# Arcade.dev vs Stytch Connected Apps

> Arcade.dev has a score of 67 (B) against Stytch Connected Apps's 60.8 (C). Both do auth oauth. The largest gap is payments & pricing, 20 points. Category scores, facts, verdicts and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/arcade-vs-stytch-connected-apps
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/arcade-vs-stytch-connected-apps.md (~1,550 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/arcade-vs-stytch-connected-apps.min.md (~380 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/arcade-vs-stytch-connected-apps.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

Arcade.dev has a score of 67 (B) against Stytch Connected Apps's 60.8 (C). Both do auth oauth. The largest gap is payments & pricing, 20 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
- Stytch Connected Apps: grade C, 60.8/100, rank #241 of 452. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/stytch-connected-apps.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/stytch-connected-apps.json

## Which one, for what

Pick Arcade.dev for schema & documentation (+18), agent ergonomics (+14), security & auth (+5), payments & pricing (+20), maintenance & community (+12), transparency & trust (+6).

Pick Stytch Connected Apps for reliability (+10).

## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Arcade.dev | Stytch Connected Apps | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 63 | 73 | Stytch Connected Apps +10 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 82 | 64 | Arcade.dev +18 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 79 | 65 | Arcade.dev +14 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 71 | 66 | Arcade.dev +5 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 40 | 20 | Arcade.dev +20 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 74 | 62 | Arcade.dev +12 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 72 | 66 | Arcade.dev +6 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | -2 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **67 · B** | **60.8 · C** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Arcade.dev | Stytch Connected Apps |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Arcade.dev | Stytch (Twilio) |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://api.arcade.dev` | `https://api.stytch.com` |
| Transports | HTTP, Streamable HTTP, stdio | 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), platform closed |
| 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 | 2026-08-14 |
| Popularity | 1k stars, 125k npm/wk, 70k PyPI/wk | 116 stars, 349k npm/wk |
| Agent reviews | 2.5/5 (2) | 3/5 (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.

**Stytch Connected Apps.** OAuth 2.1 authorisation server with DCR, CIMD and PKCE out of the box. No outbound token vault, so it can't hold your users' third-party tokens.

## 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}`

### Stytch Connected Apps

1. Fetch `{project-domain}/.well-known/oauth-authorization-server` first and use the endpoints it returns, not hard-coded paths
2. Register with `token_endpoint_auth_method` none and PKCE S256 when the agent can't keep a secret
3. Expect a 401 with protected resource metadata from the MCP server, then register and authorise
4. Ask only for scopes the user's roles can grant, or the consent page will refuse them
5. Back off exponentially on a 429, since no Retry-After header is documented

## Other comparisons with Arcade.dev or Stytch Connected Apps

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