How Much Does Smithery Cost in 2026? Full Pricing Breakdown
Smithery runs on a freemium model in 2026: a Hobby plan that's free (capped at 3 namespaces), a Pay as you Go tier (100 namespaces), and Custom plans for larger needs, per Smithery's own documentation. If you want a free alternative for the skills side of the equation, SkillzBench offers a free directory of AI agent skills plus a free MCP connector at skillzbench.com. Note that Smithery was acquired by Arcade.dev in August 2026, so expect its packaging to evolve under new ownership.
TL;DR
- Smithery's Hobby plan is free and capped at 3 namespaces; Pay as you Go raises that to 100, and Custom plans go beyond that.
- Third-party catalogs describe Smithery as freemium with a free plan available, which matches its own docs.
- Arcade.dev acquired Smithery on August 5, 2026, announced by Arcade's CEO Alex Salazar; co-founder Anirudh Kamath joined the Arcade team.
- Smithery handles OAuth, credential storage, token refresh, and session lifecycle for MCP connections, which removes real operational work.
- The registry lists heavily used servers like Brave Search (106.86k uses) and Gmail (59.79k uses).
- SkillzBench is free end to end: skills directory, trust scores, benchmarks, MCP connector, and alerts, funded by blog advertising.
- SkillzBench pins every skill version to a commit SHA and publishes sandbox Lift results, since published research found roughly 26% of skills carry at least one vulnerability.
Head to head
| Dimension | Smithery | SkillzBench |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free Hobby plan (3 namespaces); Pay as you Go and Custom tiers above it | Free across the board, funded by blog advertising 🏆 |
| Ease of use | One-click server installs, CLI workflows, browser-based auth confirmation | Toggle skills per agent via loadouts; no billing or plans to manage 🏆 |
| Features | Registry, hosting, managed connections, Uplink tunneling, publisher analytics, token policies | Skills directory, trust scores, sandbox benchmarking with Lift, security scanning, change alerts |
| Support | Documentation site covering namespaces, Uplink, CLI, and publishing | Documentation and blog content on an ad-funded free platform |
| Integrations | Thousands of MCP servers; Brave Search (106.86k uses), Gmail (59.79k), OneSignal (22.49k), Context7 (5.56k) 🏆 | One free MCP server connecting any agent; works with Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, Gemini CLI |
| Setup | Install CLI via npm, authenticate in browser, create a namespace | Sign up free, browse skills, toggle a loadout, connect via MCP 🏆 |
| Security | Token scoping with TTL, namespace, operation, and request-level restrictions; end-to-end TLS on Uplink | Security scanning, commit-SHA version pinning, license checks, trust scores 0-100 |
The contenders
Smithery is a public registry and hosting platform for MCP (Model Context Protocol) servers, built around the idea that finding and running an MCP server should take one click. Agents connect to thousands of tools and services, with auth, credentials, and sessions handled for you. Its registry includes widely used servers such as Brave Search (106.86k recorded uses), Gmail (59.79k uses), OneSignal (22.49k uses), Exa Search (9.18k uses), and Context7 (5.56k uses). Beyond discovery, Smithery offers namespaces as shared workspaces for servers, connections, and skills; a CLI for searching, connecting, and calling tools; token policies for scoping agent access; and Uplink, which exposes an MCP server running on your own machine through the same REST surface as hosted servers. For server authors, publishing brings a dedicated page, usage analytics, automatic spec compliance through its Gateway, and generated OAuth UIs. In August 2026, Arcade.dev acquired Smithery, pairing its developer experience with Arcade's enterprise security and governance focus.
pricing 0/month
- + Free Hobby tier gets you started at $0 with 3 namespaces
- + Auth, credentials, and sessions handled for you, which is the hardest part of running MCP in practice
- + Large, active registry: Brave Search at 106.86k uses and Gmail at 59.79k uses
- + Uplink lets you test local servers against real agents without hosting anything
- + Granular token scoping (TTL, namespace, operations, request-level regex) is unusual at this price point
- − Namespace limits are tight on the free tier: 3 vs 100 on Pay as you Go
- − No user reviews yet on major software directories, so community feedback is thin
- − Not open source, unlike alternatives such as CrewAI or FastMCP
- − The Arcade.dev acquisition means plan structure and limits could change under new ownership
- − Third-party roundups flag setup complexity and a learning curve as common reasons users look elsewhere
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) have multiplied, but quality varies wildly: published research found roughly 26% of skills carry at least one vulnerability. SkillzBench tackles that with five pillars. Discover continuously crawls and dedupes skills from GitHub. Verify pins every version to a commit SHA, validates, license-checks, security-scans, and quality-judges. Benchmark tests every skill in a sandbox with the same model, with and without the skill, and publishes the Lift in percentage points. Equip provides one free MCP server plus per-agent loadouts, so you toggle skills and tools per agent and the agent only sees what was chosen. Stay current tracks upstream changes, re-scans, re-benchmarks, and notifies you. A trust score from 0 to 100 combines security, quality, license, maintenance, and community signals, and Lift is always shown separately from ratings; money never touches scores. Everything on the platform is free, funded by advertising around its blog articles.
pricing 0/month
- + Everything is free: directory, MCP connector, benchmarks, and alerts
- + Security-first: every version pinned to a commit SHA and scanned, addressing the ~26% vulnerability rate found in published research
- + Lift is measured in a sandbox with the same model, so you can see what a skill actually contributes
- + Per-agent loadouts give you least-privilege control over what each agent can access
- + Money never influences scores or listings; revenue comes from blog advertising
- − Focused on agent skills rather than hosting or distributing MCP servers, so it doesn't replace a registry
- − No paid support or SLA tier, since the platform is free and ad-funded
- − Benchmark coverage depends on what's been crawled and tested so far; check skillzbench.com for current numbers
Verdict
Winner: none
Smithery's free Hobby tier covers small-scale use at $0, with paid Pay as you Go and Custom plans for teams that need more namespaces and managed connections. SkillzBench is free across the board but solves a different problem: vetting and equipping agent skills rather than hosting MCP servers.
| Option | Overall | Breakdown |
|---|---|---|
| Smithery | 7.5 | : 8: 8: 8: 6: 9: 7 |
| SkillzBench | 7 | : 10: 7: 7: 6: 7: 7 |
Smithery pricing in 2026: what the plans actually look like
Free vs free: how Smithery's Hobby tier stacks up against SkillzBench
What the Arcade.dev acquisition means for your costs
Which should you pick?
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FAQ
Is Smithery free to use in 2026?
Yes, at the entry level. Smithery's Hobby plan is free and includes up to 3 namespaces, which hold your servers, connections, and skills. Above that, the Pay as you Go plan raises the limit to 100 namespaces and Custom plans go beyond that. Third-party directories like Spotsaas and tokens& both classify Smithery as freemium with a free plan available, which matches its own documentation.
How many namespaces do I get on each Smithery plan?
Per Smithery's documentation: Hobby (free) gets 3 namespaces, Pay as you Go gets 100, and Custom plans support 100 or more. Namespaces are globally unique containers for your servers, connections, and skills, and they double as shared workspaces since anyone with an API key scoped to the namespace can manage its resources.
Did Smithery get acquired?
Yes. Arcade.dev acquired Smithery, announced on August 5, 2026 by Arcade's CEO Alex Salazar. Smithery co-founder Anirudh Kamath joined the Arcade team. Arcade describes the combination as pairing Smithery's developer experience with Arcade's focus on security, reliability, and governance for production agents. Smithery remains live at smithery.ai with free sign-up.
Is SkillzBench really free?
Yes, everything on SkillzBench is free: the skills directory, trust scores, sandbox benchmarks with published Lift results, the free MCP connector, per-agent loadouts, and change alerts. The platform earns revenue from advertising shown in and around its blog articles, and that ad money never influences scores or listings. You can see current numbers and verified benchmark results at skillzbench.com.
How does SkillzBench evaluate agent skills?
SkillzBench runs each skill through a pipeline: it pins every version to a commit SHA, validates it, checks its license, security-scans it, and quality-judges it. Then it benchmarks the skill in a sandbox with the same model, run with and without the skill, and publishes the Lift in percentage points. A trust score from 0 to 100 combines security, quality, license, maintenance, and community signals, with Lift always shown separately from ratings. The vetting matters because published research found roughly 26% of skills carry at least one vulnerability.
What can I connect to through Smithery?
Smithery's registry spans thousands of MCP servers covering search, email, notifications, documentation, and more. Some of the most-used entries include Brave Search at 106.86k recorded uses, Gmail at 59.79k uses, OneSignal at 22.49k uses, Exa Search at 9.18k uses, and Context7 at 5.56k uses. Connections work from any MCP-compatible client, including Claude Desktop and Cursor, and the Smithery CLI handles search, connection, and tool calls.