The LLM routers & AI gateways (OpenRouter, LiteLLM, Portkey) alternative built for solar installers
LLM routers & AI gateways (OpenRouter, LiteLLM, Portkey) works for plenty of teams — but if you run a solar installers business and it isn't fitting, here's the honest comparison against Deskwise, the AI employee built to run your front desk end-to-end.
A business that wants the AI to actually DO the work and produce revenue — answer calls, book jobs, run the back office — with routing and observability built in, not assembled.
Engineering teams building their own AI product who need a thin, flexible gateway to route across providers and watch cost/latency/errors themselves.
| Feature | Deskwise | LLM routers & AI gateways (OpenRouter, LiteLLM, Portkey) |
|---|---|---|
| What it optimizes for | Business revenue — booked, billed, collected dollars | Cost, latency, developer velocity, error visibility |
| Success metric | Your conversion rate and attributed revenue | Tokens per second, uptime, spend |
| Does the work end-to-end | Yes — answers, books, invoices, follows up across 1,000+ apps | No — it routes model calls; you build the product |
| Multi-provider routing | Built in (Anthropic + OpenRouter fallback) | Yes — this is their core |
| Per-model observability | Built in — success rate, latency, cost, failures | Yes — their strength (esp. Portkey) |
| Swap model without a deploy | One click per agent | Config change (LiteLLM/OpenRouter) |
| Who it's for | Business owners and operators, no engineers | Developers and ML platform teams |
| Time to value | Minutes — sign up, it's working | Days-to-weeks of integration into your own app |
| Raw gateway flexibility | Opinionated — built for the outcome, not a toolkit | Maximum flexibility to build anything |
| Self-hostable proxy | No — managed SaaS | Yes (LiteLLM) — full control of infra |
If you're an engineering team building your own AI product, use a gateway — that's exactly what they're for, and they're good at it. If you run a BUSINESS and want AI that produces revenue instead of a toolkit you have to build on, that's Deskwise: the routing and observability are already inside, pointed at the outcome. We're not competing with the gateway — we're the Revenue Router that sits above it.
What this means for a solar installers business
Consults, site surveys, and installs, sequenced. A long multi-stage sale stalls whenever one appointment fails to get booked. For solar installers operators specifically, Deskwise ships as a trades & projects system out of the box — estimate → schedule → execute → invoice. That means the comparison above isn't abstract: the booking flows, reminders, and follow-ups referenced in the table arrive pre-configured for how a solar installers business actually runs.
- Emergency vs scheduled call triage
- Voice-first answering (Vapi)
- Service call → diagnosis → quote flow
- On-call routing after hours
- Photo-attached estimates
- Parts-required deferral with restock alerts
- After-hours rate auto-applied
- Invoice + balance collection post-job
Switching from LLM routers & AI gateways (OpenRouter, LiteLLM, Portkey): what actually changes
What you gain
- What it optimizes for: Business revenue — booked, billed, collected dollars
- Success metric: Your conversion rate and attributed revenue
- Does the work end-to-end: Yes — answers, books, invoices, follows up across 1,000+ apps
- Who it's for: Business owners and operators, no engineers
- Time to value: Minutes — sign up, it's working
What you give up (honestly)
- Raw gateway flexibility: Maximum flexibility to build anything
- Self-hostable proxy: Yes (LiteLLM) — full control of infra
Your first week
- 1Sign up and pick "Solar Installers" — booking flows, reminders, and follow-ups arrive pre-configured as a trades & projects system (estimate → schedule → execute → invoice.)
- 2Add your services, prices, hours, and policies — your AI employee answers from them on every channel from minute one
- 3Connect the apps you already use (calendar, email, payments) so it works inside your stack, not beside it
- 4Keep LLM routers & AI gateways (OpenRouter, LiteLLM, Portkey) running in parallel for a week if you like — nothing to migrate up front, and you can export your client list into Deskwise whenever you're ready
Hire an AI employee for your solar installers business.
Answers every call and text 24/7, books, takes payment, and follows up — from $99/mo. Live in minutes, cancel anytime.