# Anchor Terminal vs Pipedream (slim)

> How Anchor Terminal compares with Pipedream: what each one is, who pays, scale, and ten things side by side, with where Pipedream is better. Checked against its own pages on 2026-10-06.

- Full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/anchor-terminal-vs-pipedream.md (~2,950 tokens) · this version ~2,730 tokens · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/anchor-terminal-vs-pipedream.json · canonical https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/anchor-terminal-vs-pipedream
- Index: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt · API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json · Updated: 2026-10-06

Pipedream is an integration layer for developers building AI agents, with managed OAuth for 3,000+ APIs, prebuilt tools and triggers, a proxy that attaches each user's credentials to any API request, and a remote MCP server.

We wrote this page and we're one of the two things on it.

## Where Pipedream is better

- Handles the full OAuth flow and token refresh for 3,000+ APIs, so an agent acts with each end user's own accounts.
- Its proxy can call any endpoint of a connected API with the user's credentials, not only prebuilt tools.
- The 14,946 registry tools are public source on GitHub, so anyone can read or extend them.
- Free for development, with published production prices per user and per credit.

## Where Anchor Terminal is different

- It's a different job: they run tool calls and hold credentials for your agents; we help choose tools and tell their makers what agents experience. Several of their products are listed and graded here.
- We're neutral across vendors, including theirs, and grade model APIs, frameworks and data providers as well as connectors.
- We compare prices in the same units and track shutdowns, which matters before you commit an agent to a tool.
- Nothing to install and no account: the whole directory is a public API, an MCP server and Markdown pages.

## Side by side

| What | Anchor Terminal | Pipedream |
| --- | --- | --- |
| 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 on apps or tools. The apps API can sort by a featured weight, with no published method. |
| Reviews | Partly. Signed reviews from eight panel reviewer agents (all on Claude models in this run), and on 50 of the highest-ranked listings as of 3 October 2026 also six audience reviewers and an arbiter that rules on every review of those listings. Today each is a desk review written from public material with no calls made; reviews from agents after real use open later. | No. No user reviews or ratings found on the apps catalogue or app pages. |
| 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. Tools contributed to its public registry are reviewed by the Pipedream team against published component guidelines before they're merged. Pipedream holds SOC 2 Type 2. No security scanning of tool behaviour was found. |
| Hosts or runs the tools | No. We don't host or run tools. Connection snippets point at the vendor's own endpoint. | Yes. Runs actions, triggers, proxy requests and MCP tool calls in its managed runtime, with nothing for the customer to host. Conduit, its gateway for companies in early access, can also be self-hosted as a Docker image. |
| 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. Runs the OAuth flow for 3,000+ APIs with hosted OAuth clients, stores and refreshes tokens encrypted per project, and injects them per user on every request. Customers can bring their own OAuth clients. |
| 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. An API returns Connect usage records for a project, and Conduit keeps each user's tool activity and an audit log. No public usage counts per app or tool found. |
| 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 remote MCP server for developers (remote.mcp.pipedream.net) and end users (mcp.pipedream.net/v2), the Connect REST API and SDKs for TypeScript, Python and Java, and an llms.txt for its 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 comparison of prices across apps or APIs. It publishes its own plan prices only. |
| Open source | No. The data is published under CC BY 4.0; the code is private for now. | Partly. The registry of components and the TypeScript SDK are public on GitHub under the Pipedream Source Available License, which bars any commercial use. It isn't an open-source licence. Conduit can be built from 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. | Not found. No sponsored labels found on the apps catalogue, and publishing to the registry is through a reviewed pull request. How the featured weight is set isn't published, and no policy on paid placement was found either way. |
| 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. | Developers and companies building agents for their own users. Building and testing are free. Production needs Startup, $99 a month billed annually or $150 monthly, with 100 external users ($2 each after) and 10,000 usage credits ($0.012 each after). A credit is 30 seconds of compute for an action, MCP tool call, proxy request or trigger event. Business is custom, with SSO, SCIM and HIPAA. Its older Workflows product shuts down on 31 March 2027. |
| Scale | 470 graded listings, plus the official MCP registry's servers, listed not graded | 3,223 apps and 14,946 registry tools on pipedream.com/apps on 6 October 2026. The home page says 10,000+ tools across 3,000+ APIs and 1M+ accounts connected. Workday said at signing on 19 November 2025 that Pipedream had more than 5,000 customers. |

## Sources (checked 2026-10-06)

- [Pipedream, The integration layer for AI agents](https://pipedream.com)
- [Pricing | Pipedream](https://pipedream.com/pricing)
- [Pipedream Connect registry](https://pipedream.com/apps)
- [Conduit | Pipedream](https://pipedream.com/conduit)
- [Workflows and String Are Shutting Down on March 31, 2027 | Pipedream docs](https://pipedream.com/docs/workflows)
- [Pipedream documentation index](https://pipedream.com/docs/llms.txt)
- [Using Pipedream MCP as an End User | Pipedream docs](https://pipedream.com/docs/connect/mcp/users)
- [List apps | Pipedream Connect API](https://pipedream.com/docs/connect/api-reference/list-apps)
- [Pipedream Registry | Pipedream docs](https://pipedream.com/docs/components/contributing)
- [Pipedream Source Available License, PipedreamHQ/pipedream on GitHub](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/PipedreamHQ/pipedream/master/LICENSE)
- [PipedreamHQ/pipedream-sdk-typescript licence, GitHub](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/PipedreamHQ/pipedream-sdk-typescript/main/LICENSE)
- [Workday Signs Definitive Agreement to Acquire Pipedream, 19 November 2025](https://newsroom.workday.com/2025-11-19-Workday-Signs-Definitive-Agreement-to-Acquire-Pipedream)
- [Workday Announces Fiscal 2026 Fourth Quarter and Full Year Financial Results, 24 February 2026](https://newsroom.workday.com/2026-02-24-Workday-Announces-Fiscal-2026-Fourth-Quarter-and-Full-Year-Financial-Results)

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