Portkey Alternative · Self-hosted · Open Core

AgentLens vs Portkey
Observability + governance without proxying every call.

Portkey is a strong AI gateway — routing, fallbacks, caching. AgentLens focuses on what happens AFTER the call: deep traces, quality scoring, agent debugging, and compliance. The two coexist nicely.

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Quick Comparison

Feature-by-feature

Capability AgentLens Portkey
LLM gateway / routing / fallbacks✗✓
Semantic caching at edge✗✓
Self-hosted (free path)✓ open-core, BSL 1.1Enterprise contract
Multi-step agent waterfalls✓ trace_agent + spansLimited
Automatic quality + hallucination scoring✓ heuristic, zero configManual eval
Air-gap mode (single env var)✓ tcpdump-verifiedLimited
EU-hosted managed cloud✓ FrankfurtMulti-region
Agent debugger UI✓ waterfall viewLimited
Compliance workflows (DPA, audit, retention)✓ Scale planPro+

Based on public Portkey pricing as of May 2026. Verify at https://portkey.ai/pricing.

When to choose what

Honest recommendation

Choose Portkey if…

  • You need an LLM gateway with smart routing + fallbacks
  • Edge-side semantic caching is core to your use case
  • You don't need deep agent waterfall debugging
  • Multi-region request routing is a key requirement

Choose AgentLens if…

  • You need deep agent debugging + multi-step trace waterfalls
  • Quality + hallucination scoring matter for your workflow
  • Compliance posture (DPA, audit, retention) is non-negotiable
  • Air-gap mode is a hard requirement
Migration

Switching from Portkey takes ~30 minutes

Both tools share a similar mental model. The SDK surface is different but migration is mechanical.

# Both can coexist:
# Portkey handles routing/caching at the gateway
# AgentLens handles tracing/eval/compliance
agentlens.init(api_url="http://localhost:8000/ingest")
agentlens.patch_openai() # works alongside Portkey gateway
 
# After (AgentLens)
import agentlens
agentlens.init("http://localhost:8000/ingest")
agentlens.patch_openai() # or patch_anthropic()
FAQ

Common questions

Are Portkey and AgentLens competitors or complements?

Mostly complements. Portkey is a gateway; AgentLens is observability. Many teams run both.

Can I use Portkey for routing + AgentLens for tracing?

Yes. They operate at different layers — Portkey at the request gateway, AgentLens at the application SDK level. Both see the same call.

Why pick AgentLens for observability?

Heuristic quality scoring out of the box + agent waterfalls + EU compliance + verifiable air-gap. Portkey's tracing is functional but lighter-weight.

Ready to own your LLM data?

15-minute migration call. We'll map your Portkey setup to AgentLens and get you running.

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