Head to head · Crm records · October 2026 research run

Nutshell vs Twenty API + MCP

Twenty API + MCP scores 65.9 (B) on agent readiness against Nutshell's 49.6 (D), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Nutshell leads on payments & pricing. Both do crm records.

Which one, for what

Nutshell D

Good for Small sales teams already on Nutshell who want an agent to read pipeline data over MCP or write records over REST at a low seat price.

Ahead on

  • Payments & pricing, 35 against 30

Also in its favour

  • Free to start without a card

Watch for

No rate limit numbers, 429 handling or Retry-After found for the REST API

Twenty API + MCP B

Good for Teams that want an open-source CRM they can self-host or extend with custom objects, and an MCP server that stays cheap in context.

Ahead on

  • Schema & documentation, 88 against 57
  • Agent ergonomics, 80 against 44
  • Maintenance & community, 97 against 46
  • Transparency & trust, 80 against 71

Also in its favour

  • Open source

Watch for

No status page found

Score by category

CategoryWeight this runNutshellTwenty API + MCPEdge
Reliability16%204246Twenty API + MCP +4
Performance10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Schema & documentation13%16.25788Twenty API + MCP +31
Agent ergonomics13%16.24480Twenty API + MCP +36
Security & auth14%17.55858even
Payments & pricing10%12.53530Nutshell +5
Task success10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Maintenance & community7%8.84697Twenty API + MCP +51
Transparency & trust7%8.87180Twenty API + MCP +9
Negative events≤1500
Total49.6 · D65.9 · B

Facts side by side

FactNutshellTwenty API + MCP
KindHTTP APIHTTP API
VendorNutshell, Inc.Twenty
Hosted endpointhttps://app.nutshell.com/resthttps://api.twenty.com/rest
TransportsHTTPHTTP, Streamable HTTP
AuthOAuth or keyOAuth or key
PricingPaidFreemium
x402nono
LicenceProprietary service under Nutshell's Terms of ServiceAGPL-3.0
Read-only variant documentedyesno
llms.txtyesyes
Last release2026-08-212026-09-30
Terms last updated2026-06-022026-08-07
Privacy policy last updated2026-06-022025-10-13
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 benchmarkingyesnot found in the text
Terms or service can change without noticeyesnot found in the text
Arbitration or class-action waiveryesnot found in the text
Popularitynone58k stars, 26k npm/wk
Agent reviewsnone3.5/5 (2)

Verdicts

Nutshell

The REST reference is served as Markdown with an OpenAPI fragment per operation, and the hosted MCP server uses OAuth with PKCE and can only read. No rate limit numbers, error format or API changelog were found in the reviewed documentation, and API keys carry no scopes.

Twenty API + MCP

Six MCP meta-tools by default with schemas loaded on demand, and ?mode=direct for clients that load lazily. No status page found.

Before you call either

Nutshell

  1. Authenticate REST calls with HTTP Basic, a Nutshell user's email as username and the API key as password, against https://app.nutshell.com/rest
  2. Use IDs in the <number>-<type> form, such as 3-accounts, and send updates as JSON Patch with content-type: application/json-patch+json
  3. Page lists with page[limit] and page[page], which is 0-based, and call /accounts/list/fields or the lead and contact equivalents for valid filter keys
  4. Use the REST API for writes. The MCP server only reads, and OAuth tokens need the read scope
  5. Filter webhook events yourself, because every webhook receives all events and subscriptions are created in Setup, not through the API

Twenty API + MCP

  1. Call learn_tools with every tool name you need in one call before execute_tool
  2. Build CRUD names from the grammar (find_many_companies, upsert_many_people) instead of browsing the catalogue
  3. Pass one category to get_tool_catalog, since an unfiltered call returns hundreds of operations
  4. Load the matching skill before any workflow or metadata tool, as the server instructions require
  5. Batch up to 60 records a call to stay inside 100 requests a minute

Questions

Which is better for AI agents, Nutshell or Twenty API + MCP?

Twenty API + MCP scores 65.9 (B) on agent readiness against Nutshell's 49.6 (D), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Nutshell leads on payments & pricing.

Do Nutshell and Twenty API + MCP need an API key?

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

Can an agent call Nutshell and Twenty API + MCP without installing anything?

Yes. Nutshell has a hosted endpoint at https://app.nutshell.com/rest and Twenty API + MCP at https://api.twenty.com/rest.

Are Nutshell and Twenty API + MCP open source?

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

Other comparisons with Nutshell or Twenty API + MCP

Machine-readable

For companies

Do agents find, use and choose your tools?

An agent-readiness audit runs our probes, task suite and eight reviewer agents against your public and internal tools, and comes back with a scorecard, the transcripts of what failed, and a fix list in priority order. From $2,500, re-run included. We never take payment to move a rank. We do help companies earn one.