
bifrost
Fastest enterprise AI gateway (50x faster than LiteLLM) with adaptive load balancer, cluster mode, guardrails, 1000+ models support & <100 µs overhead at 5k RPS.
The Lens
Bifrost is an open source gateway that puts one OpenAI-compatible API in front of 20+ LLM providers (OpenAI, Anthropic, Bedrock, Vertex, and others). Same idea as LiteLLM, written in Go, with the team claiming significantly higher throughput at concurrency. Apache 2.0 and free to run yourself.
Setup is as easy as it gets in this category: 'npx -y @maximhq/bifrost' to try, or Docker and a config file for real use. It has automatic failover, load balancing, semantic caching, MCP integration, plus governance pieces like per-team budgets and rate limits. A web UI handles config, so you don't have to live in YAML.
For solo developers and small teams routing AI calls across providers, this is a direct LiteLLM alternative with less Python overhead. Larger teams comparing both will care about throughput claims under real load, verify on your traffic not the benchmark. Open core, with an enterprise tier for clustering, adaptive load balancing, and custom plugins.
The catch: it's newer and less battle-tested than LiteLLM, and headline benchmarks rarely match production. If LiteLLM is already running cleanly, the migration story has to clear a real bar. If you're picking now, Bifrost's setup speed is a real win.
Free vs Self-Hosted vs Paid
open coreFree: The core gateway, Apache 2.0. All 20+ providers, semantic caching, governance, and the web UI.
Self-hosted: 'npx -y @maximhq/bifrost' to try, Docker or Go SDK for production. Config via the web UI or a file.
Paid: Enterprise tier adds clustering, adaptive load balancing, and custom plugins. Pricing is not public; cloud demo is available.
Open source AI gateway, free under Apache 2.0. Enterprise tier adds clustering and custom plugins; pricing is not public.
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License: Apache License 2.0
Use freely. Patent grant included.
Commercial use: ✓ Yes
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