# ClickUp vs Shortcut

> ClickUp and Shortcut score within a point of each other on agent readiness, 60.9 (C) and 60.2 (C). Shortcut leads on agent ergonomics and maintenance & community. Both do tasks create. Category scores, facts, verdicts and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/clickup-vs-shortcut
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/clickup-vs-shortcut.md (~2,250 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/clickup-vs-shortcut.min.md (~680 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/clickup-vs-shortcut.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: 2026-10-08

ClickUp and Shortcut score within a point of each other on agent readiness, 60.9 (C) and 60.2 (C). Shortcut leads on agent ergonomics and maintenance & community. Both do tasks create.

- ClickUp: grade C, 60.9/100, rank #381 of 722. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/clickup.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/clickup.json
- Shortcut: grade C, 60.2/100, rank #411 of 722. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/shortcut.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/shortcut.json

## Which one, for what

### ClickUp (C)

Good for: Teams already working in ClickUp that want an assistant to create and update tasks, comment, log time and read Docs through one OAuth connection.

Ahead on:
- Reliability, 74 against 64
- Security & auth, 64 against 54

Watch for: MCP calls are capped per rolling 24 hours without the Everything AI add-on, 100 on Free Forever and 300 on Unlimited, per Workspace and client

### Shortcut (C)

Good for: Software teams already on Shortcut that want an agent to search, create and update stories, epics, iterations and docs, and coding agents that pick up assigned stories.

Ahead on:
- Agent ergonomics, 57 against 48
- Maintenance & community, 73 against 54

Also in its favour:
- Free to start without a card

Watch for: The v3 docs still allow the API token as a `token` query parameter, marked deprecated with no removal date


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | ClickUp | Shortcut | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 74 | 64 | ClickUp +10 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 74 | 75 | Shortcut +1 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 48 | 57 | Shortcut +9 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 64 | 54 | ClickUp +10 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 30 | 30 | even |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 54 | 73 | Shortcut +19 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 75 | 73 | ClickUp +2 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **60.9 · C** | **60.2 · C** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | ClickUp | Shortcut |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Mango Technologies, Inc. DBA ClickUp | Shortcut Software Company |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://api.clickup.com` | `https://api.app.shortcut.com` |
| Transports | HTTP, Streamable HTTP | HTTP, Streamable HTTP |
| Auth | OAuth or key | OAuth or key |
| Pricing | Freemium | Freemium |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Proprietary service under ClickUp's Terms of Service and Developer Terms. The clickup-plugin repository on GitHub is MIT | Proprietary service under Shortcut's terms of service. The JavaScript client and the archived MCP server on GitHub are MIT |
| Tools exposed | 48 | none |
| Read-only variant documented | no | yes |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| Last release | 2026-09-18 | 2026-09-22 |
| Terms last updated | 2025-06-27 | 2025-09-18 |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2026-06-02 | 2025-07-11 |
| Customer content may train models | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict automated access | yes | 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 | not found in the text |
| Popularity | none | 142 stars, 103k npm/wk |

## Verdicts

**ClickUp.** The hosted MCP server uses OAuth 2.1 with PKCE, dynamic client registration and read and write scopes, and works on the Free Forever plan. Without the Everything AI add-on, MCP calls are capped at 100 to 25,000 per rolling 24 hours by plan. No API changelog, deprecation policy, official SDK or SLA was found.

**Shortcut.** REST API v3 and the hosted MCP server are included on the Free plan, with downloadable OpenAPI files and OAuth scopes down to story or comment writes on the MCP side. The API still accepts the token in a query string, and no idempotency keys, Retry-After header, uptime SLA or API changelog were found in the reviewed documentation.

## Before you call either

### ClickUp

1. Connect to https://mcp.clickup.com/mcp with OAuth 2.1 and PKCE. API keys and REST OAuth tokens are refused on the MCP server
2. Pass `workspace_id` on every MCP call when the user belongs to more than one Workspace, as ClickUp's own skills instruct
3. Budget MCP calls. Each tool call counts against the rolling 24-hour cap, and `RATE_LIMIT_EXCEEDED` returns `retryAfter`
4. On the REST API read `X-RateLimit-Remaining` and `X-RateLimit-Reset`, and page Get Tasks with `page` at 100 tasks a page
5. Treat `team_id` in API v2 as the Workspace ID, and send dates as Unix milliseconds

### Shortcut

1. Send the v3 token in the `Shortcut-Token` header. v4 (alpha) takes `Authorization: Bearer` with `sct_ro_` or `sct_rw_` tokens, and v3 tokens don't work there.
2. Create a story with `name` and `workflow_state_id`. Sending both `workflow_state_id` and `project_id`, or neither, is rejected.
3. Use `GET /api/v3/search/stories` with `detail=slim`, `page_size` (1 to 250) and the `next` token. Many other v3 list endpoints return every record at once.
4. Stay under 200 requests a minute and add your own backoff on 429, because no Retry-After header is documented.
5. For MCP, connect to https://mcp.shortcut.com/mcp and request only the scopes needed, such as `read` or `story-write`.

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, ClickUp or Shortcut?

ClickUp and Shortcut score within a point of each other on agent readiness, 60.9 (C) and 60.2 (C). Shortcut leads on agent ergonomics and maintenance & community.

### Do ClickUp and Shortcut need an API key?

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

### Can an agent call ClickUp and Shortcut without installing anything?

Yes. ClickUp has a hosted endpoint at https://api.clickup.com and Shortcut at https://api.app.shortcut.com.


## For agents

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

## Other comparisons with ClickUp or Shortcut

- [Asana vs ClickUp](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/asana-vs-clickup.md)
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- [ClickUp vs Teamwork.com](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/clickup-vs-teamwork.md)
- [ClickUp vs Todoist](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/clickup-vs-todoist.md)
- [ClickUp vs Trello](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/clickup-vs-trello.md)
- [ClickUp vs Wrike](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/clickup-vs-wrike.md)
- [ClickUp vs YouTrack](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/clickup-vs-youtrack.md)
- [monday.com vs Shortcut](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/monday-vs-shortcut.md)
- [Plane vs Shortcut](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/plane-vs-shortcut.md)
- [Roma vs Shortcut](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/roma-vs-shortcut.md)
- [Shortcut vs Teamwork.com](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/shortcut-vs-teamwork.md)
- [Shortcut vs Todoist](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/shortcut-vs-todoist.md)
- [Shortcut vs Trello](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/shortcut-vs-trello.md)
- [Shortcut vs Wrike](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/shortcut-vs-wrike.md)
- [Shortcut vs YouTrack](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/shortcut-vs-youtrack.md)