# LLM gateways and observability for small business buyers: what AI models recommend, October 2026

Gane Index, October 2026 Edition. Asked as "LLM gateway" and as "LLM observability and routing platform", six framings each, to fourteen models with search on, on behalf of a small B2B company. Page: https://www.gane.ai/index/it/it-data/llm-gateways-and-observability/2026-10/smb

This is the permanent record of the October 2026 Edition, published October 1, 2026 and superseded since. The current standing: https://www.gane.ai/index/it/it-data/llm-gateways-and-observability/smb/index.md

**Standing:** LiteLLM leads with 31% of first choices; verdict contested. 58 first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts.

## First-choice share

| Rank | Product | Share | Negative rate | Labels |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | [LiteLLM](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/litellm/index.md) | 31% | 16% | 61 |
| 2 | [Portkey](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/portkey/index.md) | 28% | 12% | 59 |
| 3 | [OpenRouter](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/openrouter/index.md) | 21% | 11% | 53 |
| 4 | [Cloudflare AI Gateway](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/cloudflare-ai-gateway/index.md) | 7% | 7% | 28 |
| 5 | [Helicone](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/helicone/index.md) | 5% | 15% | 34 |
| 6 | [Bifrost](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/bifrost/index.md) | 2% | 15% | 20 |
| 13 | [Kong AI Gateway](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/kong-ai-gateway/index.md) | 0% | 24% | 21 |

Rank is by share of first choices among all 53 products named; products with the same share are tied, and the order among them carries no meaning. The table lists those with at least 10 labels.

## Each model's first choice on the direct prompt

- Claude Haiku 4.5: LiteLLM, OpenRouter; alternatives Helicone
- GPT-5.4 mini: LiteLLM; alternatives Kong AI Gateway, Portkey
- Gemini 3.5 Flash: LiteLLM; alternatives Bifrost, Cloudflare AI Gateway, Portkey
- Perplexity Sonar: Portkey; alternatives Bifrost, LiteLLM
- Grok 4.20: LiteLLM; alternatives OpenRouter, Portkey, Vercel AI Gateway
- Mistral Small: Cloudflare AI Gateway; alternatives Dataiku, Vercel AI Gateway
- DeepSeek V4 Flash: LiteLLM; alternatives OpenRouter, Portkey
- Llama 4 Maverick: Cloudflare AI Gateway; alternatives Respan, Vercel
- Qwen 3.7 Flash: Portkey; alternatives LiteLLM, OpenRouter
- Kimi K2: LiteLLM; alternatives Helicone, Portkey
- GLM 4.7 FlashX: Portkey; alternatives LLM Gateway, OpenRouter
- MiniMax M2.5: OpenRouter, Portkey; alternatives LiteLLM
- GPT-6 Luna: Vercel AI Gateway; alternatives Cloudflare AI Gateway, LiteLLM
- Muse Glimmer 30B: LiteLLM, OpenRouter

## Sources the answers cite

78 of 84 answers came back with a source list, from 14 of 14 models. Sites named in the most answers:

- openrouter.ai: 39 answers, 56 citations
- dataiku.com: 32 answers, 32 citations
- dev.to: 31 answers, 44 citations
- getmaxim.ai: 30 answers, 50 citations
- respan.ai: 28 answers, 33 citations
- portkey.ai: 26 answers, 42 citations
- cloudzero.com: 26 answers, 26 citations
- truefoundry.com: 25 answers, 30 citations

Pages named in the most answers:

- https://openrouter.ai/blog/insights/llm-gateway (36 answers)
- https://dataiku.com/blog/best-llm-gateways (30 answers)
- https://cloudzero.com/blog/llm-gateways (26 answers)
- https://respan.ai/articles/best-llm-gateways (23 answers)
- https://dupple.com/learn/best-llm-gateways (21 answers)
- https://gane.ai/index/it/it-data/llm-gateways-and-observability/smb (17 answers)
- https://orq.ai/blog/best-llm-gateways (17 answers)
- https://inworld.ai/resources/best-llm-gateways (16 answers)
- https://portkey.ai/buyers-guide/leading-llm-gateway-platforms (16 answers)
- https://braintrust.dev/articles/best-llm-gateways-2026 (11 answers)

## Warned against

- LiteLLM: 10 of 61 labels negative. "LiteLLM – Widely used open‑source gateway, but there are hundreds of publicly exposed LiteLLM servers worldwide. Security concerns include..." (GLM 4.7 FlashX, negative prompt)
- OpenRouter: 6 of 53 labels negative. "Avoid using OpenRouter for any production workload involving sensitive data" (DeepSeek V4 Flash, negative prompt)
- Portkey: 7 of 59 labels negative. "Known for hidden costs and billing surprises... it has crashed and failed requests" (Mistral Small, negative prompt)
- Helicone: 5 of 34 labels negative. ""Avoid depending on Helicone — it's now in maintenance mode"ic" (Muse Glimmer 30B, negative prompt)

## Movement since September 2026

Floor: 11 points of share, measured on the calibration repeat.
New leader: LiteLLM (46%) to Portkey (30%). Margin 0 points, within noise.

- LiteLLM: 46% to 30%, −16. Cleared the floor by 5 points · rank 1 → 2 of 51.
- Portkey: 15% to 30%, +15. Cleared the floor by 4 points · rank 2 → 1 of 51.
- OpenRouter: 10% to 20%, +10. Inside the floor by 1 point · rank 3 of 51, unchanged.
- Helicone: 10% to 6%, −4. Inside the floor by 7 points · rank 4 of 51, unchanged.
- Cloudflare AI Gateway: 4% to 6%, +2. Inside the floor by 9 points · rank 6 → 5 of 51.
- Bifrost: 0% to 2%, +2. Inside the floor by 9 points · rank 10 → 6 of 51.
- Kong AI Gateway: 0% to 0%, ±0. Inside the floor by 11 points · rank 29 → 13 of 51.

## Record

- Method: https://www.gane.ai/index/it/methodology
- License: CC BY 4.0. Cite as Gane Index, October 2026 Edition, www.gane.ai/index/it.