Comparison

Higress vs Vercel AI Gateway

On the evidence we track, Higress leads this comparison with a composite score of 58/100. Scores are only directly comparable because these tools share a category; the full breakdown and every source is below.

Machine formatsMarkdownJSONGraphQLMarkdown is open. JSON and GraphQL need a free key.
★Higress58
Vercel AI Gateway33
Score
vioscaleAI score
Higress58 / 100medium · 55%
Vercel AI Gateway33 / 100medium · 60%
Pricing
Free tier
Higress✓
Vercel AI Gateway–
Model
Higressfreemium
Vercel AI Gatewaycommercial
Price level
Higresslow
Vercel AI Gatewayunknown
Transparent
Higress✗
Vercel AI Gateway✓
Integrations
Count
Higress8
Vercel AI Gateway2
Reliability
Sla pct
Higress99.95
Vercel AI Gateway–
Adoption
Dependent repos
Higress4
Vercel AI Gateway–
Github stars
Higress9,567
Vercel AI Gateway–
Activity
Commits last 30d
Higress93
Vercel AI Gateway–
Release
Cadence days
Higress28
Vercel AI Gateway–
History
Higress20 items
Vercel AI Gateway–
License
Spdx
HigressApache-2.0
Vercel AI Gateway–
Language
Primary
HigressGo
Vercel AI Gateway–
Content
Faq
Higress7 items
Vercel AI Gateway6 items

Capabilities

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

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

What each one is

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

Higress

Leader

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

Vercel AI Gateway

AI Gateway provides a single integration point for routing requests to multiple AI model providers (OpenAI, Anthropic, and others) through an OpenAI-compatible API. It includes budget controls, unified billing, usage tracking, and automatic failover to ensure reliable access to language models.

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

Leader
HybridFree tier

Free open source self-hosted, plus commercial cloud offering

  • Open SourceFree
  • Cloud CommercialContact sales
as of verify ↗

Vercel AI Gateway

Usage-based

Usage-based pricing with no platform markup; invoicing available with no payment processing fees

as of verify ↗

Platform & deployment

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

Platforms
Web
Higress✓
Vercel AI Gateway✓
Linux
Higress✓
Vercel AI Gateway✗
CLI
Higress✗
Vercel AI Gateway✓
Deployment
Cloud / SaaS
Higress✓
Vercel AI Gateway✓
Self-hosted
Higress✓
Vercel AI Gateway✗

Integrations

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

In common (1)
  • OpenAI

Higress

Leader
16 total - 15 not shared
  • Claude
  • DeepSeek
  • Azure OpenAI
  • Aliyun Dashscope
  • Aliyun DashVector
  • Doubao
  • Kubernetes
  • Istio
  • Nginx Ingress
  • Let's Encrypt
  • Tongyiqianwen
  • Doubaoquantum
  • Envoy
  • NGINX
  • Sealos
Independently observed

Vercel AI Gateway

7 total - 6 not shared
  • Anthropic
  • SpaceXAI
  • Google Gemini
  • Cohere
  • AssistLoop
  • Vercel AI SDK
Independently observed
Still deciding?

Higress or Vercel AI Gateway: 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.