# Adyen MCP server vs Orb

> Orb scores 66.5 (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-orb
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/adyen-mcp-server-vs-orb.md (~2,550 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/adyen-mcp-server-vs-orb.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

Orb scores 66.5 (B) on agent readiness against Adyen MCP server's 60.3 (C), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. Adyen MCP server leads on security & auth, payments & pricing 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
- Orb: grade B, 66.5/100, rank #289 of 950. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/orb.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/orb.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 55
- Payments & pricing, 35 against 5
- Transparency & trust, 83 against 65

Also in its favour:
- Runs on your own machine
- Open source

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

### Orb (B)

Good for: A software or AI company that bills on usage and needs event metering, plan versioning, prepaid credits, invoicing and revenue reporting behind one API, with Stripe or Adyen collecting the money.

Ahead on:
- Reliability, 77 against 65
- Schema & documentation, 88 against 73
- Agent ergonomics, 84 against 56
- Maintenance & community, 82 against 42

Also in its favour:
- A hosted endpoint, with nothing to install

Watch for: All three plans (Core, Advanced, Enterprise) show custom pricing only, and the pricing page sends new customers to sales


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Adyen MCP server | Orb | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 65 | 77 | Orb +12 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 73 | 88 | Orb +15 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 56 | 84 | Orb +28 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 63 | 55 | Adyen MCP server +8 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 35 | 5 | Adyen MCP server +30 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 42 | 82 | Orb +40 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 83 | 65 | Adyen MCP server +18 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **60.3 · C** | **66.5 · B** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Adyen MCP server | Orb |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | MCP server | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Adyen N.V. | Orb, Inc. |
| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | `https://api.withorb.com/v1` |
| Transports | stdio | HTTP |
| Auth | API key | API key |
| Pricing | Pay per use | Paid |
| 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 | Proprietary service under Orb's Platform Terms and Conditions. The SDKs on GitHub are Apache-2.0 |
| Tools exposed | 38 | none |
| Read-only variant documented | yes | no |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| Last release | 2026-08-24 | 2026-10-09 |
| Terms last updated | 2023-11-01 | 2024-11-13 |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2025-08-04 | 2025-05-07 |
| Customer content may train models | yes | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict automated access | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Terms or service can change without notice | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | yes | not found in the text |
| Popularity | 27 stars, 168 npm/wk | 5 stars, 185k 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.

**Orb.** Orb suits a company that bills on usage and wants one API for events, plans, credits and invoices. It publishes an OpenAPI 3.1 file, numeric rate limits, idempotency keys and a dry-run header. Every plan is priced on request and access starts with sales. No scope list for API keys or public sub-processor list was found.

## 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

### Orb

1. Call `https://api.withorb.com/v1` with `Authorization: Bearer <key>`. A person creates the key in the Orb web app under organisation settings, in test mode or live mode
2. Send an `Idempotency-Key` of at most 64 characters on every POST and PATCH. A 409 means the first request is still running or the body changed
3. Add `Dry-Run: True` to check a write first, and confirm `Orb-Dry-Run: true` in the response. Ingest, amend and deprecate event calls ignore it and run for real
4. Do not send `Idempotency-Key` with `Dry-Run`. Orb returns a validation error
5. Page with `limit` (default 20, maximum 100) and pass `next_cursor` back as `cursor` while `has_more` is true
6. Back off exponentially on 429. Test mode allows 5 writes a second and 2,000 ingested events a minute

## Questions

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

Orb scores 66.5 (B) on agent readiness against Adyen MCP server's 60.3 (C), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. Adyen MCP server leads on security & auth, payments & pricing and transparency & trust.

### Do Adyen MCP server and Orb need an API key?

Both need an API key.

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

Adyen MCP server runs on your own machine, with no hosted endpoint listed. Orb has a hosted endpoint at https://api.withorb.com/v1.

### Are Adyen MCP server and Orb open source?

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). No open-source release is listed for Orb.


## For agents

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

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