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APIs · head to head

Formance vs LiteLLM

Formance logo

Formance

APIs

Open source double-entry ledger and payment orchestration for money-moving software

From
Free
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
LiteLLM logo

LiteLLM

APIs

The AI Gateway for platform teams

From
Free
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Each has a real cost: Formance formance holds no money and provides no regulatory cover, so it must be paired with a payments provider or bank, and buyers occasionally mistake a ledger for a treasury system and discover the gap late.; LiteLLM enterprise pricing based on annual request capacity and deployment architecture, sized via direct sales
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 31 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Formance and LiteLLM actually diverge.

Attributes where Formance and LiteLLM differ
AttributeFormanceLiteLLM
Pricing modelOpen source, no licence feeopen-source
PlatformsLinux, Docker, Kubernetes, Web, APIWeb

Identical on both: starting price (Free), free tier (Yes), user rating (Not yet rated), category (APIs).

What each one covers

Drawn from each product's published feature list. An absence here means we hold no record of it - not that the product lacks it.

Only in Formance

  • Double-entry ledger
  • Numscript transaction DSL
  • Multi-currency
  • Payments connectivity
  • Reconciliation
  • Self-hosted deployment
  • Cloud offering
  • API and SDKs

Only in LiteLLM

Nothing recorded that Formance does not also cover.

What people use each for

The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.

Formance

  • A marketplace splitting a single customer payment between seller, platform fee and tax that needs the split to be atomic and auditablenot LiteLLM
  • A fintech whose homegrown balances table produced numbers finance could not reconcile and now needs proper double-entry before an auditnot LiteLLM
  • A payments team that wants one normalised model across several PSPs so reconciliation is not written separately for eachnot LiteLLM
  • A company that wants its ledger under a licence it can keep running even if the vendor disappearsnot LiteLLM

LiteLLM

  • Accessing 140+ LLM providers through single APInot Formance
  • Implementing cost-based routing for advanced AI tasksnot Formance
  • Deploying new LLM models usually within a daynot Formance
  • Switching backend models with config changes onlynot Formance
  • Maintaining consistent access across 100+ endpointsnot Formance

Where each one falls short

Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.

Formance

  • Formance holds no money and provides no regulatory cover, so it must be paired with a payments provider or bank, and buyers occasionally mistake a ledger for a treasury system and discover the gap late.
  • Numscript is a domain-specific language your team must learn, and while it makes complex splits expressible it also means transaction logic sits outside the languages your engineers already debug well.
  • Self-hosting a ledger that must never lose or duplicate a transaction is a serious operational commitment covering backups, upgrades and Postgres tuning, which is real cost the zero licence fee hides.
  • Enterprise pricing is not published, so the difference between the free path and the supported path cannot be evaluated without a sales conversation.
  • The company is much smaller than the incumbent alternatives, and while the MIT licence protects the code it does not protect the roadmap, so features on the hosted side may arrive slowly or change direction.

LiteLLM

  • Enterprise pricing based on annual request capacity and deployment architecture, sized via direct sales
  • Not per-token based pricing for Enterprise tier

Pricing, plan by plan

Formance

Free
  • Open SourceFree
    • MIT licensed core ledger
    • Numscript transaction DSL
    • Multi-currency tracking
  • Enterprise$undefined/year
    • Managed or private deployment
    • Payments connectivity and reconciliation
    • Support with response commitments

LiteLLM

Free
  • Open SourceFree
    • 100+ providers
    • One OpenAI API
    • Virtual keys
  • Enterprise$null/mo
    • All Open Source features
    • SSO + SCIM
    • OIDC/JWT authentication

Which should you pick?

Choose Formance if

  • You need double-entry ledger.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on Linux, Docker, Kubernetes, Web, API.
  • You also want numscript transaction dsl.
Formance review

Choose LiteLLM if

  • You want to start without paying.
LiteLLM review

Questions people ask

Is Formance or LiteLLM better?
Neither clearly leads. Formance starts at Free and LiteLLM at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Formance or LiteLLM?
Formance starts at Free and LiteLLM at Free.
Does Formance or LiteLLM run on more platforms?
Formance runs on Linux, Docker, Kubernetes, Web, API. LiteLLM runs on Web.
Can I use Formance for free?
Both have a free tier, so you can try either at no cost before committing.
What is Formance best used for?
Formance is most often used for a marketplace splitting a single customer payment between seller, platform fee and tax that needs the split to be atomic and auditable, a fintech whose homegrown balances table produced numbers finance could not reconcile and now needs proper double-entry before an audit, a payments team that wants one normalised model across several psps so reconciliation is not written separately for each, a company that wants its ledger under a licence it can keep running even if the vendor disappears. Of those, a marketplace splitting a single customer payment between seller, platform fee and tax that needs the split to be atomic and auditable and a fintech whose homegrown balances table produced numbers finance could not reconcile and now needs proper double-entry before an audit are not what LiteLLM is typically brought in for.
What can Formance do that LiteLLM cannot?
Formance covers Double-entry ledger, Numscript transaction DSL, Multi-currency, Payments connectivity.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Formance: Is Formance really open source?

Yes. The core ledger is MIT licensed with full source access and no deployment restrictions.

LiteLLM: Is LiteLLM free to use?

Yes, LiteLLM's open-source version is free forever and requires no credit card. Self-host in minutes with support for 100+ LLM providers.

Source
Formance: Does Formance move money?

No. It records and orchestrates movements; the actual payments happen at a PSP or bank you connect.

LiteLLM: What does LiteLLM's Enterprise plan cost?

Enterprise pricing is custom and annual, sized based on your annual gateway request capacity, deployment architecture, and support needs. Not charged per token.

Source
Formance: What does the enterprise version cost?

Not published. It is an annual subscription quoted per customer.

LiteLLM: Is there a free trial for Enterprise?

Yes, a 30-day Enterprise trial key is available via email with no credit card required.

Source
Formance: Do I have to use Numscript?

Yes for anything beyond the simplest transfers. It is how multi-party transactions are expressed atomically.

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