OpenRouter vs LiteLLM: when to use one over the other

Jon Gitlin, a Senior Content Marketing Manager at Merge, discusses the importance of effectively routing requests in LLM-powered features to avoid issues like inconsistent output, higher costs, and security risks. He compares LiteLLM, a self-hosted SDK and proxy offering high control and flexibility at the cost of increased operational burden, with OpenRouter, a hosted API providing broad model access and minimal operational overhead but less infrastructure control. Gitlin introduces Merge Gateway as a superior alternative that combines the strengths of both LiteLLM and OpenRouter by offering a managed control plane, cost governance, enterprise security, and unified billing, enabling teams to build and optimize AI-powered products efficiently. Merge Gateway allows for real-time budget enforcement, optimization without application-level changes, and provides built-in compliance checks, positioning itself as a comprehensive solution for managing LLM integrations.