Behest vs Direct LLM APIs
Fine for prototypes. Dangerous for production.
Calling OpenAI, Anthropic, or Google directly works for prototypes, but production apps need auth, rate limiting, PII protection, and more. Behest gives you a complete AI backend — one endpoint, everything handled.
Direct LLM APIs
Call OpenAI, Anthropic, or Google directly. You get LLM access, but you must build everything else yourself — auth, rate limiting, PII protection, CORS handling, and memory.
Strong at: Direct access to latest models, simple prototyping, and full control over the request payload.
Category: Raw LLM API
Behest
Behest is the AI backend. One API call gives you auth, memory, PII scrubbing, prompt defense, rate limiting, token budgets, kill switches, and observability — self-hosted in your cloud.
Strong at: Complete AI backend with security, multi-tenant isolation, built-in business logic, and usage tier economics.
Category: AI Backend as a Service
The CORS problem
OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google do not support CORS. You cannot call them from a web browser without building a backend proxy to hide your API keys. Behest handles CORS natively — your frontend calls Behest directly, no proxy needed, no keys exposed.
Feature Comparison
| Feature | Behest | Direct API |
|---|---|---|
| CORS Handling | ||
| Multi-tenant Auth & Isolation | ||
| Rate Limiting (3-tier) | ||
| PII Scrubbing | ||
| Prompt Injection Defense | ||
| Conversation Memory | ||
| Token Budgets | ||
| Kill Switches | ||
| Observability & Analytics | ||
| Usage Tiers & Token Economics | ||
| LLM Access | ||
| Streaming Support | ||
| Self-hosted Deployment |
Direct APIs work when...
- Building a quick prototype or proof of concept
- Single-user app with no tenant isolation needs
- Server-side only calls (no browser CORS needed)
Choose Behest if you need...
- Browser-side LLM calls with CORS handled
- Multi-tenant isolation and per-tenant usage controls
- Built-in PII scrubbing and prompt injection defense
- Production-ready auth, rate limiting, and observability
- Self-hosted deployment in your own cloud
Ready to go from prototype to production?
Same API format as OpenAI. Change your endpoint URL, get auth, CORS, PII scrubbing, rate limiting, and memory — instantly.