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

Gane Index, November 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/2026-11/smb

**Standing:** Portkey leads with 36% of first choices; verdict contested. 61 first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts.

## First-choice share

| Rank | Product | Share | Negative rate | Labels |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | [Portkey](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/portkey/index.md) | 36% | 13% | 55 |
| 2 | [LiteLLM](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/litellm/index.md) | 33% | 21% | 71 |
| 3 | [Helicone](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/helicone/index.md) | 10% | 7% | 28 |
| 4 | [OpenRouter](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/openrouter/index.md) | 7% | 19% | 54 |
| 5 | [Cloudflare AI Gateway](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/cloudflare-ai-gateway/index.md) | 3% | 9% | 32 |
| 6 | [Langfuse](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/langfuse/index.md) | 3% | 0% | 13 |
| 7 | [Vercel AI Gateway](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/vercel-ai-gateway/index.md) | 2% | 19% | 16 |
| 12 | [Bifrost](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/bifrost/index.md) | 0% | 9% | 22 |
| 26 | [Kong AI Gateway](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/kong-ai-gateway/index.md) | 0% | 35% | 17 |

Rank is by share of first choices among all 70 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: Anthropic, OpenAI API; alternatives OpenRouter
- GPT-5.4 mini: LiteLLM, OpenRouter; alternatives Kong AI Gateway, Portkey
- Gemini 3.5 Flash: Portkey; alternatives Bifrost, Cloudflare AI Gateway, LiteLLM, OpenRouter
- Perplexity Sonar: Portkey; alternatives Cloudflare AI Gateway, LiteLLM, OpenRouter, Vercel AI Gateway
- Grok 4.20: LiteLLM, Portkey; alternatives OpenRouter, Respan
- Mistral Small: LiteLLM; alternatives Bifrost, OpenRouter, Portkey
- DeepSeek V4 Flash: LiteLLM; alternatives Cloudflare AI Gateway, OpenRouter, Portkey
- Llama 4 Maverick: Portkey; alternatives Bifrost, LiteLLM, OpenRouter, Requesty
- Qwen 3.7 Flash: Portkey; alternatives LiteLLM, OpenRouter
- Kimi K2: Portkey; alternatives LiteLLM, OpenRouter
- GLM 4.7 FlashX: OpenRouter; alternatives LiteLLM, Portkey, Vercel AI Gateway
- MiniMax M2.5: Portkey; alternatives LiteLLM, OpenRouter
- GPT-6 Luna: Portkey; alternatives Cloudflare AI Gateway, LiteLLM, OpenRouter
- Muse Glimmer 30B: LiteLLM, Portkey; alternatives Cloudflare AI Gateway, OpenRouter

## Sources the answers cite

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

- dev.to: 41 answers, 63 citations
- getmaxim.ai: 35 answers, 76 citations
- github.com: 22 answers, 36 citations
- openrouter.ai: 20 answers, 36 citations
- gane.ai/index: 20 answers, 21 citations
- requesty.ai: 19 answers, 23 citations
- respan.ai: 19 answers, 20 citations
- portkey.ai: 17 answers, 22 citations

Pages named in the most answers:

- https://dev.to/ericthompson21/when-is-a-managed-llm-gateway-worth-its-cost-5959 (22 answers)
- https://gane.ai/index/it/it-data/llm-gateways-and-observability/smb (20 answers)
- https://cloudzero.com/blog/llm-gateways (16 answers)
- https://respan.ai/articles/best-llm-gateways (15 answers)
- https://requesty.ai/blog/best-managed-llm-gateway (14 answers)
- https://dataiku.com/blog/best-llm-gateways (13 answers)
- https://developersdigest.tech/llm-gateways (11 answers)
- https://arize.com/resources/best-llm-gateways-comparison (9 answers)
- https://concentrate.ai/blog/the-9-best-llm-gateways-in-2026-grouped-by-the-job-they-do (9 answers)
- https://openrouter.ai/blog/insights/llm-gateway (9 answers)

## Warned against

- LiteLLM: 15 of 71 labels negative. "Be very cautious or avoid if not security-savvy... hundreds of publicly exposed LiteLLM instances worldwide have been exploited" (Grok 4.20, negative prompt)
- OpenRouter: 10 of 54 labels negative. "for production workloads involving customer data, proprietary business logic, or regulated information, you should avoid it" (DeepSeek V4 Flash, negative prompt)
- Portkey: 7 of 55 labels negative. "Avoid $49/mo managed gateways like Portkey/Helicone until your monthly LLM spend justifies the governance/observability premium." (Muse Glimmer 30B, budget prompt)
- Kong AI Gateway: 6 of 17 labels negative. "Avoid fully managed enterprise options (e.g., full Kong or TrueFoundry) unless you have existing infrastructure" (Grok 4.20, direct prompt)

## Movement since October 2026

Floor: 11 points of share, measured on the calibration repeat.
New leader: LiteLLM (31%) to Portkey (36%). Margin 3 points, within noise.

- OpenRouter: 21% to 7%, −14. Cleared the floor by 3 points · rank 3 → 4 of 70.
- Portkey: 28% to 36%, +8. Inside the floor by 3 points · rank 2 → 1 of 70.
- Helicone: 5% to 10%, +5. Inside the floor by 6 points · rank 5 → 3 of 70.
- Cloudflare AI Gateway: 7% to 3%, −4. Inside the floor by 7 points · rank 4 → 5 of 70.
- Langfuse: 0% to 3%, +3. Inside the floor by 8 points · rank 12 → 6 of 70.
- LiteLLM: 31% to 33%, +2. Inside the floor by 9 points · rank 1 → 2 of 70.
- Bifrost: 2% to 0%, −2. Inside the floor by 9 points · rank 6 → 12 of 70.
- Vercel AI Gateway: 2% to 2%, ±0. Inside the floor by 11 points · rank 7 of 70, unchanged.
- Kong AI Gateway: 0% to 0%, ±0. Inside the floor by 11 points · rank 13 → 26 of 70.

## Record

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