vioscaleAI
Comparison

Envoy AI Gateway vs Higress

No clear leader: Envoy AI Gateway (59.3) and Higress (58.4) are within the 5-point margin; treat as a tie. The attribute-by-attribute breakdown below, with a source and date on every value, is the honest way to compare them.

Envoy AI Gateway full profile →Higress full profile →
Machine formatsMarkdownJSONGraphQLMarkdown is open. JSON and GraphQL need a free key.
Envoy AI Gateway59
Higress58
Score
vioscaleAI score
Envoy AI Gateway59 / 100medium · 54%
Higress58 / 100medium · 55%
Pricing
Free tier
Envoy AI Gateway✓
Higress✓
Model
Envoy AI Gatewayopen_source
Higressfreemium
Price level
Envoy AI Gatewayfree
Higresslow
Transparent
Envoy AI Gateway–
Higress✗
Integrations
Count
Envoy AI Gateway16
Higress8
Security
Trust center
Vulnerabilities
Reliability
Sla pct
Envoy AI Gateway–
Higress99.95
Adoption
Dependent repos
Envoy AI Gateway0
Higress4
Github stars
Envoy AI Gateway2,229
Higress9,567
Activity
Commits last 30d
Envoy AI Gateway68
Higress93
Release
Cadence days
Envoy AI Gateway6
Higress28
History
Envoy AI Gateway20 items
Higress20 items
License
Spdx
Envoy AI GatewayApache-2.0
HigressApache-2.0
Language
Primary
Envoy AI GatewayGo
HigressGo
Market
Availability
Envoy AI Gateway–
HigressAvailable worldwide · HQ CN
Content
Faq
Envoy AI Gateway6 items
Higress7 items

Capabilities

Feature-by-feature on the axes that matter for llm gateways. “-” means undocumented, not absent.

Capabilities
Openai compatible API
Envoy AI Gateway✓
Higress✓
Automatic failover
Envoy AI Gateway✓
Higress✓
Routing strategy
Envoy AI GatewayCustom
HigressLoad based
Caching
Envoy AI GatewaySemantic
HigressSemantic
Virtual key management
Envoy AI Gateway✓
Higress-
Budget spend controls
Envoy AI Gateway✓
Higress-
Rate limiting
Envoy AI Gateway✓
Higress✓
Guardrails moderation
Envoy AI Gateway-
Higress-
Request cost observability
Envoy AI Gateway✓
Higress✓
Streaming support
Envoy AI Gateway✓
Higress✓
Deployment model
Envoy AI GatewaySelf hosted
HigressSelf hosted
Open source
Envoy AI Gateway✓
Higress✓
Pricing model
Envoy AI GatewayOpen source self host
HigressOpen source self host

What each one is

The product in its own terms, so the numbers below have context.

Envoy AI Gateway

An open-source gateway built on Envoy that centralizes AI traffic management by forwarding OpenAI-compatible requests to various LLM providers with automatic failover, token-based rate limiting, and Kubernetes-native deployment.

Independently observed

Higress

Higress is an open-source API gateway designed to manage AI workloads, language model integrations, and tool services. It supports both self-hosted deployment and commercial cloud offerings, with production-grade reliability including 99.95% SLA for enterprise deployments.

Independently observed

Pricing

List pricing as published by each vendor, with the date we read it. Always verify at the source before you buy.

Envoy AI Gateway

Open sourceFree tier

Open-source. Commercial managed hosting and enterprise self-hosted options available.

as of verify ↗

Higress

HybridFree tier

Free open source self-hosted, plus commercial cloud offering

  • Open SourceFree
  • Cloud CommercialContact sales
as of verify ↗

Platform & deployment

Where each product runs and how it can be hosted. A dash means undocumented, not unsupported.

Platforms
Web
Envoy AI Gateway✗
Higress✓
Linux
Envoy AI Gateway✗
Higress✓
CLI
Envoy AI Gateway✓
Higress✗
Deployment
Cloud / SaaS
Envoy AI Gateway✓
Higress✓
Self-hosted
Envoy AI Gateway✓
Higress✓
On-premise
Envoy AI Gateway✓
Higress✗
Hybrid
Envoy AI Gateway✓
Higress✗

Integrations

What each product connects to. Counts come from the vendor's own integration directory where one exists.

In common (4)
  • OpenAI
  • Azure OpenAI
  • DeepSeek
  • Kubernetes

Envoy AI Gateway

28 total - 24 not shared
  • AWS Bedrock
  • Google Vertex AI
  • Google Gemini
  • Anthropic
  • Groq
  • Together AI
  • Mistral
  • Cohere
  • DeepInfra
  • Hunyuan
  • Tencent LLM Knowledge Engine
  • SambaNova
  • Grok
  • OIDC
  • cert-manager
  • GCP Vertex AI
  • Gemini
  • vLLM
  • MCP
  • AWS STS
  • Entra ID
  • Google STS
  • Google Vertex
  • Model Context Protocol
Independently observed

Higress

16 total - 12 not shared
  • Claude
  • Aliyun Dashscope
  • Aliyun DashVector
  • Doubao
  • Istio
  • Nginx Ingress
  • Let's Encrypt
  • Tongyiqianwen
  • Doubaoquantum
  • Envoy
  • NGINX
  • Sealos
Independently observed
Still deciding?

Envoy AI Gateway or Higress: which one depends on you

A composite score cannot know your constraints. Describe them and both get re-weighted against what you actually need, with the evidence behind every position.

Free to run, no account needed to start. How the evaluation works

Comparison generated from independently-sourced facts. Every value links to its source and retrieval date. See the method.