Traefik AI Gateway Alternatives 2025: Top 10 Alternatives

Updated November 2025

If you’re evaluating Traefik AI Gateway alternatives, this guide maps the landscape like a builder would. First, we clarify what Traefik’s AI Gateway is—an egress-focused control layer with a unified AI API, security policies, and observability—then compare the 10 best alternatives. We place ShareAI first for teams that want one API across many providers, a transparent marketplace with price/latency/uptime/availability before routing, instant failover, and people-powered economics (70% of spend goes to providers).

What Traefik AI Gateway is (and isn’t)

Traefik AI Gateway adds a thin, dedicated control layer atop Traefik Hub’s API Gateway. It focuses on LLM traffic, exposes specialized middlewares (e.g., Content Guard, Semantic Cache), centralizes credentials/policies, and integrates with OpenTelemetry for observability—so each AI endpoint can be lifecycle-managed, secured, and observed as an API. That’s a governance-first gateway, not a transparent model marketplace.

Aggregators vs Gateways vs Agent platforms

• LLM aggregators: one API across many models/providers with pre-route transparency (price, latency, uptime, availability, provider type) and smart routing/failover.
• AI gateways: policy/governance at the edge (credentials, rate limits, guardrails), plus observability; you bring your providers. Traefik AI Gateway is in this category.
• Agent/chatbot platforms: packaged UX, memory/tools, channels—geared to end-user assistants rather than provider-agnostic aggregation.

How we evaluated the best Traefik AI Gateway alternatives

• Model breadth & neutrality: proprietary + open; easy switching; no rewrites.
• Latency & resilience: routing policies, timeouts, retries, instant failover.
• Governance & security: key handling, scopes, regional routing.
• Observability: logs/traces and cost/latency dashboards.
• Pricing transparency & TCO: compare real costs before you route.
• Developer experience: docs, SDKs, quickstarts; time-to-first-token.
• Community & economics: whether your spend grows supply (incentives for GPU owners).

Top 10 Traefik AI Gateway alternatives

#1 — ShareAI (People-Powered AI API)

What it is. A multi-provider API with a transparent marketplace and smart routing. With one integration, browse a large catalog of models and providers, compare price, latency, uptime, availability, provider type, and route with instant failover. Economics are people-powered: 70% of every dollar flows to providers (community or company) who keep models online.

Why it’s #1 here. If you want provider-agnostic aggregation with pre-route transparency and resilience, ShareAI is the most direct fit. Keep a gateway if you need org-wide policies; add ShareAI for marketplace-guided routing.

• One API → 150+ models across many providers; no rewrites, no lock-in.
• Transparent marketplace: choose by price, latency, uptime, availability, provider type.
• Resilience by default: routing policies + instant failover.
• Fair economics: 70% of spend goes to providers (community or company).

Quick links — Browse Models · Open Playground · Create API Key · API Reference · User Guide · Releases

For providers: earn by keeping models online

Anyone can become a ShareAI provider—Community or Company. Onboard via Windows, Ubuntu, macOS, or Docker. Contribute idle-time bursts or run always-on. Choose your incentive: Rewards (money), Exchange (tokens/AI Prosumer), or Mission (donate a % to NGOs). As you scale, you can set your own inference prices and gain preferential exposure.

Provider links — Provider Guide · Provider Dashboard · Exchange Overview · Mission Contribution

#2 — Kong AI Gateway

What it is. Enterprise AI/LLM gateway—governance, policies/plugins, analytics, observability for AI traffic at the edge. It’s a control plane rather than a marketplace.

#3 — Portkey

What it is. AI gateway emphasizing observability, guardrails, and governance—popular in regulated industries.

#4 — OpenRouter

What it is. Unified API over many models; great for fast experimentation across a wide catalog.

#5 — Eden AI

What it is. Aggregates LLMs plus broader AI capabilities (image, translation, TTS), with fallbacks/caching and batching.

#6 — LiteLLM

What it is. A lightweight Python SDK + self-hostable proxy that speaks an OpenAI-compatible interface to many providers.

#7 — Unify

What it is. Quality-oriented routing and evaluation to pick better models per prompt.

#8 — Orq AI

What it is. Orchestration/collaboration platform that helps teams move from experiments to production with low-code flows.

#9 — Apigee (with LLMs behind it)

What it is. A mature API management/gateway you can place in front of LLM providers to apply policies, keys, and quotas.

#10 — NGINX

What it is. Use NGINX to build custom routing, token enforcement, and caching for LLM backends if you prefer DIY control.

Traefik AI Gateway vs ShareAI

If you need one API over many providers with transparent pricing/latency/uptime and instant failover, choose ShareAI. If your top requirement is egress governance—centralized credentials, policy enforcement, and OpenTelemetry-friendly observability—Traefik AI Gateway fits that lane. Many teams pair them: gateway for org policy + ShareAI for marketplace routing.

Quick comparison

Platform	Who it serves	Model breadth	Governance & security	Observability	Routing / failover	Marketplace transparency	Provider program
ShareAI	Product/platform teams needing one API + fair economics	150+ models, many providers	API keys & per-route controls	Console usage + marketplace stats	Smart routing + instant failover	Yes (price, latency, uptime, availability, provider type)	Yes — open supply; 70% to providers
Traefik AI Gateway	Teams wanting egress governance	BYO providers	Centralized credentials/policies	OpenTelemetry metrics/tracing	Conditional routing via middlewares	No (infra tool, not a marketplace)	n/a
Kong AI Gateway	Enterprises needing gateway-level policy	BYO	Strong edge policies/plugins	Analytics	Proxy/plugins, retries	No (infra)	n/a
Portkey	Regulated/enterprise teams	Broad	Guardrails & governance	Deep traces	Conditional routing	Partial	n/a
OpenRouter	Devs wanting one key	Wide catalog	Basic API controls	App-side	Fallbacks	Partial	n/a
Eden AI	Teams needing LLM + other AI services	Broad	Standard controls	Varies	Fallbacks/caching	Partial	n/a
LiteLLM	DIY/self-host proxy	Many providers	Config/key limits	Your infra	Retries/fallback	n/a	n/a
Unify	Quality-driven teams	Multi-model	Standard API security	Platform analytics	Best-model selection	n/a	n/a
Orq	Orchestration-first teams	Wide support	Platform controls	Platform analytics	Orchestration flows	n/a	n/a
Apigee / NGINX	Enterprises / DIY	BYO	Policies	Add-ons / custom	Custom	n/a	n/a

Traefik’s gateway capabilities—thin AI layer, specialized middlewares like Content Guard and Semantic Cache, plus OpenTelemetry-ready observability—are documented in the official docs.

Pricing & TCO: compare real costs (not just unit prices)

Raw $/1K tokens hides the real picture. TCO shifts with retries/fallbacks, latency (which affects usage), provider variance, observability storage, and evaluation runs. A transparent marketplace helps you choose routes that balance cost and UX.

TCO ≈ Σ (Base_tokens × Unit_price × (1 + Retry_rate))
      + Observability_storage
      + Evaluation_tokens
      + Egress

• Prototype (~10k tokens/day): Optimize for time-to-first-token (Playground, quickstarts).
• Mid-scale (~2M tokens/day): Marketplace-guided routing/failover can trim 10–20% while improving UX.
• Spiky workloads: Expect higher effective token costs from retries during failover; budget for it.

Migration guide: moving to ShareAI

From Traefik AI Gateway

Keep gateway-level policies where they shine, add ShareAI for marketplace routing + instant failover. Pattern: gateway auth/policy → ShareAI route per model → measure marketplace stats → tighten policies.

From OpenRouter

Map model names, verify prompt parity, then shadow 10% of traffic and ramp 25% → 50% → 100% as latency/error budgets hold. Marketplace data makes provider swaps straightforward.

From LiteLLM

Replace the self-hosted proxy on production routes you don’t want to operate; keep LiteLLM for dev if desired. Compare ops overhead vs. managed routing benefits.

From Unify / Portkey / Orq / Kong

Define feature-parity expectations (analytics, guardrails, orchestration, plugins). Many teams run hybrid: keep specialized features where they’re strongest; use ShareAI for transparent provider choice and failover.

Developer quickstart (copy-paste)

The following use an OpenAI-compatible surface. Replace YOUR_KEY with your ShareAI key—get one at Create API Key. See the API Reference for details.

#!/usr/bin/env bash
# cURL (bash) — Chat Completions
# Prereqs:
#   export SHAREAI_API_KEY="YOUR_KEY"

curl -X POST "https://api.shareai.now/v1/chat/completions" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $SHAREAI_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "model": "llama-3.1-70b",
    "messages": [
      { "role": "user", "content": "Give me a short haiku about reliable routing." }
    ],
    "temperature": 0.4,
    "max_tokens": 128
  }'

// JavaScript (fetch) — Node 18+/Edge runtimes
// Prereqs:
//   process.env.SHAREAI_API_KEY = "YOUR_KEY"

async function main() {
  const res = await fetch("https://api.shareai.now/v1/chat/completions", {
    method: "POST",
    headers: {
      "Authorization": `Bearer ${process.env.SHAREAI_API_KEY}`,
      "Content-Type": "application/json"
    },
    body: JSON.stringify({
      model: "llama-3.1-70b",
      messages: [
        { role: "user", content: "Give me a short haiku about reliable routing." }
      ],
      temperature: 0.4,
      max_tokens: 128
    })
  });

  if (!res.ok) {
    console.error("Request failed:", res.status, await res.text());
    return;
  }

  const data = await res.json();
  console.log(JSON.stringify(data, null, 2));
}

main().catch(console.error);

Security, privacy & compliance checklist (vendor-agnostic)

• Key handling: rotation cadence; minimal scopes; environment separation.
• Data retention: where prompts/responses are stored, for how long; redaction defaults.
• PII & sensitive content: masking; access controls; regional routing for data locality.
• Observability: prompt/response logging; ability to filter or pseudonymize; propagate trace IDs consistently (OTel).
• Incident response: escalation paths and provider SLAs.

FAQ — Traefik AI Gateway vs other competitors

Traefik AI Gateway vs ShareAI — which for multi-provider routing?

ShareAI. It’s built for marketplace transparency (price, latency, uptime, availability, provider type) and smart routing/failover across many providers. Traefik AI Gateway is an egress governance tool (centralized credentials/policy; OpenTelemetry observability; AI middlewares). Many teams use both.

Traefik AI Gateway vs OpenRouter — quick multi-model access or gateway controls?

OpenRouter makes multi-model access quick; Traefik AI Gateway centralizes policy and observability. If you also want pre-route transparency and instant failover, ShareAI combines multi-provider access with a marketplace view and resilient routing.

Traefik AI Gateway vs LiteLLM — self-host proxy or managed governance?

LiteLLM is a DIY proxy you operate; Traefik AI Gateway is managed governance/observability for AI egress. If you’d rather not run a proxy and want marketplace-driven routing, choose ShareAI.

Traefik AI Gateway vs Portkey — who’s stronger on guardrails?

Both emphasize governance and observability; depth and ergonomics differ. If your main need is transparent provider choice and failover, add ShareAI.

Traefik AI Gateway vs Unify — best-model selection vs policy enforcement?

Unify focuses on evaluation-driven model selection; Traefik AI Gateway on policy/observability. For one API over many providers with live marketplace stats, use ShareAI.

Traefik AI Gateway vs Eden AI — many AI services or egress control?

Eden AI aggregates several AI services (LLM, image, TTS). Traefik AI Gateway centralizes policy/credentials with specialized AI middlewares. For transparent pricing/latency across many providers and instant failover, choose ShareAI.

Traefik AI Gateway vs Orq — orchestration vs egress?

Orq helps orchestrate workflows; Traefik AI Gateway governs egress traffic. ShareAI complements either with marketplace routing.

Traefik AI Gateway vs Kong AI Gateway — two gateways

Both are gateways (policies, plugins, analytics), not marketplaces. Many teams pair a gateway with ShareAI for transparent multi-provider routing and failover.

Traefik AI Gateway vs Apigee — API management vs AI-specific egress

Apigee is broad API management; Traefik AI Gateway is AI-focused egress governance atop Traefik Hub. If you need provider-agnostic access with marketplace transparency, use ShareAI.

Traefik AI Gateway vs NGINX — DIY vs turnkey

NGINX offer DIY filters/policies; Traefik AI Gateway offers a packaged layer with AI middlewares and OpenTelemetry-friendly observability. To avoid custom Lua and still get transparent provider selection, layer in ShareAI.

Try ShareAI next

Open Playground · Create your API key · Browse Models · Read the Docs · See Releases · Sign in / Sign up

Sources (Traefik AI Gateway)

• Solution overview — unified AI API, centralized credentials/policies,
• AI Gateway docs (overview) — thin control layer + specialized middlewares.
• Content Guard and Semantic Cache middlewares.
• Observability (OpenTelemetry) — metrics and tracing in OTel format.
• Tracing reference — trace context propagation and supported propagators.