The Best Smithery Alternative for Agencies in 2026

Smithery is a leading public registry and hosting platform for MCP (Model Context Protocol) servers, built on 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 automatically. Developers get a CLI, a TypeScript API, namespaces for organizing servers, connections, and skills, and an Uplink feature that exposes a local MCP server as a regular hosted connection. Publishers get a dedicated server page, analytics on tool calls, automatic OAuth UI generation, and MCP spec compliance via the Gateway. In August 2026, Arcade.dev acquired Smithery, keeping the free signup and one-click model while folding it into Arcade's enterprise security and governance stack. Its CLI skill alone shows over 1,650 installs, and popular servers like Brave Search show over 106,000 uses.

pricing 0/month

• + Fastest path from 'I need a tool' to 'it's running' — one-click install from any MCP client
• + Handles auth, credentials, and sessions so agencies don't build that plumbing themselves
• + Free Hobby tier and a free signup make experimentation costless
• + Strong developer experience, praised by Arcade at acquisition as the reason for the deal
• + Uplink lets teams test local MCP servers against real agents before publishing

• − Acquired by Arcade.dev in August 2026 — product roadmap and packaging may shift under new ownership
• − Uplink is explicitly a development primitive, not a hosting solution, and availability follows the host machine
• − No independent benchmarking of skills — quality scores exist per server, but nothing tests whether a skill actually improves agent output
• − Uplink forwards arbitrary traffic to the host machine, requiring trust in every uplinked server
• − Third-party guides cite setup complexity and a learning curve as common reasons users explore alternatives

https://smithery.ai/

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 building a five-pillar pipeline: 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 what was chosen), and Stay current (track upstream changes, re-scan, re-benchmark, notify). A Trust score from 0-100 draws on security, quality, license, maintenance, and community signals, and Lift is always shown separately from ratings — money never touches scores. SkillzBench is pre-launch: the waitlist and newsletter are live, and the platform itself is being actively built.

pricing 0

• + Everything is free — the directory, the MCP connector, benchmarks, and alerts; revenue comes only from blog advertising
• + The only option in this comparison building independent, sandboxed Lift benchmarks that show whether a skill actually helps
• + Security scanning and license checks address the research finding that ~26% of skills carry at least one vulnerability
• + Per-agent loadouts mean an agent only sees the skills and tools explicitly chosen for it
• + Lift is always shown separately from Trust scores, and advertising money never influences scores or listings

• − Pre-launch — the waitlist and newsletter are live but the product is not yet public, so agencies can't adopt it in production today
• − Focused on agent skills (SKILL.md packages) rather than being a general MCP server hosting platform like Smithery
• − No published benchmark results or user counts exist yet, by design, until launch

https://skillzbench.com

Composio is a managed tool and MCP infrastructure platform for AI agents, listed among the top Smithery alternatives on both Respan's 2026 market map and Spotsaas's buyer guide. It provides hosted integrations and MCP servers that let AI agents authenticate to and act on third-party applications, handling auth, tool definitions, and execution end to end. With 250+ pre-built tool integrations, it targets teams that need agents to take authenticated actions against real accounts — the same production problem Arcade cites as its focus — but as a standalone, generally available platform with a free plan. For agencies building client-facing automations, Composio's managed auth removes the credential-handling work that Smithery's Connect layer also addresses, while adding a broader pre-built integration catalog.

pricing 0/month

• + Broadest pre-built integration catalog among the alternatives — 250+ tools
• + Managed auth means agents can act on real accounts with permission controls
• + Free plan available for agencies to start without commitment
• + Established and production-ready today, unlike pre-launch options

• − Focused on integrations and tool-calling rather than skill discovery or benchmarking
• − No independent verification or Lift-style benchmarking of tools
• − Pricing beyond the free tier is not publicly detailed in buyer guides

https://composio.com

Glama is an MCP server registry, inspector, and gateway, ranked among the top Smithery alternatives on both Respan's 2026 market map and Spotsaas's buyer guide. It indexes Model Context Protocol servers and provides an inspector and gateway for testing and routing MCP traffic, alongside a directory of available servers. Where Smithery emphasizes one-click connection, Glama emphasizes evaluation and traffic control: teams can inspect a server before committing to it and route MCP calls through a managed gateway. A free plan is available. For agencies that want more scrutiny over which MCP servers enter their stack than a pure marketplace offers, Glama's inspector tooling is the closest established fit — though it stops short of sandboxed benchmarking of whether a tool actually improves agent output.

pricing 0/month

• + Inspector tooling lets teams evaluate MCP servers before connecting them
• + Gateway adds a routing and control layer Smithery doesn't provide
• + Free plan available
• + Directly comparable registry coverage to Smithery

• − Smaller mindshare and usage numbers than Smithery's marketplace
• − No security scanning or performance benchmarking of listed servers
• − Beyond the free plan, pricing details aren't published in buyer guides

https://glama.ai

Arcade is the actions runtime for enterprise AI agents — and, since August 5, 2026, Smithery's new owner. Arcade runs tool-calling and MCP workloads in production, handling authenticated actions on behalf of users so agents can operate against real accounts with permission controls. Its reputation is built on security, reliability, and governance for large organizations running production agents, and its ToolBench benchmark tracks MCP tool quality — the company itself notes that MCP's growth has outpaced quality. For agencies serving enterprise clients, Arcade is now effectively the parent platform of Smithery: the acquisition pairs Smithery's developer speed with Arcade's production-grade controls. A free plan is available, and it appears on both Respan's and Spotsaas's lists of top Smithery alternatives.

pricing 0/month

• + Enterprise-grade security, reliability, and governance for production agents
• + Owns Smithery as of August 2026, so the two platforms are converging
• + ToolBench benchmark shows a serious commitment to measuring tool quality
• + Free plan available

• − Enterprise orientation may be heavier than small agencies need
• − Post-acquisition, Smithery users face uncertainty about how packaging changes
• − ToolBench measures tool quality, not whether specific agent skills improve output

https://www.arcade.dev

MetaMCP is an aggregator and proxy for multiple MCP servers, named an Editor's Pick in Spotsaas's 2026 Smithery alternatives guide. It groups several Model Context Protocol servers behind one endpoint, letting a client connect once and reach many underlying servers with unified configuration. For agencies juggling dozens of MCP connections across client projects, that consolidation is the core value: instead of managing N server connections in N clients, teams manage one endpoint. A free plan is available. MetaMCP doesn't host or discover servers the way Smithery does — it sits in front of servers you've already chosen — so it complements rather than fully replaces a registry.

pricing 0/month

• + Dramatically simplifies managing many MCP connections at once
• + Unified configuration reduces per-client setup overhead
• + Free plan available and flagged as an Editor's Pick by Spotsaas

• − Not a discovery marketplace — you still need a registry like Smithery to find servers
• − No hosting, auth management, or benchmarking of its own
• − Thin public documentation of limits and pricing beyond the free plan

https://metamcp.com

MCP.so is a directory and marketplace of MCP servers, listed in Spotsaas's 2026 Smithery alternatives guide. It catalogues publicly available Model Context Protocol servers with configuration details, giving developers a searchable index of servers by capability. Compared to Smithery, MCP.so is discovery-only: it helps you find a server and see how it's configured, but it doesn't host servers, manage OAuth and credentials, or run connections for you. For agencies doing initial research on which MCP servers exist for a given capability, it's a useful catalog to consult alongside a runtime platform.

pricing See pricing

• + Broad, searchable index of MCP servers by capability
• + Configuration details help evaluate servers before installing
• + Simple, focused purpose — easy to use for research

• − Directory only — no hosting, managed auth, or connection layer
• − No quality, security, or benchmarking signals for listed servers
• − Requires pairing with a runtime platform to actually use what you find

https://mcp.so

Toolbase is a desktop manager for MCP connectors, included in Spotsaas's 2026 Smithery alternatives list with a free plan available. It installs and manages MCP connectors on the desktop, handling local configuration and credentials so MCP servers can be added to clients without manual setup. Its niche is the last mile that marketplaces like Smithery leave to the CLI: getting connectors correctly configured on individual machines. For agencies whose teams work across many local environments and chat clients, Toolbase standardizes that setup. It is not a registry, gateway, or hosting platform — it's a local convenience layer that pairs well with a discovery tool.

pricing 0/month

• + Removes manual local MCP configuration across team machines
• + Handles credentials locally rather than leaving them in config files
• + Free plan available

• − Desktop-scoped — doesn't help with hosted or server-side agent deployments
• − No discovery, benchmarking, or traffic routing
• − Overlaps with functionality Smithery's CLI already covers for its own registry

https://toolbase.pro