Langfuse vs Portkey
A side-by-side comparison of Langfuse and Portkey, drawn from Ignaite's continuously-verified listings.
Compared from listings verified as of
Langfuse
ObservabilityOpen-source LLM observability. Self-hostable, OpenTelemetry-native.
View LangfuseAt a glance
| Attribute | Langfuse | Portkey |
|---|---|---|
| Category (differs) | Observability | Inference |
| Pricing | FREEMIUM | FREEMIUM |
| License | Open core | Open core |
| Deployment | Hybrid | Hybrid |
| Platforms | API, Web | API, Web |
| Model support (differs) | Model-agnostic | Multi-model |
| Vendor (differs) | Langfuse | Portkey |
The honest brief
Langfuse
The MIT-licensed, self-hostable answer to LangSmith — own your observability data, framework-agnostic.
- Own your observability data
- Framework-agnostic, OTel-native
- Tracing + evals + prompt mgmt
- Transparent unit-based pricing
- Self-host infra cost at scale
- Less deep LangChain integration
- Setup heavier than hosted-only
Portkey
Open-source AI gateway to 1,600+ LLMs with built-in observability, guardrails, and governance — self-host, hybrid, or managed cloud.
- One API across many providers
- Routing, caching, and fallbacks
- Cost limits and PII redaction
- Guardrails, RBAC, and MCP gateway
- Acquired by Palo Alto Networks (closed 2025)
- Future roadmap may shift to Prisma AIRS
- Advanced governance gated to paid tiers