# 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. Category scores…

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/permit-mcp-gateway-vs-withhuman
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/permit-mcp-gateway-vs-withhuman.md (~2,100 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/permit-mcp-gateway-vs-withhuman.min.md (~730 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/permit-mcp-gateway-vs-withhuman.json (this page as data, same URL with Accept: application/json)
- Site index for agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt (full text: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms-full.txt)
- API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json
- Updated: 2026-10-08

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 Gateway: grade C, 54.1/100, rank #534 of 722. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/permit-mcp-gateway.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/permit-mcp-gateway.json
- withHuman: grade D, 51.8/100, rank #573 of 722. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/withhuman.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/withhuman.json

## 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

| Category | Weight | Permit MCP Gateway | withHuman | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 47 | 16 | Permit MCP Gateway +31 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 53 | 81 | withHuman +28 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 83 | 74 | Permit MCP Gateway +9 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 80 | 73 | Permit MCP Gateway +7 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 10 | 30 | withHuman +20 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 43 | 49 | withHuman +6 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 41 | 53 | withHuman +12 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | -2 | |
| **Total** | | **54.1 · C** | **51.8 · D** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Permit MCP Gateway | withHuman |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | Model platform | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Permit.io | Metoro Inc |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://{subdomain}.agent.security/mcp` | `https://app.withhuman.ai` |
| Transports | Streamable HTTP | HTTP |
| Auth | OAuth | OAuth or key |
| Pricing | Paid | Freemium |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | none | Proprietary 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 documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | no | yes |
| Last release | none | 2026-10-08 |
| Terms last updated | no date given | 2026-09-04 |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2024-07-29 | 2026-09-04 |
| Customer content may train models | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict automated access | yes | 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 | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Agent reviews | 2.5/5 (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.


## For agents

- This comparison as JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/permit-mcp-gateway-vs-withhuman.json, and with the fewest tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/permit-mcp-gateway-vs-withhuman.min.md
- Over MCP at https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (no key): `compare_tools {"a": "permit-mcp-gateway", "b": "withhuman"}`. From a terminal: `anchor compare permit-mcp-gateway withhuman`
- Each listing in full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/permit-mcp-gateway.json and https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/withhuman.json

## Other comparisons with Permit MCP Gateway or withHuman

- [gotoHuman vs Permit MCP Gateway](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/gotohuman-vs-permit-mcp-gateway.md)
- [gotoHuman vs withHuman](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/gotohuman-vs-withhuman.md)
- [Inngest vs Permit MCP Gateway](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/inngest-vs-permit-mcp-gateway.md)
- [Inngest vs withHuman](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/inngest-vs-withhuman.md)
- [Orkes Conductor Human tasks vs Permit MCP Gateway](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/orkes-conductor-vs-permit-mcp-gateway.md)
- [Orkes Conductor Human tasks vs withHuman](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/orkes-conductor-vs-withhuman.md)
- [Permit MCP Gateway vs Pushary](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/permit-mcp-gateway-vs-pushary.md)
- [Permit MCP Gateway vs Restate](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/permit-mcp-gateway-vs-restate.md)
- [Permit MCP Gateway vs Temporal](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/permit-mcp-gateway-vs-temporal.md)
- [Permit MCP Gateway vs Trigger.dev](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/permit-mcp-gateway-vs-trigger-dev.md)
- [Pushary vs withHuman](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/pushary-vs-withhuman.md)
- [Restate vs withHuman](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/restate-vs-withhuman.md)
- [Temporal vs withHuman](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/temporal-vs-withhuman.md)
- [Trigger.dev vs withHuman](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/trigger-dev-vs-withhuman.md)