kitio.aiBifrost vs Respan
A side-by-side look at pricing plans, free tiers, features, pros and cons, updated for 2026. Bifrost starts at See pricing page and Respan starts at See pricing page. Check both pricing pages for current plans.
At a glance
Best for
Category
Pricing model
Starting price
Free plan
Made by
Based in
Rating
Key features
- Drop-in SDK replacement
- Multi-provider routing
- Budgets and virtual keys
- Guardrails
- MCP gateway
- OpenTelemetry metrics and traces
- One API for 1,000+ models
- Automatic model fallbacks
- Response caching
- Agent tracing
- LLM-as-judge evaluators
- Red-team testing
| Feature | Bifrost | Respan |
|---|---|---|
| Best for | Open-source AI gateway for routing, governing and monitoring LLM calls | LLM gateway with tracing, monitoring and automated evals |
| Category | Models & APIs | Models & APIs |
| Pricing model | Freemium | Freemium |
| Starting price | See pricing page | See pricing page |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Made by | Maxim AI | Respan |
| Based in | – | – |
| Rating | No ratings yet | No ratings yet |
| Key features |
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Pricing compared
Bifrost starts at See pricing page and Respan starts at See pricing page. Check both pricing pages for current plans.
Free plan
Cheapest paid plan
Top plan
Free trial
2 plans
OSS
Free
- Self-hosted via Docker, K8s or binary
- Drop-in SDK replacement
- OTel metrics and traces
- Community support
Enterprise
Contact sales
- 14-day free trial
- Licensed enterprise features
3 plans
Free
Free
- 100k logs
- 1k scores
- 5 datasets
- 2 evaluators
Team
$199/mo billed yearly
- Unlimited datasets and evaluators
- Unlimited prompts
- SOC 2 report
- Private Slack channel
Enterprise
Contact sales
- Custom packages
- Custom SLAs
- Dedicated support engineer
Prices in USD, checked Oct 29, 2026 or later. Plans change often, so confirm on each tool's site before you buy.
Pros and cons
Bifrost
- Free open-source self-hosted version
- One-line switch from provider SDKs
- Low added latency per request
- Enterprise pricing requires contacting sales
- Self-hosting needs ops work
- Governance features sit in Enterprise
Respan
- Routing and evals in one product
- Generous free tier with 100k logs
- Open-source gateway
- Team plan is billed yearly
- Extra logs and seats cost more
- HIPAA compliance is a paid add-on
Which one should you choose?
Choose Bifrost if you want:
- Free open-source self-hosted version
- One-line switch from provider SDKs
- Low added latency per request
Watch out: enterprise pricing requires contacting sales.
Choose Respan if you want:
- Routing and evals in one product
- Generous free tier with 100k logs
- Open-source gateway
Watch out: team plan is billed yearly.
Bifrost vs Respan FAQ
What is the difference between Bifrost and Respan?
Bifrost: Open-source AI gateway for routing, governing and monitoring LLM calls. Respan: LLM gateway with tracing, monitoring and automated evals. Both are models & apis tools.
Is Bifrost or Respan cheaper?
Bifrost starts at See pricing page and Respan starts at See pricing page. Check both pricing pages for current plans.
Do Bifrost and Respan have free plans?
Bifrost: Yes. Respan: Yes.
Who makes Bifrost?
Bifrost is made by Maxim AI.
Who makes Respan?
Respan is made by Respan.
Which should I choose, Bifrost or Respan?
Choose Bifrost if you value free open-source self-hosted version and one-line switch from provider sdks. Choose Respan if you value routing and evals in one product and generous free tier with 100k logs.