Comparison

Higress vs Portkey

On the evidence we track, Portkey leads this comparison with a composite score of 79/100. Scores are only directly comparable because these tools share a category; the full breakdown and every source is below.

Higress full profile →Portkey full profile →

Machine formatsMarkdownJSONGraphQLMarkdown is open. JSON and GraphQL need a free key.

Higress58

★Portkey79

Attribute comparison across 2 tools
Attribute	Higress	PortkeyLeader
vioscaleAI score	58 / 100medium · 55%	79 / 100medium · 74%
Pricing
Free tierpricing.free_tier	✓	✓
Modelpricing.model	freemium	freemium
Price levelpricing.price_level	low	mid
Starting pricepricing.starting_price	-	$49
Transparentpricing.transparent	✗	✓
Integrations
Countintegrations.count	8	1,600
Security
Certificationssecurity.certifications	-	SOC2 Type II, ISO 27001, GDPR, HIPAA
Gdprsecurity.gdpr	-	✓
Hipaasecurity.hipaa	-	✓
Iso27001security.iso27001	-	✓
Soc2security.soc2	-	✓
Trust centersecurity.trust_center	-	https://portkey.ai/features/security-compliance
Vulnerabilitiessecurity.vulnerabilities	Count: 0 · Source: https://advisories.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/advisories?ecosystem=go&package_name=github.com%2Falibaba%2Fhigress%2Fplugins%2Fwasm-go&per_page=100 · Last 12m: 0	-
Reliability
Sla pctreliability.sla_pct	99.95	-
Status pagereliability.status_page	-	✓
Adoption
Dependent reposadoption.dependent_repos	4	-
Github starsadoption.github_stars	9,567	-
Activity
Commits last 30dactivity.commits_last_30d	93	-
Release
Cadence daysrelease.cadence_days	28	-
Historyrelease.history	20 items	-
License
Spdxlicense.spdx	Apache-2.0	-
Language
Primarylanguage.primary	Go	-
Market
Availabilitymarket.availability	Available worldwide · HQ CN	Available worldwide
Content
Faqcontent.faq	7 items	6 items

Score

vioscaleAI score

Higress58 / 100medium · 55%

Portkey79 / 100medium · 74%

Pricing

Free tier

Higress✓

Portkey✓

Model

Higressfreemium

Portkeyfreemium

Price level

Higresslow

Portkeymid

Starting price

Higress–

Portkey$49

Transparent

Higress✗

Portkey✓

Integrations

Count

Higress8

Portkey1,600

Security

Certifications

Higress–

PortkeySOC2 Type II, ISO 27001, GDPR, HIPAA

Gdpr

Higress–

Portkey✓

Hipaa

Higress–

Portkey✓

Iso27001

Higress–

Portkey✓

Soc2

Higress–

Portkey✓

Trust center

Higress–

Portkeyhttps://portkey.ai/features/security-compliance

Vulnerabilities

HigressCount: 0 · Source: https://advisories.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/advisories?ecosystem=go&package_name=github.com%2Falibaba%2Fhigress%2Fplugins%2Fwasm-go&per_page=100 · Last 12m: 0

Portkey–

Reliability

Sla pct

Higress99.95

Portkey–

Status page

Higress–

Portkey✓

Adoption

Dependent repos

Higress4

Portkey–

Github stars

Higress9,567

Portkey–

Activity

Commits last 30d

Higress93

Portkey–

Release

Cadence days

Higress28

Portkey–

History

Higress20 items

Portkey–

License

Spdx

HigressApache-2.0

Portkey–

Language

Primary

HigressGo

Portkey–

Market

Availability

HigressAvailable worldwide · HQ CN

PortkeyAvailable worldwide

Content

Faq

Higress7 items

Portkey6 items

Capabilities

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

Capability comparison for Llm Gateways
Capability	Higress	Portkey
Capabilities
Openai compatible API	✓	✓
Automatic failover	✓	✓
Routing strategy	Load based	Load based
Caching	Semantic	Semantic
Virtual key management	-	✓
Budget spend controls	-	✓
Rate limiting	✓	✓
Guardrails moderation	-	Via integration
Request cost observability	✓	✓
Streaming support	✓	-
Deployment model	Self hosted	Managed SaaS
Open source	✓	✓
Pricing model	Open source self host	pay_per_10k_traces

Capabilities

Openai compatible API

Higress✓

Portkey✓

Automatic failover

Higress✓

Portkey✓

Routing strategy

HigressLoad based

PortkeyLoad based

Caching

HigressSemantic

PortkeySemantic

Virtual key management

Higress-

Portkey✓

Budget spend controls

Higress-

Portkey✓

Rate limiting

Higress✓

Portkey✓

Guardrails moderation

Higress-

PortkeyVia integration

Request cost observability

Higress✓

Portkey✓

Streaming support

Higress✓

Portkey-

Deployment model

HigressSelf hosted

PortkeyManaged SaaS

Open source

Higress✓

Portkey✓

Pricing model

HigressOpen source self host

Portkeypay_per_10k_traces

What each one is

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

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

Portkey

Leader

Platform providing API gateway functionality, observability with logging and traces, safety guardrails, access governance, and prompt version management for teams deploying AI applications at scale.

Independently observed

Pricing

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

Higress

HybridFree tier

Free open source self-hosted, plus commercial cloud offering

Open SourceFree
Cloud CommercialContact sales

as of 2026-10-15verify ↗

Portkey

Leader

from $49/moHybridFree tier

Free tier with 10k logs/month. Production at $49/month with usage overages. Enterprise custom pricing for compliance-focused organizations.

DeveloperFree
- Universal API & Key Management
- Routing, Fallbacks, Load Balancing, Retries
- 3 Prompt Templates with Playground, Versioning, Variables
- Logs, Traces, Feedback, Custom Metadata, Filters
- Simple Caching
- +3 more
Production$49/month + $9 per 100k request overage
- Universal API, Fallbacks, Load Balancing, Retries
- Unlimited Prompt Templates with Playground, API Deployment, Versioning, Variables
- Logs, Traces, Feedback, Metadata, Filters, Alerts
- LLM & Partner Guardrails
- Role-Based Access Control, Service Account API Keys
- +3 more
EnterpriseContact sales
- Custom retention periods for logs and metrics
- Advanced Evaluation Templates with custom guardrail hooks
- Role-Based Access Control, SSO (Okta), Granular Budget & Rate Limits
- Private Cloud Deployment, VPC Hosting, Data Export to Data Lakes
- SOC2 Type 2, GDPR, HIPAA compliance certifications
- +3 more

as of 2026-08-21verify ↗

Platform & deployment

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

Platform and deployment support comparison
Supports	Higress	Portkey
WebPlatforms	✓	✓
LinuxPlatforms	✓	✗
CLIPlatforms	✗	✓
Cloud / SaaSDeployment	✓	✓
Self-hostedDeployment	✓	✓
On-premiseDeployment	✗	✓
HybridDeployment	✗	✓

Platforms

Web

Higress✓

Portkey✓

Linux

Higress✓

Portkey✗

CLI

Higress✗

Portkey✓

Deployment

Cloud / SaaS

Higress✓

Portkey✓

Self-hosted

Higress✓

Portkey✓

On-premise

Higress✗

Portkey✓

Hybrid

Higress✗

Portkey✓

Integrations

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

In common (2)

OpenAI
Claude

Higress

16 total - 14 not shared

DeepSeek
Azure OpenAI
Aliyun Dashscope
Aliyun DashVector
Doubao
Kubernetes
Istio
Nginx Ingress
Let's Encrypt
Tongyiqianwen
Doubaoquantum
Envoy
NGINX
Sealos

Independently observed

Portkey

Leader

16 total - 14 not shared

Google Cloud (Vertex AI, Gemini)
Azure
AWS
GCP
Langgraph
CrewAI
Strands Agents
Google ADK
Anthropic
Mistral
Google
MongoDB
Vertex AI
Claude Code

Independently observed

Still deciding?

Higress or Portkey: 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.