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It's a split decision.
Choose Requesty if you want a hosted gateway with routing, failover, spend controls, observability, and governance without operating the gateway yourself. Its Free plan includes 200 requests per day; Pay as you go adds a 5% markup on model spend. Choose LiteLLM if your team wants an open-source gateway it can self-host and operate, including an air-gapped Enterprise option. Its Open Source plan is free, but your team handles infrastructure. Both offer an OpenAI-compatible API.
01Side by side
| Requesty | LiteLLM | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | Usage-based; 5% markup on model spend | Free self-hosted; Enterprise quoted annually |
| Free tier | 200 daily requests; free models, routing, caching, fallbacks | Open Source is free forever; self-hosted gateway |
| Open source and licence | Open-source status not published | Open source; exact licence not published |
| Self-hosting | Hosted gateway; self-hosting not published | Self-hosted; Enterprise offers air-gapped deployment |
| API and SDKs | OpenAI-compatible API; Python, Node.js, cURL examples | OpenAI-format API; Python SDK and quickstarts |
| Integrations | 600+ models; MCP Gateway; bring your own keys | 140+ providers, 1,800+ models, agents, MCP |
| Deployment model | Hosted gateway; Free includes EU data residency | Self-hosted; Enterprise offers air-gapped deployment |
| Platforms | Web; Python, Node.js, and cURL examples | macOS, Linux, Windows, and Python SDK |
Requesty Choose Requesty if
- Choose Requesty if you want a hosted gateway to operate routing and failover.
- Choose Requesty if 200 daily free requests are enough to evaluate the gateway.
- Choose Requesty if you need model, region, and PII governance controls.
LiteLLM Choose LiteLLM if
- Choose LiteLLM if you want to self-host an open-source gateway.
- Choose LiteLLM if you need an air-gapped Enterprise deployment option.
- Choose LiteLLM if your stack uses its Python SDK, agents, or MCP support.
02Pricing at real usage
Requesty’s Free plan is $0 and includes free models, routing, caching, fallbacks, EU data residency, and 200 requests per day; no credit card is required. Pay as you go adds a 5% markup on model spend, with 600+ models, BYOK, spend limits, and budget caps. The vendor lists no monthly subscription price for that tier.
LiteLLM’s Open Source plan is free forever and self-hosted. The gateway software price is $0, but the team running it pays for its own compute and operations. Enterprise is quoted annually based on request capacity, deployment architecture, and support needs; no list price is published. Requesty’s bill grows with model spend, while LiteLLM’s costs depend on infrastructure and model-provider charges. Compare expected model volume plus hosting, not gateway price alone.
03API, SDKs and integration
Requesty exposes an OpenAI-compatible API that its homepage says works with any SDK. It shows Python, Node.js, and cURL examples, so an application using an OpenAI-style client can connect through the gateway. Its listed capabilities include routing policies, BYOK, failover, observability, and an MCP Gateway.
LiteLLM also puts models behind an OpenAI-compatible API. Its Python SDK calls models in the OpenAI format, and its quickstarts list macOS, Linux, and Windows. The product connects to 140+ providers and 1,800+ models, and the gateway can route requests to agents and MCP servers. LiteLLM’s homepage links to docs and provides a shell quickstart command; it does not identify a separate general-purpose CLI in the listed facts. For either product, check the docs for the specific provider and model behavior your application relies on before switching traffic.
04Open source, self-hosting and lock-in
LiteLLM is open source and designed to be self-hosted. Its Enterprise plan also lists air-gapped deployment, with SSO, SCIM, audit logs, secret managers, and a multi-region control plane. LiteLLM’s exact open-source licence is not published in the product facts, so check the repository licence before adopting or modifying it.
Requesty is presented as a hosted gateway with governance controls, regional options, and spend management; its open-source status and self-hosting option are not published. Both use an OpenAI-compatible API, which can reduce application-code changes when switching gateways, but routing policies, access controls, logging, and provider-specific behavior still need migration work. Neither vendor publishes a data-export path in the product facts; ask how to export logs, audit records, and configuration before making the gateway a production dependency.
Questions people ask
Is Requesty or LiteLLM cheaper?
Requesty’s Free plan costs $0 for up to 200 requests per day, and Pay as you go adds a 5% markup on model spend. LiteLLM’s Open Source gateway is free, but you pay for the infrastructure and model-provider usage you operate. Enterprise pricing for both is custom.
Can I self-host Requesty or LiteLLM?
LiteLLM is an open-source, self-hosted gateway, and its Enterprise plan lists an air-gapped deployment option. Requesty is presented as a hosted gateway; its self-hosting option is not published. If deployment location is a requirement, confirm Requesty’s available deployment options with its sales team.
Do Requesty and LiteLLM use the OpenAI API format?
Yes. Requesty describes its API as OpenAI-compatible and says it works with any SDK. LiteLLM offers an OpenAI-compatible API and a Python SDK that calls models in the OpenAI format. Compatibility does not guarantee identical behavior across every provider, model, or gateway feature.
Which gateway supports more models?
Requesty says it provides access to 600+ models. LiteLLM lists 1,800+ models and 140+ providers. Those counts describe catalog breadth, not guaranteed feature parity or availability in every deployment; check each vendor’s model and provider support for the endpoints your application needs.