# LiteLLM vs Respan LiteLLM records 576,967 monthly visits with +7.9% month-over-month growth and Freemium, Contact for Pricing pricing. Respan records 91,503 monthly visits with -14.5% growth and Freemium pricing. | Metric | [LiteLLM](https://openaitools.app/tool/litellm) | [Respan](https://openaitools.app/tool/respan) | | :--- | :--- | :--- | | Website URL | https://litellm.ai | https://respan.ai | | Categories | AI API, Large Language Models (LLMs), AI Developer Tools, Open Source AI Models | AI Developer Tools, Large Language Models (LLMs), AI Monitor, Prompt Engineering | | Pricing Model | Freemium, Contact for Pricing | Freemium | | Monthly Visits | 576,967 | 91,503 | | MoM Growth Rate | +7.9% | -14.5% | | Primary Market | United States | United States | | Direct Visits | 228,967 | 23,119 | | Review Score | 4.8 | 4.5 | | Saved Count | 5 | 0 | | Supported Platforms | Website | Website | ## LiteLLM LiteLLM is an open-source AI gateway and Python SDK designed to remove vendor lock-in from LLM applications. The SDK lets you call models from OpenAI, Anthropic, Google Vertex AI, Bedrock, Mistral, Azure and dozens of other providers using the same OpenAI-style request format, so switching models is a configuration change rather than a code rewrite. The same project ships an AI Gateway (often called the proxy) that turns that abstraction into a shared service for an entire organization. That gateway is where most platform teams find the value. It issues virtual keys scoped by team, project or application, tracks spend per key against budgets, applies rate limits (TPM and RPM), and exposes dashboards for request volume, token usage and cost per model. Routing features include load balancing across deployments, automatic fallbacks when a provider fails, retries and budget-based rerouting, plus guardrails for PII masking, prompt-injection detection and secret detection. The project is genuinely open source with the code on GitHub (BerriAI/litellm) and a very active community. Enterprise features add SSO, audit logs, and support for agents and MCP servers through the same gateway. Notably, LiteLLM supports day-zero access to new models so teams can adopt them as soon as they ship, and it can also serve self-hosted, fine-tuned and internal models behind the same key. Companies cited on the site include NVIDIA, Netflix, Okta, Lemonade and AT&T. **Pricing & Plans:** Freemium and open source. The self-hosted LiteLLM gateway and SDK are free under an open-source licence, and a free tier lets you get started immediately. Enterprise plans with SSO, audit logs, SLAs and advanced support are quoted on request via the sales team. - **OpenAI-compatible API for 100+ LLMs:** Call 100+ providers and 1,800+ models using one request format, so you can swap models without changing application code. - **Virtual keys, teams and budgets:** Issue scoped keys per team, project or app, set monthly spend caps and see exactly who is driving usage and cost. - **Routing, load balancing and fallbacks:** Distribute traffic across deployments, retry on failure and automatically fall back to another model or provider when one goes down. - **Observability and spend tracking:** Dashboards for request volume, tokens and cost per model, with support for logging and analytics integrations. - **Guardrails and policy controls:** Plug in PII masking, prompt-injection detection and secret-detection guardrails, and manage policies centrally instead of in every app. **Strengths:** Truly open source with a large GitHub community and self-hosting option; Very broad provider coverage with an OpenAI-compatible interface; Enterprise-grade controls: virtual keys, budgets, rate limits and audit logs; Day-zero support for new models and easy fallback when providers fail **Limitations:** Self-hosting means you own deployment, upgrades and uptime; Feature depth varies between the free open-source version and enterprise plan; The breadth of configuration options can be overwhelming for small projects [Profile (Markdown)](https://openaitools.app/tool/litellm.md) ## Respan Respan pairs a high-throughput gateway with the observability layer that production LLM teams usually have to bolt on separately. You keep using the OpenAI, Anthropic, Google Gemini, Vercel AI SDK, or LangChain clients you already have, and simply repoint the base URL to the Respan endpoint with a single API key. From there Respan handles routing, fallbacks and retries, load balancing across providers or keys, PII redaction before prompts leave your infrastructure, tool access such as memory, web search, code execution and MCP servers, plus per-customer spend limits that halt calls once a budget is reached. The vendor publishes head-to-head benchmark numbers against alternatives like LiteLLM, Portkey and Bifrost, claiming far higher throughput, dramatically lower added latency, and a much smaller memory footprint. It also markets bulk token rates passed on to customers with a stated 0% routing fee, so the savings come from negotiated provider pricing rather than a markup. Alongside the gateway, Respan ships tracing and evaluation tooling so you can review logs from the terminal, run evals against real traffic, and iterate on prompts without leaving the platform. Pricing is freemium, with a free tier and a contact-sales path for higher volumes; check the official pricing page for current token discounts and plan limits. **Pricing & Plans:** Freemium. There is a free tier plus volume-based and enterprise options that require contacting sales; token pricing varies by model, and Respan advertises bulk rates with a 0% routing fee. Verify current figures on the official pricing page. - **One key, 1,000+ models:** Route to OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, xAI, DeepSeek, Qwen and many other models through a single API key and one OpenAI-compatible endpoint. - **Drop-in SDK compatibility:** Keep your existing OpenAI, Anthropic, LangChain or Vercel AI SDK code and change only the base URL. - **Reliability routing:** Automatic fallbacks, retries and load balancing across providers and API keys keep requests answering when a single provider rate-limits or fails. - **Tracing and evals:** Every call is logged and traceable, with evaluation tooling and a CLI so you can query logs and traces from your terminal. - **Safety and governance:** PII redaction masks personal data before it reaches the model, and per-customer spend limits stop calls at a configured budget. **Strengths:** Open-source with an OpenAI-compatible interface, so migration is usually a one-line change; Broad model catalogue plus advertised bulk pricing and a stated 0% routing fee; Fallbacks, load balancing, PII redaction and spend limits in one control point; Combined tracing and evaluation tooling reduces the number of separate tools a team maintains **Limitations:** Benchmark and discount claims are vendor-published and should be validated against your own traffic; Advanced evaluation and enterprise governance features require talking to sales rather than self-serve signup; Running an extra gateway hop adds an operational dependency you must monitor [Profile (Markdown)](https://openaitools.app/tool/respan.md) ## Frequently Asked Questions ### How do LiteLLM and Respan compare in monthly traffic? LiteLLM has 576,967 monthly visits, while Respan has 91,503. Traffic estimates describe audience size, not product quality. ### How do their growth rates compare? LiteLLM has a month-over-month growth rate of +7.9%; Respan has -14.5%. ### How does pricing compare? LiteLLM: Freemium, Contact for Pricing. Freemium and open source. The self-hosted LiteLLM gateway and SDK are free under an open-source licence, and a free tier lets you get started immediately. Enterprise plans with SSO, audit logs, SLAs and advanced support are quoted on request via the sales team. Respan: Freemium. Freemium. There is a free tier plus volume-based and enterprise options that require contacting sales; token pricing varies by model, and Respan advertises bulk rates with a 0% routing fee. Verify current figures on the official pricing page. ## Alternatives | # | Tool Name | Monthly Visits | MoM Growth Rate | Pricing Model | Summary | Profile (Markdown) | | :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- | | 1 | [OpenRouter](https://openaitools.app/tool/openrouter-ai) | 19,941,437 | -6.2% | Paid | One API key for hundreds of AI models from every major provider | [.md](https://openaitools.app/tool/openrouter-ai.md) | | 2 | [Together AI](https://openaitools.app/tool/together-ai) | 1,645,930 | +64.9% | Freemium, Paid | Hosts high-performance open-weight models directly on dedicated serverless infrastructure, but does not route across external providers. | [.md](https://openaitools.app/tool/together-ai.md) | | 3 | [OrcaRouter](https://openaitools.app/tool/orcarouter) | 975,300 | -5.2% | Freemium | One OpenAI-compatible gateway for adaptive LLM routing, guardrails, and spend control | [.md](https://openaitools.app/tool/orcarouter.md) | | 4 | [ZenMux](https://openaitools.app/tool/zenmux) | 444,394 | +16.7% | Freemium, Paid | Unified LLM gateway with failover and analytics, but offers less robust open-source developer SDK support. | [.md](https://openaitools.app/tool/zenmux.md) | | 5 | [Portkey](https://openaitools.app/tool/portkey-ai) | 195,650 | -9.4% | Freemium, Paid, Contact for Pricing | AI gateway, observability and guardrails for production LLM apps | [.md](https://openaitools.app/tool/portkey-ai.md) | | 6 | [Eden AI](https://openaitools.app/tool/eden-ai) | 173,828 | +6.5% | Paid, Contact for Pricing | Provides managed multi-provider AI routing and cost tracking, but lacks the native open-source flexibility of LiteLLM. | [.md](https://openaitools.app/tool/eden-ai.md) | | 7 | [LLM Gateway](https://openaitools.app/tool/llm-gateway) | 168,426 | -14.5% | Freemium, Contact for Pricing | One OpenAI-compatible API to route, monitor and control 250+ LLM models | [.md](https://openaitools.app/tool/llm-gateway.md) | | 8 | [Maxim AI](https://openaitools.app/tool/maxim-ai) | 121,351 | +10% | Contact for Pricing, Free Open Source | Evaluate, monitor, and govern your AI applications in production | [.md](https://openaitools.app/tool/maxim-ai.md) | | 9 | [BeatAPI](https://openaitools.app/tool/beatapi-ai-model-data-web-apis-for-agents) | 99,987 | +1,012.7% | Freemium | One API key for 70+ AI models, 1,000+ data APIs and web tools | [.md](https://openaitools.app/tool/beatapi-ai-model-data-web-apis-for-agents.md) | | 10 | [Helicone](https://openaitools.app/tool/helicone-ai) | 57,187 | -25.2% | Freemium, Free Trial, Paid, Contact for Pricing, Free | Open-source LLM observability and AI gateway for shipping reliable AI apps | [.md](https://openaitools.app/tool/helicone-ai.md) | --- Source: https://openaitools.app/compare/litellm-vs-respan More Markdown: [Categories](https://openaitools.app/categories.md) · [Traffic rankings](https://openaitools.app/rankings.md) · [llms.txt](https://openaitools.app/llms.txt)