Envoy AI Gateway vs Polyrouter
Envoy AI Gateway
aigateway.envoyproxy.ioPolyrouter
polyrouter.appSide by side
| Figure | Envoy AI Gateway | Polyrouter |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | Free |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Web | — | Yes |
| macOS | Yes | — |
| Linux | Yes | — |
| API | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hosted | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 1 | 1 |
| Spec score · LLM Gateway Software | 8.4 (#8) | 7.6 (#22) |
| Spec score · LLM gateways | 8.4 (#10) | 7.8 (#21) |
| Deployment | The CLI can run locally on Linux and macOS, and production deployment uses Kubernetes with Envoy Gateway. | Self-hosting requires Docker with Compose v2 and runs the SPA, API, and proxy alongside PostgreSQL 16 and Redis. |
| License | The project uses the Apache 2.0 license. | Polyrouter is open source under the AGPL-3.0 license. |
| Security | The project describes upstream authentication for securing connections to AI services and says provider credentials can be kept out of application workloads. | Provider and notification credentials are encrypted at rest, and user-supplied URLs are checked against private and metadata address ranges. |
| Support | The project directs users to its community Discord and GitHub issues for help. | The maker directs bug reports, feature requests, and questions to GitHub. |
Plans
In their own words
Envoy AI Gateway
Envoy AI Gateway, now named Agent Router, is an open-source control plane for managing AI and agent traffic through Envoy. It provides an OpenAI-compatible API for hosted and self-hosted models and MCP servers, with integrations for providers including OpenAI, Azure OpenAI, Google Gemini, AWS Bedrock, Mistral, and Anthropic. Traffic controls include model virtualization, provider failover, token quotas, and usage-based rate limiting. Its MCP gateway supports server multiplexing, tool routing, OAuth authentication, and observability; InferencePool support adds routing and load balancing for inference endpoints. Credentials can be managed centrally, and supported short-lived credential flows include AWS Bedrock, Azure OpenAI, and GCP Vertex AI. The project describes metrics collection and monitoring for AI workloads. The free open-source project is listed at free. Its CLI supports local use on Linux and macOS; production Kubernetes deployment uses Envoy Gateway and requires compatible dependencies. The project uses the Apache 2.0 license and points users to Discord and GitHub issues for help.
Polyrouter
Polyrouter has no write-up on Specifiction yet; its figures are above.