MarkItDown MCP vs MCP Filesystem Server

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

	MarkItDown MCP Give your agent Microsoft's MarkItDown: convert PDFs, Office docs, images, and URLs into LLM-ready Markdown. Unverified stdio (local) No auth Python	MCP Filesystem Server Secure local filesystem access for MCP clients — read, write, search, and manage files within allowed directories. Unverified stdio (local) No auth Stale Go
Category	Files & Storage	Files & Storage
Language	Python	Go
Transport	stdio (local)	stdio (local)
Auth	None	None
GitHub stars	162k	654
Last commit	1 month ago	8 months ago
Verified
Actively maintained
Install	`pip install markitdown-mcp`	`go install github.com/mark3labs/mcp-filesystem-server@latest`
Repo	Open	Open

Verdict

Pick MarkItDown MCP if you want the official, vendor-maintained server, and you prefer the more popular, battle-tested option.

Pick MCP Filesystem Server if you need the broadest set of tools.

Add MarkItDown MCP

Install / run

pip install markitdown-mcp

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

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "markitdown-mcp": {
      "command": "docker",
      "args": [
        "run",
        "--rm",
        "-i",
        "markitdown-mcp:latest"
      ]
    }
  }
}

Requires Docker to be installed and running.

Add MCP Filesystem Server

Install / run

go install github.com/mark3labs/mcp-filesystem-server@latest

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

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "mcp-filesystem-server": {
      "command": "mcp-filesystem-server",
      "args": [
        "/path/to/allowed/directory",
        "/another/allowed/directory"
      ]
    }
  }
}

FAQ

MarkItDown MCP or MCP Filesystem Server — which is better?

Pick MarkItDown MCP if you want the official, vendor-maintained server, and you prefer the more popular, battle-tested option. Pick MCP Filesystem Server if you need the broadest set of tools.

Can I use both MarkItDown MCP and MCP Filesystem 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 MarkItDown MCP and MCP Filesystem Server work with Claude, Cursor and Windsurf?

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

View MarkItDown MCP →View MCP Filesystem Server →More comparisons →