Best LiteLLM Alternative for Scaling Your GenAI Apps

TL;DR

Bifrost is a high-performance AI gateway built by Maxim AI that delivers 50x faster performance than LiteLLM with <11µs overhead at 5,000 RPS. While LiteLLM offers multi-provider access, it struggles with production workloads beyond 500 RPS. Bifrost provides zero-config deployment, automatic failover, semantic caching, and seamless integration with Maxim's AI evaluation platform, making it the best choice for teams building production-grade AI applications.

Why LLM Gateways Matter

As AI applications move from prototype to production, engineering teams face critical infrastructure challenges: managing multiple LLM providers, handling failovers during outages, tracking costs across models, and maintaining low latency at scale.

LLM gateways solve these problems by providing a unified interface to multiple providers. However, not all gateways perform equally when your application serves thousands of requests per second.

LiteLLM: The Industry Standard and Its Limitations

LiteLLM offers:

• 100+ model support across OpenAI, Anthropic, AWS Bedrock, Google Vertex AI, and more
• OpenAI-compatible API that standardizes interactions
• Python SDK with extensive integrations
• Built-in cost tracking and load balancing

However, LiteLLM has critical performance limitations that become apparent in production:

Performance Bottlenecks at Scale

Benchmarks reveal LiteLLM's breaking point. At 500 RPS on identical hardware:

• LiteLLM latency overhead: 4oms
• Reliability: System breaks beyond 500 RPS

For production AI applications serving thousands of concurrent users, these limitations make LiteLLM unsuitable for high-throughput scenarios.

Bifrost: Built for Production Scale

Bifrost addresses LiteLLM's performance gaps while maintaining feature parity. Built in Go specifically for high-throughput AI systems, Bifrost delivers enterprise-grade reliability with minimal overhead.

Core Performance Advantages

Ultra-Low Latency

• <11µs internal overhead at 5,000 RPS
• 50x faster than Python-based alternatives

Zero-Configuration Deployment

# Get started in 30 seconds
npx -y @maximhq/bifrost

# Or via Docker
docker run -p 8080:8080 maximhq/bifrost

Navigate to http://localhost:8080 and you have a fully functional AI gateway with a web UI for configuration and monitoring. See setup guide.

Feature Comparison: Bifrost vs LiteLLM

Key Features That Make Bifrost Production-Ready

1. Automatic Failover and Load Balancing

Bifrost treats failures as first-class concerns. When a provider experiences an outage or rate limiting:

• Automatic rerouting to fallback providers
• Zero-downtime failover without manual intervention
• Intelligent load distribution across multiple API keys

Learn more about fallbacks.

2. Semantic Caching for Cost Optimization

Unlike exact-match caching, Bifrost's semantic caching uses embedding-based similarity:

• Recognizes that "What's the weather today?" and "How's the weather right now?" should return the same cached result
• Reduces costs and latency for common query patterns
• Decreases P95 latency by serving cached responses instantly

3. Native MCP Gateway Support

Bifrost includes built-in support for the Model Context Protocol, enabling AI models to access external tools:

• Filesystem operations
• Database queries
• Web search APIs
• Custom tool integrations

Perfect for building AI agents that need to interact with external systems.

4. Enterprise Governance

Production AI requires strict control over costs and access:

• Virtual keys with independent budgets
• Team-level budget management
• Rate limiting per key, team, or model
• SSO integration with Google and GitHub

Explore governance features.

5. Drop-in SDK Replacement

Replace your existing LLM SDK with one line of code:

# OpenAI SDK
- base_url = "<https://api.openai.com>"
+ base_url = "<http://localhost:8080/openai>"

# Anthropic SDK
- base_url = "<https://api.anthropic.com>"
+ base_url = "<http://localhost:8080/anthropic>"

Compatible with OpenAI, Anthropic, LangChain, Vercel AI SDK, and more.

Bifrost + Maxim: End-to-End AI Quality

Bifrost's most significant advantage comes from integration with Maxim's AI evaluation platform. While standalone gateways only solve routing, Bifrost connects to:

• Pre-production testing: Use agent simulation to test AI applications across hundreds of scenarios
• Quality evaluation: Run automated quality checks using custom evaluators
• Production monitoring: Real-time observability with distributed tracing and automated quality checks

This closed-loop approach enables teams to deploy AI agents 5x faster through systematic quality improvement.

When to Choose Bifrost Over LiteLLM

Choose Bifrost if you:

• Need to handle >500 RPS reliably
• Require sub-11microsecond latency overhead for production SLAs
• Want zero-config deployment without complex setup
• Need automatic failover without manual intervention
• Value native observability with Prometheus metrics
• Automatic Load Balancing
• Rule-based routing
• Want integration with comprehensive AI evaluation workflows

LiteLLM might work if you:

• Are building low-traffic prototypes (<100 RPS)
• Require support for niche providers not yet in Bifrost
• Have existing Python infrastructure heavily integrated with LiteLLM

Getting Started with Bifrost

Start using Bifrost in under a minute:

# NPX - instant start
npx -y @maximhq/bifrost

# Docker with persistence
docker run -p 8080:8080 -v $(pwd)/data:/app/data maximhq/bifrost

Open http://localhost:8080 to configure providers through the web UI. View complete documentation.

For enterprise deployments with dedicated support, book a demo with the Maxim team.

Conclusion

While LiteLLM pioneered the unified LLM gateway approach, Bifrost represents the next generation of AI infrastructure. With 50x better performance, zero-config deployment, and seamless integration into Maxim's end-to-end AI platform, Bifrost is built for teams shipping production-grade AI applications at scale.

The question isn't whether you need an LLM gateway. It's whether your gateway can handle production traffic without becoming the bottleneck.

Ready to scale your AI applications? Try Bifrost or explore Maxim's complete AI evaluation platform.

Resources:

• Bifrost GitHub Repository
• Bifrost Documentation
• AI Gateway Comparison Guide
• LLM Observability Guide