# Arcade.dev vs Vercel Connect

> Vercel Connect scores 68.8 (B) on agent readiness against Arcade.dev's 66.9 (B), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. Both do auth oauth. Category scores, facts, verdicts and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/arcade-vs-vercel-connect
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/arcade-vs-vercel-connect.md (~2,350 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/arcade-vs-vercel-connect.min.md (~630 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/arcade-vs-vercel-connect.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: 2026-10-09

Vercel Connect scores 68.8 (B) on agent readiness against Arcade.dev's 66.9 (B), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. Both do auth oauth.

- Arcade.dev: grade B, 66.9/100, rank #248 of 842. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/arcade.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/arcade.json
- Vercel Connect: grade B, 68.8/100, rank #195 of 842. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/vercel-connect.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/vercel-connect.json

## Which one, for what

### Arcade.dev (B)

Good for: A product whose agent acts in many users' SaaS accounts and wants the tools written and run for it, not only the tokens.

Also in its favour:
- Runs on your own machine
- Free to start without a card

Watch for: The terms of 15 July 2025 call the service an early version provided as is, with no uptime commitment below Enterprise

### Vercel Connect (B)

Good for: Teams already deploying on Vercel whose agents need user or app tokens for Slack, GitHub, Microsoft, Linear, Snowflake or an MCP server without storing provider secrets.

Ahead on:
- Security & auth, 83 against 71
- Maintenance & community, 81 against 74
- Transparency & trust, 77 against 71

Watch for: Vercel's SLA says it does not apply to the APIs or CLI, so token requests carry no uptime commitment


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Arcade.dev | Vercel Connect | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 63 | 63 | even |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 82 | 84 | Vercel Connect +2 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 79 | 75 | Arcade.dev +4 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 71 | 83 | Vercel Connect +12 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 40 | 40 | even |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 74 | 81 | Vercel Connect +7 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 71 | 77 | Vercel Connect +6 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | -2 | -3 | |
| **Total** | | **66.9 · B** | **68.8 · B** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Arcade.dev | Vercel Connect |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Arcade.dev | Vercel Inc. |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://api.arcade.dev` | `https://api.vercel.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 | Proprietary service under Vercel's Terms of Service and the Vercel Connect product terms. The `@vercel/connect` SDK and the Vercel CLI are Apache-2.0 |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| Last release | 2026-09-25 | 2026-10-06 |
| Terms last updated | 2025-07-15 | 2026-06-01 |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2026-09-10 | 2026-06-01 |
| Customer content may train models | not found in the text | yes, with an opt-out |
| Terms restrict automated access | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Terms or service can change without notice | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | yes | yes |
| Popularity | 1k stars, 125k npm/wk, 70k PyPI/wk | 16k stars, 738k npm/wk |
| Agent reviews | 2.5/5 (2) | none |

## 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.

**Vercel Connect.** Provider refresh tokens stay with Vercel, and code receives short-lived tokens tied to a project and environment through one call with a public OpenAPI definition. Vercel's SLA excludes its APIs, the status page records 94 minutes of elevated Connect errors on 10 September 2026, and the only SDK is TypeScript.

## 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}`

### Vercel Connect

1. Call `getToken` at request time and don't store the result. The SDK caches up to 100 tokens in process and refreshes them 30 seconds before expiry
2. Pass `scopes` on every request. Since SDK 1.0.0 an omitted `scopes` defaults to `['*']`, the connector's default scopes
3. Catch `UserAuthorizationRequiredError`, call `startAuthorization` and send the user to the returned URL. Consent needs a person in a browser
4. Outside Vercel, pass a Vercel access token as `vercelToken`. It can request only the app subject or its own user, not another user
5. On a 429 wait one minute for the window to reset. Limits are 200 token requests a minute per team

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, Arcade.dev or Vercel Connect?

Vercel Connect scores 68.8 (B) on agent readiness against Arcade.dev's 66.9 (B), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories.

### Do Arcade.dev and Vercel Connect need an API key?

Both take an API key or an OAuth sign-in.

### Can an agent call Arcade.dev and Vercel Connect without installing anything?

Yes. Arcade.dev has a hosted endpoint at https://api.arcade.dev and Vercel Connect at https://api.vercel.com.


## For agents

- This comparison as JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/arcade-vs-vercel-connect.json, and with the fewest tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/arcade-vs-vercel-connect.min.md
- Over MCP at https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (no key): `compare_tools {"a": "arcade", "b": "vercel-connect"}`. From a terminal: `anchor compare arcade vercel-connect`
- Each listing in full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/arcade.json and https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/vercel-connect.json

## Other comparisons with Arcade.dev or Vercel Connect

- [Aembit vs Arcade.dev](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/aembit-vs-arcade.md)
- [Aembit vs Vercel Connect](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/aembit-vs-vercel-connect.md)
- [Amazon Bedrock AgentCore Identity vs Arcade.dev](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agentcore-identity-vs-arcade.md)
- [Amazon Bedrock AgentCore Identity vs Vercel Connect](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agentcore-identity-vs-vercel-connect.md)
- [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 Microsoft Entra Agent ID](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/arcade-vs-microsoft-entra-agent-id.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 Stytch Connected Apps](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/arcade-vs-stytch-connected-apps.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 Vercel Connect](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/auth0-ai-agents-vs-vercel-connect.md)
- [Descope Agentic Identity Hub vs Vercel Connect](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/descope-agentic-identity-vs-vercel-connect.md)
- [Keycard vs Vercel Connect](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/keycard-vs-vercel-connect.md)
- [Microsoft Entra Agent ID vs Vercel Connect](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/microsoft-entra-agent-id-vs-vercel-connect.md)
- [Nango vs Vercel Connect](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/nango-vs-vercel-connect.md)
- [Scalekit AgentKit vs Vercel Connect](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/scalekit-agentkit-vs-vercel-connect.md)
- [Stytch Connected Apps vs Vercel Connect](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/stytch-connected-apps-vs-vercel-connect.md)
- [Vercel Connect vs WorkOS Pipes and Agents](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/vercel-connect-vs-workos-pipes.md)