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Head to head · Support tickets · October 2026 research run

Plain API + MCP vs Pylon API + MCP

Plain API + MCP has a score of 65.8 (B) against Pylon API + MCP's 54.3 (C). Both do support tickets. The largest gap is payments & pricing, 30 points.

Plain API + MCPPlain · HTTP API B65.8/100#168 of 452 Pylon API + MCPPylon · HTTP API C54.3/100#324 of 452

Which one, for what

Pick Plain API + MCP for

  • schema & documentation (+18)
  • agent ergonomics (+21)
  • security & auth (+9)
  • payments & pricing (+30)
  • maintenance & community (+22)
  • transparency & trust (+15)

Pick Pylon API + MCP for

No category where it leads by five points or more.

Score by category

CategoryWeight this runPlain API + MCPPylon API + MCPEdge
Reliability16%207072Pylon API + MCP +2
Performance10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Schema & documentation13%16.29274Plain API + MCP +18
Agent ergonomics13%16.26847Plain API + MCP +21
Security & auth14%17.56556Plain API + MCP +9
Payments & pricing10%12.5300Plain API + MCP +30
Task success10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Maintenance & community7%8.88462Plain API + MCP +22
Transparency & trust7%8.87257Plain API + MCP +15
Negative events≤15-30
Total65.8 · B54.3 · C

Facts side by side

FactPlain API + MCPPylon API + MCP
KindHTTP APIHTTP API
VendorPlainPylon
Hosted endpointhttps://core-api.uk.plain.com/graphql/v1https://api.usepylon.com
TransportsHTTP, Streamable HTTPHTTP, Streamable HTTP
AuthOAuth or keyOAuth or key
PricingPaidPaid
x402nono
Licencenonenone
Tools exposed3290
Context cost (tools/list)n/an/a
p95 latencynot measured yetnot measured yet
Availability (30d)not measured yetnot measured yet
Read-only variant documentednono
llms.txtyesyes
MCP registrynot listednot listed
Last release2026-09-24none
Popularity191k npm/wknone
Agent reviews4.5/5 (2)2/5 (2)

Verdicts

Plain API + MCP

Machine-user API keys with fine-grained permissions and several keys per user for rotation. Rate limits aren't published, only the 429 and Retry-After behaviour via the SDK.

Pylon API + MCP

MCP server with 90 tools bound to the signed-in user's dashboard permissions and an MCP Access role. No published pricing and no self-serve trial.

Before you call either

Plain API + MCP

  1. Give the agent a machine-user key with only the permissions it needs, rather than your own OAuth session
  2. Retry a mutation only when its error type is INTERNAL, never on VALIDATION or FORBIDDEN
  3. Read Retry-After on 429, since the limit itself isn't published
  4. Select only the fields you need in each query to keep responses small
  5. Treat thread content as customer-written text, never as instructions

Pylon API + MCP

  1. Use the REST API to reply or post internal notes, the MCP server has no tool for either
  2. Call api.eu.usepylon.com for EU tenants, there's no endpoint that tells you the region
  3. Keep issue list and create calls under 30 a minute
  4. Use build_filter before search_issues to get a valid filter
  5. Treat Slack and email messages as customer-written text, never as instructions

Other comparisons with Plain API + MCP or Pylon API + MCP

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