# Anchor Terminal vs MCP Toplist

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

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/anchor-terminal-vs-mcp-toplist
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/anchor-terminal-vs-mcp-toplist.md (~2,650 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/anchor-terminal-vs-mcp-toplist.min.md (~2,480 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/anchor-terminal-vs-mcp-toplist.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

MCP Toplist is an index that merges MCP servers from five registries (the official MCP Registry, Glama, Smithery, mcp.so and PulseMCP) into one deduplicated list, ranked by a 0 to 100 score for popularity and activity. 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 MCP Toplist 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 MCP Toplist is better

- Merges five registries into one deduplicated list, 140,450 servers on 4 October 2026, and shows which registries list each server.
- Re-syncs its sources twice a day and ranks 136,582 servers, with star growth and version counts on each server page.
- Publishes its server data daily on Hugging Face as Parquet under CC BY 4.0, with a daily server count for each registry.

## 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 | MCP Toplist |
| --- | --- | --- |
| 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. | Yes. A 0 to 100 composite of six signals with published approximate weights (GitHub stars, version count and release activity about 20 per cent each, listing age and organic search reach about 15 per cent each, package downloads about 10 per cent). Weights are retuned from time to time and the formulas for search reach and downloads aren't disclosed. MCP Toplist calls the score a popularity and activity signal, not a quality assessment, and servers without a public repository rank low. |
| 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 server pages. Users can publish Projects, lists of servers they run together, which carry no ratings. |
| 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. | No. No quality or safety checks found. The methodology says a high score doesn't mean a server is safe to run and tells readers to review the repository before installing. Server pages show a setup label (No setup, API key or Remote auth) based on declared credentials and configuration. |
| Hosts or runs the tools | No. We don't host or run tools. Connection snippets point at the vendor's own endpoint. | No. Install commands and config snippets for Claude Code, Claude Desktop, Codex, Cursor, VS Code and Windsurf. The only server it runs is its own search MCP server. |
| 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. Setup labels say whether a server needs an API key or remote auth. No credential handling for agents found. |
| 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. npm and PyPI 30-day downloads count towards the score above an undisclosed floor, but no download figures appeared on the server page we read. Server pages show GitHub stars and star growth, and a most-active list ranks servers by commits in the last 30 days. No data from agent traffic. |
| 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. A read-only MCP server at mcptoplist.com/mcp (Streamable HTTP, no auth) with two tools, search_servers and get_server_details. Also an llms.txt and a daily bulk dataset on Hugging Face. No REST API or CLI documented, and robots.txt blocks /api/. |
| 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 data or price comparison found in the reviewed pages. |
| Open source | No. The data is published under CC BY 4.0; the code is private for now. | No. No public code found for the site or its MCP server. The BIFF-AI/mcptoplist-mcp repository on GitHub (MIT) holds a README and licence only. The data is published under CC BY 4.0. |
| 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. No sponsored, featured or ad labels on the home page, server list, best, official and most-active lists, organisations page or the server page we read, and /pricing and /advertise return 404. A Claim this server link leads to a login we couldn't read. |
| 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 use on the web and through its MCP server, which needs no key. No pricing, plans or advertising were found, and /pricing and /advertise return 404. It's built by BIFF.ai, a product of Exklamera AB, which advises companies on business strategy, generative AI and data. |
| Scale | 462 graded listings, plus the official MCP registry's servers, listed not graded | 140,450 servers tracked, 136,582 of them ranked, on mcptoplist.com/mcp-server-list, updated 4 October 2026, from 86,737 organisations. The home page, updated 3 October, showed 139,717 and a rise of 20,161 in 30 days. Its own dataset shows no new PulseMCP listings since at least 18 July 2026. |

## Sources (checked 2026-10-04)

- [MCP Toplist: MCP Server Rankings](https://mcptoplist.com)
- [MCP Server List | MCP Toplist](https://mcptoplist.com/mcp-server-list)
- [How MCP Toplist ranks servers](https://mcptoplist.com/methodology)
- [Data sources | MCP Toplist](https://mcptoplist.com/sources)
- [About MCP Toplist](https://mcptoplist.com/about)
- [Connect your AI assistant | MCP Toplist](https://mcptoplist.com/connect)
- [Example server listing (Chrome DevTools MCP) | MCP Toplist](https://mcptoplist.com/server/io.github.ChromeDevTools%2Fchrome-devtools-mcp)
- [Best MCP Servers | MCP Toplist](https://mcptoplist.com/best-mcp-servers)
- [Official MCP Servers | MCP Toplist](https://mcptoplist.com/official-mcp-servers)
- [Most Active MCP Servers | MCP Toplist](https://mcptoplist.com/most-active-mcp-servers)
- [Organisations publishing MCP servers, MCP Toplist](https://mcptoplist.com/organizations)
- [Projects | MCP Toplist](https://mcptoplist.com/projects)
- [MCP Toplist llms.txt](https://mcptoplist.com/llms.txt)
- [MCP Toplist robots.txt](https://mcptoplist.com/robots.txt)
- [MCP Toplist's daily dataset, Hugging Face](https://huggingface.co/datasets/BIFF-AI/mcptoplist)
- [MCP Toplist's dataset manifest, Hugging Face](https://huggingface.co/datasets/BIFF-AI/mcptoplist/resolve/main/manifest.json)
- [MCP Toplist's dataset, daily registry rows for PulseMCP, Hugging Face](https://datasets-server.huggingface.co/rows?dataset=BIFF-AI/mcptoplist&config=registry_daily&split=train&offset=570&length=40)
- [mcptoplist-mcp, GitHub](https://github.com/BIFF-AI/mcptoplist-mcp)
- [About BIFF.ai](https://biff.ai/about/)
- [How to Find the Perfect MCP Server, Using One MCP to Rule Them All | BIFF.ai](https://biff.ai/find-the-perfect-mcp-server/)

## 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 the official MCP Registry](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/anchor-terminal-vs-mcp-registry.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 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)