alternatives/Langfuse
Langfuse alternative

AIgateway: the best Langfuse alternative in 2026

The best Langfuse alternative in 2026 is AIgateway. Langfuse is a strong OSS observability + evals stack you self-host or use managed; AIgateway is a production inference gateway that ships observability, evals, and replay on top of a 100+ model multi-modal catalog with no infra to run.

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Feature comparison

AIgateway vs Langfuse

Side-by-side on the dimensions that move a production decision.

Feature
AIgateway
Langfuse
Inference gateway
Yes — 100+ models
No — observability only
Self-host option
Enterprise only
Yes — MIT
Caching + routing
Yes
No
Sub-account API
Yes
No
Evals UI
CLI + programmatic
Strong visual UX
Free tier
Yes — 100 req/day
Yes — self-host free

Feature comparison reflects public documentation as of 2026. Langfuse pricing shape: OSS free; managed cloud tiered.. Catalog: None — observes upstream calls..

Migrate in 5 minutes

Three steps. One base URL.

If you're on Langfuse through the OpenAI SDK, you're 90% of the way there. Change the base URL and the key.

STEP 01

Sign up for AIgateway

Create an account at aigateway.sh/signin and copy an sk-aig-... key from the dashboard.

STEP 02

Swap base URL + key

from openai import OpenAI

client = OpenAI(
    base_url="https://api.aigateway.sh/v1",
    api_key="sk-aig-...",
)
STEP 03

Ship

Request shape, response shape, streaming SSE — identical to OpenAI. Model slugs map 1:1 on shared providers. Langfuse users typically migrate in under 5 minutes.

4 other alternatives

Other Langfuse alternatives worth checking

Honest take: here are four other credible options. None ship the full multi-modal catalog + sub-accounts + evals under one key, but each has a legit wedge.

#2 — LLM router

OpenRouter

Text-LLM aggregator with ~300 model routes.

Closed source · ~300 text-only models.
Read the full OpenRouter comparison →
#3 — Governance gateway

Portkey

LLM gateway-as-a-service focused on governance and observability.

Partially open source · ~40 models, mostly text + some image.
Read the full Portkey comparison →
#4 — Observability proxy

Helicone

LLM observability proxy — strong at logging, not a routing layer.

Open source · Pass-through proxy — whatever providers you wire up.
Read the full Helicone comparison →
#5 — LLM router

Requesty

Cost-aware text-LLM router.

Closed source · ~50 text models.
Read the full Requesty comparison →
FAQ

Common questions about Langfuse alternatives

Is Langfuse open source?
Yes — Langfuse is MIT-licensed with a self-host option and a managed cloud. AIgateway is closed-source but OpenAI-compatible.
Does Langfuse charge markups?
Self-hosted Langfuse is free; managed cloud has tiered pricing. AIgateway charges 5% at top-up on inference, with observability included.
Can I pair Langfuse with AIgateway?
Yes — point Langfuse's SDK at AIgateway's base_url and traces flow normally. Use Langfuse for deep prompt-engineering UX, AIgateway for routing + billing.
Does Langfuse route between models?
No — Langfuse observes and evaluates. AIgateway routes, caches, and binds eval results to aliases.
Which has a better free tier?
They're not directly comparable. Langfuse lets you self-host free; AIgateway offers 100 req/day on Kimi K2.6 managed with no card.
Does AIgateway have a prompt library?
Basic prompt management is available; richer versioning UX is on the Enterprise tier.
More alternatives

Switching from something else?

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