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Head to head · Card payments · October 2026 research run

Adyen MCP server vs Lago

Lago scores 65.7 (B) on agent readiness against Adyen MCP server's 60.3 (C), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Adyen MCP server leads on security & auth and transparency & trust. Both do card payments.

Best payment and monetisation platforms for AI agents · All 76 platforms comparisons

Adyen MCP serverAdyen N.V. · MCP server C60.3/100#520 of 950 LagoGet Lago Corp. · HTTP API B65.7/100#311 of 950

Which one, for what

Adyen MCP server C

Good for An Adyen merchant's developer or operations staff who want an assistant to create payment links and sessions, look up terminals, webhooks, users and credentials, and change terminal settings, with a person watching writes.

Ahead on

  • Security & auth, 63 against 37
  • Transparency & trust, 83 against 59

Also in its favour

  • Runs on your own machine
  • No incidents deducted, where Lago loses 3 points for them

Watch for

The README is headed alpha, the package is at 0.6.0, and the server reports itself as version 0.4.0

Lago B

Good for A team that wants usage metering, plans, wallets and invoicing under its own control and can run PostgreSQL and Redis.

Ahead on

  • Reliability, 86 against 65
  • Schema & documentation, 87 against 73
  • Agent ergonomics, 71 against 56
  • Payments & pricing, 50 against 35
  • Maintenance & community, 91 against 42

Watch for

The free edition has one organisation API key with full access. Creating more keys needs a Premium licence and per-resource permissions need an enterprise add-on

Score by category

CategoryWeight this runAdyen MCP serverLagoEdge
Reliability16%206586Lago +21
Performance10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Schema & documentation13%16.27387Lago +14
Agent ergonomics13%16.25671Lago +15
Security & auth14%17.56337Adyen MCP server +26
Payments & pricing10%12.53550Lago +15
Task success10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Maintenance & community7%8.84291Lago +49
Transparency & trust7%8.88359Adyen MCP server +24
Negative events≤150-3
Total60.3 · C65.7 · B

Facts side by side

FactAdyen MCP serverLago
KindMCP serverHTTP API
VendorAdyen N.V.Get Lago Corp.
Hosted endpointno (local only)no (local only)
TransportsstdioHTTP
AuthAPI keyAPI key
PricingPay per useFreemium
x402nono
LicenceMIT for the server. The Adyen APIs it calls are a closed service under a merchant agreement and the Adyen Terms and ConditionsAGPL-3.0 (platform). The MCP server and agent SDKs are MIT. Premium capabilities and Lago Cloud are commercial
Tools exposed38none
Read-only variant documentedyesyes
llms.txtyesyes
Last release2026-08-242026-10-07
Terms last updated2023-11-01no document linked
Privacy policy last updated2025-08-04no document linked
Customer content may train modelsyes
Terms restrict automated accessnot found in the text
Terms restrict benchmarkingnot found in the text
Terms or service can change without noticenot found in the text
Arbitration or class-action waiveryes
Popularity27 stars, 168 npm/wk11k stars, 48k npm/wk

Verdicts

Adyen MCP server

All 38 tools carry read-only, destructive and idempotent annotations, and --tools loads a subset under an API credential limited by roles. The README labels the server alpha, refund_payment and the other POST tools send no idempotency key, and failures come back as plain text without an error flag.

Lago

Lago's open-source edition runs usage metering, plans, wallets and invoicing on the owner's servers at no charge, with an OpenAPI 3.1 file of 217 operations and releases about every two weeks. The free edition has one unscoped API key and no audit logs, and Lago's llms.txt understates what its MCP server can change.

Before you call either

Adyen MCP server

  1. Set ADYEN_API_KEY in the environment and start with npx -y @adyen/mcp --env=TEST. The --adyenApiKey flag in the docs page puts the key in the process list
  2. Pass --tools= with only the tool names the task needs. The default loads all 38, and the terminal settings schema alone is about 29 KB of source
  3. Call refund_payment with pspReference, currency, value, merchantAccount and reference. The description's paymentPspReference is not the field name
  4. Treat a Failed to ... reply from a write tool as outcome unknown, not as failure. Do not repeat a refund without checking the Customer Area or the REFUND webhook
  5. Give amounts in minor units (1099 for 10.99 EUR). Live use needs --env=LIVE --livePrefix= with the prefix from the live Customer Area

Lago

  1. Call <your Lago API origin>/api/v1 with Authorization: Bearer <key>. On Lago Cloud the hosts are api.getlago.com and api.eu.getlago.com
  2. Send every usage event with a deterministic transaction_id and an explicit timestamp, and resend the same payload on retry. On the ClickHouse event store a changed timestamp is billed again
  3. Expect 422 value_already_exist for a repeated event on the Postgres event store. Treat it as success for a retry
  4. Page with page and per_page and read meta.next_page and meta.total_count. The default page size is 100 in most cases
  5. Treat the free edition's API key as full access. It can void invoices and terminate subscriptions, so keep it out of prompts and ask a person before financial changes
  6. Before giving an assistant the MCP server, note that it includes delete_invoice, void_invoice, delete_plan and create_payment and sets no read-only annotations

Questions

Which is better for AI agents, Adyen MCP server or Lago?

Lago scores 65.7 (B) on agent readiness against Adyen MCP server's 60.3 (C), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Adyen MCP server leads on security & auth and transparency & trust.

Do Adyen MCP server and Lago need an API key?

Both need an API key.

Can an agent call Adyen MCP server and Lago without installing anything?

Adyen MCP server runs on your own machine, with no hosted endpoint listed. No hosted endpoint is listed for Lago.

Are Adyen MCP server and Lago open source?

Yes. Adyen MCP server is open source (MIT for the server. The Adyen APIs it calls are a closed service under a merchant agreement and the Adyen Terms and Conditions). Lago is open source (AGPL-3.0 (platform). The MCP server and agent SDKs are MIT. Premium capabilities and Lago Cloud are commercial).

Other comparisons with Adyen MCP server or Lago

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