Routerly

Routerly is a self-hosted gateway for developers and teams that need to manage traffic across AI providers. It suits projects that value infrastructure control and per-project budgets; its main trade-off is that you operate the gateway yourself.

Overview

Routerly sits between client applications and AI services, giving teams one place to route requests, monitor costs, and apply usage limits. OpenAI- and Anthropic-compatible wire formats, including streaming, let compatible clients connect by changing the base URL. It supports OpenAI, Anthropic, Google Gemini, Ollama, Mistral, Cohere, xAI, and custom HTTP endpoints.

Projects can use separate Bearer tokens, model pools, routing settings, and budget limits. Routerly stores configuration and usage records in JSON files without an external database. Its maker says prompts and API keys remain on the user's infrastructure; provider keys and project tokens are AES-256 encrypted at rest, and passwords are bcrypt-hashed.

Key features

Policy-based routing

Up to nine policies cover model selection, cost, provider health, performance, capability, context, budget, rate limits, and fairness. That range is useful when routing must reflect several operational priorities, while adding more control than a simple provider pass-through. Fallback routing is supported, too.

Cost and budget controls

Per-token cost tracking uses built-in pricing presets or custom model pricing. Budgets can apply globally, per project, or per token, and measure cost, calls, or token usage over rolling or calendar windows. This makes it easier to set limits at different levels, though the team still needs to run and configure its own gateway.

Client compatibility and deployment

Routerly names Cursor, Open WebUI, OpenClaw, LangChain, and LlamaIndex among the clients and frameworks that can connect. Docker and installer-based deployment are available; the installer supports Windows, macOS, and Linux. The API, Linux, macOS, self-hosted, web, and Windows platform range gives developers multiple ways to fit it into their environment.

Pricing

Free self-hosted: free. The plan is self-hosted, carries no markup on API calls, and is licensed under AGPL-3.0. There is no free trial because the self-hosted plan is free. Provider usage remains subject to the providers' own charges; Routerly's no-markup policy does not make inference free.

There are no paid tiers or published seat, request, or usage quotas to weigh against the free plan. Its cost advantage comes with the responsibility of deploying and operating the gateway yourself. That trade-off suits developers and teams seeking control; it is less compelling for readers who want a managed service rather than self-hosting.

Who it's for

Routerly is a strong fit for developers, SaaS teams, and local-first projects that want a shared gateway with provider choice, project isolation, and configurable spending controls. The combination of self-hosting, broad routing policies, and no external database requirement also suits teams that prefer to keep prompts and keys on their own infrastructure. Readers who would rather avoid operating software should look at hosted alternatives.

Pros and cons

• Pros: Broad routing policies and fallback support let teams shape provider selection around cost, health, capability, and other criteria.
• Pros: Project-level tokens, model pools, and budgets help separate workloads without requiring a database service.
• Pros: The free AGPL-3.0 plan adds no markup to API calls, and the maker says prompts and keys stay on the user's infrastructure.
• Cons: Self-hosting means deployment and operation are the user's responsibility, rather than a managed gateway handling that work.
• Cons: AGPL-3.0 may not suit teams that require a different licensing arrangement.

Alternatives

LLM Gateway Software is a useful starting point for comparing options across the category. Choose Bifrost if its free-forever OSS plan and Apache 2.0 license better fit your deployment or licensing needs; it also offers npx, Docker, Kubernetes, and Go binary deployment. YoloRouter is another free self-hosted option, with a single binary and SQLite out of the box plus optional PostgreSQL.

Kong Gateway may fit readers looking for an open-source API gateway with a separate Konnect free trial. Helicone is an alternative to consider if its 10,000-request Hobby plan is a closer match. LiteLLM may suit teams looking for its stated 100+ provider coverage and self-hosted virtual keys, users, teams, spend tracking, budgets, and rate limits. Manifest offers a free plan with unlimited self-hosted use, or 10,000 routed requests per month on Cloud. For a hosted option, OpenRouter has a free plan with 25+ free models, four free providers, five workspaces, and 50 requests a day. Requesty is another hosted choice, with a free plan that includes 200 requests per day, routing, caching, fallbacks, spend tracking, analytics, and EU data residency.

Verdict

Choose Routerly if you want a free, self-hosted gateway that combines detailed routing controls with per-project isolation and flexible budgets. The decisive reason to look elsewhere is the same one that defines its appeal: Routerly expects you to deploy and run it yourself.