# MCP Gateway vs SandBase (slim)

> MCP Gateway scores 71 (BB) to SandBase's 61.1 (C) for tool access for agents. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/mcp-gateway-parkkola-vs-sandbase-ai.md (~6,000 tokens) · this version ~1,330 tokens · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/mcp-gateway-parkkola-vs-sandbase-ai.json · canonical https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/mcp-gateway-parkkola-vs-sandbase-ai
- Index: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt · API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json · MCP: https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp · Updated: 2026-11-08
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MCP Gateway scores 71 (BB) on agent readiness against SandBase's 61.1 (C), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. SandBase leads on payments & pricing. Both do tool access for agents.

- MCP Gateway: BB 71, rank #178 of 1514 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/mcp-gateway-parkkola.min.md
- SandBase: C 61.1, rank #626 of 1514 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/sandbase-ai.min.md
- MCP Gateway, good for One person running many local and remote MCP servers who wants a single local entry with a small tool list, scoped keys and poisoning checks Ahead on Reliability, 87 against 63; Security & auth, 80 against 45; Maintenance & community, 90 against 68; Transparency & trust, 60 against 48. Also Agent-ready, a grade of BB or better; Free to start without a card.
- SandBase, good for A gateway for agents that need third-party models, media generation and structured data (social platforms, search, SEO, e-commerce, finance) from one capped balance, found at run time by need and price, with OpenAI, Anthropic, Gemini and E2B-compatible endpoints on one key. Ahead on Payments & pricing, 40 against 30. Also A hosted endpoint, with nothing to install.

| Category | MCP Gateway | SandBase |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability (16%) | 87 | 63 |
| Performance (10%) | pending | pending |
| Schema & documentation (13%) | 75 | 76 |
| Agent ergonomics (13%) | 77 | 81 |
| Security & auth (14%) | 80 | 45 |
| Payments & pricing (10%) | 30 | 40 |
| Task success (10%) | pending | pending |
| Maintenance & community (7%) | 90 | 68 |
| Transparency & trust (7%) | 60 | 48 |

| Fact (where they differ) | MCP Gateway | SandBase |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | MCP server | Platform |
| Vendor | Mikko Parkkola | AXIOMCLOUD PTE. LTD. |
| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | `https://api.sandbase.ai/v1/mcp` |
| Transports | stdio, Streamable HTTP, SSE (legacy), websocket | Streamable HTTP, stdio, HTTP |
| Auth | OAuth or key | API key |
| Pricing | Freemium | Pay per use |
| Licence | PolyForm Noncommercial 1.0.0 (source-available, not OSI) for every first-party file from 4.0.0. Personal and noncommercial use is free; running it in or for a business needs a commercial licence at EUR 500 a month per named project through GitHub Sponsors. 3.0.0 to 3.2.1 shipped as MIT and stay MIT for those copies, and 3.3.x shipped a small MIT core under per-file headers | Proprietary hosted service under the SandBase terms (last updated 14 October 2026), whose contracting party is AXIOMCLOUD PTE. LTD. of Singapore. The `@sandbaseai/cli` CLI, MCP bridge and skill (github.com/sandbaseai/cli) and the catalogue, examples and SDKs (github.com/sandbaseai/sandbase) are Apache-2.0. The catalogue service, routing, billing, HTTP API, remote MCP server, Agents runtime and sandboxes are not in either repository |
| Tools exposed | 11 | 7 |
| MCP registry | `io.github.MikkoParkkola/mcp-gateway` | not listed |
| Last release | 2026-10-06 | 2026-11-07 |
| Terms last updated | no date given | not read yet |
| Privacy policy last updated | no document linked | not read yet |
| Customer content may train models | not found in the text | not read yet |
| Terms restrict automated access | not found in the text | not read yet |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | not found in the text | not read yet |
| Terms or service can change without notice | not found in the text | not read yet |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | not found in the text | not read yet |
| Popularity | 65 stars, 49 npm/wk | none |

Why the edge:
- Security & auth, MCP Gateway +35: MCP Gateway 80 (Read with the API checklist, as the gateway is the security layer an operator puts in front of agents.); SandBase 45 (Standard keys (`sk-` and 64 hex characters) act for one organisation with no user-selectable scopes, can carry an expiry and a spending limit, are shown once an…)
- Reliability, MCP Gateway +24: MCP Gateway 87 (Local-package reading, as for graphicle and claude-mem, since the owner runs it.); SandBase 63 (Hosted lines, graded on the HTTP API and the remote MCP server at api.sandbase.ai/v1/mcp, the surfaces an agent calls.)
- Maintenance & community, MCP Gateway +22: MCP Gateway 90 (4.0.0-beta.3 on 6 October 2026, 27 days before the check, and commits on main to 26 October (30).); SandBase 68 (Read for a hosted service with an open CLI and SDKs.)
- Transparency & trust, MCP Gateway +12: MCP Gateway 60 (PolyForm Noncommercial 1.0.0, source-available and not OSI, with affirmative SPDX headers on every first-party file and LICENSES.md, NOTICE.md and COMMERCIAL.md…); SandBase 48 (The editorial half.)
- Payments & pricing, SandBase +10: MCP Gateway 30 (Self-hosted rule, scored on the paid option because any company use needs a commercial licence, as gaia and screenpipe (also noncommercial licences) were read.); SandBase 40 (No x402, MPP or L402 on the home page, pricing, billing, llms.txt or the OpenAPI paths; the balance is funded through Stripe or Airwallex checkout (0).)