Cloudflare AI Gateway integrates seamlessly with Cloudflare's infrastructure. If you're already using Cloudflare, it's a natural choice for unified traffic management.
Bifrost is built for teams needing ultra-low latency (11µs vs 10-50ms) and self-hosted deployment with zero vendor lock-in.
This comparison examines both platforms based on performance, deployment flexibility, and feature depth.
Performance: Latency and Throughput
Bifrost:
- 11µs latency overhead at 5,000 RPS
- Built in Go (compiled language, native concurrency)
- Sustained 5,000 requests/second per core
- Minimal memory footprint
maximhq
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bifrost
Fastest LLM gateway (50x faster than LiteLLM) with adaptive load balancer, cluster mode, guardrails, 1000+ models support & <100 µs overhead at 5k RPS.
Bifrost
The fastest way to build AI applications that never go down
Bifrost is a high-performance AI gateway that unifies access to 15+ providers (OpenAI, Anthropic, AWS Bedrock, Google Vertex, and more) through a single OpenAI-compatible API. Deploy in seconds with zero configuration and get automatic failover, load balancing, semantic caching, and enterprise-grade features.
Quick Start
Go from zero to production-ready AI gateway in under a minute.
Step 1: Start Bifrost Gateway
# Install and run locally
npx -y @maximhq/bifrost
# Or use Docker
docker run -p 8080:8080 maximhq/bifrost
Step 2: Configure via Web UI
# Open the built-in web interface
open http://localhost:8080
Step 3: Make your first API call
curl -X POST http://localhost:8080/v1/chat/completions \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{
"model": "openai/gpt-4o-mini",
"messages": [{"role": "user", "content": "Hello, Bifrost!"}]
}'
That's it! Your AI gateway is running with a web interface for visual configuration, real-time monitoring…
Cloudflare AI Gateway:
- 10-50ms latency overhead (routing through Cloudflare's global network)
- SaaS architecture (cloud-managed)
- Caching reduces latency up to 90% for cached responses
- Global edge network can provide faster routing than direct connections
Latency impact at scale:
Application making 100 requests per user interaction:
- Bifrost: 100 × 11µs = 1.1ms total overhead
- Cloudflare: 100 × 10-50ms = 1,000-5,000ms (1-5 seconds) total overhead
For agentic workflows involving dozens of LLM calls, latency accumulates quickly. Bifrost's sub-microsecond overhead becomes critical.
Deployment: Self-Hosted vs SaaS
Bifrost:
- Self-hosted, in-VPC, on-premises deployment
- Docker, Kubernetes, bare metal support
- Full data control and compliance
- No vendor lock-in
Setup:
npx -y @maximhq/bifrost
# or
docker run -p 8080:8080 maximhq/bifrost
Cloudflare AI Gateway:
- SaaS only (hosted on Cloudflare's infrastructure)
- No self-hosted option
- Requires Cloudflare account and platform adoption
- Data flows through Cloudflare's global network
For teams requiring:
- Data sovereignty: Bifrost (self-hosted)
- Zero infrastructure management: Cloudflare (SaaS)
- Multi-cloud deployment: Bifrost (AWS, GCP, Azure, Cloudflare, Vercel)
Provider Support and Routing
Bifrost:
- 8+ providers, 1,000+ models
- Adaptive load balancing based on real-time latency, error rates, throughput limits, health status
- Weighted routing with automatic failover
- P2P clustering with automatic failover
- Provider-agnostic (works with any LLM API)
Cloudflare AI Gateway:
- 350+ models across 6 providers
- Dynamic routing based on latency, cost, availability
- Request retries and model fallback
- Optimized for Cloudflare's edge network
Routing intelligence:
Bifrost adapts routing decisions based on live performance metrics. Cloudflare routes through its global edge network for geographic optimization.
Caching
Bifrost:
- Semantic caching (vector similarity search)
- Dual-layer: exact hash match + semantic similarity
- Configurable similarity threshold (0.8-0.95)
- TTL-based expiration
- Integration with Weaviate vector store
- 40-60% cost reduction typical
Cloudflare AI Gateway:
- Edge caching (exact match)
- Reduces latency up to 90% for cached responses
- Serves from Cloudflare's global cache
- Custom cache key configuration
Caching approach:
Bifrost's semantic caching matches variations ("What are your hours?" = "When are you open?"). Cloudflare's edge caching requires exact request matches but leverages global CDN for instant delivery.
Observability
Bifrost:
- Built-in dashboard with real-time logs
- Native Prometheus metrics at
/metrics - OpenTelemetry distributed tracing
- Token and cost analytics
- Request/response inspection
- No additional setup required
Cloudflare AI Gateway:
- Real-time analytics dashboard
- Request logs, token usage, cost tracking
- Logs available within 15 seconds
- 100 million logs total (10M per gateway, 10 gateways)
- Evaluation features for model comparison
- Custom metadata tagging
Observability depth:
Bifrost provides infrastructure-level observability with Prometheus/OpenTelemetry. Cloudflare provides application-level analytics through its dashboard.
Security and Governance
Bifrost:
- Virtual keys with granular permissions
- Budget limits (per-team, per-customer, per-project, per-provider)
- Rate limiting per key
- SSO (Google, GitHub)
- SAML/OIDC support
- HashiCorp Vault integration
- RBAC with role-based access control
- Self-hosted = full data control
Cloudflare AI Gateway:
- Secrets Store (encrypted API key management)
- Rate limiting and request quotas
- Guardrails for content moderation (Llama Guard 3)
- Cloudflare's security infrastructure
- DLP (Data Loss Prevention) features
- Protected against malicious traffic
Security approach:
Bifrost offers enterprise governance with granular budget controls. Cloudflare provides platform-level security through its global infrastructure.
MCP Support
Bifrost:
- Native MCP support (Model Context Protocol)
- MCP client (connect to external MCP servers)
- MCP server (expose tools to Claude Desktop)
- Agent mode with configurable auto-execution
- Code mode for TypeScript orchestration
- Tool filtering per-request/per-virtual-key
Cloudflare AI Gateway:
- No native MCP support
For agentic applications:
Bifrost provides comprehensive MCP gateway capabilities. Cloudflare does not support MCP natively.
Pricing
Bifrost:
- Open source (Apache 2.0 License)
- Zero markup on provider costs
- Self-hosted = infrastructure costs only
- Enterprise support available
Cloudflare AI Gateway:
- Free tier available
- Unified billing (pay Cloudflare for all providers)
- Workers Paid users can add credits
- Platform pricing varies by plan
Cost structure:
Bifrost charges zero markup; you pay only provider API costs + infrastructure. Cloudflare offers unified billing convenience through their platform.
Integration and Compatibility
Bifrost:
- Drop-in replacement for OpenAI, Anthropic, Google GenAI SDKs
- LangChain, LlamaIndex, CrewAI compatibility
- Native Maxim AI evaluation platform integration
- Terraform and Kubernetes manifests
- Works with any OpenAI-compatible framework
Cloudflare AI Gateway:
- One-line integration ("just change the base URL")
- Workers AI integration
- Vectorize (vector database) integration
- Cloudflare Workers ecosystem
Enterprise Features
Bifrost:
- P2P clustering for high availability
- Adaptive load balancing with gossip protocol
- Cross-node synchronization
- Vault support for key rotation
- In-VPC and on-premises deployment
- Custom plugins
Cloudflare AI Gateway:
- Global edge network
- Enterprise-grade Cloudflare infrastructure
- Automatic scalability
- Built-in DDoS protection
When to Choose Bifrost
Choose Bifrost if you:
- Need ultra-low latency (11µs vs 10-50ms)
- Require self-hosted deployment (compliance, data sovereignty)
- Want zero vendor lock-in
- Need MCP gateway capabilities for agentic applications
- Require semantic caching (not just exact match)
- Want adaptive load balancing based on real-time metrics
- Need enterprise governance (RBAC, SSO, granular budgets)
Bifrost excels for:
- High-frequency trading or latency-critical applications
- Multi-tenant SaaS platforms needing granular budget controls
- Enterprise deployments requiring in-VPC hosting
- Agentic workflows with MCP tool execution
When to Choose Cloudflare
Choose Cloudflare AI Gateway if you:
- Already use Cloudflare infrastructure extensively
- Want zero infrastructure management (SaaS)
- Need global edge caching
- Prefer unified billing through Cloudflare
- Accept 10-50ms latency overhead
- Want Cloudflare's security infrastructure built-in
Cloudflare excels for:
- Teams already on Cloudflare Workers/CDN
- Global applications benefiting from edge caching
- Organizations wanting managed infrastructure
Feature Comparison Table
| Feature | Bifrost | Cloudflare AI Gateway |
|---|---|---|
| Latency | 11µs | 10-50ms |
| Throughput | 5,000 RPS/core | Not published |
| Deployment | Self-hosted, VPC, on-prem | SaaS only |
| Open Source | Yes | No |
| Pricing | Zero markup | Unified billing |
| Caching | Semantic (vector similarity) | Edge (exact match) |
| MCP Support | Native | No |
| Observability | Prometheus + OpenTelemetry | Dashboard analytics |
| Load Balancing | Adaptive (real-time metrics) | Dynamic routing |
| Security | RBAC, SSO, Vault | Secrets Store, DLP |
| Vendor Lock-in | None | Cloudflare platform |
The Decision
Performance-critical applications: Bifrost's 11µs latency eliminates infrastructure overhead. Cloudflare's 10-50ms becomes the bottleneck for high-frequency workflows.
Cloudflare ecosystem: If already using Cloudflare Workers, CDN, and platform services, AI Gateway provides unified management.
Enterprise governance: Bifrost offers granular budget controls, RBAC, and self-hosted deployment for compliance.
Global edge caching: Cloudflare leverages its CDN for instant cached response delivery worldwide.
MCP/Agentic applications: Bifrost provides native MCP gateway capabilities. Cloudflare does not support MCP.
Get Started
Bifrost:
npx -y @maximhq/bifrost
Visit https://getmax.im/bifrost-home
Cloudflare AI Gateway:
Visit Cloudflare dashboard, enable AI Gateway
Links:
Bifrost: https://getmax.im/docspage
GitHub: https://git.new/bifrost
Cloudflare AI Gateway: https://developers.cloudflare.com/ai-gateway/
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