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LLM gateways and observability · November 2026 Edition

Portkey vs Langfuse

Ten of fourteen models named Portkey first on the direct prompt; zero named Langfuse. Portkey was named by fourteen of the fourteen models and Langfuse by thirteen and Portkey carries 53 labels and Langfuse 16, so the shares are not directly comparable.

Portkey

endorsed leader

Named in two categories this edition.

Langfuse

accepted challenger

Named in four categories this edition.

First-choice share32%2%Of first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, 0 to 100.
Negative rate9%0%Negative labels as a share of the product's labels, 0 to 100.
Rank in category#2#7A position in a field of 9; printed, not drawn.
Labels5316A count; the two differ.
The two percentage rows are drawn on one 0 to 100 track, Portkey reading right to left. Rank and label count are printed, not drawn.LiteLLM was named alongside these two in fourteen of the fourteen direct answers. LiteLLM vs Portkey · LiteLLM vs Langfuse · Portkey vs Bifrost

Share is the count of first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts over all fourteen models, for a mid-market B2B company; rank is within the category; every quote names the model and the prompt it came from. Both figures come from the LLM gateways and observability page.

By framing

How many of the fourteen models made each the first choice, per way of asking, and how many argued against it.
PortkeyFirst choices, of fourteen modelsLangfuse
Direct100
Paraphrase51
Comparative10
Budget-constrained003 against Portkey
Scale-constrained20
Negative102 against Portkey
Bars are first choices, 0 to 14 each sideModels that argued againstA model can name both, so the two sides of a row do not sum to fourteen.

Across every category in the November 2026 Edition, Portkey and Langfuse were named in the same answer thirty-six times, of the 169 answers naming Portkey and the 54 naming Langfuse. In those answers Langfuse took the first choice two times and Portkey eighteen.

Every model, every framing

The eighty-four answers behind the chart above, one cell each: where Portkey and Langfuse stood in it.
ModelDirectParaphraseComparativeBudget-constrainedScale-constrainedNegative
Claude Haiku 4.5
GPT-5.4 mini
Gemini 3.5 Flash
Perplexity Sonar
Grok 4.20
Mistral Small
DeepSeek V4 Flash
Llama 4 Maverick
Qwen 3.7 Flash
Kimi K2
GLM 4.7 FlashX
MiniMax M2.5
GPT-6 Luna
Muse Glimmer 30B
Portkey Langfuse first choice named as an alternative argued againstblank: not namedEach cell is one answer, Portkey on the left and Langfuse on the right.

The direct prompt

The plain question, one answer per model, grouped by where Portkey and Langfuse stood in it.

Portkey first, Langfuse not the choice

10 of 14 modelsLangfuse was named in the answer but not as the choice, or not at all.
Claude Haiku 4.5Nexos.ai, Portkey alternatives: Bifrost, LiteLLM, OpenRouter
Gemini 3.5 FlashLiteLLM, Portkey alternatives: Bifrost, Cloudflare AI Gateway
Perplexity SonarPortkey alternatives: Bifrost, LiteLLM, OpenRouter
Grok 4.20Portkey alternatives: Cloudflare AI Gateway, LiteLLM
Mistral SmallLiteLLM, Portkey alternatives: OpenRouter, Requesty
DeepSeek V4 FlashBifrost, Portkey alternatives: Amazon Bedrock, Azure API Management, LiteLLM
Qwen 3.7 FlashLiteLLM, Portkey alternatives: Bifrost, Cloudflare AI Gateway, Kong AI Gateway, OpenRouter
Kimi K2Portkey alternatives: FastRouter, Kong AI Gateway, LiteLLM, TrueFoundry AI Gateway
GPT-6 LunaPortkey alternatives: Cloudflare AI Gateway, LiteLLM
Muse Glimmer 30BLiteLLM, Portkey alternatives: Kong AI Gateway, TrueFoundry AI Gateway

Neither was the first choice, one was named

4 of 14 modelsThe answer put something else first and named one of the two as an alternative.
GPT-5.4 miniOpenRouter alternatives: Kong AI Gateway, LiteLLM, Portkey
Llama 4 MaverickFastRouter alternatives: Concentrate, LiteLLM, OpenRouter, Portkey
GLM 4.7 FlashXLiteLLM alternatives: Bifrost, Kong AI Gateway, Portkey
MiniMax M2.5LiteLLM alternatives: Cloudflare AI Gateway, Helicone, OpenRouter, Portkey

Bold names in an answer are the products the judge labeled a first choice; a model naming several gives each of them that label. The full answer text for every row is in the record.

By buyer segment

The same question asked on behalf of a different buyer. Each standing is computed within its segment and they are never added together. The figures above are the mid-market standing, which is the one the category orders by.
Small business
Portkey leads by thirty-three points.
Portkey36%#1 of 9
Langfuse3%#6 of 9
The full small business standing →
Mid-marketThe figures above
Portkey leads by thirty points.
Portkey32%#2 of 9
Langfuse2%#7 of 9
The full mid-market standing →
Enterprise
Portkey leads by eleven points.
Portkey14%#3 of 10
Langfuse4%#5 of 10
The full enterprise standing →

What the models said about Portkey

Every negative label with a quote, up to three, then the highest-weighted positives, up to three. Six of eight in this category shown.

“Avoid percentage-fee gateways until your monthly model spend exceeds $10,000–$35,000, as the fees become cost-prohibitive” MiniMax M2.5 · budget prompt · soft negative
“Providers like standard versions of OpenRouter or Portkey typically process logs across public infrastructure.” Qwen 3.7 Flash · negative prompt · soft negative
“It eliminates the subscription cost associated with commercial gateways (like Merge.dev or Portkey).” Qwen 3.7 Flash · budget prompt · soft negative
“the "best" LLM gateway typically comes down to a choice between the open-source standard, LiteLLM, or the observability-first solution, Portkey” Qwen 3.7 Flash · direct prompt · first choice
“consider starting with self-hosted open-source options (like Portkey's MIT-licensed tier or Envoy AI Gateway) where you control the data plane” Kimi K2 · negative prompt · first choice
“Portkey has long been the mid-market pick for teams that want guardrails, caching and logging in one product” Claude Haiku 4.5 · direct prompt · first choice

What the models said about Langfuse

Every negative label with a quote, up to three, then the highest-weighted positives, up to three. Two of two in this category shown.

“Top Recommendation: Langfuse + Bifrost” GLM 4.7 FlashX · paraphrase prompt · first choice
“Langfuse (top if you prioritize open-source/self-hosting): Excellent framework-agnostic tracing” Grok 4.20 · paraphrase prompt · alternative
Also compared

Comparisons are drawn for the top eight products in each category, each against each. The output is the models' output; nothing here is a recommendation by the index.