01 Braintrust
AI evaluation and observability platform for LLM apps — tracing, experiments, playgrounds, scorers, and the Loop agent
AI Agents & Automation from $0 free tier: yes Verified JUL 20, 2026
Portkey alternatives
5 alternatives compared · prices last verified Jul 20, 2026 · how we verify
Braintrust is the top Portkey alternative in our directory: it covers the same category (AI Agents & Automation), starts at $0, and has a free tier. All 5 alternatives below are compared on pricing verified against the official pricing pages, on the dates shown.
Ranked by category overlap with Portkey, free-tier availability, then lowest verified starting price — computed from our verified data, never sponsorships.
Portkey alternatives compared
| Alternative | Category | Starting price | Free tier | Price verified |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Braintrust | AI Agents & Automation | $0 | yes | Jul 20, 2026 |
| Langfuse | AI Agents & Automation | Free | yes | Jul 15, 2026 |
| LiteLLM | AI Agents & Automation | $0 | yes | Jul 20, 2026 |
| OpenRouter | AI Coding | $0 | yes | Jun 23, 2026 |
| LangChain | AI Agents & Automation | $39/seat/mo | yes | Jul 12, 2026 |
Each alternative, in brief
02 Langfuse
Open-source LLM engineering platform for tracing, observability, evals, and prompt management — self-host free or run on Langfuse Cloud
AI Agents & Automation from Free free tier: yes Verified JUL 15, 2026
03 LiteLLM
Open-source LLM gateway that puts one OpenAI-compatible API in front of 100+ model providers, with virtual keys, budgets, spend tracking and fallbacks
AI Agents & Automation from $0 free tier: yes Verified JUL 20, 2026
04 OpenRouter
Unified API to 400+ LLMs from 70+ providers through one OpenAI-compatible endpoint, with automatic failover and pass-through token pricing
AI Coding from $0 free tier: yes Verified JUN 23, 2026
05 LangChain
Open-source frameworks for building LLM agents, plus the commercial LangSmith platform for tracing, evaluation, and deployment
AI Agents & Automation from $39/seat/mo free tier: yes Verified JUL 12, 2026
When to stay with Portkey
Documented strengths from our Portkey review — switching isn't always the right call:
- Open-source MIT gateway is free and can be self-hosted with no vendor lock-in
- Passes provider token rates through without a per-token markup — you pay the subscription, not a token surcharge
- Single integration covers gateway, observability, guardrails, and prompt management instead of stitching separate tools