---
id: blog-open-source-openrouter-alternatives
slug: open-source-openrouter-alternatives
date: 2026-07-23
title: "6 Best Open-Source OpenRouter Alternatives in 2026"
summary: "The best open-source OpenRouter alternatives in 2026 — self-hostable AI gateways compared by what ships in the open core, what stays paid, and what you'll actually operate."
categories: ["Guides"]
image:
  src: "/blog/open-source-openrouter-alternatives.png"
  alt: "Open-source OpenRouter alternatives — a glowing open-box gateway on a circuit board routing to multiple model chips"
  width: 1536
  height: 1024
---

OpenRouter has no self-hosted version. There's no source to read, no container to run inside your VPC, and no way to keep prompts from transiting a third-party cloud. If your security review just failed on that sentence, the fix isn't a bigger OpenRouter plan — it's an open-source OpenRouter alternative you can run yourself.

The good news: 2026 is the best year yet for open-source AI gateways. The catch: "open source" spans everything from a full platform with a dashboard to a bare proxy binary, and several projects keep exactly the features you need — SSO, audit logs, log storage — in a paid tier. We compared the six open-source OpenRouter alternatives worth adopting, on what ships in the open core, what stays gated, and how much operating you're signing up for. We build the first one, so read accordingly.

## What "Open Source" Buys You Here

Three things OpenRouter can't offer at any price:

- **Data boundary control.** Prompts, completions, and keys stay on infrastructure you control — the requirement that drives most of these migrations.
- **No platform fees.** Self-hosted requests carry no credit fee and no BYOK metering; you pay providers directly.
- **An exit hatch.** If the vendor pivots or gets acquired (it happened twice in this space since 2025), you keep a working gateway.

The trade: you operate it. Deploys, upgrades, scaling, and paging are yours. If that's the dealbreaker, the broader [OpenRouter alternatives](/blog/openrouter-alternatives) list includes managed options.

## Comparison Table

| Alternative     | License     | Runtime           | Managed option | In the open core                               | Best for            |
| --------------- | ----------- | ----------------- | -------------- | ---------------------------------------------- | ------------------- |
| LLM Gateway     | AGPLv3      | Docker (unified)  | Yes            | Full platform: UI, routing, caching, analytics | Best overall        |
| LiteLLM         | MIT         | Python + Redis/PG | No             | Proxy, virtual keys, budgets; SSO/audit paid   | Python-first teams  |
| Bifrost         | Open source | Single Go binary  | No             | Proxy, virtual keys, budgets                   | Raw throughput      |
| Portkey Gateway | MIT (2.0)   | Node service      | Yes            | Governance, observability; log storage cloud   | Compliance teams    |
| Kong AI Gateway | OSS core    | Kong + plugins    | Yes            | Routing, semantic caching plugins              | Existing Kong shops |
| Envoy AI GW     | Open source | Kubernetes/Envoy  | No             | Unified API, MCP gateway, quota routing        | K8s platform teams  |

## 1. LLM Gateway

**The full platform, not just a proxy.**

[LLM Gateway](https://llmgateway.io) is open source under AGPLv3, and the self-hosted version is the whole product: the routing gateway, the dashboard UI, Redis-backed response caching, per-request cost and latency analytics, and API key management. One Docker command brings it up:

```bash
docker run -d \
  --name llmgateway \
  -p 3002:3002 -p 4001:4001 -p 4002:4002 \
  -e AUTH_SECRET="your-secret" \
  -e GATEWAY_API_KEY_HASH_SECRET="your-hash-secret" \
  ghcr.io/theopenco/llmgateway-unified:latest
```

**Strengths:**

- Self-hosted requests route to 200+ models across 40+ providers through one OpenAI-compatible endpoint, with smart routing scored on live uptime, throughput, price, and latency
- The same codebase powers the managed cloud — you can start self-hosted and move to managed (or the reverse) without changing your integration
- Caching, analytics, and the dashboard are in the open core, not a paid add-on

**Weaknesses:**

- AGPLv3 is stricter than MIT — fine for internal use, but read the license if you're embedding it in a distributed product
- Guardrails and advanced team governance are Enterprise-plan features
- Younger community than LiteLLM's

**Best for:** Teams that want OpenRouter's one-API convenience running inside their own boundary, with the option of a managed cloud later. See the [feature-by-feature comparison](/compare/open-router).

---

## 2. LiteLLM

**The default answer, with real operational weight.**

LiteLLM is the best-known open-source LLM proxy: MIT-licensed, Python, 100+ providers behind the OpenAI format. It can run in-process as a library or as a standalone proxy with virtual keys and budgets.

**Strengths:**

- Massive provider coverage and community; most tutorials assume it
- Library mode is genuinely useful for Python apps — no proxy needed
- Virtual keys, budgets, and spend tracking in the open core

**Weaknesses:**

- Production deployments mean operating the proxy plus Redis and Postgres, and scaling Python at high request volumes
- SSO, audit logs, and admin controls require the paid enterprise tier
- No managed option if you change your mind about ops

**Best for:** Python-first teams comfortable running their own infrastructure. If the ops bill is the concern, see the [LiteLLM alternatives](/blog/litellm-alternatives) list.

---

## 3. Bifrost

**A single Go binary tuned for throughput.**

Bifrost (from Maxim AI) is an open-source gateway written in Go, benchmarking its routing overhead in microseconds per request at thousands of requests per second. It's the lightest-weight serious option here.

**Strengths:**

- One static binary — the simplest deployment story on this list
- Very low overhead at high request volumes
- Virtual keys and budgets in the open core

**Weaknesses:**

- No managed cloud and a smaller ecosystem
- Observability and dashboarding are thin compared to platform gateways
- Younger project; fewer production war stories

**Best for:** Teams whose main requirement is a fast, self-hosted proxy and who bring their own observability.

---

## 4. Portkey Gateway

**Enterprise governance with an MIT core.**

Portkey open-sourced most of its gateway — governance, observability, auth, cost controls — under MIT with Gateway 2.0 in March 2026. Palo Alto Networks acquired the company in May 2026; the open core continues, while persistent log storage and compliance features remain in the managed cloud.

**Strengths:**

- The most governance-focused open core here: guardrails, budgets, tracing
- MIT license, friendlier than AGPL for embedding
- Managed cloud available when you want to hand ops back

**Weaknesses:**

- Self-hosting the core doesn't get you log persistence or compliance reporting — those pull you to the cloud product
- Usage-based cloud pricing adds up at volume
- Post-acquisition roadmap is now set inside a large security vendor

**Best for:** Compliance-minded teams that want open-source governance primitives and accept a cloud dependency for storage.

---

## 5. Kong AI Gateway

**AI plugins on the API gateway you already run.**

Kong AI Gateway adds LLM routing, semantic caching, prompt guarding, and token-based rate limiting as plugins on Kong's open-source core. For platform teams already fronting APIs with Kong, LLM traffic becomes one more configured route.

**Strengths:**

- Reuses your existing gateway, observability, and deployment pipeline
- Semantic caching and prompt-security plugins in the ecosystem
- Open-source core with a managed path (Konnect) if you want it

**Weaknesses:**

- Adopting Kong just for LLM routing is heavy
- AI features are plugins on a general-purpose gateway, and the richer ones land in paid tiers
- No provider billing layer; keys and spend live elsewhere

**Best for:** Teams already standardized on Kong.

---

## 6. Envoy AI Gateway

**The CNCF-ecosystem option, v1.0 in June 2026.**

Envoy AI Gateway extends CNCF's Envoy Gateway with native LLM traffic support. The v1.0 release (June 2026) brought a single OpenAI-compatible API across 16 providers, a Model Context Protocol gateway, and multi-tenant quota-aware routing, with maintainers from Bloomberg, Tetrate, and Nutanix.

**Strengths:**

- Kubernetes-native and vendor-neutral, on infrastructure many platform teams already trust
- Stable v1 control-plane API with production users at scale
- MCP gateway support built in

**Weaknesses:**

- 16 providers is a fraction of what dedicated gateways route to
- Requires a Kubernetes and Envoy operational practice — this is platform-team tooling, not a weekend deploy
- No dashboard product; you assemble observability from the Envoy ecosystem

**Best for:** Kubernetes platform teams that want AI traffic managed like the rest of their service mesh.

---

## How to Choose

**You want the platform, not just a proxy:** LLM Gateway ships the dashboard, caching, and analytics in the open core — the closest self-hosted equivalent to what OpenRouter's cloud does.

**You're Python-first and staffed for ops:** LiteLLM.

**You need maximum throughput per node:** Bifrost.

**Governance is the requirement:** Portkey Gateway, with eyes open about the cloud storage dependency.

**You already run Kong or Kubernetes/Envoy:** Kong AI Gateway or Envoy AI Gateway respectively — extend what you have.

## Frequently Asked Questions

### Is there a fully open-source version of OpenRouter?

No project replicates OpenRouter's hosted marketplace exactly, but LLM Gateway comes closest as an open-source platform: one OpenAI-compatible API over 200+ models, with routing, caching, analytics, and a dashboard you self-host. Proxies like LiteLLM and Bifrost cover the routing layer alone.

### Do self-hosted gateways charge any fees?

No. A self-hosted gateway routes your requests using your own provider keys, so you pay providers directly with no platform fee and no BYOK metering. Your costs are provider spend plus the infrastructure you run the gateway on.

### Which open-source LLM gateway is easiest to run?

Bifrost is the simplest artifact (one Go binary); LLM Gateway is the simplest full platform (one Docker command including UI and analytics). LiteLLM needs Redis and Postgres alongside the proxy for production use, and Envoy AI Gateway assumes a Kubernetes practice.

### Can I start self-hosted and switch to managed later?

With LLM Gateway, yes — the managed cloud runs the same AGPLv3 codebase and API, so the integration doesn't change. Portkey and Kong also offer managed paths. LiteLLM, Bifrost, and Envoy AI Gateway are self-host only.

---

## Run the Top Pick Tonight

- **[Self-host LLM Gateway](https://docs.llmgateway.io)** — one Docker command, the full platform, AGPLv3
- **[Try the managed cloud free](https://llmgateway.io/signup)** — same API, zero infrastructure, 0% BYOK fees
- **[10 Best OpenRouter Alternatives in 2026](/blog/openrouter-alternatives)** — the full list including managed options
