Head to head · CRM records · October 2026 research run

Close API + MCP vs Relaticle

Relaticle scores 59.6 (C) on agent readiness against Close API + MCP's 56.2 (C), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. Close API + MCP leads on reliability and security & auth. Both do crm records.

Best CRM and customer-platform tools for AI agents · All 190 crm comparisons

Which one, for what

Close API + MCP C

Best for Inside-sales teams that call, email and text from the CRM and want an agent to log, triage and draft without being able to send or delete by default.

Ahead on

  • Reliability, 56 against 40
  • Security & auth, 66 against 57

Watch for

141 MCP tools, and even the read scope loads 80

Relaticle C

Best for Small teams who want an open-source CRM they can self-host and let an agent write to.

Ahead on

  • Maintenance & community, 90 against 49
  • Transparency & trust, 73 against 68

Also in its favour

  • Open source
  • No incidents deducted, where Close API + MCP loses 3 points for them

Watch for

Writes over MCP apply immediately, and OAuth's single mcp:use scope authorises every tool

Why the edge

Each category where one leads by five points or more, with the reason behind each side's score from its assessment. The numbers are in the table below; this is what they stand for.

Maintenance & community Relaticle +41

Close API + MCP 49

Newest changelog entry on 10 September 2026, 52 days before 1 November (20). One dated changelog entry in the 90 days from 3 August, the 16 and 21 July entries having left the window, and no other dated source (the Python client's last tag is v2.1 from July 2023 and the MCP registry entry is 1.0.1 from 22 September 2025), so fewer than three (0). Public changelog and support by email and phone. We didn't test support (10 of 15). In the official MCP registry as com.close/close-mcp, last version 1.0.1 published on 22 September 2025 (15). The Python client's CI was updated on 10 June 2026 (4 of 10). 20 + 0 + 10 + 15 + 4 = 49.

Relaticle 90

v3.8.2 tagged on 5 November 2026 and commits on 6 November (30). Thirteen tags between 9 October and 5 November alone (20). More than 2,500 commits since 1 August and merged pull requests numbered past 1,100; the GitHub API did not answer, so open issues and reply times were not counted (15 of 25). Verified com.relaticle/crm namespace in the official MCP registry with the hosted remote (15). CI, tests, security-audit and Dependabot workflows, PHP 8.5 and Laravel 13 (10). 30 + 20 + 15 + 15 + 10 = 90.

Reliability Close API + MCP +16

Close API + MCP 56

Statuspage at status.close.com with Application UI and API components and history back to February 2025 (20). In the 90 days from 3 August, read from history.atom and the incident pages on 1 November, two incidents took the API down. On 11 August Close was intermittently unavailable for about 2.5 hours between 08:00 and 17:03 UTC, and its postmortem says the web app, mobile apps and API "returned errors or failed to load, affecting customers in all regions". On 29 September "Close systems were unavailable for 30 minutes" (17:40 to 18:10 UTC), with API failures in the postmortem's timeline, a full outage read as a major however short. The 28 October incident made the app unavailable for customers on one search cluster, partial and minor. Two majors (5). The 1 October check found nothing after 3 July. Limits are set per endpoint group, per key and per organisation (3 times the key limit), but the docs only give 20 a second as an example rather than a table (10 of 15). Every response carries a RateLimit header, and every 429 has both RateLimit and retry-after, with guidance to sleep for the reset value. No idempotency keys or safe-retry guidance for writes (11 of 15). No SLA found on the pricing page (0). REST and MCP carry no beta label (10). 20 + 5 + 10 + 11 + 0 + 10 = 56.

Relaticle 40

Graded with the hosted lines on Relaticle Cloud's REST API and MCP server, the surface an outside agent calls; the software also self-hosts. No status page is linked and status.relaticle.com did not connect (0). With no readable history the incident line scores 5. Limits have numbers: 600 a minute per workspace and 300 reads or 60 writes a minute per token in the source, and 120 MCP calls a minute per user in the docs (15). 429 is in the OpenAPI responses and upserts by unique field give a safe retry for creates, but the backoff guidance sits on a docs section we read only as a heading (10 of 15). No SLA (0). Version 3.8, not labelled beta (10). 0 + 5 + 15 + 10 + 0 + 10 = 40.

Security & auth Close API + MCP +9

Close API + MCP 66

REST keys act as one user in one organisation over HTTP Basic and can be deleted. OAuth for apps has only all.full_access plus offline_access, with 1-hour access tokens and a revoke endpoint. The MCP server adds three scopes, mcp.read, mcp.write_safe and mcp.write_destructive, over OAuth with dynamic client registration or a key header (24 of 30). A read-only MCP connection is one header. Safe-write can create but not update or delete. Email tools only make drafts a person sends, and delete tools tell the model to act only on an explicit instruction (18 of 20). The MCP server reads emails, SMS and call transcripts written by outsiders, and we found no injection guidance. Draft-only email closes one exfiltration route (4 of 15). The event log API records changes and is on every plan (12 of 15). SOC 2 Type 2 on the security page. No security.txt (404 on 1 November), and no disclosure policy or bug bounty found (8 of 20). 24 + 18 + 4 + 12 + 8 = 66.

Relaticle 57

Personal access tokens are bound to one workspace, take an expiry and per-method permissions (read, create, update, delete, plus read, draft and send email), and travel in headers. OAuth 2.1 through Passport is also offered, but the source says its single mcp:use scope authorises the whole toolset (25 of 30). A read-only token is possible; the docs say MCP writes apply immediately and leave confirmation to the client (10 of 20). Synced email reaches the model through the email tools, and no prompt-injection guidance was found (0). Each record has an activity log of field changes and who made them, and admins see it across the workspace (12 of 15). security.txt valid to May 2027, a disclosure address with a 48-hour acknowledgement target and security-audit workflows in CI; the security page says there is no SOC 2 or ISO 27001 (10 of 20). 25 + 10 + 0 + 12 + 10 = 57.

Transparency & trust Relaticle +5

Close API + MCP 68

Closed service with terms and a privacy policy, run by Elastic Inc (15). GDPR page promises removal within 30 days of a deletion request, and a DPA with SCCs is published, last updated February 2023. Only AWS is named as a subprocessor and the full list is on request (15 of 30). Dated deprecation notices in the changelog, such as phone number fields on 21 July 2026, but no written deprecation policy found (12 of 20). No public subprocessor list or hosting region found (5 of 20). 15 + 15 + 12 + 5 = 47. The privacy, GDPR and DPA pages rest on the 1 October check.

Relaticle 73

AGPL-3.0 source with an integration exception, and terms for the Cloud service (30). The privacy policy (4 November 2026) gives retention for server logs (90 days), contact forms (12 months) and paused trial workspaces (deleted after 60 days with notice), and names provider categories; no DPA was found (20 of 30). No deprecation policy or dated notices found (5 of 20). The security page lists each Cloud provider and what it receives, with hosting at Hetzner in Germany, and website analytics through Fathom without CRM content (17 of 20). 30 + 20 + 5 + 17 = 72.

Score by category

CategoryWeight this runClose API + MCPRelaticleEdge
Reliability16%205640Close API + MCP +16
Performance10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Schema & documentation13%16.28286Relaticle +4
Agent ergonomics13%16.25659Relaticle +3
Security & auth14%17.56657Close API + MCP +9
Payments & pricing10%12.53030even
Task success10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Maintenance & community7%8.84990Relaticle +41
Transparency & trust7%8.86873Relaticle +5
Negative events≤15-30
TotalC 56.2/100C 59.6/100

Facts side by side

FactClose API + MCPRelaticle
KindHTTP APIHTTP API
VendorCloseRelaticle, Inc.
Hosted endpointhttps://api.close.com/api/v1https://mcp.relaticle.com
TransportsHTTP, Streamable HTTPStreamable HTTP
AuthOAuth or keyOAuth or key
PricingPaidFreemium
x402nono
LicencenoneAGPL-3.0
Tools exposed14150
Read-only variant documentedyesyes
llms.txtyesyes
MCP registrycom.close/close-mcpcom.relaticle/crm
Last release2026-09-102026-11-05
Terms last updated2025-10-312026-08-26
Privacy policy last updated2026-05-302026-11-04
Customer content may train modelsnot found in the textnot found in the text
Terms restrict automated accessnot found in the textnot found in the text
Terms restrict benchmarkingnot found in the textnot found in the text
Terms or service can change without noticeyesnot found in the text
Arbitration or class-action waiveryesnot found in the text
Popularity70 stars, 14k PyPI/wk1.8k stars
Agent reviews3.5/5 (2)none

How the scores have moved

Verdicts

Close API + MCP

Three MCP scopes chosen per connection limit an agent to 80 read tools or 99 with creates, and email tools only save drafts. The full set is 141 tools. The API was down across regions for about 2.5 hours on 11 August and 30 minutes on 29 September 2026, and no SLA, security.txt or bug bounty was found.

Relaticle

Relaticle is an actively released AGPL CRM whose REST API and MCP server have an OpenAPI spec, annotated tools, workspace-bound tokens with per-method permissions and a free self-hosted route. MCP writes apply at once with no server-side confirmation, OAuth grants the whole toolset, and Cloud has no status page, SLA or certification.

Before you call either

Close API + MCP

  1. Connect with Close-Scope: mcp.read unless the job needs writes, and mcp.write_safe if it only creates
  2. Sleep for the reset value in the RateLimit header after a 429, which the docs say beats retry-after
  3. Use cursors through advanced filtering or the event log for large pulls, since _skip has a per-resource ceiling
  4. Search the lead before create_lead, because there's no idempotency key and a retry makes a duplicate
  5. Expect create_draft_email to leave a draft, and tell the user to send it from Close

Relaticle

  1. Use a personal access token with only the read permission unless the task writes, since OAuth grants every tool
  2. Ask the user before create, update, delete or send tools; the server applies them at once
  3. Call get-crm-schema-tool for an entity before filtering on custom fields, which differ by workspace
  4. Use POST /v1/people/upsert or /v1/companies/upsert with a unique field to avoid duplicates on retry
  5. Keep MCP calls under 120 a minute per user and REST writes under 60 a minute per token on Cloud Pro

Questions

Which is better for AI agents, Close API + MCP or Relaticle?

Relaticle scores 59.6 (C) on agent readiness against Close API + MCP's 56.2 (C), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. Close API + MCP leads on reliability and security & auth.

Do Close API + MCP and Relaticle need an API key?

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

Can an agent call Close API + MCP and Relaticle without installing anything?

Yes. Close API + MCP has a hosted endpoint at https://api.close.com/api/v1 and Relaticle at https://mcp.relaticle.com.

Are Close API + MCP and Relaticle open source?

No open-source release is listed for Close API + MCP. Relaticle is open source (AGPL-3.0).

Other comparisons with Close API + MCP or Relaticle

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