# Adyen MCP server vs Lago

> Lago scores 65.7 (B) to Adyen's 60.3 (C) for card payments. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/adyen-mcp-server-vs-lago
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/adyen-mcp-server-vs-lago.md (~2,600 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/adyen-mcp-server-vs-lago.min.md (~730 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
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- Site index for agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt (full text: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms-full.txt)
- API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json
- Updated: 2026-10-09

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.

- Adyen MCP server: grade C, 60.3/100, rank #520 of 950. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/adyen-mcp-server.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/adyen-mcp-server.json
- Lago: grade B, 65.7/100, rank #311 of 950. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/lago.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/lago.json
- Best payment and monetisation platforms for AI agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/best/payment-platforms/index.md
- All 76 platforms comparisons: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/payment-platforms/index.md

## 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

| Category | Weight | Adyen MCP server | Lago | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 65 | 86 | Lago +21 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 73 | 87 | Lago +14 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 56 | 71 | Lago +15 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 63 | 37 | Adyen MCP server +26 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 35 | 50 | Lago +15 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 42 | 91 | Lago +49 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 83 | 59 | Adyen MCP server +24 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | -3 | |
| **Total** | | **60.3 · C** | **65.7 · B** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Adyen MCP server | Lago |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | MCP server | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Adyen N.V. | Get Lago Corp. |
| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | no (local only) |
| Transports | stdio | HTTP |
| Auth | API key | API key |
| Pricing | Pay per use | Freemium |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | MIT for the server. The Adyen APIs it calls are a closed service under a merchant agreement and the Adyen Terms and Conditions | AGPL-3.0 (platform). The MCP server and agent SDKs are MIT. Premium capabilities and Lago Cloud are commercial |
| Tools exposed | 38 | none |
| Read-only variant documented | yes | yes |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| Last release | 2026-08-24 | 2026-10-07 |
| Terms last updated | 2023-11-01 | no document linked |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2025-08-04 | no document linked |
| Customer content may train models | yes |  |
| Terms restrict automated access | not found in the text |  |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | not found in the text |  |
| Terms or service can change without notice | not found in the text |  |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | yes |  |
| Popularity | 27 stars, 168 npm/wk | 11k 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).


## For agents

- This comparison as JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/adyen-mcp-server-vs-lago.json, and with the fewest tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/adyen-mcp-server-vs-lago.min.md
- Over MCP at https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (no key): `compare_tools {"a": "adyen-mcp-server", "b": "lago"}`. From a terminal: `anchor compare adyen-mcp-server lago`
- Each listing in full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/adyen-mcp-server.json and https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/lago.json

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