Is Portkey or Skyflow better?

Neither clearly leads. Portkey starts at On request and Skyflow at On request, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.

Which is cheaper, Portkey or Skyflow?

Portkey starts at On request and Skyflow at On request.

Does Portkey or Skyflow run on more platforms?

Portkey runs on Web. Skyflow runs on API, Web, Self-hosted.

What is Portkey best used for?

Portkey is most often used for accessing 1,600+ language models through unified api gateway, monitoring and observing llm behavior in production environments, managing costs and setting budget limits for ai spending, implementing guardrails and pii redaction for secure ai interactions. Of those, accessing 1,600+ language models through unified api gateway and monitoring and observing llm behavior in production environments are not what Skyflow is typically brought in for.

What can Portkey do that Skyflow cannot?

Skyflow covers Tokenised storage, Polymorphic encryption, Field level access policies, Data residency.

APIs · head to head

Portkey vs Skyflow

Portkey

APIs

Observe, govern, and secure every AI interaction across your enterprise

From: On request
Rated: -

Full review Website

Skyflow

APIs

Data privacy vault that holds sensitive records outside your own systems

From: On request
Rated: -

Full review Website

The short version

Each has a real cost: Portkey the free Developer tier records only 10,000 logs per month with 3 day log retention; the $49 per month Production tier raises that to 100,000 logs with $9 per additional 100,000 requests, as of August 2026.; Skyflow reported contracts near 195,000 US dollars a year with a platform fee before usage put this out of reach of early stage companies, which are precisely the ones whose architecture is still cheap to change.
Prices and features above were last checked on 31 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Portkey and Skyflow actually diverge.

Attributes where Portkey and Skyflow differ
Attribute	Portkey	Skyflow
Pricing model	Unknown	quote
Platforms	Web	API, Web, Self-hosted

Identical on both: starting price (On request), free tier (No), 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 Portkey

Nothing recorded that Skyflow does not also cover.

Only in Skyflow

Tokenised storage
Polymorphic encryption
Field level access policies
Data residency
Secure functions
PCI scope reduction
Detokenisation gateway
Audit trail

What people use each for

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

Portkey

Accessing 1,600+ language models through unified API gatewaynot Skyflow
Monitoring and observing LLM behavior in production environmentsnot Skyflow
Managing costs and setting budget limits for AI spendingnot Skyflow
Implementing guardrails and PII redaction for secure AI interactionsnot Skyflow

Skyflow

A fintech that wants card and bank account data out of its own infrastructure so its application servers leave PCI DSS assessment scopenot Portkey
A company entering India or the EU with data localisation obligations that would otherwise require standing up regional databases and operationsnot Portkey
A health technology business that needs protected health information isolated from the analytics stack while still supporting aggregate reportingnot Portkey
An engineering team that wants support agents to see masked identifiers and payment services to see real ones, enforced centrally rather than in every servicenot Portkey

Where each one falls short

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

Portkey

The free Developer tier records only 10,000 logs per month with 3 day log retention; the $49 per month Production tier raises that to 100,000 logs with $9 per additional 100,000 requests, as of August 2026.

Skyflow

Reported contracts near 195,000 US dollars a year with a platform fee before usage put this out of reach of early stage companies, which are precisely the ones whose architecture is still cheap to change.
Every read of a protected field becomes a network call to a third party, so latency and an external availability dependency enter paths that were previously local database reads, and outage planning has to account for a vendor you do not control.
Analytics and joins on vaulted data are constrained; work that was a simple SQL join now happens through secure functions or on tokens, and data teams routinely discover this after the engineering team has committed.
Unwinding the vault later is a rewrite rather than a migration because tokens are threaded through every service, so the switching cost climbs steadily and the negotiating position at renewal weakens with each release.
Scope reduction is an architectural claim your own assessor must accept, so the audit saving is real only if the implementation genuinely keeps sensitive values off your systems, and partial implementations that leave a cache or a log line in place deliver the cost without the benefit.

Pricing, plan by plan

Portkey

On request

No published plan breakdown. See the Portkey review.

Skyflow

On request

Skyflow Data Privacy Vault$undefined/year
- Platform fee plus usage by data subject count
- Priced additionally per data residency region
- PCI Level 1, SOC 2 Type 2, ISO 27001 and HIPAA coverage

Which should you pick?

Choose Portkey if

Nothing in the data separates Portkey from Skyflow on the points above - pick on price and on how each one feels to use.

Portkey review

Choose Skyflow if

You need tokenised storage.
You work on API, Web, Self-hosted.
You also want polymorphic encryption.

Skyflow review

Questions people ask

Is Portkey or Skyflow better?: Neither clearly leads. Portkey starts at On request and Skyflow at On request, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Portkey or Skyflow?: Portkey starts at On request and Skyflow at On request.
Does Portkey or Skyflow run on more platforms?: Portkey runs on Web. Skyflow runs on API, Web, Self-hosted.
What is Portkey best used for?: Portkey is most often used for accessing 1,600+ language models through unified api gateway, monitoring and observing llm behavior in production environments, managing costs and setting budget limits for ai spending, implementing guardrails and pii redaction for secure ai interactions. Of those, accessing 1,600+ language models through unified api gateway and monitoring and observing llm behavior in production environments are not what Skyflow is typically brought in for.
What can Portkey do that Skyflow cannot?: Skyflow covers Tokenised storage, Polymorphic encryption, Field level access policies, Data residency.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Portkey: What happens if I exceed my Portkey plan's request limit?

Production tier ($49/month) charges $9 per additional 100,000 requests beyond the included 100,000. Enterprise customers have custom limits determined through their service agreement. Source: https://portkey.ai/pricing

Source

Skyflow: Does Skyflow really take my systems out of PCI scope?

It can, if card data never touches your infrastructure and the detokenisation happens at the boundary. Your QSA has to agree the design, so validate the architecture with your assessor before signing.

Portkey: Can I self-host Portkey to avoid per-request billing?

Yes. Portkey offers an Open Source self-hosted version with unlimited requests at no cost, including universal API, routing, guardrails, and load balancing features. Source: https://portkey.ai/pricing

Source

Skyflow: What does it cost?

Nothing is published. Reported annual contracts sit around 195,000 US dollars, built from a platform fee plus usage by data subject count and additional charges per data residency region.

Portkey: How long does Portkey retain my logs and metrics?

Free Developer tier retains logs 3 days and metrics 30 days. Production tier retains logs 30 days and metrics 90 days. Enterprise tier offers custom retention periods. Source: https://portkey.ai/pricing

Source

Skyflow: How does it help with data localisation?

Records can be pinned to a specified region, so an Indian or EU residency requirement is met by the vault rather than by you running regional databases and operations teams.

Portkey: What compliance features are included in the Enterprise plan?

Enterprise tier includes SOC2 Type 2 certification, GDPR compliance, HIPAA compliance, VPC hosting, SSO, advanced guardrails, and dedicated support. Custom pricing required. Source: https://portkey.ai/pricing

Source

Skyflow: Can I still run analytics on vaulted data?

Partly. Aggregates and comparisons are supported through polymorphic encryption and secure functions, but arbitrary joins against other datasets are harder than they were, and this is the most common late surprise.

Portkey vs Skyflow

Portkey

Skyflow

The short version

Where they differ

What each one covers

Only in Portkey

Only in Skyflow

What people use each for

Portkey

Skyflow

Where each one falls short

Portkey

Skyflow

Pricing, plan by plan

Portkey

Skyflow

Which should you pick?

Choose Portkey if

Choose Skyflow if

Questions people ask

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Related pages

More on Portkey

More on Skyflow

Keep looking

Other head to heads