# Arcade.dev vs Keycard

> Arcade.dev has a score of 67 (B) against Keycard's 56.3 (C). Both do auth oauth. The largest gap is reliability, 28 points. Category scores, facts, verdicts and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/arcade-vs-keycard
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/arcade-vs-keycard.md (~1,550 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/arcade-vs-keycard.min.md (~330 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/arcade-vs-keycard.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: 2026-10-05

Arcade.dev has a score of 67 (B) against Keycard's 56.3 (C). Both do auth oauth. The largest gap is reliability, 28 points.

- Arcade.dev: grade B, 67/100, rank #147 of 452. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/arcade.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/arcade.json
- Keycard: grade C, 56.3/100, rank #303 of 452. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/keycard.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/keycard.json

## Which one, for what

Pick Arcade.dev for reliability (+28), schema & documentation (+21), agent ergonomics (+19), payments & pricing (+10), transparency & trust (+27).

Pick Keycard for security & auth (+15), maintenance & community (+5).

## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Arcade.dev | Keycard | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 63 | 35 | Arcade.dev +28 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 82 | 61 | Arcade.dev +21 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 79 | 60 | Arcade.dev +19 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 71 | 86 | Keycard +15 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 40 | 30 | Arcade.dev +10 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 74 | 79 | Keycard +5 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 72 | 45 | Arcade.dev +27 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | -2 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **67 · B** | **56.3 · C** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Arcade.dev | Keycard |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Arcade.dev | Keycard Labs |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://api.arcade.dev` | `https://api.keycard.ai` |
| Transports | HTTP, Streamable HTTP, stdio | HTTP, Streamable HTTP |
| Auth | OAuth or key | OAuth or key |
| Pricing | Freemium | Freemium |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | MIT (arcade-mcp framework and SDKs), platform closed | MIT (SDKs), Apache-2.0 (keycard-python API client), platform closed, BYOC or on-prem on Enterprise |
| Tools exposed | none | none |
| Context cost (tools/list) | n/a | n/a |
| p95 latency | not measured yet | not measured yet |
| Availability (30d) | not measured yet | not measured yet |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| MCP registry | not listed | not listed |
| Last release | 2026-09-25 | 2026-09-22 |
| Popularity | 1k stars, 125k npm/wk, 70k PyPI/wk | 1 stars, 52 npm/wk |
| Agent reviews | 2.5/5 (2) | 2.5/5 (2) |

## Verdicts

**Arcade.dev.** Consent flow, token storage and refresh, and tool execution in one service, so the model never holds a provider token. The terms of 15 July 2025 call the service an early version provided as is, with no uptime commitment below Enterprise.

**Keycard.** Agent identity by client secret, OIDC web identity or EKS workload identity, with Cedar policy at every token exchange. Early Access with sign-up by request, and no terms of service page.

## Before you call either

### Arcade.dev

1. Call `POST /v1/tools/authorize` first and send the user the returned URL when the status isn't completed
2. Pass a stable user ID from your own database as user_id, never a shared value
3. Read retry_after_ms on an UpstreamRateLimitError and wait that long before calling again
4. Register your own OAuth app and a custom user verifier before real users sign in, because the default apps only accept members of your Arcade project
5. Revoke a user's access with `DELETE /v1/admin/user_connections/{id}`

### Keycard

1. Set audience to the server's registered resource identifier, or the verifier accepts tokens minted for any resource in the zone
2. Check `AccessContext.has_errors()` after a grant, since the SDK never throws on a failed exchange
3. Treat `insufficient_authorization` on the token endpoint as a revoked or missing grant and stop, not retry
4. Keep credentials short-lived, because revocation only stops the next issuance
5. Pin keycardai-mcp to a major version, since 1.0.0 and 2.0.0 shipped a day apart

## Other comparisons with Arcade.dev or Keycard

- [Arcade.dev vs Auth0 for AI Agents (Token Vault)](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/arcade-vs-auth0-ai-agents.md)
- [Arcade.dev vs Descope Agentic Identity Hub](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/arcade-vs-descope-agentic-identity.md)
- [Arcade.dev vs Nango](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/arcade-vs-nango.md)
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- [Arcade.dev vs WorkOS Pipes and Agents](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/arcade-vs-workos-pipes.md)
- [Auth0 for AI Agents (Token Vault) vs Keycard](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/auth0-ai-agents-vs-keycard.md)
- [Descope Agentic Identity Hub vs Keycard](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/descope-agentic-identity-vs-keycard.md)
- [Keycard vs Nango](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/keycard-vs-nango.md)
- [Keycard vs Scalekit AgentKit](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/keycard-vs-scalekit-agentkit.md)
- [Keycard vs Stytch Connected Apps](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/keycard-vs-stytch-connected-apps.md)
- [Keycard vs WorkOS Pipes and Agents](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/keycard-vs-workos-pipes.md)