LiteLLM
LiteLLM is an open-source library and proxy that normalises calls across many model providers behind an OpenAI-compatible interface, with self-hostable routing, fallbacks and basic budgeting. See litellm.ai for the canonical description.
Comparison
Privian vs LiteLLM
How Privian compares to LiteLLM for privacy-first LLM routing, prompt-level data protection and sensitive-data masking.
Quick summary
At a glance
LiteLLM
Choose LiteLLM if you want an open-source proxy and provider abstraction layer that normalises many model APIs into one interface.
Privian
Choose Privian if you want a hosted, privacy-first LLM gateway that masks supported personal and sensitive data before prompts reach the model.
Definitions
What each product is
Privian
Privian is a privacy-first LLM gateway. One endpoint sits in front of providers like OpenAI, Anthropic and Google, and supported personal or sensitive entities are masked with deterministic placeholders before any provider call, then restored in the response. Raw prompts and responses are not persisted; provider credentials are stored BYOK and decrypted only in-process at request time.
Comparison
Side-by-side comparison
Grounded in publicly available product positioning. Where we are not confident, we say so.
| Capability | LiteLLM | Privian |
|---|---|---|
| Primary positioning | Open-source LLM proxy and provider abstraction layer | Privacy-first LLM gateway with prompt-level data protection |
| Privacy-first routing | Not a stated focus | Yes, core design goal |
| PII masking | Not a stated focus | Yes — supported personal/secret entities masked before provider call |
| Prompt-level data protection | Not a stated focus | Yes — deterministic placeholders, rehydrated in the response |
| BYOK | See vendor docs | Yes — provider keys stored AES-GCM, decrypted in-process |
| Gateway model | Self-hosted proxy or library | Hosted gateway with a small JSON contract |
| Prompt injection protection | Not a stated focus | No claim |
| Tool / function calling | Yes, where the underlying provider supports it | Not currently supported |
| Native streaming | Yes, where the underlying provider supports it | Not currently supported (artificial chunking only) |
| Open source | Yes (MIT) | Closed source (beta) |
| Observability | See vendor docs | Structural counters only; raw prompts never persisted |
| Pricing model | See vendor pricing | Usage-based plans, see /pricing |
| Enterprise orientation | See vendor docs | Designed for privacy-sensitive teams; HIPAA/SOC 2/PCI not claimed |
| Best fit | Teams that want self-hosted provider abstraction | Teams that need supported PII masking and provider-agnostic BYOK routing |
Architecture
Architecture differences
LiteLLM
LiteLLM's architecture is library-first: a Python package plus an optional proxy server you operate yourself. Routing, fallbacks and budgeting run in your infrastructure.
Privian
Privian sits between your application and the model provider. Each request runs through detection → masking → BYOK provider call → rehydration in a single in-memory pass. The data plane is designed around minimising what reaches the provider rather than around routing breadth or orchestration.
Privacy & security
Privacy and security positioning
What Privian optimises for
- Prompt-level data protection
- Supported PII and sensitive-value masking
- Privacy-first routing with BYOK
- No raw-prompt persistence; structural observability only
What Privian does NOT claim
- Prompt injection or jailbreak defence
- HIPAA / SOC 2 / PCI certification
- Tool / function calling security guarantees
- Downstream model behaviour guarantees
When to choose
When to choose LiteLLM
- You want an OpenAI-compatible interface across many providers
- You prefer open-source you can self-host and modify
- Prompt-level data protection is something you would add yourself if needed
When to choose
When to choose Privian
- You want supported PII masking and rehydration built in, not bolted on
- You want a hosted gateway with BYOK and zero raw-prompt retention
- You prefer a small, opinionated JSON contract over SDK normalisation
Transparency
Honest limitations
Privian is in active development. Listing what it does not do today is part of how we earn trust — expect this list to shrink over time.
- No tool / function calling in the current beta
- No native provider token streaming yet (stream: true is artificially chunked)
- No OpenAI SDK drop-in compatibility
- No claim to detect or block prompt injection or jailbreaks
- No Norwegian fødselsnummer masking yet
- No custom user-defined entity types yet
- No HIPAA / SOC 2 / PCI certifications at this time
FAQ
Frequently asked questions
- Is Privian a replacement for LiteLLM?
- Only if your primary requirement is privacy-first routing rather than open-source provider abstraction. LiteLLM optimises for normalising many provider APIs; Privian optimises for prompt-level data protection.
- Can Privian work alongside LiteLLM?
- Yes. Some teams use LiteLLM as an in-cluster abstraction layer and a privacy-first gateway in front of egress to model providers. The two are not mutually exclusive.
- Why would I choose a privacy-first LLM gateway?
- Open-source proxies forward your prompts to the provider verbatim by default. A privacy-first gateway adds detection and masking of supported entities before the provider call.
- Who should use Privian?
- Teams that want a hosted, opinionated gateway focused on reducing sensitive-data exposure to LLM providers, with BYOK and no prompt persistence.
- Does Privian block prompt injection?
- No. Privian focuses on prompt-level data protection — masking supported personal and sensitive values before they reach the model. It does not claim to detect or block prompt injection or jailbreaks. If injection defence is your primary requirement, a dedicated LLM firewall is a better fit.
- Does Privian support native streaming?
- Not in the current beta. The gateway accepts stream: true and returns artificially chunked text, but it does not pass through native provider token streams yet.
Plans & pricing
See pricing for Privian — a privacy-first alternative to LiteLLM
BYOK, zero retention, prompt-level masking. Pricing is published transparently; Privian is in beta and limits may change.