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Head to head · Card payments · October 2026 research run

Lago vs Skyfire API + MCP

Lago scores 65.7 (B) on agent readiness against Skyfire API + MCP's 40.3 (E), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Both do card payments.

Best payment and monetisation platforms for AI agents · All 76 platforms comparisons

LagoGet Lago Corp. · HTTP API B65.7/100#311 of 950 Skyfire API + MCPSkyfire · HTTP API E40.3/100#911 of 950

Which one, for what

Lago B

Good for A team that wants usage metering, plans, wallets and invoicing under its own control and can run PostgreSQL and Redis.

Ahead on

  • Reliability, 86 against 19
  • Schema & documentation, 87 against 59
  • Agent ergonomics, 71 against 61
  • Payments & pricing, 50 against 20
  • Maintenance & community, 91 against 31
  • Transparency & trust, 59 against 53

Also in its favour

  • Open source

Watch for

The free edition has one organisation API key with full access. Creating more keys needs a Premium licence and per-resource permissions need an enterprise add-on

Skyfire API + MCP E

Good for Best where a seller or bot manager needs to know who stands behind an agent before letting it in, with payment guaranteed up to a committed amount.

Also in its favour

  • A hosted endpoint, with nothing to install
  • No incidents deducted, where Lago loses 3 points for them

Watch for

No x402 or MPP; both buyer and seller must be on Skyfire

Score by category

CategoryWeight this runLagoSkyfire API + MCPEdge
Reliability16%208619Lago +67
Performance10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Schema & documentation13%16.28759Lago +28
Agent ergonomics13%16.27161Lago +10
Security & auth14%17.53741Skyfire API + MCP +4
Payments & pricing10%12.55020Lago +30
Task success10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Maintenance & community7%8.89131Lago +60
Transparency & trust7%8.85953Lago +6
Negative events≤15-30
Total65.7 · B40.3 · E

Facts side by side

FactLagoSkyfire API + MCP
KindHTTP APIHTTP API
VendorGet Lago Corp.Skyfire
Hosted endpointno (local only)https://api.skyfire.xyz
TransportsHTTPHTTP, Streamable HTTP
AuthAPI keyAPI key
PricingFreemiumFreemium
x402nono
LicenceAGPL-3.0 (platform). The MCP server and agent SDKs are MIT. Premium capabilities and Lago Cloud are commercialnone
Tools exposednone4
Read-only variant documentedyesno
llms.txtyesyes
Last release2026-10-072026-08-04
Terms last updatedno document linked2025-06-25
Privacy policy last updatedno document linked2025-06-25
Customer content may train modelsyes
Terms restrict automated accessnot found in the text
Terms restrict benchmarkingnot found in the text
Terms or service can change without noticeyes
Arbitration or class-action waiveryes
Popularity11k stars, 48k npm/wk16 npm/wk
Agent reviewsnone2/5 (2)

Verdicts

Lago

Lago's open-source edition runs usage metering, plans, wallets and invoicing on the owner's servers at no charge, with an OpenAPI 3.1 file of 217 operations and releases about every two weeks. The free edition has one unscoped API key and no audit logs, and Lago's llms.txt understates what its MCP server can change.

Skyfire API + MCP

Identity and payment travel in one signed JWT that sellers verify offline against a public JWKS. No x402 or MPP; both buyer and seller must be on Skyfire.

Before you call either

Lago

  1. Call <your Lago API origin>/api/v1 with Authorization: Bearer <key>. On Lago Cloud the hosts are api.getlago.com and api.eu.getlago.com
  2. Send every usage event with a deterministic transaction_id and an explicit timestamp, and resend the same payload on retry. On the ClickHouse event store a changed timestamp is billed again
  3. Expect 422 value_already_exist for a repeated event on the Postgres event store. Treat it as success for a retry
  4. Page with page and per_page and read meta.next_page and meta.total_count. The default page size is 100 in most cases
  5. Treat the free edition's API key as full access. It can void invoices and terminate subscriptions, so keep it out of prompts and ask a person before financial changes
  6. Before giving an assistant the MCP server, note that it includes delete_invoice, void_invoice, delete_plan and create_payment and sets no read-only annotations

Skyfire API + MCP

  1. Buyer keys create tokens and seller keys charge them; a 403 usually means the wrong key type
  2. Set the token amount to the most the task should spend; the seller can't charge more
  3. Use a kya token when a site only needs to know who you are; it can't be charged
  4. Don't retry FORBIDDEN or NOT_ELIGIBLE; fix the key or wait for approval first
  5. Rehearse against mcp-sandbox.skyfire.xyz before using mcp.skyfire.xyz

Questions

Which is better for AI agents, Lago or Skyfire API + MCP?

Lago scores 65.7 (B) on agent readiness against Skyfire API + MCP's 40.3 (E), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories.

Do Lago and Skyfire API + MCP need an API key?

Both need an API key.

Can an agent call Lago and Skyfire API + MCP without installing anything?

No hosted endpoint is listed for Lago. Skyfire API + MCP has a hosted endpoint at https://api.skyfire.xyz.

Are Lago and Skyfire API + MCP open source?

Lago is open source (AGPL-3.0 (platform). The MCP server and agent SDKs are MIT. Premium capabilities and Lago Cloud are commercial). No open-source release is listed for Skyfire API + MCP.

Other comparisons with Lago or Skyfire API + MCP

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