MCP directory & registry alternatives
There are several ways to find MCP servers. Below is an honest take on each of the main directories, registries and gateways — what they're good at, what to check, and when a curated catalogue of 520+ servers with copy-paste config for Claude, Cursor & Windsurf fits better.
Smithery alternatives
The largest MCP registry, with a CLI installer and hosted endpoints.
Glama alternatives
A combined MCP registry, in-browser inspector, host and gateway.
mcp.so alternatives
A clean, free, community-run MCP directory.
PulseMCP alternatives
A large, daily-updated MCP directory plus news and a newsletter.
Composio (Rube) alternatives
A managed integration platform and hosted MCP gateway with built-in OAuth.
Zapier MCP alternatives
Zapier's hosted MCP endpoint exposing thousands of app actions to your agent.
Apify (MCP) alternatives
A web-scraping & automation cloud that exposes its Actors as MCP tools.
MCPMarket alternatives
A large MCP marketplace listing servers, clients and “skills.”
mcp.run alternatives
A platform for hosting and running MCP servers (“servlets”) in the cloud.
cursor.directory alternatives
A Cursor-focused community site (rules first, MCP second).
MCP directories compared at a glance
How the main directories, registries and gateways differ on the things that matter when you just want a working server. “Partial” means a free tier exists but key features are paid.
| Directory | Free | No account | Copy-paste config | “Official” flag | Hosts servers |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| mcptrove | Yes | No | Yes | Strict | No |
| Smithery | Partial | CLI/hosted | Via CLI | No | Yes |
| Glama | Partial | Paid tiers | Yes | Auto-grade | Yes |
| mcp.so | Yes | No | Partial | Leans official | No |
| PulseMCP | Yes | No | Partial | No | No |
| Composio | Partial | Yes | Via gateway | — | Gateway |
| Zapier MCP | Partial | Yes | Endpoint | — | Yes |
| Apify | Partial | Yes | Endpoint | — | Yes |
| MCPMarket | Yes | No | No | No | No |
| mcp.run | Partial | Yes | Via SDK | No | Yes |
| cursor.directory | Yes | No | No | No | No |
Based on first-party research of each product (its own site + docs). See each comparison page for the detail and the trade-offs.
New to MCP? Browse all 520+ servers or read the State of MCP data report.