Cua Driver vs Membrane MCP Server

A side-by-side comparison of two Productivity servers — tools, transport, auth, maintenance, and copy-paste config for each.

	Cua Driver Background computer-use MCP server that drives native macOS, Windows, and Linux desktop apps without stealing focus. Unverified stdio (local) No auth Rust	Membrane MCP Server Expose actions from your connected Membrane integrations to AI agents as MCP tools. Unverified HTTP (remote) API key TypeScript
Category	Productivity	Productivity
Language	Rust	TypeScript
Transport	stdio (local)	HTTP (remote)
Auth	None	API key
GitHub stars	19k	38
Last commit	1 month ago	5 months ago
Verified
Actively maintained
Install	`/bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/trycua/cua/main/libs/cua-driver/scripts/install.sh)"`	`git clone https://github.com/membranehq/mcp-server.git`
Repo	Open	Open

Verdict

Pick Cua Driver if you prefer the more popular, battle-tested option, and you want a local (stdio) server that keeps data on your machine.

Pick Membrane MCP Server if you want a hosted/remote server with nothing to install.

Add Cua Driver

Install / run

/bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/trycua/cua/main/libs/cua-driver/scripts/install.sh)"

Paste into ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "cua-driver": {
      "command": "cua-driver",
      "args": [
        "mcp"
      ]
    }
  }
}

Add Membrane MCP Server

Install / run

git clone https://github.com/membranehq/mcp-server.git

Paste into ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "membrane-mcp-server": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "mcp-remote",
        "https://<HOSTED_MCP_SERVER_URL>/sse?token={ACCESS_TOKEN}"
      ]
    }
  }
}

Claude Desktop connects to remote servers through the `mcp-remote` proxy (installed on first run via npx). Restart Claude Desktop after saving.

FAQ

Cua Driver or Membrane MCP Server — which is better?

Pick Cua Driver if you prefer the more popular, battle-tested option, and you want a local (stdio) server that keeps data on your machine. Pick Membrane MCP Server if you want a hosted/remote server with nothing to install.

Can I use both Cua Driver and Membrane MCP Server?

Yes — MCP clients let you enable multiple servers at once. Add both configs to your client's mcpServers and use whichever tool fits the task.

Do Cua Driver and Membrane MCP Server work with Claude, Cursor and Windsurf?

Both do. Copy the per-client config below into Claude Desktop, Cursor, or Windsurf.

View Cua Driver →View Membrane MCP Server →More comparisons →