# MCP Toolbox for Databases vs PostgreSQL (archived MCP reference server) (slim)

> MCP Toolbox for Databases scores 77.7 (BB) to PostgreSQL's 18.6 (F) for sql databases. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

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- Index: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt · API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json · MCP: https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp · Updated: 2026-11-07
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PostgreSQL (archived MCP reference server) shut down on 2025-05-29. MCP Toolbox for Databases scores 77.7 (BB) on agent readiness against PostgreSQL (archived MCP reference server)'s 18.6 (F), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. PostgreSQL (archived MCP reference server) leads on transparency & trust. Both do sql databases.

- MCP Toolbox for Databases: BB 77.7, rank #27 of 1486 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/mcp-toolbox-databases.min.md
- PostgreSQL (archived MCP reference server): F 18.6, rank retired, not ranked · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/postgres-reference-server-archived.min.md
- MCP Toolbox for Databases, good for Agents and coding assistants that need one server across Google Cloud data services and common databases, or production agents with curated SQL tools. Ahead on Reliability, 80 against 13; Schema & documentation, 85 against 29; Agent ergonomics, 82 against 38; Security & auth, 75 against 5; Maintenance & community, 95 against 0. Also Still running. PostgreSQL (archived MCP reference server) has shut down; Agent-ready, a grade of BB or better; No incidents deducted, where PostgreSQL (archived MCP reference server) loses 10 points for them.
- PostgreSQL (archived MCP reference server), good for Nothing new. It shut down on 2025-05-29. Ahead on Transparency & trust, 77 against 64. Also No key needed to call it.

| Category | MCP Toolbox for Databases | PostgreSQL (archived MCP reference server) |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability (16%) | 80 | 13 |
| Performance (10%) | pending | pending |
| Schema & documentation (13%) | 85 | 29 |
| Agent ergonomics (13%) | 82 | 38 |
| Security & auth (14%) | 75 | 5 |
| Payments & pricing (10%) | 60 | 60 |
| Task success (10%) | pending | pending |
| Maintenance & community (7%) | 95 | 0 |
| Transparency & trust (7%) | 64 | 77 |

| Fact (where they differ) | MCP Toolbox for Databases | PostgreSQL (archived MCP reference server) |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Vendor | Google | Model Context Protocol (archived) |
| Transports | stdio, Streamable HTTP | stdio |
| Auth | OAuth or key | None |
| Licence | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Tools exposed | 29 | 1 |
| Read-only variant documented | yes | no |
| llms.txt | yes | no |
| MCP registry | `io.github.googleapis/mcp-toolbox` | not listed |
| Last release | 2026-11-05 | 2024-12-04 |
| Terms last updated | no document linked | 2021-09-08 |
| Privacy policy last updated | no document linked | 2023-03-15 |
| Customer content may train models | not read yet | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict automated access | not read yet | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | not read yet | not found in the text |
| Terms or service can change without notice | not read yet | not found in the text |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | not read yet | not found in the text |
| Popularity | 17k stars | 294 stars, 119k npm/wk |
| Agent reviews | none | 1.5/5 (2) |

Why the edge:
- Maintenance & community, MCP Toolbox for Databases +95: MCP Toolbox for Databases 95 (v1.16.0 on 5 November 2026, one day before this check (30). Eight releases from v1.10.0 (27 August) to v1.16.0 in the 90 days (20). Pull requests merge daily and new tools land in each fortnightly release, though 432 issues and pull requests are open (20). io.github.googleapis/mcp-toolbox is in the official registry at 1.16.0 (15). Release automation, lint, tests and conformance workflows (10). 30 + 20 + 20 + 15 + 10 = 95.); PostgreSQL (archived MCP reference server) 0 (Last release 0.6.2 on 4 December 2024 (0). No releases in the last 90 days (0). The repository was archived on 29 May 2025 and is read-only (0). Not in the official MCP registry (0). Pinned to MCP SDK 1.0.1 and deprecated on npm (0).)
- Security & auth, MCP Toolbox for Databases +70: MCP Toolbox for Databases 75 (Source credentials stay in Toolbox, Google sources use IAM, and optional MCP authorisation validates OAuth 2.1 JWTs with required scopes. --allowed-origins and --allowed-hosts default to *, which the CLI docs themselves call unsafe even on localhost, though the default bind is 127.0.0.1 (20). Read-only mode is enforced at the engine, write tools are suppressed, and custom tools can fix SQL and bind parameters to the signed-in user (18). The security docs cover prompt injection and screening through Model Armor (12). OpenTelemetry traces and metrics per call when exported (10). Google's vulnerability intake with a stated response time and GitHub advisories (15). 20 + 18 + 12 + 10 + 15 = 75.); PostgreSQL (archived MCP reference server) 5 (The connection string, password included, is a command-line argument and shows in process lists. Whatever role it names is all the agent gets, with no scoping in the server (5). Queries run inside `BEGIN TRANSACTION READ ONLY`, but the string goes to Postgres as a simple multi-statement query, so a query that starts with `COMMIT;` escapes the transaction. Datadog Security Labs published this read-only bypass on 21 August 2025, and it was never fixed (0). Table rows reach the model unmarked, with no injection guidance (0). No call log (0). The archive says "NO SECURITY GUARANTEES", there's no advisory for the bypass and the npm deprecation message doesn't mention it (0).)
- Reliability, MCP Toolbox for Databases +67: MCP Toolbox for Databases 80 (Scored as local software the owner runs. A Go binary, a container in Artifact Registry and @toolbox-sdk/server on npm, with install paths per platform (20). Tests, lint, conformance and nightly tier-report workflows in the repository; the pass state wasn't read (15). 432 open issues and pull requests on a repository with 16,818 stars and releases every two weeks, triaged with labels, though the backlog is large (15). Semantic versioning with a published policy, release-please CHANGELOG and an UPGRADING.md (15). 1.x since well before this check, v1.16.0 now (15). 20 + 15 + 15 + 15 + 15 = 80.); PostgreSQL (archived MCP reference server) 13 (Archived and superseded, so we scored what's left. Scored as a local stdio package. @modelcontextprotocol/server-postgres 0.6.2 still installs from npm, but it's deprecated there and no runtime is stated (10). No tests. package.json has no test script, and the archive has no CI for it (0). The repository is read-only, so nobody can file or fix a crash. The code releases the connection without waiting for its ROLLBACK (0). Versions 0.6.0 to 0.6.2 shipped in December 2024 with no changelog (3). Pre-1.0 and archived (0).)
- Schema & documentation, MCP Toolbox for Databases +56: MCP Toolbox for Databases 85 (Every tool's parameters are typed in tools.yaml and published as JSON Schema over MCP (25). mcp-toolbox.dev serves llms.txt (10). Prebuilt descriptions vary from one line ("Use this tool to execute a single SQL statement.") to detailed, and few say when not to use a tool (12). Typed parameters with required flags; execute_sql takes free SQL (12). Many examples, samples and codelabs; error responses are thinly documented (11). Semver, a dated CHANGELOG and versioned docs (15). 25 + 10 + 12 + 12 + 11 + 15 = 85.); PostgreSQL (archived MCP reference server) 29 (One tool, `query`, with an input schema typed as an object holding a string `sql`, but `sql` isn't marked required and has no description (15). The README is Markdown on GitHub. No llms.txt (5). The description is five words, "Run a read-only SQL query", and the read-only part no longer holds (3). No constraints, no length limit, no enum (3). The README has client configs only. Database errors are rethrown raw as protocol errors (3). No changelog or versioning beyond three 0.6.x releases (0).)
- Agent ergonomics, MCP Toolbox for Databases +44: MCP Toolbox for Databases 82 (The PostgreSQL prebuilt set lists 29 tools (15), split into five toolsets a client can load one at a time, and write tools disappear in read-only mode (plus 8). Results are bounded per tool, some prebuilt tools take limits, and BigQuery tools compact empty schema fields (14). Errors come back as tool errors; paths are sanitised from file errors since 1.15.0 (12). readOnlyHint and destructiveHint are set per tool and switch with the source's read-only state (18). Prebuilt sets need only environment variables, and SDKs exist in Python, JavaScript, Go and Java (15). 23 + 14 + 12 + 18 + 15 = 82.); PostgreSQL (archived MCP reference server) 38 (One tool of about 180 characters (25). No row limit, no pagination and no output cap. Every row comes back as pretty-printed JSON (0). Errors are Postgres messages thrown as JSON-RPC errors, not tool results, so some clients show the model nothing useful (5). No annotations, so no `readOnlyHint` (0). One parameter, Node only (8). Table schemas also come as MCP resources, a good idea the server never developed.)
- Transparency & trust, PostgreSQL (archived MCP reference server) +13: MCP Toolbox for Databases 64 (Apache-2.0 (30). A self-hosted server; data goes only to the configured sources and to a telemetry exporter if one is set. There is no data-handling statement of its own (15). A versioning policy defining breaking changes, UPGRADING.md and a notice for the repository rename; prebuilt tool removals are listed in the changelog (16). Telemetry is off unless --telemetry-otlp or --telemetry-gcp is set, and the docs say so (16). 30 + 15 + 16 + 16 = 77.); PostgreSQL (archived MCP reference server) 77 (MIT, an OSI licence (30). Local software that talks only to the database you name, with no network calls besides and about 150 lines of source (20). The GitHub banner dates the archive to 29 May 2025 and the archive README says no security updates will follow. Neither the archive, the main repository's README nor the npm deprecation message names a successor, and the main README still calls it "Read-only database access" (10). No telemetry (20).)