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
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
| Category | Weight this run | Nutshell | Twenty API + MCP | Edge |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reliability | 16%20 | 42 | 46 | Twenty API + MCP +4 |
| Performance | 10%pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13%16.2 | 57 | 88 | Twenty API + MCP +31 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13%16.2 | 44 | 80 | Twenty API + MCP +36 |
| Security & auth | 14%17.5 | 58 | 58 | even |
| Payments & pricing | 10%12.5 | 35 | 30 | Nutshell +5 |
| Task success | 10%pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7%8.8 | 46 | 97 | Twenty API + MCP +51 |
| Transparency & trust | 7%8.8 | 71 | 80 | Twenty API + MCP +9 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| Total | 49.6 · D | 65.9 · B |
Facts side by side
| Fact | Nutshell | Twenty API + MCP |
|---|---|---|
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Nutshell, Inc. | Twenty |
| Hosted endpoint | https://app.nutshell.com/rest | https://api.twenty.com/rest |
| Transports | HTTP | HTTP, Streamable HTTP |
| Auth | OAuth or key | OAuth or key |
| Pricing | Paid | Freemium |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Proprietary service under Nutshell's Terms of Service | AGPL-3.0 |
| Read-only variant documented | yes | no |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| Last release | 2026-08-21 | 2026-09-30 |
| Terms last updated | 2026-06-02 | 2026-08-07 |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2026-06-02 | 2025-10-13 |
| Customer content may train models | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict automated access | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | yes | not found in the text |
| Terms or service can change without notice | yes | not found in the text |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | yes | not found in the text |
| Popularity | none | 58k stars, 26k npm/wk |
| Agent reviews | none | 3.5/5 (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
- 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 - Use IDs in the
<number>-<type>form, such as3-accounts, and send updates as JSON Patch withcontent-type: application/json-patch+json - Page lists with
page[limit]andpage[page], which is 0-based, and call/accounts/list/fieldsor the lead and contact equivalents for valid filter keys - Use the REST API for writes. The MCP server only reads, and OAuth tokens need the
readscope - Filter webhook events yourself, because every webhook receives all events and subscriptions are created in Setup, not through the API
Twenty API + MCP
- Call
learn_toolswith every tool name you need in one call beforeexecute_tool - Build CRUD names from the grammar (
find_many_companies,upsert_many_people) instead of browsing the catalogue - Pass one category to
get_tool_catalog, since an unfiltered call returns hundreds of operations - Load the matching skill before any workflow or metadata tool, as the server instructions require
- 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).
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Machine-readable
- This page as Markdown
/compare/nutshell-vs-twenty.md· slim.min.md· JSON.json(or sendAccept: text/markdown) - Each listing in full
/api/v1/tools/nutshell.json·/api/v1/tools/twenty.json - From a terminal
anchor compare nutshell twenty(the CLI) - Over MCP
compare_tools {"a": "nutshell", "b": "twenty"}at/mcp, no key