked to a malicious package release. Users show concerns about the safety and reliability of the software in light of these events. The overall sentiment on pricing is mostly neutral as the primary focus remains on addressing security issues, impacting its reputation negatively.

Key Metrics
4.6★ (19)
Avg Rating
—
11,123
GitHub Stars
41,659
968
GitHub Forks
6,878
—
npm Downloads/wk
10,659
—
PyPI Downloads/mo
391,582,157
Mention Velocity
How discussion volume is trending week-over-week

Portkey

Stable week-over-week

LiteLLM

+100% vs last week
Where People Discuss
Mention distribution across platforms

Portkey

YouTube
71%
Reddit
29%

LiteLLM

Reddit
59%
YouTube
23%
Rss
9%
Hacker News
5%
Dev.to
5%
Community Sentiment
How developers feel about each tool based on mentions and reviews

Portkey

0% positive100% neutral0% negative

LiteLLM

0% positive100% neutral0% negative
Pricing

Portkey

subscription + freemium + contract + tieredFree tier

Pricing found: $49/month, $49/month, $9, $49/month, $9/month

LiteLLM

tieredFree tier

Pricing found: $0, $0

Use Cases
When to use each tool

Portkey (10)

AI Gateway implementationObservability for AI modelsGovernance of AI systemsPrompt management for LLMsIntegration with GitHub workflowsCaching test results to optimize costsCentralized authentication for MCP serversEnd-to-end orchestration of LLMsBuilding production-ready platforms for GenAIManaging access to AI tools

LiteLLM (8)

Providing LLM access to multiple developersManaging multiple LLM models efficientlyTracking spend by model and userImplementing rate limits by key or userUsing virtual keys for authenticationMigrating existing projects to the proxyIntegrating observability tools for LLMsSetting up alerts and monitoring for LLM usage
Features

Only in Portkey (10)

Production Stack for Gen AI BuildersIntroducing the AI Gateway PatternEnd-to-end LLM OrchestrationSecure access to MCP toolsIntegrate in a minuteA reliable source of truth for LLM pricingTake the driver's seat with AI GovernanceRecognised by industry leadersTrusted by Fortune 500s StartupsLatest guides and resources

Only in LiteLLM (10)

EnterprisePass-through EndpointsLoggingAlerting/MonitoringAuthenticationCRUD Endpoints + UIControl Model AccessAdmin UISpend TrackingBudgets + Rate Limits
Integrations

Shared (2)

OpenAISlack

Only in Portkey (15)

AWS LambdaGitHubAzureGoogle CloudJiraTrelloZapierMicrosoft TeamsDockerKubernetesPostmanTwilioSalesforceNotionAsana

Only in LiteLLM (8)

LangfuseArize PhoenixLangsmithOTEL LoggingDiscordTeamsEmailWebhook
Developer Ecosystem
33
GitHub Repos
40
368
GitHub Followers
815
20
npm Packages
20
What Users Say
Top reviews from G2, Capterra, and TrustRadius

Portkey

What do you like best about Portkey?Portkey is a comprehensive platform for gen AI builders os its AI gateway is smooth integration with large language models and its guardrails have a proactive usage with its prompt management and resilience helps to track costs as per use case and save repeated llm calls which has minimum 3-5 usage per day and its implementation is super easy for any beguines and its customer support is too friendly and responses quickly and its integration is super easy and efficient. we usally have a AI integration in large scale and has the guardrails for a limited usage and this software helps me alot. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.What do you dislike about Portkey?the software has a lot of bugs and its complexcity for newcomers are too high with missing advanced analytics and its GUI documentation must be more flexible. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

5.0\u2605Dharmik V.g2

What do you like best about Portkey?It allows you to attach metadata (key-value pairs) to each request, enabling cost breakdowns per user. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.What do you dislike about Portkey?Lack of control You can’t choose your destination last minute. Once it’s activated, it takes you where it’s been enchanted to. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

5.0\u2605Reyes K.g2

What do you like best about Portkey?What I appreciate most about Portkey is its simplicity and performance. It brings clarity and structure to API management, making it easy to track, debug, and optimize requests without needing a complex setup. The real-time monitoring tools and intuitive dashboard help identify issues instantly, and I really like how lightweight and fast the whole platform feels compared to traditional observability tools. The integration process is smooth, and the documentation is clear, even for more technical setups. Their support team is very responsive — you get real answers from engineers who actually understand the product. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.What do you dislike about Portkey?Portkey is evolving quickly, so there are still a few advanced analytics and visualization options missing compared to older, enterprise-level tools. Also, some custom alert configurations could be more flexible. But the team is clearly improving things rapidly, and updates come frequently with noticeable improvements. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

5.0\u2605andré P.g2

LiteLLM

No reviews yet

Pain Points
Top complaints from reviews and social mentions

Portkey

cost tracking (1)anthropic bill (1)

LiteLLM

llm (2)
Top Discussion Keywords
Most mentioned keywords from community discussions

Portkey

cost tracking (1)anthropic bill (1)

LiteLLM

llm (2)
Product Screenshots

Portkey

Portkey screenshot 1

LiteLLM

LiteLLM screenshot 1
What People Talk About
Most discussed topics from community mentions

Portkey

LiteLLM

security1
open source1
data privacy1
Top Community Mentions
Highest-engagement mentions from the community

Portkey

Anthropic just banned "claude -p" from their Quota - BIG MISTAKE!

So Anthropic just announced that starting June 15, `claude -p`, Agent SDK usage, Claude Code GitHub Actions, and third-party Agent SDK apps will stop counting against the normal Pro/Max interactive Claude usage. Instead, they now go into a separate monthly Agent SDK credit bucket. For Max 5x, that

Redditby nestorcolt source

LiteLLM

Malicious litellm_init.pth in litellm 1.82.8 PyPI package – credential stealer

Hacker Newsby theanonymousoneneutral source
Company Intel
information technology & services
Industry
—
45
Employees
—
$18.0M
Funding
—
Merger / Acquisition
Stage
Venture (Round not Specified)
Supported Languages & Categories

Shared (2)

AI/MLSecurity

Only in Portkey (3)

FinTechDevOpsAnalytics

Only in LiteLLM (1)

Developer Tools
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Portkey or LiteLLM better for AI governance?▼

Portkey is better for AI governance due to its focus on providing end-to-end orchestration and governance tools for LLMs.

How does Portkey pricing compare to LiteLLM?▼

Portkey offers a tiered pricing model starting at $49/month with a freemium option, while LiteLLM provides a free tier with tiered pricing.

Which has better community support, Portkey or LiteLLM?▼

LiteLLM appears to have better community support, with 41,659 GitHub stars and high npm download numbers, indicating strong engagement.

Can Portkey and LiteLLM be used together?▼

Yes, Portkey and LiteLLM can be used together to leverage different strengths, such as Portkey for governance and LiteLLM for cost management.

Which is easier to get started with, Portkey or LiteLLM?▼

Portkey might be easier to get started with for enterprises due to its integration with popular cloud services and comprehensive guides, while LiteLLM may appeal more to developers familiar with managing multiple LLM models.

View Portkey Profile View LiteLLM Profile