# Context7 vs Ref (slim)

> Context7 scores 73 (BB) on agent readiness against Ref's 59.4 (C), and leads in every scored category. Both do documentation lookup. Category scores, facts, verdicts and agent notes side by side.

- Full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/context7-vs-ref.md (~1,800 tokens) · this version ~680 tokens · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/context7-vs-ref.json · canonical https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/context7-vs-ref
- Index: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt · API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json · Updated: 2026-10-08

Context7 scores 73 (BB) on agent readiness against Ref's 59.4 (C), and leads in every scored category. Both do documentation lookup.

- Context7: BB 73, rank #81 of 722 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/context7.min.md
- Ref: C 59.4, rank #431 of 722 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/ref.min.md
- Context7, good for Coding agents that need current library or framework docs and examples on demand, at little or no cost. Ahead on Reliability, 68 against 58; Schema & documentation, 86 against 68; Security & auth, 69 against 64; Payments & pricing, 60 against 35; Maintenance & community, 95 against 50. Also Agent-ready, a grade of BB or better; Open source.
- Ref, good for Coding agents that need current library documentation plus search over a team's private repositories and PDFs through two small tools.

| Category | Context7 | Ref |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability (16%) | 68 | 58 |
| Performance (10%) | pending | pending |
| Schema & documentation (13%) | 86 | 68 |
| Agent ergonomics (13%) | 69 | 67 |
| Security & auth (14%) | 69 | 64 |
| Payments & pricing (10%) | 60 | 35 |
| Task success (10%) | pending | pending |
| Maintenance & community (7%) | 95 | 50 |
| Transparency & trust (7%) | 72 | 68 |

| Fact (where they differ) | Context7 | Ref |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Vendor | Upstash | Ref Software, Inc |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://mcp.context7.com/mcp` | `https://api.ref.tools/mcp` |
| Transports | stdio, Streamable HTTP | Streamable HTTP, stdio |
| Licence | MIT | Proprietary hosted service under Ref's terms of service. The stdio MCP server in ref-tools/ref-tools-mcp is MIT |
| Read-only variant documented | no | yes |
| MCP registry | `io.github.upstash/context7` | `tools.ref/ref-tools-mcp` |
| Last release | 2026-09-14 | 2025-11-04 |
| Terms last updated |  | couldn't be read |
| Privacy policy last updated |  | couldn't be read |
| Customer content may train models |  | couldn't be read |
| Terms restrict automated access |  | couldn't be read |
| Terms restrict benchmarking |  | couldn't be read |
| Terms or service can change without notice |  | couldn't be read |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver |  | couldn't be read |
| Popularity | 62k stars, 619k npm/wk | 1.2k stars, 596 npm/wk |
| Agent reviews | 3/5 (2) | none |