Top 5 LLM Gateways for Securing Your AI Apps

TL;DR

LLM gateways have become essential infrastructure for production AI applications. This guide compares five leading solutions: Bifrost (fastest open-source gateway with <11 µs overhead), LiteLLM (multiple providers with extensive integrations), Helicone (Rust-based with zero markup pricing), Kong AI (enterprise-grade with advanced governance), and Cloudflare (unified billing with global infrastructure). Each platform offers distinct capabilities for unified LLM access, cost control, and security.

What is an LLM Gateway?

An LLM gateway acts as an intelligent proxy between your AI applications and multiple LLM providers. Instead of managing separate integrations for OpenAI, Anthropic, AWS Bedrock, and others, a gateway provides a unified interface that normalizes API formats, handles authentication, implements failover logic, and provides observability. Without a gateway, teams face provider lock-in, manual failover management, and limited visibility into AI spending.

1. Bifrost - High-Performance Gateway by Maxim AI

Platform Overview

Bifrost is a high-performance, open-source LLM gateway built by Maxim AI specifically for production-grade AI systems. Written in Go, Bifrost delivers exceptional performance with <11 µs overhead at 5,000 RPS, making it 50x faster than LiteLLM in sustained benchmarking. The gateway emphasizes zero-configuration deployment, enabling teams to go from installation to production in under a minute.

Features

Core Capabilities:

• Unified Interface - Single OpenAI-compatible API across 20+ providers including OpenAI, Anthropic, AWS Bedrock, Google Vertex, Azure, Cerebras, Cohere, Mistral, Ollama, and Groq
• Automatic Failover - Seamless failover between providers and models with zero downtime
• Load Balancing - Intelligent request distribution across multiple API keys and providers
• Semantic Caching - Response caching based on semantic similarity to reduce costs and latency

Advanced Features:

• Model Context Protocol (MCP) - Enable AI models to use external tools like filesystem, web search, and databases
• Multimodal Support - Text, images, audio, and streaming behind a unified interface
• Governance - Usage tracking, rate limiting, and hierarchical budget management
• Custom Plugins - Extensible middleware for analytics and monitoring

Enterprise Security:

• SSO Integration - Google and GitHub authentication
• Vault Support - Secure API key management with HashiCorp Vault
• Observability - Native Prometheus metrics and distributed tracing

Best For

Bifrost excels for engineering teams prioritizing performance, simplicity, and production reliability. The zero-config approach makes it ideal for teams wanting to deploy quickly without complex YAML configurations. Its exceptional speed makes it the natural choice for high-throughput applications requiring sub-millisecond overhead.

2. LiteLLM - Open-Source Multi-Provider Gateway

Platform Overview

LiteLLM is an open-source gateway supporting multiple LLM providers through a unified OpenAI-compatible interface. Available as both a Python SDK and proxy server, it offers extensive flexibility for different deployment scenarios.

Features

• Multi-Provider Support - OpenAI, Anthropic, xAI, AWS Bedrock, Google Vertex, Azure, Hugging Face, and multiple providers
• Agent Gateway (A2A) - Invoke and manage AI agents with request/response logging and access controls
• MCP Support - Use Model Context Protocol servers directly via chat completions endpoint
• Cost Tracking - Monitor usage and spending per project with built-in budgeting tools
• Observability Integrations - Connects with Lunary, MLflow, Langfuse, Helicone, and other monitoring platforms

Best For

LiteLLM suits teams comfortable with YAML configuration who need maximum provider coverage and extensive third-party integrations. Its open-source nature makes it attractive for teams requiring full customization and transparency.

3. Helicone - Zero-Markup Observability Gateway

Platform Overview

Helicone is a Rust-based gateway emphasizing performance and built-in observability. It provides access to multiple AI models through an OpenAI SDK-compatible interface with zero markup pricing.

Features

• Zero Markup Pricing - Pay exactly what providers charge with no additional fees
• Built-in Observability - Every request automatically logged, tracked, and analyzed
• Rust Performance - ~1-5ms P95 latency overhead with support for 10,000+ requests/second
• Automatic Failover - Health-aware routing with circuit breaking
• Self-Hosting Support - Deploy on AWS, GCP, Azure, Kubernetes, or bare metal
• Unified Billing - Centralized billing across all providers

Best For

Helicone works well for teams wanting production-grade observability without markup fees. The Rust-based architecture appeals to performance-conscious teams, while self-hosting options suit organizations with data sovereignty requirements.

4. Kong AI Gateway - Enterprise API Management

Platform Overview

Kong AI Gateway extends Kong's proven API management platform to AI workloads. Built on enterprise-grade infrastructure, it provides comprehensive governance for LLM and agent traffic.

Features

• Universal LLM API - Route across OpenAI, Anthropic, AWS Bedrock, Google Vertex, Azure AI, Mistral, and Hugging Face
• MCP & A2A Support - Full support for Model Context Protocol and Agent-to-Agent communication
• Automated RAG - Build RAG pipelines at the gateway layer to reduce hallucinations
• PII Sanitization - Protect 20+ categories of PII across 12 languages
• Advanced Guardrails - AWS Bedrock Guardrails and Azure AI Content Safety integration
• Semantic Routing - Intelligently route requests based on prompt content
• Prompt Compression - Reduce token costs by up to 5x

Best For

Kong targets enterprise organizations requiring comprehensive governance, compliance features (SOC2, HIPAA, GDPR), and integration with existing API management infrastructure. Teams already using Kong Gateway gain seamless AI traffic management.

5. Cloudflare AI Gateway - Global Infrastructure Platform

Platform Overview

Cloudflare AI Gateway leverages Cloudflare's global network to provide AI application control with unified billing and enterprise-grade reliability.

Features

• Unified Billing - Single bill for 350+ models across 6 providers (OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, Groq, xAI)
• Global Infrastructure - Built on systems powering 20% of the internet
• Caching & Rate Limiting - Reduce costs and control usage at scale
• Dynamic Routing - Route between models and providers based on cost or performance
• Data Loss Prevention - Integrated DLP to scan prompts and responses for sensitive data
• Zero Data Retention - Optional ZDR mode for compliance-sensitive workloads
• Free Tier - Available on all Cloudflare plans

Best For

Cloudflare suits teams already using Cloudflare services who want seamless integration with their existing infrastructure. The unified billing simplifies multi-provider cost management, while the global network ensures low latency worldwide.

Platform Comparison

Choosing the Right Gateway

For teams using Maxim AI's evaluation and observability platform, Bifrost provides seamless integration for end-to-end AI quality management. Learn more about building reliable AI systems through our guide on AI reliability strategies.

The right gateway depends on your specific requirements, but all five platforms solve the fundamental challenge of unified LLM access while offering distinct advantages for production AI applications.

Want to see how Bifrost can accelerate your AI infrastructure? Schedule a demo to learn more about Maxim's end-to-end AI quality platform.