LiteLLM vs Helicone
Both are alternatives to Portkey. Here's how they stack up — verified facts, no spin.
Also searched as Helicone vs LiteLLM — same comparison, one verdict.
LiteLLM
TOP PICKOne OpenAI-compatible API in front of 100+ providers, running on your own box.
LiteLLM is the de facto open gateway for this layer: a proxy that exposes an OpenAI-compatible endpoint in front of 100+ providers, with virtual keys, per-team budgets, rate limits, fallbacks and logging. You run it, so prompts never leave your infrastructure and there is zero markup on token spend — you pay the model providers directly. At 55k GitHub stars with commits landing daily it is the most widely adopted option here. Licensing is worth reading precisely: the core is MIT, while everything under the repository's enterprise/ directory carries a separate commercial licence.
Helicone
Apache-2.0 gateway in Rust, with observability built in rather than bolted on.
Helicone is an open-source AI gateway written in Rust, with logging, caching and cost tracking built into the routing layer rather than added alongside it — which is the practical difference from LiteLLM, where observability is thin and usually paired with something else. It is Apache-2.0 throughout, self-hostable, and also offered as a hosted service with a free tier. For teams who want one component instead of two, it is the tidier answer.
Side by side
| LiteLLM | Helicone | |
|---|---|---|
| Sovereignty Score | 90 | 88 |
| Open source | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hostable | Yes | Yes |
| Local-first | Yes | Yes |
| License | MIT (core); enterprise/ directory under a separate commercial licence | Apache-2.0 |
| Pricing | Free and self-hosted — you pay the model providers directly with no markup, plus hosting for a small VM (roughly $20–50/month). A paid enterprise tier exists for SSO, audit logs and support. | Free and self-hostable under Apache-2.0. The hosted service has a free tier of roughly 10,000 requests per month, with paid plans starting around $79/month. |
LiteLLM is Macrostack's recommended Portkey alternative, so it's our pick here.
LiteLLM
Strengths
- +Zero markup — provider tokens are billed to you at cost
- +Prompts and completions never leave your infrastructure
- +Virtual keys, per-team budgets and rate limits built in
- +100+ providers behind one OpenAI-compatible endpoint; 55k stars, daily commits
Trade-offs
- −You run it: deployment, upgrades, monitoring and uptime are yours
- −Observability is basic out of the box — expect to pair it with a tracing tool
- −The MIT core stops at the enterprise/ directory; SSO and audit logging sit behind a commercial licence
- −A proxy you operate is another production dependency to keep healthy
Helicone
Strengths
- +Apache-2.0 with no enterprise-directory carve-out
- +Routing and observability in one component — less to assemble
- +Written in Rust; low latency overhead for a proxy
- +Hosted option with a real free tier if you would rather not run it
Trade-offs
- −Smaller project and community than LiteLLM (about 6k stars)
- −Fewer providers supported than LiteLLM's 100+
- −The hosted tier means prompts transit a third party — the thing self-hosting avoided
- −Less mature budget and virtual-key tooling than LiteLLM
Related alternative guides
Facts verified 2026-07-30. Licenses and pricing change — spotted something out of date? That's a correction we want.