Smithery
Connect AI agents to 700+ MCP servers with managed auth and sessions.
Smithery is the fastest way to wire real-world tools into MCP-based agents, with a marketplace already past 715 servers and auth handled for you. The free tier is generous, but opaque paid pricing and MCP-only scope will push some teams elsewhere. If you're building on MCP, start here—just know the paid cost before you commit.
Verified 3d ago · liveness 74/100 · cite: rightaichoice.com/tools/smithery
- Developers building AI agents needing quick web search, finance, and API tools
- Solo founders prototyping with minimal integration work
- AI-native teams using OrgX for task delegation and cross-session memory
- Developers who want to publish and share MCP servers
- Teams needing transparent paid pricing without sign-up
- Enterprises with strict data locality or on-prem requirements
- Non-developers unfamiliar with MCP protocol
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Skip Smithery if you're not using MCP, need strict on-prem data control, or require transparent paid pricing before sign-up.
Paid tiers are not listed upfront; you must sign up to see pricing, making it hard to budget before committing.
Smithery's free tier is generous for solo devs exploring MCP, but paid plans are opaque. Compared to alternatives like Sourcegraph Cody (which offers transparent per-user pricing) or building your own integration stack (free but time-consuming), Smithery's value depends on your time-to-market. If you need predictable costs, consider alternatives with published pricing.
In short
Smithery — Connect AI agents to 700+ MCP servers with managed auth and sessions. Best for Developers building AI agents needing quick web search, finance, and API tools, Solo founders prototyping with minimal integration work, AI-native teams using OrgX for task delegation and cross-session memory. Free to use.
What people actually say about Smithery — is it worth it?
We ran a structured research pass across product reviews, community discussions, and post-purchase forum threads to surface the patterns vendors won't publish themselves. Below: the recurring strengths, the hidden costs people mention most, and the cohort that consistently regrets adopting this tool.
34 mentions across 3 sources (Hacker News, Product Hunt, Lemmy) · researched Aug 18, 2026.
- +One-click connection to 715+ (now 2,000+) MCP servers
- +Managed OAuth with auto token refresh saves hours
- +Encrypted credential storage simplifies security handling
- +CLI and REST API enable programmatic control
- +Centralized session management across agents
- −Path traversal vulnerability exposed 3k servers (Oct 2025)
- −22% of servers flagged vulnerable in community scan
- −Paid tiers hidden behind signup — no upfront pricing
- −Acquisition by Arcade.dev raises long-term uncertainty
- −Server quality varies; ranking doesn't guarantee security
- • No transparent pricing means you must sign up to see costs.
- • Potential extra charges for high-volume usage or multi-agent coordination (speculation).
Viability Score
How well maintained and how widely used is Smithery? Built from what the vendor actually publishes (docs, changelog, tutorials, integrations, pricing), whether the site is live, and how much real users discuss it. How we calculate this
Last calculated: September 2026
How we score →Key Features
- One-click connection to 715+ MCP servers
- Built-in OAuth authentication with auto token refresh
- Encrypted credential storage
- Session management (stateless for users)
- OrgX coordination: task delegation, decision workflows, cross-session memory
- Flame persistent assistant for Telegram and Slack
- CLI for programmatic access
- REST API for programmatic access
- Publish custom MCP servers to the marketplace
- Usage statistics and server popularity metrics
- Agent News with citations and Ethics Engine ratings
- OneSignal push notification, email, and SMS management
- Exa Search web search with fresh results
- Context7 version-specific documentation fetching
- DC Hub: real-time data center infrastructure intelligence
About Smithery
Smithery is a platform that connects AI agents to real-world tools and services through the Model Context Protocol (MCP). Instead of managing OAuth flows, credential storage, and session lifecycles yourself, Smithery handles that plumbing so you can wire an agent to services like OneSignal, Exa Search, and Context7 in minutes. The marketplace ranks every server by real usage, showing which tools are battle-tested before you add them to your agent. Auth is handled end-to-end: built-in OAuth, automatic token refresh, and encrypted credential storage. Session management and per-server usage statistics come included, plus a CLI and REST API for programmatic access. You can also publish your own MCP servers to the marketplace, turning it into a two-way street for tool distribution. For multi-agent setups, Smithery offers OrgX coordination infrastructure for task delegation, decision workflows, and cross-session memory, and Flame extends this into a persistent assistant available on Telegram and Slack. The free tier gives you access to the full marketplace, including popular servers like OneSignal, Agent News, Exa Search, and Context7. Paid tiers aren't listed upfront—you have to sign up to see them. If you're not using MCP or need strict on-prem data control, this isn't the fit. But for solo devs and AI-native teams committed to MCP, Smithery is the shortest path from zero to a tool-connected agent.
Behind the Verdict
Smithery shines when you're building agents that need to touch external services—search, notifications, docs, browsers—without drowning in integration boilerplate. The managed OAuth and credential storage are genuinely useful: you skip the redirect URIs, client secrets, and token refreshes that usually eat days. The marketplace's usage rankings help you pick proven servers, and publishing your own server for distribution is a nice two-way street. The free tier is generous, covering the full server catalog. But there are real caveats. Pricing is opaque—you must sign up to see paid tiers, which complicates budgeting. The platform is MCP-only, so if you're not using MCP, it's irrelevant. And the recent acquisition by Arcade.dev adds uncertainty about long-term direction. For solo devs and AI-native teams already committed to MCP, it's a strong boost. But if you need on-prem control or transparent pricing, look elsewhere.
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Real-world workflow fit
Concrete scenarios for the personas Smithery actually fits — and what changes day-one when you adopt it.
Need to add web search and push notifications to an agent quickly.
Outcome: Connect Exa Search and OneSignal in minutes with managed OAuth, and start seeing usage stats immediately.
Need task delegation and shared memory across agents.
Outcome: Use OrgX to set up decision workflows and cross-session memory, reducing coordination overhead.
Built a niche MCP server and want it discoverable.
Outcome: Publish it to the marketplace and gain visibility with usage rankings and observability.
Use Cases
- Connect an AI research assistant to Exa for real-time web search and deep research.
- Give Claude Code access to your Supabase project to run queries and manage databases.
- Integrate OneSignal into an AI customer support agent to send push notifications based on user intent.
- Let an AI copilot browse and extract data from any public website using Bright Data's MCP server.
- Automate linear issue creation and updates by connecting a background agent to the Linear GraphQL MCP server.
- Build a personalised coding assistant that fetches up-to-date documentation from Context7 automatically.
- Coordinate multi-agent workflows with OrgX: task delegation, decision approvals, and cross-session memory.
- Run an always-available assistant in Telegram or Slack via Flamecast.
Limitations
- Smithery connects AI agents to external services via MCP servers.
- It handles OAuth, credentials, and session management automatically.
- The platform is now part of Arcade.dev, and the pricing page does not disclose specific pricing details.
as of 2026-08-30
Verification history
We have re-verified Smithery 17 times since . Each pass re-reads the vendor's own pages and re-checks every listed field against that evidence; passes where nothing had changed are marked as such.
- — re-verified summary, description, our verdict, our analysis, pricing model, pricing tiers, features, integrations, who it suits, who should skip it
- — re-verified summary, description, our verdict, our analysis, pricing model, pricing tiers, features, integrations, who it suits, who should skip it
- — re-verified summary, description, our verdict, our analysis, pricing model, pricing tiers, features, integrations, who it suits, who should skip it
- — re-verified summary, description, our verdict, our analysis, pricing model, pricing tiers, features, integrations, who it suits, who should skip it
- — re-verified summary, description, our verdict, our analysis, pricing model, pricing tiers, features, integrations, who it suits, who should skip it
- — re-verified summary, description, our verdict, our analysis, pricing model, pricing tiers, features, integrations, who it suits, who should skip it
Showing the 6 most recent of 17 verification passes.
Free to cite with attribution — this page re-verifies continuously.
12-month cost
Project the real annual outlay, including the implied monthly cost when only an annual tier is published.
Vendor list price only. Add-on usage, seat overages, and contract minimums are surfaced under Hidden costs & gotchas.
Plans compared
For each published Smithery tier: who it actually fits, and what it adds vs. the previous tier. Cross-reference the cost calculator above for projected annual outlay.
Free
$0/mo
Ideal for
Solo developers and hobbyists exploring MCP, wanting to connect popular servers and test the platform without cost.
What this tier adds
Entry tier with full marketplace access, managed auth, and session management at no charge.
Where the pricing makes sense
The company stage and team size where Smithery's pricing actually pencils out — and where peers do it cheaper.
Smithery's free tier is generous for solo devs exploring MCP, but paid plans are opaque. Compared to alternatives like Sourcegraph Cody (which offers transparent per-user pricing) or building your own integration stack (free but time-consuming), Smithery's value depends on your time-to-market. If you need predictable costs, consider alternatives with published pricing.
Setup time & first value
How long it actually takes to get something useful out of Smithery — broken out by persona, not the marketing-page minute.
For adding a popular server like Exa Search: under 10 minutes with the CLI. For setting up OrgX coordination: 30-60 minutes. Publishing a custom server: 1-2 hours including configuration.
Switching to or from Smithery
How to bring data in from common predecessors and how to get it back out — written for the switcher, not the buyer.
- →From custom-built integrations: Replace your OAuth and credential management code with Smithery's managed auth and connect servers via CLI or REST API.
- ↗To self-hosted MCP servers: Export your server configurations and set up your own OAuth/credential storage—more work but full control.
- ↗To Arcade.dev: As Smithery is now part of Arcade.dev, you may migrate to Arcade's platform for continued support and features.
Integrations
Resources & Guides
- Documentationsmithery.ai
Introduction
Smithery gives agents more agency by connecting them to the outside world — search the web, query databases, control browsers, reach into business tools, and much more.
- Documentationsmithery.ai
Llms
Full product docs from smithery.ai
- Documentationsmithery.ai
Mcp
Full product docs from smithery.ai
- Documentationsmithery.ai
Index
Full product docs from smithery.ai
Tutorials & Learning
Official links
Tools that pair well with Smithery
Common stack mates teams adopt alongside Smithery, with the specific reason each pairing earns its keep.
Featured Head-to-Head Comparisons
Backengine Mcp vs Smithery
If your bottleneck is private company knowledge—support docs, wikis, procedure manuals—BackEngine MCP is the focused choice: it turns that internal data into AI-queryable assets with security boundaries. But if you're building agents that need a wide variety of external tools and you want to skip auth headaches, Smithery's 715+ server marketplace and managed OAuth make it the pragmatic pick. Choose based on whether your data is internal (BackEngine) or your needs are external (Smithery).
Ekos vs Smithery
If you want to supercharge your existing GitHub repos with AI, EKOS is the direct route. If you're building agents that need a universe of pre-built tools without auth headaches, Smithery is unbeatable. Choose based on whether you're repo-centric or agent-centric.
Fetchsandbox Mcp vs Smithery
If your pain is trusting AI-generated integration code, FetchSandbox MCP is the focused, safety-first choice — it proves fixes work in isolation before they touch production. If you're building agents and need fast access to a broad tool ecosystem with auth handled for you, Smithery is the pragmatic pick. Pick FetchSandbox for validation rigor, Smithery for breadth and speed.
Alternatives to Smithery
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