Starter vs Production: Which Template Do You Need?¶

Quick Decision Guide¶

You Need...	Choose
Quick POC or development	Starter
Team evaluation	Starter
Side project	Starter
Production API	Production
Customer-facing product	Production
Enterprise deployment	Production

Feature Comparison¶

Core Features (Both Templates)¶

Feature	Starter	Production
LiteLLM Gateway	✅	✅
100+ LLM Provider Support	✅	✅
Langfuse Observability	✅	✅
Virtual Keys & Budgets	✅	✅
Cost Tracking	✅	✅
Prompt Management	✅	✅
PostgreSQL Database	✅	✅
ClickHouse Analytics	✅	✅
Redis Caching	✅	✅
MinIO Storage	✅	✅

Resilience Features¶

Feature	Starter	Production
Automated DB Backups	❌	✅ Daily
ClickHouse Backups	❌	✅ Daily
Backup Retention	❌	✅ 7 days
Redis AOF Persistence	❌	✅
Health Monitoring	❌	✅ All services
Slack/Discord Alerts	❌	✅
PagerDuty Integration	❌	✅
Prometheus Metrics	❌	✅
Enhanced Restart Policies	Basic	✅ 10 retries
Operations Runbook	❌	✅
Upgrade Documentation	❌	✅

Observability¶

Feature	Starter	Production
Service Health Dashboard	❌	✅ JSON API
Response Time Tracking	❌	✅ Per service
Failure Alerting	❌	✅ Configurable
Recovery Notifications	❌	✅
Metrics Endpoint	❌	✅ /metrics

Cost Comparison¶

Starter Template¶

Service	Est. Monthly
LiteLLM	$5-15
Langfuse Web	$5-10
Langfuse Worker	$3-8
PostgreSQL	$5-10
ClickHouse	$5-15
Redis	$3-5
MinIO	$3-5
Total	$29-68/mo

Production Template¶

Service	Est. Monthly
(All Starter services)	$29-68
Backup Service	$2-5
Health Monitor	$2-5
Total	$33-78/mo

Production adds ~$4-10/mo for significant resilience improvements.

Use Case Examples¶

Starter is Right For:¶

1. Development Environment - Testing LLM integrations - Prompt development - Team experimentation

2. Early Stage Startup - MVP development - Initial customer pilots - Budget constraints

3. Personal Projects - Side projects - Learning/exploration - Open source contributions

Production is Right For:¶

1. Customer-Facing API - SaaS products using LLMs - AI-powered features - Revenue-generating services

2. Enterprise Internal Tools - Company-wide LLM gateway - Compliance requirements - Audit trails needed

3. High-Stakes Applications - Healthcare AI assistants - Financial analysis tools - Legal document processing

Migration Path¶

Starter → Production¶

If you start with Starter and need to upgrade:

Deploy Production template alongside existing
Migrate data using pg_dump/restore
Update DNS/endpoints to point to new stack
Verify functionality
Decommission Starter stack

Timeline: 1-2 hours for small deployments¶

FAQ¶

Q: Can I add backups to Starter myself?

A: Yes, but Production template saves you time: - Pre-configured backup service - Tested retention policies - Alert integration included - Documentation for restore

Q: Is Production overkill for my use case?

A: Ask yourself: - Would 4 hours of downtime cost you customers? - Would data loss set you back weeks? - Do you need audit trails?

If any answer is "yes," Production is worth $5-10/mo extra.

Q: Can I upgrade later?

A: Yes, but it's easier to start with Production if you expect to need it. Migration requires: - Database export/import - Service reconfiguration - Testing period

Q: What about Railway's HA PostgreSQL?

A: Production template is designed to work with it. See UPGRADE.md for migration steps when you're ready for even higher availability.

Summary¶

Criteria	Starter	Production
Setup Time	5 min	5 min
Monthly Cost	$30-70	$35-80
Recovery Time	Hours-Days	Minutes
Data Loss Risk	High	Low
Alert Coverage	None	Full
Documentation	Basic	Comprehensive
Maintenance Burden	Higher	Lower

Our Recommendation: - Experimenting? → Starter - Building a product? → Production from Day 1