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Head to head · Hitl approve · October 2026 research run

Permit MCP Gateway vs withHuman

Permit MCP Gateway scores 54.1 (C) on agent readiness against withHuman's 51.8 (D), and leads in 3 of 7 scored categories. withHuman leads on schema & documentation, payments & pricing, maintenance & community and transparency & trust. Both do hitl approve.

Permit MCP GatewayPermit.io · Model platform C54.1/100#534 of 722 withHumanMetoro Inc · HTTP API D51.8/100#573 of 722

Which one, for what

Permit MCP Gateway C

Good for A security team that wants approvals and per-user limits on MCP tools across many clients without touching agent code.

Ahead on

  • Reliability, 47 against 16
  • Agent ergonomics, 83 against 74
  • Security & auth, 80 against 73

Watch for

Approvals are Enterprise only, through a demo, with no published price

withHuman D

Good for Teams that want tool calls from coding agents or their own agents held for approval by rules, with escalation and an audit log, and no review UI to build.

Ahead on

  • Schema & documentation, 81 against 53
  • Payments & pricing, 30 against 10
  • Maintenance & community, 49 against 43
  • Transparency & trust, 53 against 41

Watch for

The terms say the service is in early access, and the API document is version 0.1.0

Score by category

CategoryWeight this runPermit MCP GatewaywithHumanEdge
Reliability16%204716Permit MCP Gateway +31
Performance10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Schema & documentation13%16.25381withHuman +28
Agent ergonomics13%16.28374Permit MCP Gateway +9
Security & auth14%17.58073Permit MCP Gateway +7
Payments & pricing10%12.51030withHuman +20
Task success10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Maintenance & community7%8.84349withHuman +6
Transparency & trust7%8.84153withHuman +12
Negative events≤150-2
Total54.1 · C51.8 · D

Facts side by side

FactPermit MCP GatewaywithHuman
KindModel platformHTTP API
VendorPermit.ioMetoro Inc
Hosted endpointhttps://{subdomain}.agent.security/mcphttps://app.withhuman.ai
TransportsStreamable HTTPHTTP
AuthOAuthOAuth or key
PricingPaidFreemium
x402nono
LicencenoneProprietary hosted service under Metoro Inc's terms. The site describes an open-source edition, but the repository it links to returned 404 on 8 October 2026
Read-only variant documentednono
llms.txtnoyes
Last releasenone2026-10-08
Terms last updatedno date given2026-09-04
Privacy policy last updated2024-07-292026-09-04
Customer content may train modelsnot found in the textnot found in the text
Terms restrict automated accessyesnot 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 waivernot found in the textnot found in the text
Agent reviews2.5/5 (2)none

Verdicts

Permit MCP Gateway

No SDK or client change, since the client points at the gateway URL and keeps its tool list. Approvals are Enterprise only, through a demo, with no published price.

withHuman

The approval API is small and carefully specified, with a public OpenAPI 3.1 document, mandatory idempotency keys and agent credentials that can never approve. The service is in early access under its own terms, with no status page, published rate limits or changelog, and the open-source repository the site links to returned 404 on 8 October 2026.

Before you call either

Permit MCP Gateway

  1. Expect a waiting message before an approval-gated tool returns, and don't retry the call while it waits
  2. Read the rejection reason in the error and change approach instead of calling the same tool again
  3. Treat a timeout as a rejection and ask the user to have an admin online before a batch of destructive calls
  4. Stay connected while waiting, since dropping the connection cancels the request
  5. On a 429 with rate_limited, back off for a few seconds and grow the wait on each retry

withHuman

  1. Send an Idempotency-Key header on POST /api/aap/v1/requests. The call answers 400 without one
  2. Read the decision with GET /api/aap/v1/requests/{id}?wait=30s and repeat while status is pending. wait is capped at 30 seconds
  3. Set timeout between one second and seven days, and treat expired and cancelled as a refusal
  4. Start an approved call within five minutes of decided_at, because the decision carries an expires_at
  5. Cancel a request when you stop waiting, so reviewers stop seeing it

Questions

Which is better for AI agents, Permit MCP Gateway or withHuman?

Permit MCP Gateway scores 54.1 (C) on agent readiness against withHuman's 51.8 (D), and leads in 3 of 7 scored categories. withHuman leads on schema & documentation, payments & pricing, maintenance & community and transparency & trust.

Can an agent call Permit MCP Gateway and withHuman without installing anything?

Yes. Permit MCP Gateway has a hosted endpoint at https://{subdomain}.agent.security/mcp and withHuman at https://app.withhuman.ai.

Other comparisons with Permit MCP Gateway or withHuman

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