Comparison
Speko vs Vapi
Speko Router is a voice model router for STT, LLM and TTS calls; Vapi is a hosted developer platform that runs the whole voice agent - they are not the same layer, so the useful comparison is which boundary your team wants to own.
Short answer
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How do Speko and Vapi compare?
Vapi category, scope and billing statements were checked against the official sources below on . The table compares product boundaries, not overall quality. A dash means this site publishes no sourced statement for that cell.
| Dimension | Speko Router | Vapi |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Voice model router. | Hosted developer platform for voice agents. |
| Scope | Compatible model calls for STT, LLM and TTS. It does not run the conversation loop. | Managed agent orchestration with prompts, tools and a provider stack configured in the platform. |
| Telephony | Not included in the Router boundary. Telephony and WebRTC remain with the application runtime. | Telephony is connected and billed separately from Vapi hosting and orchestration. |
| Model routing | The application can pin a model or request measured automatic selection from eligible routes. | Developers configure supported STT, LLM and TTS choices. Model usage can be pass-through or BYOK. |
| Runtime ownership | Speko operates the routing API; the customer keeps LiveKit, Pipecat or a custom runtime. | Vapi operates the hosted platform; the customer configures the agent and connected services. |
| Observability and failover | Route, reason, failover-count and first-byte headers. Failover is pre-response only, not mid-stream. | The platform owns call logs and orchestration. Fallback behavior stays within the configured provider paths. |
| Benchmark transparency | Public voice benchmark boards at benchmarks.speko.ai; automatic selection ranks over the published snapshot. | - |
| Pricing model | USD 0.09 per minute all-in on Speko infrastructure; current terms are kept on the pricing page. | Usage-based hosting and orchestration, plus model and telephony charges; BYOK providers can bill directly. |
Vapi sources:
Checked 2026-07-31
When to choose Vapi
- A managed developer platform should own agent orchestration and provider configuration.
- You want a developer-facing managed agent surface with a configurable provider stack.
- The platform should own more of deployment and call orchestration than a model router does.
When to choose Speko
- Automatic routing considers only models in the published benchmark snapshot. If the request constraints leave no eligible candidate, the router returns no_candidate rather than selecting outside that snapshot.
- The route is decided when your session opens, not while you speak.
- A preview endpoint returns the provider Speko would pick for a language and objective, with its runners-up, before you send a request.
Method and provenance
Every Vapi cell is copied from the sourced comparison this site maintains on the voice agent platforms page, where each statement carries its official source and check date. Speko cells are verified against the router source and the claim ledger this site builds from; the benchmark snapshot behind routing is published at benchmarks.speko.ai/data.json.
Choose the layer first. Compare products inside that boundary second.