Staxly

LangChain vs Portkey

The framework for building LLM apps — chains, agents, RAG, LangGraph
vs. Enterprise AI gateway + observability + guardrails + prompt mgmt

LangChain websitePortkey website

Pricing tiers

LangChain

OSS (MIT)
MIT-licensed core library. Free forever. Python + JS.
$0 base (usage-based)
LangSmith (see entry)
Observability layer — Developer free, Plus $39/seat. Separate platform.
$0 base (usage-based)
LangGraph Platform — Developer
Deploy LangGraph agents as an API. Free tier — limited execution minutes.
$0 base (usage-based)
LangGraph Platform — Plus
$39/seat/mo (tied to LangSmith Plus). More execution credit. Production features.
$39/mo
Enterprise
Custom. Self-host, dedicated support, SSO.
Custom
LangChain website

Portkey

Developer (Free)
Free forever. 10k logs/month. Universal API + key management. 3 prompt templates. Basic observability.
Free
Gateway (OSS)
MIT-licensed gateway only (no observability UI). Self-host for routing/fallbacks.
$0 base (usage-based)
Production
$49/month. 100k logs ($9 per additional 100k). Fallbacks, load balancing, retries, semantic caching. Unlimited prompts. RBAC.
$49/mo
Enterprise
Custom. 10M+ logs/month. Custom guardrails, advanced evals, SSO, budget controls, VPC + on-prem, SOC2, HIPAA, GDPR.
Custom
Portkey website

Free-tier quotas head-to-head

Comparing oss on LangChain vs free on Portkey.

MetricLangChainPortkey
No overlapping quota metrics for these tiers.

Features

LangChain · 18 features

  • AgentsTool-using agents with reasoning loops.
  • Chains (LCEL)LangChain Expression Language — pipe primitives into chains.
  • Checkpointers (LangGraph)Persist agent state to SQL, Mongo, Redis, Postgres.
  • Document Loaders150+ loaders for PDF, HTML, Notion, Google Drive, S3, GitHub, etc.
  • Human-in-the-loopPause agent for approval, then resume.
  • LangGraphStateful graph-based agent runtime. Durable, replayable, human-in-the-loop.
  • LangGraph PlatformManaged hosting for LangGraph agents with state persistence.
  • LangGraph StudioDesktop IDE for debugging agent graphs.
  • LangServeDeploy chains as FastAPI endpoints.
  • MemoryBuffer, summary, entity, vector memory stores.
  • Output ParsersStructured JSON, Pydantic schemas, function calling.
  • Prompt TemplatesTemplating + partial filling + output parsers.
  • RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation)Standard patterns + 50+ retrievers.
  • StreamingFirst-class streaming at every layer.
  • SubgraphsCompose agent graphs hierarchically.
  • Text SplittersRecursive, token, semantic splitters for chunking.
  • Tools400+ pre-built tools (web search, code, databases, APIs).
  • Vector Store Integrations60+ vector DBs (Pinecone, Chroma, Weaviate, PGVector, Qdrant, Milvus).

Portkey · 18 features

  • AI GatewayUnified OpenAI-compatible API to 250+ LLMs.
  • AlertsThresholds on latency, error rate, cost, usage.
  • Budget ControlsPer-key + per-team spending limits.
  • EvaluationsBuilt-in evaluator templates + custom.
  • FallbacksConfig-driven provider fallback chains.
  • GuardrailsPre/post processors for safety + compliance.
  • Load BalancingRound-robin, weighted, least-latency across providers.
  • MCP SupportUse MCP servers as tools through gateway.
  • ObservabilityLogs, traces, feedback, alerts, cost tracking.
  • OSS GatewayOpen-source gateway (portkey-ai/gateway).
  • Prompt LibraryShared prompt library + public marketplace.
  • Prompt TemplatesVersion + test + collaborate on prompts.
  • RetriesConfigurable retry policies per route.
  • Role-Based Access ControlTeam permissions on prompts + keys.
  • Semantic CachingVector-based cache on query meaning.
  • Simple CachingExact-match cache.
  • Virtual KeysPer-app keys with budget + rate limits + permissions.
  • VPC Deployment (Ent)Deploy in your own VPC for compliance.

Developer interfaces

KindLangChainPortkey
CLIPortkey CLI
SDK@langchain/core (Node), langchain (Python), langgraph (JS), langgraph (Python), LangServeportkey-ai (Node), portkey-ai (Python)
RESTLangGraph PlatformPortkey API (OpenAI-compat)
MCPPortkey MCP
OTHERPortkey Dashboard
Staxly is an independent catalog of developer platforms. Outbound links to LangChain and Portkey are plain references to their official websites. Pricing is verified against vendor pages at publication time — reconfirm before buying.

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