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Alternatives · checked October 17, 2026

Smithery alternatives

Smithery connects AI agents to Model Context Protocol (MCP) servers and handles OAuth, credentials and sessions for them [1]. People look elsewhere when they want to install open-source servers themselves, want a bigger catalog, want agent skills and plugins next to MCP servers, or need a place to launch a new tool.

Plug and Ship publishes this page and is one of the options below. Claims about other sites link to those sites.

  1. 01Glama

    Good for: The largest index we checked: 102,766 MCP servers and 32,903 connectors on October 17, 2026. Every server is built in a sandbox, scanned and scored. Glama also sells one-click hosting and a gateway with managed OAuth and call logs, the closest match to what Smithery does for connections. [3][4][5]

    Keep in mind: Hosting is paid. To add a server you need write or admin access to its GitHub repo.

    glama.aiPlug and Ship vs Glama

  2. 02Official MCP Registry

    Good for: The vendor-neutral record of published MCP servers, run by the MCP project. You publish a server.json with the mcp-publisher CLI after proving you own the namespace. Glama ingests everything in it. [6][7][4]

    Keep in mind: It stores metadata only; the package itself stays on npm, PyPI or another registry. It is still in preview, so breaking changes or data resets can happen.

    registry.modelcontextprotocol.io

  3. 03PulseMCP

    Good for: 21,688 MCP servers on October 17, 2026, each labelled official, reference or community, plus an MCP clients directory, guides and a newsletter. [9][8][10]

    Keep in mind: New submissions and listing changes were paused when we checked on October 17, 2026. You can still browse.

    www.pulsemcp.comPlug and Ship vs PulseMCP

  4. 04mcp.so

    Good for: Takes MCP servers, remote servers, clients, CLIs and agent skills. Submitting with a free review is an option. [11]

    Keep in mind: Publishing right away, without review, costs $39 once.

    mcp.so

  5. 05Plug and Ship

    Good for: Free listing with a launch day on the daily board. MCP servers, agent skills and plugins for Claude Code, Cursor and Codex sit in one catalog, search takes a task in plain words and says why each result matched, and agents can query it through a remote MCP endpoint. [12][13]

    Keep in mind: A smaller catalog (about 22,900 tools) and no hosting or managed auth.

    plugandship.devPlug and Ship vs Smithery

What Smithery costs

Smithery's Hobby plan is free with 50K RPCs. Pay as you go is $10 a month with 100K RPCs, then $0.10 per 1K. A Custom plan adds an uptime SLA and custom rate limits [2]. If you only need to find and install servers yourself, a directory may be enough.

FAQ

What is the best Smithery alternative?
It depends on what you need. For hosted connections with managed auth, Glama is the closest. For a free listing and a launch day, Plug and Ship or mcp.so. For the canonical public record of your server, the official MCP Registry.
Is there a free alternative to Smithery?
Browsing Glama, PulseMCP, mcp.so and Plug and Ship is free. Listing is free on Glama, the official MCP Registry, Plug and Ship and mcp.so (with review). Smithery itself has a free Hobby plan for connections.
Does any alternative manage connections and auth like Smithery?
Glama does. Its gateway handles OAuth and logs calls, and it also sells hosting for open-source servers. The official MCP Registry, PulseMCP, mcp.so and Plug and Ship are directories: they do not proxy or run servers for you.

Sources

Checked on October 17, 2026. Prices and numbers on other sites change; follow the links for the current version.

  1. Smithery home page https://smithery.ai/
  2. Smithery pricing https://smithery.ai/pricing
  3. Glama home page https://glama.ai/
  4. Glama: how Glama indexes the MCP ecosystem https://glama.ai/mcp/methodology
  5. Glama MCP FAQ https://glama.ai/mcp/faq
  6. Official MCP Registry https://registry.modelcontextprotocol.io/
  7. MCP Registry quickstart: publish a server https://modelcontextprotocol.io/registry/quickstart
  8. PulseMCP home page https://www.pulsemcp.com/
  9. PulseMCP server directory https://www.pulsemcp.com/servers
  10. PulseMCP submit page https://www.pulsemcp.com/submit
  11. mcp.so submit page https://mcp.so/submit
  12. Plug and Ship: submit a tool https://plugandship.dev/submit
  13. Plug and Ship developer docs (MCP endpoint, API, search ranking) https://plugandship.dev/developers
Plug and Ship vs SmitheryPlug and Ship vs GlamaPlug and Ship vs PulseMCPSmithery alternativesWhere to submit an MCP server