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Competitor familyBrume vs Unkey
Unkey sells eight tiers. Brume sells one number.
Unkey's step-tier pricing jumps from $25 to $1,000 with no smooth overage — a customer at 260K requests pays for the $50 tier. Brume is flat-rate: four tiers, each with a generous check volume, and exceeding a cap rejects with PLAN_LIMIT instead of invoicing you retroactively.
Unkey
Managed services with consumption or step-tier pricing to match.
Feature comparison.
| Feature | Brume | Unkey |
|---|
| Pricing model | Flat rate, 4 tiers | Step tiers, $25→$1,000 |
| Entry price | $19/mo · 7.5M checks | $25/mo · 250K requests |
| Free tier | 10K checks/day | 150K verifications/mo |
| Algorithms | All four | Token bucket, fixed window |
| Long-window quotas | Built-in | No |
| Block & allow lists | Built-in | No |
| Multi-rule evaluation | One call | No |
| API key management | No (non-goal) | Core product |
| Edge / multi-region | No (non-goal) | Global |
Migration
Migrating from Unkey?
Read the migration guide or start building on the free tier.
Unkey is a serious rate-limiting product, and we built Brume Limit with a lot of respect for it. The difference is not capability — it is pricing shape and scope.
The pricing shape
Unkey's rate limiting is priced in step tiers from $25 to $1,000 a month, keyed to monthly request volume. A customer at 260K requests pays for the tier that covers them — the step function does the rounding. Brume is flat-rate: four tiers, each with a generous daily check volume, and exceeding a cap rejects with PLAN_LIMIT instead of invoicing you retroactively.
The volume comparison is the headline: Unkey's $25/mo tier covers 250K requests per month. Brume Starter at $19/mo covers 250K checks per day — about 7.5M per month. If you are comparing line items, compare volume per dollar.
Scope
Unkey's core product is API key management — issuing, verifying, and tracking keys. Rate limiting is one product in that lineup. Brume Limit is the reverse: rate limiting is the whole product, and API key management is a non-goal. If you need to issue and verify API keys for your own customers, Unkey is the right tool for that job. If you need to limit traffic, Brume is built for exactly that.
What Brume adds
- All four algorithms. Unkey offers fixed window and token bucket. Brume adds sliding window log (exact) and sliding window counter (constant memory).
- Long-window quotas as first-class objects with billing-cycle-aware resets.
- Block & allow lists evaluated atomically before any rule runs.
- Multi-rule evaluation in one call — burst rule plus budget rule in a single round trip.
What Unkey has that Brume doesn't
- API key issuance and verification as a product.
- Edge / multi-region evaluation. Brume runs from Frankfurt during soft launch.
- A larger integration surface.
Migration
The SDK ergonomics are close enough that the swap is mechanical. See Migrate from Unkey for the side-by-side.