# Anchor Terminal vs the official MCP Registry

> How Anchor Terminal compares with the official MCP Registry: what each one is, who pays, scale, and ten things side by side, with where the official MCP Registry is better. Checked against its own pages on 2026-10-04.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/anchor-terminal-vs-mcp-registry
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/anchor-terminal-vs-mcp-registry.md (~2,500 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/anchor-terminal-vs-mcp-registry.min.md (~2,280 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/anchor-terminal-vs-mcp-registry.json (this page as data, same URL with Accept: application/json)
- 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: 2026-10-04

The official MCP Registry is the MCP project's official metadata repository for publicly accessible MCP servers, meant mainly for aggregators and marketplaces to build on rather than for host applications to read directly. 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. Facts about the official MCP Registry are from its own pages, checked 2026-10-04, sources below. Corrections: hello@anchorterminal.com, or `POST https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/contact` with `{"kind": "general", "email", "message"}`.

## Where the official MCP Registry is better

- The official source of public MCP server metadata, which other directories, this one included, read from.
- Each server name is tied to a verified GitHub account or domain, and listed packages must pass an ownership check.
- Defines the server.json format and the OpenAPI spec that subregistries and private registries implement, giving host applications one interface to read.
- Server metadata is public domain under CC0 1.0 and the code is open source, so anyone can copy the whole catalogue.

## 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 | the official MCP Registry |
| --- | --- | --- |
| 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. The docs call its metadata deliberately unopinionated and leave curation and ratings to downstream aggregators. |
| 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. None. The docs leave community ratings to aggregators, which can add them to entries under the _meta field. |
| 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. | Partly. Publishers prove control of a GitHub account or domain (GitHub OAuth or OIDC, DNS or HTTP challenge), and npm, PyPI, NuGet, Cargo and OCI packages must carry the server name to pass an ownership check. Maintainers remove malware, spam, illegal content and non-working servers, but tell consumers to assume minimal to no moderation. Security scanning is left to package registries and aggregators. |
| Hosts or runs the tools | No. We don't host or run tools. Connection snippets point at the vendor's own endpoint. | No. Metadata only. Code stays on npm, PyPI, NuGet, crates.io, container registries or GitHub and GitLab releases, and remote servers run on the publisher's own public endpoint. |
| 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. | No. Holds no credentials for agents. An entry can declare the headers, environment variables and secrets a client must supply. |
| 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. | No. None. API entries carry status and publish and update dates only. The docs leave download counts to subregistries. |
| 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. An unauthenticated, read-only REST API (v0.1) with search, version and updated_since filters, an OpenAPI spec, and the mcp-publisher CLI for publishing. The docs say host applications should read from subregistries instead, and there's no uptime or durability guarantee. |
| 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. None. No price fields in the API entries or the server.json examples reviewed. |
| Open source | No. The data is published under CC BY 4.0; the code is private for now. | Yes. Code on GitHub under Apache 2.0, with older contributions still under MIT during a licence transition. Published server metadata is dedicated to the public domain under CC0 1.0. |
| 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. None found. The homepage lists recently updated servers, and no paid or sponsored listing appears in the docs or terms. |
| 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 read, with no account or key. No fees found for publishing, which needs a GitHub or domain login. Run as a community-supported project by MCP contributors, and its about page names Anthropic, GitHub, PulseMCP and Microsoft among its backers. |
| Scale | 462 graded listings, plus the official MCP registry's servers, listed not graded | No total published on its site, docs or API. The list endpoint pages through entries and reports only a per-page count, so we couldn't count it on 4 October 2026. In preview since 8 September 2025, with breaking changes or data resets possible before general availability. |

## Sources (checked 2026-10-04)

- [The MCP Registry](https://modelcontextprotocol.io/registry/about)
- [MCP Registry Aggregators](https://modelcontextprotocol.io/registry/registry-aggregators)
- [How to Authenticate When Publishing to the Official MCP Registry](https://modelcontextprotocol.io/registry/authentication)
- [MCP Registry Supported Package Types](https://modelcontextprotocol.io/registry/package-types)
- [Publishing Remote Servers](https://modelcontextprotocol.io/registry/remote-servers)
- [The MCP Registry Moderation Policy](https://modelcontextprotocol.io/registry/moderation-policy)
- [Official MCP Registry Terms of Service](https://modelcontextprotocol.io/registry/terms-of-service)
- [MCP Registry Frequently Asked Questions](https://modelcontextprotocol.io/registry/faq)
- [Official MCP Registry](https://registry.modelcontextprotocol.io/)
- [Official MCP Registry API, list servers](https://registry.modelcontextprotocol.io/v0.1/servers?limit=100)
- [modelcontextprotocol/registry, GitHub](https://github.com/modelcontextprotocol/registry)
- [MCP Server Registry API OpenAPI spec, GitHub](https://github.com/modelcontextprotocol/registry/blob/main/docs/reference/api/openapi.yaml)
- [modelcontextprotocol/registry LICENSE, GitHub](https://github.com/modelcontextprotocol/registry/blob/main/LICENSE)
- [Introducing the MCP Registry](https://blog.modelcontextprotocol.io/posts/2025-09-08-mcp-registry-preview/)

## Other comparisons

- [Anchor Terminal vs Smithery](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/anchor-terminal-vs-smithery.md)
- [Anchor Terminal vs Glama](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/anchor-terminal-vs-glama.md)
- [Anchor Terminal vs PulseMCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/anchor-terminal-vs-pulsemcp.md)
- [Anchor Terminal vs mcp.so](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/anchor-terminal-vs-mcp-so.md)
- [Anchor Terminal vs Docker MCP Catalog](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/anchor-terminal-vs-docker-mcp-catalog.md)
- [Anchor Terminal vs MCP Market](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/anchor-terminal-vs-mcp-market.md)
- [Anchor Terminal vs MCP Toplist](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/anchor-terminal-vs-mcp-toplist.md)
- [Anchor Terminal vs Composio](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/anchor-terminal-vs-composio.md)
- [Anchor Terminal vs Merge Agent Handler](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/anchor-terminal-vs-merge-agent-handler.md)
- [Anchor Terminal vs Nango](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/anchor-terminal-vs-nango.md)
- [Anchor Terminal vs Arcade](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/anchor-terminal-vs-arcade.md)
- [Tools compared like for like](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/index.md)