# Cloudflare AI Gateway alternatives: what AI models name instead, October 2026

IT AI Recommendation Index, October 2026 Edition. 203 of the 252 answers in the 1 category where Cloudflare AI Gateway holds a standing named it neither first nor as an alternative; these are the first choices those answers made. Page: https://it-ai-index.com/vendors/cloudflare-ai-gateway/alternatives/

## Named instead, most often (every category and segment added)

- Portkey: 50
- LiteLLM: 49
- OpenRouter: 27
- Bifrost: 13
- Helicone: 6
- Kong AI Gateway: 4

## LLM gateways and observability

**Small business**: 67 of 84 answers did not name Cloudflare AI Gateway (Cloudflare AI Gateway is #4 of 7 at 7%).

- OpenRouter: first choice in 22 of those 67
- LiteLLM: first choice in 19 of those 67
- Portkey: first choice in 18 of those 67
- Helicone: first choice in 3 of those 67
- Bifrost: first choice in 1 of those 67
- FreeLLMAPI: first choice in 1 of those 67
- LangSmith: first choice in 1 of those 67
- LiteLLM self-hosted OSS: first choice in 1 of those 67

**Mid-market**: 63 of 84 answers did not name Cloudflare AI Gateway (Cloudflare AI Gateway is #6 of 8 at 2%).

- Portkey: first choice in 17 of those 63
- LiteLLM: first choice in 14 of those 63
- OpenRouter: first choice in 5 of those 63
- Bifrost: first choice in 3 of those 63
- Helicone: first choice in 3 of those 63
- Apache APISIX: first choice in 1 of those 63
- Gateway-LLM: first choice in 1 of those 63
- Kong AI Gateway: first choice in 1 of those 63

**Enterprise**: 73 of 84 answers did not name Cloudflare AI Gateway (Cloudflare AI Gateway is #7 of 8 at 0%).

- LiteLLM: first choice in 16 of those 73
- Portkey: first choice in 15 of those 73
- Bifrost: first choice in 9 of those 73
- Kong AI Gateway: first choice in 3 of those 73
- Arize AX: first choice in 2 of those 73
- LangSmith: first choice in 2 of those 73
- Apache APISIX: first choice in 1 of those 73
- Azure API Management AI Gateway: first choice in 1 of those 73

Published under CC BY 4.0. The output is the models' output; nothing here is a recommendation by the index.