CrewAI vs Portkey (2026): Pricing, Features & Verdict
Portkey is our pick, scoring 7.8/10 against 7.1/10 for CrewAI on our AI Software criteria. Its biggest advantage: higher Analytics score (9/10 vs 7/10). For 10 users, CrewAI and Portkey are both free; both CrewAI and Portkey have a free plan.
Last updated: November 2026
CrewAI
7.1/10
CrewAI is an open-source Python framework and enterprise platform (AMP) for building, deploying, and governing multi-agent AI workflows. It is used by developers and enterprise platform teams.
Portkey
7.8/10
Portkey is an AI gateway and LLMOps control plane that routes, monitors, and governs requests to 1,600+ LLMs for engineering teams and enterprises.
Feature-by-Feature Comparison
| Feature | | |
|---|---|---|
| Scores | ||
| Overall Rating | 7.1/10 | 7.8/10 |
| Integration | 8/10 | 9/10 |
| Analytics | 7/10 | 9/10 |
| Customization | 9/10 | 7/10 |
| Ease of Use | 6/10 | 8/10 |
| Support | 6/10 | 6/10 |
| Cost | 7/10 | 7/10 |
| Scalability | 6/10 | 8/10 |
| Security | 7/10 | 8/10 |
| Output Quality | 7/10 | Not listed |
| Pricing | ||
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Cheapest paid plan | Contact for pricing | $49/mo Production |
| Estimated cost for 10 users | Free Basic | Free Open Source |
| Features | ||
| AI Agents | Not listed | |
| API Access | Not listed | |
| Chatbots | Not listed | |
| Code Generation | Not listed | |
| Enterprise Controls | Not listed | |
| Knowledge Base Search | Not listed | |
| Private Deployment | Not listed | |
| Text Generation | Not listed | |
| Workflow Automation | Not listed | |
| More features | ||
| API and CLI | Not listed | |
| Managed WordPress | Not listed | |
| Object Storage | Not listed | |
| Uptime SLA | Not listed | |
| Dedicated Servers | Not listed | |
| VPS Hosting | Not listed | |
| Shared Hosting | Not listed | |
CrewAI vs Portkey cost by team size
CrewAI and Portkey cost the same at every team size we checked.
| Team size | CrewAI | Portkey |
|---|---|---|
| 1 user | FreeBasic | FreeOpen Source |
| 5 users | FreeBasic | FreeOpen Source |
| 10 users | FreeBasic | FreeOpen Source |
| 25 users | FreeBasic | FreeOpen Source |
| 50 users | FreeBasic | FreeOpen Source |
The plan that fits each team size, billed monthly, before add-ons and usage charges. Each cost opens that tool's pricing calculator for the team size.
Who CrewAI and Portkey suit
| Audience | CrewAI | Portkey |
|---|---|---|
| Developers | 9/10The core product is a Python framework with code-level control over agents, tools, and flows, and it has more than 60k GitHub stars. | 9/10Setup takes a few lines of code with OpenAI-compatible SDKs, and there is a free tier and an open-source gateway. |
| Enterprise | 8/10The Enterprise plan adds SSO, RBAC, PII redaction, VPC or self-hosted deployment, and onboarding, and the vendor cites Fortune 500 customers such as DocuSign and PepsiCo. | 8/10The Enterprise plan adds SSO, RBAC, VPC deployment, and HIPAA/SOC 2 support, and the product is now part of Palo Alto Networks' Prisma AIRS. |
| Startups | 7/10The free, open-source framework and the free Basic cloud tier make prototyping cheap, but no mid-priced paid tier is published. | 7/10A free tier and a $49 Production plan keep the entry cost low. |
| IT Teams | 7/10Central governance, RBAC, and deployment controls are aimed at platform and IT teams that manage agents across a company. | Not rated |
| SaaS Companies | Not rated | 8/10Built for teams running production GenAI features across multiple LLM providers. |
| Small Business | 4/10Most of the value requires Python skills, and the jump from 50 free executions to custom Enterprise pricing is awkward for small firms. | Not rated |
Which One Should You Choose?
Why choose CrewAI
- Higher Customization score (9/10 vs 7/10)
Why choose Portkey
- Higher Analytics score (9/10 vs 7/10)
- Higher Ease of Use score (8/10 vs 6/10)
Pros & Cons
CrewAI
Pros
- The core framework is MIT-licensed and free to self-host, so teams can prototype multi-agent systems without licensing costs.
- The role-based Crews model and the event-driven Flows model give developers a clear structure, with sequential and hierarchical task processes.
- It works with most LLMs through LiteLLM or native providers, and it supports MCP servers, A2A, and more than 40 built-in tools.
- AMP includes OAuth-based connectors for Salesforce, HubSpot, Slack, and Gmail, plus REST API and webhook triggers.
- Enterprise buyers can deploy in their own VPC or on their own infrastructure, with SSO, RBAC, and PII redaction.
Cons
- No public price exists between the free 50-execution Basic tier and a custom Enterprise quote.
- Reviewers report heavy token use, because every agent step is an LLM call and multi-agent crews add to the cost.
- Python knowledge is effectively required, and reviewers describe the learning curve as steep for newcomers.
- Independent reviews say long-running pause and resume, horizontal scaling, and error recovery need custom work.
- Smaller open-source models, around 7B parameters, reportedly struggle with CrewAI's function calling.
- Compliance claims (SOC 2 type, HIPAA) vary between third-party sources and should be confirmed directly with the vendor.
Portkey
Pros
- Unified API covering more than 1,600 models, with automatic fallbacks, retries, and load balancing.
- Detailed logs and traces show the latency, cost, and retry path of each request.
- An open-source core and a free tier let developers try it before paying.
- Enterprise governance features include budgets, rate limits, RBAC, SSO, and audit logs, with VPC deployment available.
Cons
- Since the 2026 acquisition, paid plans route through Palo Alto Networks' Prisma AIRS, which brings uncertainty about future pricing and roadmap.
- You pay for the gateway on top of LLM provider costs, and provider billing stays separate.
- Below Enterprise, support is community-only, and the free plan keeps logs for just 3 days.
- It may be more platform than needed for small prototypes that want only a simple proxy.
Not sold on either?
Frequently Asked Questions
Portkey scores higher on our AI Software criteria: 7.8/10 against 7.1/10 for CrewAI. The largest gap is in Analytics: 7/10 for CrewAI and 9/10 for Portkey.
Both are free for 10 users.
Yes, both CrewAI and Portkey have a free plan.
