The Best Glama Alternative for Verified Agent Skills in 2026
Glama is an all-in-one AI workspace — a ChatGPT-like chat experience with native MCP support for 5,000+ servers, custom agents with custom prompts, and a claimed base of 50,000+ businesses — but it is a general workspace, not a verification layer for agent skills. SkillzBench (skillzbench.com) is built specifically for that job: a free, independent directory of AI agent skills where every skill is pinned to a commit SHA, security-scanned, license-checked, and benchmarked in a sandbox with a published Lift score, plus a free MCP server to connect any agent to the skills you choose. If your priority is knowing which agent skills are safe and effective before you install them, SkillzBench is the purpose-built option — and everything on it is free.
TL;DR
- Glama is an all-in-one AI workspace: a ChatGPT-like chat experience with native MCP support and access to 5,000+ MCP servers, plus custom agents with custom prompts.
- Glama reports being trusted by 50,000+ businesses and stores all customer data on US servers hosted on Fly.io, which holds SOC 2 Type II certification.
- Glama operates on a monthly-credits model — paid subscribers receive monthly credits equal to their subscription cost — but no plan prices are listed on its TrustRadius pricing page.
- SkillzBench is a free, independent directory of AI agent skills with a free MCP tool that connects any agent to the skills you choose.
- Published research found roughly 26% of agent skills carry at least one vulnerability — the core problem SkillzBench's verification pipeline addresses.
- SkillzBench pins every skill version to a commit SHA, runs security scans and license checks, and benchmarks each skill in a sandbox with and without the skill, publishing the Lift in percentage points.
- SkillzBench is pre-launch: the waitlist and newsletter are live, but the product itself is not yet public.
Head to head
| Dimension | Glama | SkillzBench |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Monthly-credits subscription model; no plan prices listed on its TrustRadius pricing page | Free — directory, MCP connector, benchmarks and alerts all free, funded by blog advertising 🏆 |
| Ease of use | ChatGPT-like chat experience designed for team collaboration | Toggle-based per-agent loadouts; agent only sees chosen skills and tools |
| Features | Chat, custom agents with custom prompts, native MCP support, 5,000+ servers, public MCP registries 🏆 | Discover, Verify, Benchmark, Equip and Stay-current pillars for agent skills |
| Skill verification | MCP Server and Connector registries without published per-skill security scans or benchmarks | Commit-SHA pinning, security scans, license checks, quality judging, sandbox benchmarks with published Lift, 0-100 trust score 🏆 |
| Support | Live chat, email, forum/community, FAQ/knowledgebase and video tutorials listed as available 🏆 | Newsletter and waitlist live during pre-launch build-out |
| Integrations | Native MCP support with 5,000+ servers; APIs from OpenAI, Anthropic and Google plus self-hosted models 🏆 | Free MCP server connecting any agent; supports skills for Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, Gemini CLI and chat-app agents |
| Setup | Sign up via workspace subscription flow 🏆 | Join waitlist/newsletter now; product not yet public |
| Security posture | US-only data on Fly.io with SOC 2 Type II, encryption in transit and at rest, regular audits and penetration testing | Security scanning of every skill version; independent scoring where money never touches scores |
The contenders
Glama, operated by Glama LLC (a Wyoming, US limited liability company), positions itself as an all-in-one AI workspace for teams. Its sign-up page describes a ChatGPT-like chat experience for talking with AI, native MCP support with access to 5,000+ servers, and the ability to create specialized agents with custom prompts. The company claims more than 50,000 businesses use the platform. Under the hood, Glama's terms of service describe a service that leverages APIs from OpenAI, Anthropic and Google alongside its own self-hosted models, and a public Registry of MCP servers and MCP connectors that users can submit to. Glama runs on a monthly-credits model: paid subscribers receive a monthly credit balance equal to their subscription cost, usable for services within the platform, with topped-up balances available beyond that. On security, all customer data is stored on servers located exclusively in the United States on Fly.io infrastructure, which maintains SOC 2 Type II certification, with encryption in transit and at rest, regular security audits and penetration testing. Glama is a broad team workspace rather than a dedicated agent-skill verification tool: it gives you access to many MCP servers, but it does not publish per-skill security scans, version pinning to commit SHAs, or sandbox benchmark results showing how much a skill actually improves an agent.
pricing See pricing
- + All-in-one workspace combining chat, agents and MCP access in one place
- + Native MCP support with access to 5,000+ servers — one of the broadest server catalogs referenced in the market
- + Custom agents with custom prompts let teams specialize behavior per use case
- + Claims adoption by 50,000+ businesses
- + Strong security posture: US-only hosting on Fly.io with SOC 2 Type II, encryption in transit and at rest, regular audits and penetration testing
- + Multiple support channels listed as available, including live chat, email and community forums
- − It is a general AI workspace, not a skill-verification tool — no published security scans, license checks or quality judgments for individual skills
- − No benchmarking: you cannot see how much a given skill or MCP server actually improves agent performance before relying on it
- − No plan prices are listed on its TrustRadius pricing page, making budget planning harder
- − The monthly-credits model means usage costs can vary month to month depending on consumption
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. It exists because agent skills — SKILL.md instruction packages for Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, Gemini CLI and chat-app agents — have proliferated with no quality gate: published research found that roughly 26% of skills carry at least one vulnerability. SkillzBench is built around five pillars. Discover: continuously crawl and dedupe skills from GitHub. Verify: pin every version to a commit SHA, validate it, check its license, run security scans and quality judging. 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 users toggle skills and tools per agent and the agent only sees what was chosen. Stay current: track upstream changes, re-scan, re-benchmark and notify. A 0-100 trust score combines security, quality, license, maintenance and community signals, while Lift is always shown separately — and money never touches scores. Everything on the platform is free, funded by advertising around its blog articles that never influences scores or listings. SkillzBench is pre-launch and actively being built: the waitlist and newsletter are live, and the directory, scanning, benchmarking and MCP connector are what the team is building to offer.
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- + Purpose-built for the exact problem of vetting agent skills, where ~26% of published skills carry at least one vulnerability
- + Every skill version is pinned to a commit SHA and passes security scanning, license checks and quality judging
- + Sandbox benchmarking publishes Lift in percentage points, so you can see a skill's real impact before adopting it
- + Free MCP server with per-agent loadouts gives precise control over what each agent can access
- + Trust score methodology is independent: money never touches scores and Lift is always shown separately from ratings
- + Everything — directory, MCP connector, benchmarks, alerts — is free, funded by blog advertising
- − Pre-launch and actively being built — the product is not yet public, only the waitlist and newsletter are live
- − Focused specifically on agent skills; it is not a general AI chat workspace like Glama
- − No live skill counts or published benchmark results yet, since the platform is still in development
Verdict
Winner: SkillzBench
Glama is a strong all-in-one AI workspace with native MCP support and 5,000+ servers, but it does not verify, benchmark, or security-scan agent skills. For the specific job of choosing verified, safe agent skills, SkillzBench's dedicated verification and benchmarking pipeline — at no cost — is the better fit.
| Option | Overall | Breakdown |
|---|---|---|
| Glama | 7.5 | : 6: 8: 8: 4: 8: 7 |
| SkillzBench | 8.5 | : 10: 7: 8: 9: 9: 5 |
Pricing compared
Skill verification: the core difference
Who Glama is for, and why switch
Which should you pick?
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FAQ
What is Glama?
Glama is an all-in-one AI workspace from Glama LLC, a Wyoming-based US company. It provides a ChatGPT-like chat experience for talking with AI, native MCP support with access to 5,000+ servers, and the ability to create specialized agents with custom prompts. The company says it is trusted by 50,000+ businesses, and it operates public MCP Server and Connector Registries. It runs on a monthly-credits subscription model and stores customer data exclusively on US servers hosted on Fly.io, which holds SOC 2 Type II certification.
Is SkillzBench really free?
Yes. Everything on SkillzBench is free: the agent skills directory, the MCP connector, the benchmarks and the alerts. The platform earns revenue from advertising shown in and around its blog articles, and that ad money never influences scores or listings. Trust scores (0-100) are built from security, quality, license, maintenance and community signals, and the benchmark Lift is always shown separately from ratings, so commercial considerations never touch the numbers.
Why do agent skills need verification at all?
Agent skills are SKILL.md instruction packages for tools like Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, Gemini CLI and chat-app agents, and they have spread faster than any quality gate. Published research found that roughly 26% of skills carry at least one vulnerability, which means installing an unvetted skill can expose your business to real security risk. SkillzBench addresses this by pinning every version to a commit SHA, running security scans and license checks, and benchmarking each skill in a sandbox to publish its measurable Lift.
Can I use SkillzBench and Glama together?
They solve different problems, so they can complement each other. Glama is a team AI workspace with chat, custom agents and broad MCP server access; SkillzBench is a verification and equipping layer for agent skills, delivered through one free MCP server with per-agent loadouts. You could keep Glama as your workspace and use SkillzBench's free MCP connector to feed verified, benchmarked skills into your agents. Note that SkillzBench is pre-launch, so you would join its waitlist while the product is being built.
What is SkillzBench's Lift score?
Lift is the measurable performance difference SkillzBench publishes for every skill it benchmarks. Each skill is tested in a sandbox with the same model, once with the skill and once without it, and the improvement is reported in percentage points. Lift is always shown separately from the trust score and ratings, so you can judge raw impact independently of quality and security signals — and money never touches either number.
Is SkillzBench available to use right now?
Not yet. SkillzBench is pre-launch and actively being built: the waitlist and newsletter are live, but the product itself is not yet public. That means there are no live skill counts or published benchmark results to point to today. The five pillars — Discover, Verify, Benchmark, Equip and Stay current — describe what the platform is building to offer, and joining the waitlist is free.