Updated March 10, 2026
SambaNova builds custom AI chips (RDU - Reconfigurable Dataflow Units) and provides a cloud platform for running LLMs with extremely fast inference speeds. Their SambaNova Cloud offers free-tier access to popular models like Llama and DeepSeek with industry-leading throughput.
vLLM is an open-source inference and serving engine for LLMs, built for high-throughput serving on GPUs with an OpenAI-compatible API server.
Core capabilities each platform advertises.
vLLMWhat each tool does well, and the limitations to keep in mind.
Pros
Cons
vLLMPros
Cons
Choose SambaNova if you wantChoose if you want
Choose vLLM if you wantChoose if you want
Respan lets you trace LLM and agent calls across any model or framework, A/B test prompts on production traffic, and route requests across 1,000+ models through one gateway.
Try Respan free