Glama vs SkillzBench: Which Agent Skills Platform Should You Trust?
Glama is an all-in-one AI workspace with a ChatGPT-like chat experience, native MCP support for 5,000+ servers, and custom agents, trusted by 50,000+ businesses — but it's a paid subscription platform, not a skills-trust tool. SkillzBench is a free, independent directory and MCP connector for AI agent skills that pins every version to a commit SHA, security-scans, and benchmarks each skill's Lift, making it the better fit if your priority is knowing which skills actually help and which are risky. The two can even work together: SkillzBench to vet and equip skills, Glama to run them.
TL;DR
- Glama is a ChatGPT-for-teams workspace with native MCP support for 5,000+ servers and custom agents, trusted by 50,000+ businesses.
- Glama stores all customer data on US-based servers hosted on Fly.io, which maintains SOC 2 Type II certification.
- Glama operates on a paid subscription model with Monthly Credits equal to the subscription cost, plus optional topped-up balances.
- SkillzBench is a free, independent directory of AI agent skills plus a free MCP tool that connects any agent to chosen skills.
- SkillzBench pins every skill version to a commit SHA, validates, license-checks, security-scans, and quality-judges each skill.
- SkillzBench benchmarks every skill in a sandbox — with and without the skill — and publishes the Lift in percentage points; Lift is always shown separately from ratings.
- Published research found roughly 26% of skills carry at least one vulnerability, which is the problem SkillzBench is built to solve; SkillzBench is pre-launch with a live waitlist.
Head to head
| Dimension | Glama | SkillzBench |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Paid subscription (Monthly Credits model) | Free — everything, funded by blog advertising 🏆 |
| Product focus | All-in-one AI chat workspace for teams | Independent agent-skills directory + trust/benchmark layer |
| MCP support | Native MCP, access to 5,000+ servers, plus public registries 🏆 | One free MCP server connecting any agent to chosen skills, with per-agent loadouts |
| Skill verification & security | Users must evaluate content and bear all risks per its Terms of Service | Commit-SHA pinning, validation, license checks, security scans, 0-100 trust score 🏆 |
| Benchmarking | None — no published skill performance testing | Sandbox testing with the same model, with and without each skill; Lift published in percentage points 🏆 |
| Availability | Live — trusted by 50,000+ businesses per its sign-up page 🏆 | Pre-launch; waitlist/newsletter live, product not yet public |
| Data & hosting | US-only servers on Fly.io (SOC 2 Type II), encryption in transit and at rest | Managed as an ABS client tenant for marketing/content; SaaS is a separate stack |
| Best fit | Teams wanting a ready chat workspace with broad MCP access | Teams wanting verified, benchmarked, free agent skills |
The contenders
Glama, operated by Glama LLC (a Wyoming-based company), describes itself as an all-in-one AI workspace — a ChatGPT-like chat experience for talking with AI, built for team collaboration. It offers native MCP support with access to 5,000+ servers, lets users create specialized agents with custom prompts, and is trusted by 50,000+ businesses according to its sign-up page. Its Terms of Service position it as 'ChatGPT for teams,' leveraging APIs from OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google alongside self-hosted models. Glama also runs public registries of MCP servers and MCP connectors. On the security side, all customer data is stored on servers located exclusively in the United States, hosted on Fly.io, which maintains SOC 2 Type II certification, with encryption in transit and at rest and regular security audits. Some features are experimental and may be modified or discontinued.
pricing See pricing
- + All-in-one workspace combining chat, agents, and MCP in one product
- + Native MCP support with access to 5,000+ servers
- + Trusted by 50,000+ businesses, per its own sign-up page
- + US-only data storage on SOC 2 Type II-certified infrastructure (Fly.io), with encryption in transit and at rest and regular security audits
- + Custom agents with custom prompts for specialized workflows
- + Public registries of MCP servers and connectors for discoverability
- − Some features are experimental and may be modified, suspended, or discontinued at Glama's discretion
- − No skill-level verification, benchmarking, or security scanning of the MCP servers and skills it connects to — users must evaluate content and bear all risks themselves, per its Terms of Service
- − Subscription cost is paid monthly as credits; heavy usage requires topped-up balances that expire per its terms
- − Content flagged by automated moderation can result in warnings, suspension, or termination without refund at Glama's sole discretion
SkillzBench is AIQ Labs' free, independent directory of AI agent skills plus a free MCP tool that connects any agent to the skills you choose. Agent skills — SKILL.md instruction packages for Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, Gemini CLI and chat-app agents — are everywhere, but nobody can tell which ones actually help and which are risky: published research found roughly 26% of skills carry at least one vulnerability. SkillzBench is being built around five pillars: Discover (continuously crawl and dedupe skills from GitHub), Verify (pin every version to a commit SHA, validate, license-check, security-scan, quality-judge), Benchmark (test every skill in a sandbox with the same model, with and without the skill, and publish the Lift in percentage points), Equip (one free MCP server plus per-agent loadouts, where the agent only sees the skills and tools chosen for it), and Stay current (track upstream changes, re-scan, re-benchmark, notify). A 0-100 trust score is built from security, quality, license, maintenance and community signals; Lift is always shown separately from ratings and money never touches scores. SkillzBench is pre-launch — the waitlist/newsletter is live, and the product itself is not yet public.
pricing 0
- + Everything is free — the directory, the MCP connector, benchmarks and alerts
- + Independent: money never touches scores or listings; ad revenue from blog articles is the only income source
- + Version pinning to a commit SHA plus license checks and security scanning addresses the ~26% vulnerability rate found in published research
- + Measured Lift (percentage points) shows whether a skill actually helps, always shown separately from ratings
- + Per-agent loadouts mean each agent only sees the skills and tools explicitly chosen for it
- + Continuous monitoring: upstream changes are tracked, skills re-scanned and re-benchmarked, with notifications
- − Pre-launch: the waitlist/newsletter is live but the product is not yet public, so nothing can be used in production today
- − Focused specifically on agent skills — it is not a chat workspace or general AI assistant
- − Benchmark results and live skill counts are not yet published
Verdict
Winner: SkillzBench
For small businesses deciding which agent skills to trust, SkillzBench directly addresses the trust gap — version pinning, security scanning, and measured Lift — at no cost, while Glama is a broader AI chat workspace without skill-level verification. Glama wins if you need a full team AI workspace today, since SkillzBench is still pre-launch.
| Option | Overall | Breakdown |
|---|---|---|
| Glama | 7 | : 5: 8: 6: 9 |
| SkillzBench | 8 | : 10: 8: 9: 5 |
Trust and security compared
What each product actually is
Cost structure and business model
Which should you pick?
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FAQ
Is Glama free to use?
Glama operates on a paid subscription model: paid subscribers receive Monthly Credits equal to their subscription cost, spendable within the platform during the month of issuance, with optional topped-up balances for extra usage. Its sign-up page does not list a free tier, so plan on a subscription if you sign up.
Is SkillzBench available now?
SkillzBench is pre-launch and actively being built. The waitlist/newsletter is live, but the product itself — the directory, MCP connector, benchmarks and alerts — is not yet public, so you cannot use it in production today. Joining the waitlist is the way to get access as it rolls out.
Can Glama and SkillzBench be used together?
Yes, in principle. Glama is the workspace layer — chat, agents, and native MCP access to 5,000+ servers — while SkillzBench is a trust layer that verifies, benchmarks, and equips agent skills via its own free MCP server. A team could run agents in Glama and source vetted skills through SkillzBench.
Why does skill verification matter for a small business?
Published research found roughly 26% of agent skills carry at least one vulnerability. Glama's Terms of Service put the evaluation risk entirely on the user, whereas SkillzBench is being built to pin every skill version to a commit SHA, security-scan it, license-check it, and publish a 0-100 trust score plus measured Lift so you know what you're installing.
Does SkillzBench's advertising influence its ratings?
No. SkillzBench earns revenue only from advertising shown in and around its blog articles, and that ad money never influences scores or listings. Lift is always shown separately from ratings, and money never touches scores.
Which product should a small business choose?
If you need a usable team AI workspace right now, Glama is the practical choice — it's live and offers chat, custom agents, and broad MCP access. If your priority is trustworthy, benchmarked agent skills at no cost, SkillzBench is the better fit once it launches; join the waitlist in the meantime.