The Best Smithery Alternative for Developers in 2026

Smithery is a public registry and hosting platform for MCP (Model Context Protocol) servers, designed so developers can find and run an MCP server in one click. It handles auth, credentials, and sessions for you, exposes a CLI (@smithery/cli) for searching, connecting, and calling tools, and organizes resources into namespaces that act as shared workspaces for servers, connections, and skills. Its Uplink feature tunnels a local MCP server through Smithery so agents can reach tools on your own machine — useful for testing servers before publishing or reaching local databases and browsers. Server publishers get a dedicated page, usage analytics, automatic spec compliance through the gateway, and auto-generated OAuth UIs. Popular listings include Brave Search (106.86k uses), Gmail (59.79k uses), Agent News (43.39k uses), and OneSignal (22.49k uses). In August 2026, Arcade.dev acquired Smithery, positioning it alongside Arcade's enterprise-grade actions runtime; Arcade's own ToolBench benchmark found MCP tool quality has lagged behind growth.

pricing 0/month

• + Largest registry footprint in the set — its own skill page claims 100K+ tools and skills connectable instantly
• + Auth, credentials, and sessions handled for you, removing the biggest MCP integration headache
• + Free Hobby tier with a full CLI workflow (search, connect, list, call tools)
• + Uplink lets you test local servers against real agents without hosting them
• + Strong publisher-side tooling: analytics, caching, and OAuth UI generation

• − Acquired by Arcade.dev in August 2026, so roadmap direction now sits with a new owner
• − Arcade's own ToolBench benchmark acknowledges MCP tool quality has not kept pace with ecosystem growth
• − No independent security scanning or sandbox benchmarking of listed servers/skills is documented
• − Comparison roundups cite setup complexity and a learning curve among reasons users explore alternatives

https://smithery.ai

SkillzBench by AIQ Labs is a free, independent directory of AI agent skills (SKILL.md instruction packages for Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, Gemini CLI, and chat-app agents) plus a free MCP tool that connects any agent to the skills you choose. Its premise: agent skills 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 built on five pillars: Discover (continuously crawling and deduping skills from GitHub), Verify (pinning every version to a commit SHA with validation, license checks, security scans, and quality judging), Benchmark (testing every skill in a sandbox with the same model, with and without the skill, publishing the Lift in percentage points), Equip (one free MCP server plus per-agent loadouts where the agent only sees what you toggled on), and Stay current (tracking upstream changes with re-scans, re-benchmarks, and notifications). A 0-100 trust score combines security, quality, license, maintenance, and community signals; Lift is always shown separately and money never touches scores. Everything is free, funded by advertising around blog articles that never influences rankings.

pricing 0/month

• + Completely free across the directory, MCP connector, benchmarks, and alerts
• + Directly addresses a documented risk: ~26% of agent skills carry at least one vulnerability
• + Lift benchmarking shows measurable impact rather than marketing claims
• + Per-agent loadouts give precise control over what each agent can access
• + Trust scores are independent — advertising revenue never influences scores or listings

• − Pre-launch: the product is still being built, with only the waitlist and newsletter live
• − Focused on agent skills (SKILL.md packages), not general MCP server hosting or distribution
• − No published benchmark results or live skill counts yet

https://skillzbench.com

Glama indexes Model Context Protocol servers and provides an inspector and gateway for testing and routing MCP traffic, alongside a directory of available servers. It appears near the top of 2026 Smithery-alternative roundups (Respan ranks it #2 behind the MCP specification itself; Spotsaas lists it with a free plan). Where Smithery emphasizes one-click consumption and publisher distribution, Glama's distinguishing layer is the inspector/gateway combination: developers can inspect servers, test tool calls, and route MCP traffic through a single surface. For small teams evaluating MCP servers before committing, that testing capability is the practical differentiator. Like Smithery, it is registry-first rather than a build framework, so it competes most directly on catalog quality, testing ergonomics, and gateway routing.

pricing See pricing

• + Combines registry, inspector, and gateway in one product
• + Free plan available per Spotsaas
• + Ranked #2 Smithery alternative in Respan's 2026 market map

• − No user reviews recorded on Spotsaas, making real-world satisfaction hard to gauge
• − No managed-auth or session-handling layer documented at Smithery's depth

https://glama.ai

Composio provides hosted integrations and MCP servers that let AI agents authenticate to and act on third-party applications, handling auth, tool definitions, and execution. Respan's 2026 market map highlights its 250+ pre-built tool integrations, and Spotsaas lists it with a free plan. The practical pitch for small businesses: instead of assembling individual MCP servers for Gmail, CRMs, and other SaaS tools, Composio gives agents a managed layer where authentication and execution are handled, similar in spirit to Smithery's managed connections but oriented around a broad integration catalog rather than an open registry. It suits teams whose agents need to act on real business accounts — sending email, updating records, triggering workflows — with permission controls in place.

pricing See pricing

• + Broadest pre-built integration catalog among the alternatives compared here
• + Auth, tool definitions, and execution managed for you
• + Free plan available per Spotsaas

• − Curated integration set rather than an open registry — long-tail MCP servers may not be available
• − No user reviews recorded on Spotsaas

https://composio.dev

MetaMCP groups several Model Context Protocol servers behind one endpoint, letting a client connect once and reach many underlying servers with unified configuration. Spotsaas names it an Editor's Pick among Smithery alternatives and notes a free plan. The aggregation model solves a real pain point: MCP clients typically configure servers one by one, so a proxy endpoint that unifies them reduces configuration sprawl and lets teams swap or add underlying servers without touching every client. For small teams running multiple agents against a growing set of MCP servers, MetaMCP functions as infrastructure glue rather than a registry — you still source servers elsewhere, but MetaMCP simplifies how clients reach them.

pricing See pricing

• + One client connection reaches many servers, cutting configuration overhead
• + Editor's Pick on Spotsaas
• + Free plan available

• − Not a registry — no server discovery catalog of its own
• − No user reviews recorded on Spotsaas

https://metamcp.com

FastMCP is a Python framework for building Model Context Protocol servers and clients, handling protocol details, transport, and tool registration so developers write only the tool logic. It appears in both Respan's and Spotsaas's 2026 Smithery-alternative lists. It occupies a different category from Smithery: rather than a registry where you consume other people's servers, FastMCP is for teams building their own MCP servers. For small businesses with development capacity that want custom tools — internal data lookups, proprietary workflow automation — FastMCP removes the protocol plumbing. Spotsaas notes no free-plan designation and lists it without published pricing, so it is best treated as an open-source-style framework project rather than a commercial SaaS.

pricing See pricing

• + Lets developers focus on tool logic instead of MCP protocol plumbing
• + Python ecosystem fit for teams already building in Python
• + Build-your-own path when no existing server meets your need

• − Requires development work — not a plug-and-play registry
• − No free-plan or hosted-service designation on Spotsaas

https://gofastmcp.com

Arcade is an MCP runtime for production AI agents, running tool-calling and MCP workloads in production and handling authenticated actions on behalf of users with permission controls. It matters doubly in this comparison: Spotsaas lists it as a Smithery alternative with a free plan, and on August 5, 2026 Arcade acquired Smithery itself, with Smithery's co-founder joining the Arcade team. Arcade positions itself on security, reliability, and governance for enterprises running production agents, and maintains the ToolBench benchmark, which it says shows MCP ecosystem growth has outpaced quality. For small businesses, Arcade (with Smithery under it) is now the consolidated commercial path for taking MCP tools from experiment to governed production use.

pricing See pricing

• + Production-grade focus on security, reliability, and governance
• + Now owns the Smithery registry, combining developer speed with enterprise controls
• + Free plan available per Spotsaas

• − Enterprise orientation may exceed small-business needs
• − Post-acquisition integration of Smithery creates some near-term product uncertainty

https://www.arcade.dev

MCP.so catalogues publicly available Model Context Protocol servers with configuration details, giving developers a searchable index of servers by capability. Spotsaas includes it in its 2026 Smithery-alternative list. It is the most lightweight option in this set: a directory and marketplace rather than a hosting platform, gateway, or runtime. Developers use it to discover servers and then configure them manually in their MCP clients. That simplicity is also its limitation — there is no managed auth, no connection layer, and no benchmarking. For small teams comfortable with manual setup who just want a broad, searchable catalog, MCP.so covers the discovery slice of Smithery's value without the rest.

pricing See pricing

• + Simple, catalog-only approach with no platform lock-in
• + Broad index of publicly available servers by capability

• − No hosting, managed auth, or connection layer
• − No security scanning or benchmarking of listed servers

https://mcp.so