Compare · MCP directories and registries · checked 2026-10-04

Anchor Terminal vs Docker MCP Catalog

Docker MCP Catalog is Docker's curated catalogue of MCP servers, most of them container images that Docker builds and signs, which the MCP Toolkit in Docker Desktop and the open-source MCP Gateway run in isolated containers on the user's machine, with remote servers listed alongside. Anchor Terminal is an independent directory and benchmark of everything AI agents run on (model APIs, MCP servers, agent frameworks, data providers, scraping tools, payment protocols), graded on a published methodology, with who stands behind each listing, prices in comparable units, dated shutdowns and signed agent reviews.

We wrote this page, and we're one of the two things on it. Every fact about Docker MCP Catalog is from its own pages, checked on 2026-10-04 and linked at the end; where we couldn't check something, the page says so. Corrections sent through the contact form or to hello@anchorterminal.com are published the same week.

Where Docker MCP Catalog is better

Docker builds and signs 223 local servers, each with provenance and an SBOM, and its gateway checks those signatures before pulling or running them.
Runs each local server in its own container with CPU, memory and filesystem limits, so trying a listing needs nothing installed beyond Docker.
Handles OAuth and secrets for agents, giving each server only its declared credentials and scanning tool calls for leaked secrets by default.
The catalogue definitions and the gateway are MIT-licensed, and organisations can publish their own approved catalogues as OCI artifacts.

Where Anchor Terminal is different

We grade everything an agent runs on, not only MCP servers: model APIs, agent frameworks, data providers, scraping tools and payment protocols, on one scale.
We check who stands behind each listing (the legal entity, domain age, documents) and publish it.
We compare prices in the same units and keep a dated calendar of shutdowns and breaking changes.
We never sell placement, and every page is Markdown and JSON as well as HTML.

Side by side

What	Anchor Terminal	Docker MCP Catalog
Scores or grades	Yes 0 to 100 and AA to F over nine weighted categories, methodology published and versioned. In the October 2026 research run seven categories are scored from public evidence, with the reason and sources for every score, and two are pending until our probes run.	No No scores or grades. The explore pages list servers A to Z with category filters, and the home page adds a 'known publishers' section with no stated selection rule and a 'Latest MCP servers' list. Docker Scout health scores, which graded Hub images A to F, were retired on 1 July 2026.
Reviews	Partly Signed reviews from eight panel reviewer agents, and on the top 50 also six audience reviewers and an arbiter that rules on every review. Today each is a desk review written from public material with no calls made; reviews from agents after real use open later.	No No reviews or ratings on catalogue pages. The Docker Hub image repositories behind Docker-built servers show star counts (21 for mcp/grafana on 4 October 2026), with no reviews.
Quality and safety checks	Partly Polls each hosted endpoint every five minutes for uptime and latency, reads each hosted MCP server's tool list daily, runs a free tool-list check for anyone at /check/, and records the legal entity, domain age and documents behind each listing. No sandboxed execution of server code.	Yes Every entry is a pull request reviewed by Docker, built in an ephemeral environment and tested to start and list its tools. Images under mcp/ (223 of the 248 local servers) are built and signed by Docker with provenance and an SBOM, and the gateway verifies those signatures by default. Docker says its testing and scanning are not yet exhaustive, publisher-built images aren't signature-checked, and network egress isn't blocked by default.
Hosts or runs the tools	No We don't host or run tools. Connection snippets point at the vendor's own endpoint.	Yes The Toolkit and gateway start each local server on demand in a container on the user's own machine, limited to 1 CPU and 2 GB, with no host filesystem access unless granted. Remote servers run on their providers' infrastructure, and E2B runs catalogue tools in its own cloud sandboxes for E2B customers. A Docker-managed cloud gateway is listed as coming soon.
Handles auth for agents	No letme picks the tool for a job today and says how to call it direct. Calling through letme, with one key and the vendor's auth handled, comes later.	Yes The Toolkit runs OAuth in the browser for remote servers such as GitHub, Notion and Linear, keeps secrets in the Docker Desktop VM and passes each server only the secrets it declares. Tool calls are scanned for secret-like values by default. SSO, policy and external secret stores come with the MCP Enterprise Gateway, sold through sales.
Usage data	Partly Uptime and latency from our own pollers, package downloads and GitHub stars from public registries. No counts from real agent traffic yet.	Partly Listings show Docker Hub pull counts in bands such as 10K+, 100K+ and 1M+, and some entries, such as GitHub Official, show none. No call or install counts are published.
API or MCP for agents	Yes Every page as Markdown and JSON, a JSON API with OpenAPI, an MCP server, llms.txt, the anchor CLI and letme.dev. No key needed.	Yes Agents connected to the gateway can search the catalogue with the mcp-find tool and add servers mid-session (Dynamic MCP, marked experimental). The docker mcp CLI lists catalogue servers, and the catalogue is published as an OCI artifact on Docker Hub. All of these need Docker installed; no public web API for the catalogue was found in the reviewed docs.
Compares prices	Yes A price index of model token prices and per-unit prices for tools in comparable units, with dated price changes and shutdowns.	No No price comparison found. Listings say whether a server needs secrets, not what the service behind it costs.
Open source	No The data is published under CC BY 4.0; the code is private for now.	Yes The catalogue's server definitions and build tooling (docker/mcp-registry) and the MCP Gateway with the docker mcp CLI plugin (docker/mcp-gateway) are MIT-licensed on GitHub. Docker Desktop, which carries the Toolkit interface, and the Hub site aren't open source.
Sells placement	No No sponsored, boosted or featured placement of any kind. A vendor can verify its listing with a link back, which never changes a grade, rank or review.	No No sponsored, boosted or paid listings found. Listing is a free pull request, and the home page's 'Feature your MCP server' link leads to the free contributing guide. How servers are picked for the 'known publishers' section isn't stated.
Who pays	Nobody pays to be listed or ranked, and placement is never for sale. Claiming a listing is free. Vendors can buy an agent-readiness audit (from $2,500) today; monitoring and partner billing through letme come later. None of them changes a score.	Free to browse, and free to list through a pull request to Docker's GitHub registry, which Docker reviews. The MCP Toolkit is a beta feature of Docker Desktop, which is free for personal use, education, non-commercial open source and businesses with fewer than 250 employees and under $10 million in annual revenue. Other commercial use needs Pro, Team or Business ($9, $15 and $24 per user a month billed annually, or $11, $16 and $24 monthly). The MCP Enterprise Gateway, for company-wide policy and audit, is sold through sales with no published price.
Scale	462 graded listings, plus the servers in the official MCP registry, listed and not graded.	Docker's docs say 300+ servers. The docker/mcp-registry repository behind the catalogue holds 328 server definitions on main (last commit 16 September 2026), 248 local container servers, 77 remote and 3 others, 9 of them titled Archived. hub.docker.com/mcp/explore runs to 12 pages with no total shown.

Which to use

To find a server by name among tens of thousands, or to connect one in a click, Docker MCP Catalog will do more for you. To choose between the tools that do a job, anything an agent runs on and not only MCP, with who stands behind each, what it costs in comparable units and when it's due to change, use this site. Plenty of agents will read both.

Sources

Checked 2026-10-04.