{
 "sym": "Mc",
 "updated": "2026-08-06",
 "verdict": "The official MCP Registry, as the spine \u2014 publish there once (namespace-verified, free) and every downstream catalog picks you up; it is the only index the spec's own governance backs, even though it is still technically 'preview' eleven months after launch. Smithery is the pick when you want servers *and* skills hosted with OAuth handled for you; Glama when you need maximum coverage plus quality grades to vet what you install (68,932 servers tracked, more than any rival); Composio when you just want your SaaS stack wired to an agent behind one managed endpoint; Docker MCP Toolkit when the install-quality horror stories make containerized, curated servers a procurement requirement.",
 "top5": [
  {
   "rank": 1,
   "name": "MCP Registry",
   "maker": "MCP project / Agentic AI Foundation (Linux Foundation)",
   "url": "https://registry.modelcontextprotocol.io/",
   "docs": "https://modelcontextprotocol.io/registry/about",
   "pricing": "Free \u00b7 open API \u00b7 Apache-licensed codebase",
   "best_for": "Publishing your server once and being discoverable everywhere \u2014 the canonical metadata layer every marketplace and client syncs from.",
   "why": "The only index with standing: backed by Anthropic, GitHub, PulseMCP and Microsoft, namespace-verified via DNS/GitHub OIDC, and designed as a meta-registry that downstream aggregators (Smithery, Glama, PulseMCP, GitHub) consume hourly. Since MCP's donation to the Linux Foundation's Agentic AI Foundation (Dec 9, 2025) it is neutral infrastructure, not a vendor catalog.",
   "watch": "Still 'preview' as of Aug 2026 \u2014 no durability guarantees, breaking changes allowed. It solves discovery, not trust: no security scanning (delegated downstream), and CI/CD re-publishing bloated it to tens of millions of duplicate version entries over ~1,700 unique packages (SafeDep, Dec 2025). Deliberately machine-facing \u2014 humans browse the aggregators instead.",
   "evidence": [
    {
     "stat": "Launched in preview Sep 8, 2025; still flagged preview with possible breaking changes as of Aug 2026",
     "src": "https://modelcontextprotocol.io/registry/about"
    },
    {
     "stat": "~3,012 first-party server entries; only 8.5% use OAuth, 53% static API keys (Mar 2026)",
     "src": "https://nimblebrain.ai/blog/state-of-mcp-security-2026/"
    },
    {
     "stat": "64.7M registry entries for ~1,691 unique underlying packages \u2014 CI/CD duplication bloat (Dec 20, 2025)",
     "src": "https://safedep.io/the-state-of-mcp-registries/"
    }
   ],
   "tile_note": "the official index"
  },
  {
   "rank": 2,
   "name": "Smithery",
   "maker": "Clavia, Inc.",
   "url": "https://smithery.ai",
   "docs": "https://smithery.ai/docs",
   "pricing": "Hobby free (50k RPCs/mo, 3 namespaces) \u00b7 Pay-as-you-go from 100k RPCs \u00b7 Custom w/ SLA; publishing always free",
   "best_for": "Developers who want the app-store experience \u2014 hosted remote servers, managed OAuth/credentials/sessions, plus a growing catalog of reusable agent skills.",
   "why": "The most complete developer surface in the category: 13,942+ MCPs with live per-server metrics (call volume, uptime, success rate), one-click hosted remotes, and the 2026 pivot that matters \u2014 a skills catalog layered on top of servers, tracking where the agent ecosystem is heading. Its credential layer 'removes the most technically demanding parts of agent integration' (AgentAya, Jul 2026).",
   "watch": "Smaller catalog than Glama or PulseMCP, and built by-and-for developers \u2014 non-technical users hit a steep curve. Corporate trail is muddy: the site operates as Clavia, Inc. but the smithery-cli repo now lives under the arcadeai-labs GitHub org \u2014 worth watching for consolidation.",
   "evidence": [
    {
     "stat": "13,942+ MCPs listed; top server Context7 at 57.5k uses (Aug 2026)",
     "src": "https://smithery.ai/"
    },
    {
     "stat": "Hobby free tier 50k RPCs/mo; publishing free on all tiers; rated 3.9/5 (AgentAya review, updated Jul 10, 2026)",
     "src": "https://agentaya.com/ai-review/smithery/"
    },
    {
     "stat": "smithery-cli: 814 stars, AGPL-3.0, hosted under arcadeai-labs org (Aug 2026)",
     "src": "https://github.com/arcadeai-labs/smithery-cli"
    }
   ],
   "tile_note": "skills + hosted servers"
  },
  {
   "rank": 3,
   "name": "Glama",
   "maker": "Glama.ai",
   "url": "https://glama.ai/mcp/servers",
   "docs": "https://glama.ai/mcp",
   "pricing": "Starter $9/mo (3 hosted servers) \u00b7 Pro $26 (10) \u00b7 Business $80 (30) \u00b7 open-source servers hosted free",
   "best_for": "Vetting before installing \u2014 the widest lens on the ecosystem, with A\u2013F maintenance grades, an inspector, a gateway, and cheap hosting in one place.",
   "why": "The coverage king: 68,932 servers tracked as of Aug 6, 2026 \u2014 roughly 5x Smithery and 3x PulseMCP \u2014 with useful slicing (29,560 remote-capable, language filters) and quality grades that answer the question the official registry refuses to: should I trust this? Free hosting for open-source servers quietly makes it the default deploy target for hobbyist authors.",
   "watch": "Auto-indexing is the point and the problem \u2014 the long tail is abandoned repos and duplicates, so the headline number overstates usable servers. Small team; the gateway/hosting/chat bundle spreads focus across three products.",
   "evidence": [
    {
     "stat": "68,932 MCP servers tracked, page updated 2026-08-06; 29,560 remote-capable",
     "src": "https://glama.ai/mcp/servers"
    },
    {
     "stat": "Hosting from $9/mo (3 servers, +$4/extra); free for open-source servers (Aug 2026)",
     "src": "https://glama.ai/pricing"
    },
    {
     "stat": "A\u2013F maintenance/quality grades displayed per listing (Aug 2026)",
     "src": "https://glama.ai/mcp/servers"
    }
   ],
   "tile_note": "largest tracked catalog"
  },
  {
   "rank": 4,
   "name": "Composio",
   "maker": "Composio (Composio, Inc.)",
   "url": "https://composio.dev",
   "docs": "https://docs.composio.dev",
   "pricing": "Free 20k tool calls/mo \u00b7 $29/mo 200k \u00b7 $229/mo 2M \u00b7 Enterprise (SOC-2, VPC); pricing changes Aug 15, 2026",
   "best_for": "Wiring an agent to your actual SaaS stack \u2014 one managed MCP endpoint over 1,000+ apps with OAuth, sandboxing, and per-user auth handled.",
   "why": "The 'just make it work' answer to this element's job: a single managed MCP Gateway over 1,000+ integrations (Gmail, Slack, Salesforce, GitHub, Linear...), with delegated auth, just-in-time tool resolution, and sandboxed execution \u2014 the plumbing every team otherwise rebuilds badly. Plugs straight into Claude, Cursor, and the major agent runtimes.",
   "watch": "It's a proprietary dependency in a category whose whole point is an open standard \u2014 you're trading lock-in for convenience. Usage pricing bites at agent-scale call volumes, and a repricing lands Aug 15, 2026. Overlaps Zapier/n8n territory; some stacks won't need both.",
   "evidence": [
    {
     "stat": "1,000+ app integrations behind one managed MCP endpoint (Aug 2026)",
     "src": "https://composio.dev/"
    },
    {
     "stat": "Free 20k calls/mo; $29/mo for 200k; $229/mo for 2M; page warns pricing changes Aug 15, 2026",
     "src": "https://composio.dev/pricing"
    }
   ],
   "tile_note": "managed auth, 1000+ apps"
  },
  {
   "rank": 5,
   "name": "Docker MCP Catalog & Toolkit",
   "maker": "Docker",
   "url": "https://www.docker.com/products/mcp-catalog-and-toolkit/",
   "docs": "https://docs.docker.com/ai/mcp-catalog-and-toolkit/",
   "pricing": "Included in Docker plans: Personal free \u00b7 Pro $9/mo \u00b7 Team $15 \u00b7 Business $24; needs Docker Desktop \u22654.48",
   "best_for": "Teams that read the CVE list \u2014 curated, containerized MCP servers (Stripe, Elastic, Grafana...) run sandboxed, with credentials stored once in Docker and shared across clients.",
   "why": "The credible answer to MCP's install-quality problem: instead of `npx`-piping unaudited code into your shell \u2014 the exact pattern behind CVE-2025-6514's 9.6-severity RCE \u2014 servers ship as verified containers on Docker Hub with one-click wiring into Claude, VS Code, Cursor, and Goose. Auth once, use everywhere, sandbox always.",
   "watch": "Curation cuts both ways: 220+ tools is two orders of magnitude below Glama's catalog, so the long tail isn't here. Requires Docker Desktop, which some enterprises license-audit and some laptops resent.",
   "evidence": [
    {
     "stat": "220+ containerized MCP tools; one-click integration with Claude, VS Code, Cursor, Goose (Aug 2026)",
     "src": "https://www.docker.com/products/mcp-catalog-and-toolkit/"
    },
    {
     "stat": "Included in all Docker tiers incl. free Personal; requires Docker Desktop 4.48+ (Aug 2026)",
     "src": "https://www.docker.com/products/mcp-catalog-and-toolkit/"
    },
    {
     "stat": "Context: mcp-remote npm package RCE, CVSS 9.6 (CVE-2025-6514) \u2014 the un-sandboxed install path it replaces",
     "src": "https://nimblebrain.ai/blog/state-of-mcp-security-2026/"
    }
   ],
   "tile_note": "containerized trust layer"
  }
 ],
 "matrix": {
  "cols": [
   "Catalog size (Aug 2026)",
   "What it is",
   "Hosted remotes",
   "Auth handled",
   "Quality signal",
   "Pricing",
   "Open source"
  ],
  "rows": [
   [
    "MCP Registry",
    "~3k first-party entries",
    "Meta-registry / API",
    "No",
    "No (namespace only)",
    "DNS/GitHub verification",
    "Free",
    "Yes (Apache)"
   ],
   [
    "Smithery",
    "13,942+",
    "Marketplace + skills",
    "Yes",
    "Yes (OAuth/creds)",
    "Uptime + success metrics",
    "Free \u2192 usage",
    "CLI only (AGPL)"
   ],
   [
    "Glama",
    "68,932",
    "Directory + gateway + hosting",
    "Yes",
    "Partial",
    "A\u2013F maintenance grades",
    "$9\u201380/mo, OSS free",
    "No"
   ],
   [
    "Composio",
    "1,000+ apps",
    "Managed tool gateway",
    "Yes",
    "Yes (delegated OAuth)",
    "Curated first-party",
    "Free \u2192 $29/$229 usage",
    "SDKs only"
   ],
   [
    "Docker MCP Toolkit",
    "220+",
    "Curated container catalog",
    "Local sandboxed",
    "Yes (stored in Docker)",
    "Verified + containerized",
    "In Docker plans",
    "Partially"
   ],
   [
    "PulseMCP",
    "22,080+",
    "Directory + newsletter + API",
    "No",
    "No",
    "Hand-reviewed daily",
    "Free",
    "No"
   ],
   [
    "Zapier MCP",
    "9,000+ apps",
    "MCP front-end to Zapier",
    "Yes",
    "Yes (existing connections)",
    "Curated first-party",
    "In Zapier plan (2 tasks/call)",
    "No"
   ],
   [
    "MCP Registry",
    "97",
    "Curated dev registry",
    "No",
    "No",
    "Hand-picked",
    "Free",
    "Yes"
   ]
  ]
 },
 "rules": [
  {
   "if": "You're shipping an MCP server for others to use",
   "then": "Publish to the official MCP Registry first \u2014 namespace-verified, free, and every aggregator (Smithery, Glama, PulseMCP, GitHub) syncs from it hourly. Then containerize for Docker's catalog if you want enterprise reach."
  },
  {
   "if": "You want your agent connected to your SaaS stack this afternoon, auth included",
   "then": "Composio (deepest agent-native tooling, 1,000+ apps) or Zapier MCP if you already pay Zapier \u2014 9,000+ apps at zero marginal cost, two tasks per call."
  },
  {
   "if": "You're evaluating an unknown server before letting it near your data",
   "then": "Check it on Glama (A\u2013F maintenance grade, source inspection) and prefer a containerized or hosted-remote version \u2014 15.4% of registry servers have no public source at all (NimbleBrain, Mar 2026)."
  },
  {
   "if": "Security review keeps blocking `npx`-installed local servers",
   "then": "Docker MCP Toolkit for sandboxed local, or a gateway (Composio, Glama, TurboMCP self-hosted) so credentials never live in a plaintext .env \u2014 the pattern behind most of MCP's 7 CVEs."
  },
  {
   "if": "You're building a remote server and choosing where it lives",
   "then": "Cloudflare Workers or Vercel functions \u2014 the 2026-07-28 stateless spec removed sessions precisely so MCP servers run behind ordinary load balancers and serverless platforms with no sticky-session gymnastics."
  }
 ],
 "field": [
  {
   "name": "PulseMCP",
   "maker": "PulseMCP (Antanavicius & Coughlin)",
   "note": "22,080+ servers hand-reviewed daily, the category's best newsletter, REST API; co-founder sits on the MCP Steering Committee \u2014 the quality-over-quantity directory",
   "url": "https://www.pulsemcp.com",
   "oss": false,
   "entry": "free",
   "status": "active"
  },
  {
   "name": "mcp.so",
   "maker": "community",
   "note": "Community-submitted directory (~20k listings) spanning servers, clients, and agent skills; broad but lightly vetted",
   "url": "https://mcp.so",
   "oss": false,
   "entry": "free",
   "status": "active"
  },
  {
   "name": "GitHub MCP Registry",
   "maker": "GitHub / Microsoft",
   "note": "97 hand-picked servers with one-click VS Code install \u2014 small, but the distribution channel that matters for dev tools",
   "url": "https://github.com/mcp",
   "oss": true,
   "entry": "free",
   "status": "active"
  },
  {
   "name": "Zapier MCP",
   "maker": "Zapier",
   "note": "30,000+ actions across 9,000+ apps as MCP; has powered 195k+ MCP servers; included in existing plans (2 tasks/call). Zapier's primary home is element Wf",
   "url": "https://zapier.com/mcp",
   "oss": false,
   "entry": "in Zapier plan",
   "status": "active"
  },
  {
   "name": "Pipedream MCP",
   "maker": "Pipedream",
   "note": "MCP servers for 3,000+ APIs / 10,000 prebuilt tools; Conduit enterprise layer in early access",
   "url": "https://mcp.pipedream.com",
   "oss": false,
   "entry": "free tier",
   "status": "active"
  },
  {
   "name": "Cloudflare remote MCP hosting",
   "maker": "Cloudflare",
   "note": "Agents SDK + Workers: deploy remote MCP servers with OAuth and Streamable HTTP at the edge; AAIF platinum member",
   "url": "https://developers.cloudflare.com/agents/model-context-protocol/",
   "oss": false,
   "entry": "Workers free tier",
   "status": "active"
  },
  {
   "name": "Vercel mcp-handler",
   "maker": "Vercel",
   "note": "Deploy MCP servers on Vercel functions; AI SDK consumes MCP tools client-side (docs updated Jun 16, 2026)",
   "url": "https://vercel.com/docs/mcp",
   "oss": true,
   "entry": "Vercel free tier",
   "status": "active"
  },
  {
   "name": "TurboMCP (ex-mcp.run)",
   "maker": "Dylibso",
   "note": "mcp.run now 302-redirects to turbomcp.ai \u2014 the Wasm-servlet marketplace pivoted into a self-hosted enterprise MCP gateway (RBAC, DLP, AI kill-switch)",
   "url": "https://turbomcp.ai",
   "oss": false,
   "entry": "demo/sales",
   "status": "renamed"
  },
  {
   "name": "Claude Connectors Directory",
   "maker": "Anthropic",
   "note": "75+ consumer-facing MCP connectors surfaced inside Claude itself \u2014 the client-side face of this element",
   "url": "https://claude.ai/directory",
   "oss": false,
   "entry": "in Claude plans",
   "status": "active"
  },
  {
   "name": "Arcade.dev",
   "maker": "Arcade AI",
   "note": "Agent tool-calling platform focused on delegated user auth; AAIF gold member; now hosts the smithery-cli repo under its GitHub org",
   "url": "https://arcade.dev",
   "oss": false,
   "entry": "free tier",
   "status": "active"
  },
  {
   "name": "Runlayer",
   "maker": "Runlayer",
   "note": "MCP security gateway (scanning, policy, audit); AAIF gold founding member \u2014 the trust-layer bet",
   "url": "https://runlayer.com",
   "oss": false,
   "entry": "sales",
   "status": "active"
  },
  {
   "name": "ToolHive",
   "maker": "Stacklok",
   "note": "Open-source containerized MCP server operations \u2014 run/discover servers in isolated containers; Stacklok is an AAIF silver member",
   "url": "https://github.com/stacklok/toolhive",
   "oss": true,
   "entry": "free",
   "status": "active"
  },
  {
   "name": "Klavis AI",
   "maker": "Klavis (YC X25)",
   "note": "Open-source hosted MCP integrations (Strata); homepage now leads with agentic tool-use training data over 600+ tools \u2014 a pivot in progress",
   "url": "https://www.klavis.ai",
   "oss": true,
   "entry": "free tier",
   "status": "active"
  },
  {
   "name": "awesome-mcp-servers",
   "maker": "punkpeye (community)",
   "note": "The 90.9k-star curated list \u2014 still how many humans actually find servers; 9k+ commits, actively maintained",
   "url": "https://github.com/punkpeye/awesome-mcp-servers",
   "oss": true,
   "entry": "free",
   "status": "active"
  },
  {
   "name": "FastMCP",
   "maker": "Prefect / jlowin",
   "note": "The dominant Python framework for *building* servers \u2014 the supply side of this element; server-authoring overlaps element Ag",
   "url": "https://gofastmcp.com",
   "oss": true,
   "entry": "free",
   "status": "active"
  },
  {
   "name": "mcp-get",
   "maker": "community",
   "note": "Early npm-style MCP installer/registry from the 2024\u201325 wave; site up but largely superseded by the official registry and client-native installs",
   "url": "https://mcp-get.com",
   "oss": true,
   "entry": "free",
   "status": "fading"
  }
 ],
 "signals": [
  {
   "fact": "Anthropic donated MCP to the Linux Foundation's new Agentic AI Foundation on Dec 9, 2025 \u2014 8 platinum members (AWS, Anthropic, Block, Bloomberg, Cloudflare, Google, Microsoft, OpenAI); 10,000+ public servers and 97M+ monthly SDK downloads at donation",
   "src": "https://www.linuxfoundation.org/press/linux-foundation-announces-the-formation-of-the-agentic-ai-foundation"
  },
  {
   "fact": "SDK downloads ~5x'd in seven months: 97M+/mo (Dec 2025) \u2192 ~500M/mo across Tier 1 SDKs (Jul 2026); TypeScript and Python SDKs each passed 1B total",
   "src": "https://blog.modelcontextprotocol.io/posts/2026-07-28/"
  },
  {
   "fact": "The 2026-07-28 spec is MCP's largest revision ever: stateless core (no initialize handshake, no session IDs), MRTR replaces server-initiated requests, CIMD replaces DCR, header-based routing \u2014 built so servers run on plain load-balanced/serverless HTTP; 12-month deprecation window for the old way",
   "src": "https://blog.modelcontextprotocol.io/posts/2026-07-28/"
  },
  {
   "fact": "The trust gap is the story of 2026: 64.7M official-registry entries over ~1,691 unique packages (SafeDep, Dec 2025); 7 CVEs in 12 months incl. a CVSS 9.6 RCE in mcp-remote; only 8.5% of registry servers use OAuth; 15.4% ship no public source (NimbleBrain, Mar 2026)",
   "src": "https://nimblebrain.ai/blog/state-of-mcp-security-2026/"
  },
  {
   "fact": "Catalog fragmentation is by design \u2014 official registry ~3k verified entries feeds sub-registries that diverge wildly: Glama 68,932, PulseMCP 22,080+, Smithery 13,942+, Docker 220+ curated (all Aug 2026)",
   "src": "https://glama.ai/mcp/servers"
  },
  {
   "fact": "AAIF launched a 2026 events program anchored by AGNTCon + MCPCon North America and Europe \u2014 a spec with its own conference circuit is table stakes, not an experiment",
   "src": "https://www.linuxfoundation.org/press/agentic-ai-foundation-announces-global-2026-events-program-anchored-by-agntcon-mcpcon-north-america-and-europe"
  }
 ],
 "notes": "Count conflicts resolved: 'how many MCP servers exist' has no single answer \u2014 we cite the official registry's ~3,012 first-party entries (NimbleBrain, Mar 2026) for verified publishers, AAIF's 10k+ (Dec 2025) for active public servers, and Glama's 68,932 (Aug 6, 2026, self-reported, auto-indexed and duplicate-heavy) for the tracked universe; aggregator articles citing Glama at 21k or PulseMCP at 7k are recycling 2025 snapshots \u2014 we used each vendor's own live count. Smithery's pricing detail comes from a Jul 2026 third-party review because smithery.ai/pricing didn't render tier numbers to our fetch \u2014 re-verify before quoting. Smithery ownership is murky (operates as Clavia, Inc.; CLI repo under arcadeai-labs org) \u2014 no acquisition announcement found either way. Composio pricing changes Aug 15, 2026 \u2014 nine days after this dossier. mcp.run's rebrand to TurboMCP is inferred from a live 302 redirect plus the new product page; no press release found. The official registry remains 'preview' per its own docs despite the ecosystem treating it as canonical. Adjacent elements: Zapier/n8n/Make workflow automation \u2192 Wf; agent frameworks that consume MCP (LangGraph, CrewAI) and server-authoring SDKs (FastMCP) \u2192 Ag; agent-to-agent protocols and orchestration \u2192 Or; MCP-speaking coding agents \u2192 Ca.",
 "sources": [
  "https://modelcontextprotocol.io/registry/about",
  "https://blog.modelcontextprotocol.io/posts/2025-09-08-mcp-registry-preview/",
  "https://blog.modelcontextprotocol.io/posts/2026-07-28/",
  "https://www.linuxfoundation.org/press/linux-foundation-announces-the-formation-of-the-agentic-ai-foundation",
  "https://www.anthropic.com/news/donating-the-model-context-protocol-and-establishing-of-the-agentic-ai-foundation",
  "https://safedep.io/the-state-of-mcp-registries/",
  "https://nimblebrain.ai/blog/state-of-mcp-security-2026/",
  "https://glama.ai/mcp/servers",
  "https://glama.ai/pricing",
  "https://smithery.ai/",
  "https://agentaya.com/ai-review/smithery/",
  "https://composio.dev/pricing",
  "https://www.docker.com/products/mcp-catalog-and-toolkit/",
  "https://www.pulsemcp.com/servers",
  "https://zapier.com/mcp",
  "https://mcp.pipedream.com/",
  "https://developers.cloudflare.com/agents/model-context-protocol/",
  "https://vercel.com/docs/mcp",
  "https://github.com/mcp",
  "https://turbomcp.ai/",
  "https://github.com/punkpeye/awesome-mcp-servers",
  "https://www.linuxfoundation.org/press/agentic-ai-foundation-announces-global-2026-events-program-anchored-by-agntcon-mcpcon-north-america-and-europe"
 ],
 "element": {
  "number": 12,
  "name": "MCP Connectors",
  "group": "Agents & Automation",
  "essential": true,
  "edition": "v2026.Q3",
  "revision": "r7",
  "license": "CC BY 4.0 \u2014 cite elems.ai",
  "url": "https://elems.ai/e/mc.html"
 }
}