--- title: "Bifrost alternative — for a team's coding tools · Selan" description: "Bifrost is an open-source Go gateway you run for models and MCP tools, reached by virtual key. Selan is hosted, one sign-in per person. When each fits." url: https://selan.ai/compare/bifrost updated: 2026-11-07T11:08:22+02:00 --- Compare · Bifrost and Selan # Is there a Bifrost alternative for a team's Claude Code? Yes, if you would rather not run a gateway. Bifrost is Maxim AI's open-source gateway, written in Go, that you run on your own server for models and MCP tools. Claude Code reaches it with a Bifrost virtual key, or with single sign-on on Bifrost Enterprise. Selan is a hosted gateway that each developer signs in to once. To keep the gateway inside your own network, Bifrost is the better answer. ## How do Bifrost and Selan compare? | | Bifrost | Selan | | --- | --- | --- | | What it is | An AI gateway and an MCP gateway in one, for apps and coding agents | A hosted gateway, with a CLI that launches Claude Code, Codex and OpenCode through it | | Where it runs | Your own server, by `npx` or Docker; Enterprise adds clustering and in-VPC deployments | A hosted service, built and hosted in the EU. Nothing to run | | Coding tools | Claude Code, Codex CLI, OpenCode and Gemini CLI through the `bifrost` CLI | Claude Code, Codex, OpenCode and Claude Desktop | | Providers | Over 20, among them Anthropic, OpenAI, Amazon Bedrock, Google Vertex and Azure | Anthropic, OpenAI, Google Vertex, OpenRouter, nexos.ai, Ollama Cloud and Kimi Code | | A developer's credential | A virtual key (`sk-bf-`) in the settings file, or an SSO token on Enterprise | One sign-in with Google or Microsoft through `selan login` | | Routing | Fallbacks, load balancing across keys, routing rules and model aliases | The model you name. Subscriptions are tried first, then a key, and nothing is substituted silently | | Limits | Budgets and rate limits per virtual key, team, customer and provider, rolling or by calendar period | A spend limit per person, by day, week or month in UTC, on pay-per-use keys | | Cost | Open source under Apache 2.0; Enterprise has a 14-day free trial | Free for up to three seats, no card | Bifrost is a gateway you run for models and MCP tools. Selan is a gateway a team signs in to for its coding tools. ## When is Bifrost the better answer? When the gateway must run in your own network. Bifrost starts with one `npx` or Docker command and keeps its configuration on your own disk. Its code is on GitHub under the Apache 2.0 licence, so you can read and change it. It reaches far more providers than Selan does. Claude can run on Amazon Bedrock, Vertex or Azure through it, with a fallback when one fails. A routing rule can send Claude Code's `sonnet` alias to a different provider per team or per header. It is also an MCP gateway. Every MCP server you connect to Bifrost sits behind one `/mcp` address, and each virtual key can be limited to the tools it may call. Its CLI launches Gemini CLI as well, which Selan does not. If no team runs coding tools through a gateway, you do not need Selan. ## What does Bifrost Enterprise add to the open-source gateway? Bifrost's docs say that running several open-source nodes against one Postgres database is not supported, because each node keeps its keys, budgets and usage in memory. Enterprise keeps a cluster of nodes in step, and that is where Bifrost draws the line between the two. Enterprise also adds sign-in through your identity provider with user and team sync, roles, audit logs and guardrails. One guardrail detects secrets in prompts and answers. It can run in your own VPC, and it starts with a 14-day free trial. ## Can Bifrost and Selan use Claude subscriptions? Bifrost can pass a developer's own Claude subscription through. The developer signs in with `/login`, and the virtual key travels in an `x-bf-vk` header instead. Bifrost forwards the subscription token to Anthropic and applies its governance to the virtual key. The plan's usage limits still apply. Selan runs on the Claude and ChatGPT accounts and API keys your company connects. Requests go to subscription accounts first and fall through to a key billed per token only when they are capped. Selan reads each Claude account's 5-hour and 7-day windows from every response. **Good to know:** a Selan spend limit stops pay-per-use spending only. A subscription is not billed per token, so its ceiling is the provider's own usage window. ## When is Selan the better answer? When the traffic is a team's coding tools and nobody wants to run a gateway or hand out keys. A developer runs `selan login` once, then `selan claude`, `selan codex` or `selan opencode`. Claude Desktop goes through the same gateway with one settings file. An owner connects the company's accounts and keys once, and switches on the models the team may use. A limit per person applies across every pay-per-use key. With secret scanning on, a secret it recognises is replaced before the request leaves. MCP servers work differently too. An owner switches a connector on, and each developer signs in to it as themselves, so their own permissions apply. The list is in [MCP connections](https://selan.ai/docs/mcp-connections). The trade-off is that requests travel through Selan, so if Selan is unavailable those requests fail. Your accounts can still be used directly. Which providers serve which models is in [models and providers](https://selan.ai/docs/providers), limits per person are on [the spend page](https://selan.ai/solutions/spend), and scanning is in [the secret scanning docs](https://selan.ai/docs/secrets). ## How do you move Claude Code from Bifrost to Selan? `bifrost configure claude` writes a virtual key into `~/.claude/settings.json`, and `bifrost unconfigure claude` takes it out again. If you set Bifrost up by hand, delete its `apiKeyHelper` line, the `x-bf-vk` header and any provider-prefixed model ids such as `vertex/claude-sonnet-4-6`. Then run `selan login` and `selan claude`. Connect the same Anthropic or Vertex accounts in Selan and switch on their models. You can keep Bifrost for your own apps and run the team's coding tools through Selan. Keeping provider keys off laptops is covered in [Claude Code without API keys on laptops](https://selan.ai/guides/claude-code-without-api-keys). [Start for free](https://auth.selan.ai/r) Free for up to three seats, and the Free plan needs no card. ### The short version - Bifrost is Maxim AI's open-source Go gateway for models and MCP tools, run on your own server. - It reaches Bedrock, Azure and far more providers than Selan, with fallbacks and routing rules. - Claude Code reaches it with a virtual key, or with single sign-on on Enterprise. - Selan is hosted in the EU: one sign-in per person, no provider key on the laptop, and a spend limit per person. What Bifrost does is as its documentation (the Claude Code, coding agents, budget and limits, Enterprise overview and secrets detection pages) and its README on GitHub described it, read on 2 November 2026. It changes: check the date before relying on it. What Selan does is as its CLI and docs stated it on that date.