# Smithery vs StackOne

> StackOne scores 69.1 (B) to Smithery's 50.7 (D) for app automation. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/smithery-vs-stackone
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/smithery-vs-stackone.md (~2,250 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/smithery-vs-stackone.min.md (~780 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/smithery-vs-stackone.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: 2026-10-09

StackOne scores 69.1 (B) on agent readiness against Smithery's 50.7 (D), and leads in every scored category. Both do app automation.

- Smithery: grade D, 50.7/100, rank #766 of 950. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/smithery.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/smithery.json
- StackOne: grade B, 69.1/100, rank #198 of 950. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/stackone.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/stackone.json
- Best agent tool access platforms: https://www.anchorterminal.com/best/aggregator/index.md
- All 28 tool access comparisons: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/aggregator/index.md

## Which one, for what

### Smithery (D)

Good for: A developer who wants many MCP servers behind one credential and one endpoint, with per-user connections and short-lived scoped tokens.

Watch for: No terms of service are linked from the site, the docs or the footer. The privacy notice of 20 June 2025 is the only legal document found

### StackOne (B)

Good for: A company that wants one governed MCP endpoint for staff agents across business systems, and product teams embedding per-customer connections with HR, recruiting and CRM coverage.

Ahead on:
- Reliability, 80 against 60
- Agent ergonomics, 75 against 65
- Security & auth, 69 against 50
- Payments & pricing, 38 against 10
- Maintenance & community, 84 against 43
- Transparency & trust, 69 against 46

Also in its favour:
- Free to start without a card

Watch for: Session token URLs (`https://api.stackone.com/mcp?token=...`) put the credential in the query string, cover one linked account and expire after one year by default


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Smithery | StackOne | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 60 | 80 | StackOne +20 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 76 | 78 | StackOne +2 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 65 | 75 | StackOne +10 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 50 | 69 | StackOne +19 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 10 | 38 | StackOne +28 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 43 | 84 | StackOne +41 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 46 | 69 | StackOne +23 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | -2 | -2 | |
| **Total** | | **50.7 · D** | **69.1 · B** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Smithery | StackOne |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | MCP server |
| Vendor | Smithery (Arcade.dev) | StackOne Technologies Limited |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://api.smithery.ai` | `https://mcp.stackone.com/mcp` |
| Transports | HTTP, Streamable HTTP | Streamable HTTP, HTTP |
| Auth | OAuth or key | OAuth or key |
| Pricing | Freemium | Freemium |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Proprietary hosted service, with no terms of service found. The CLI (`smithery`) is AGPL-3.0, the TypeScript client (`@smithery/api`) is Apache-2.0 and the credential layer agent.pw is MIT | Proprietary service under StackOne's SaaS Terms and Conditions. The Agent SDKs (`@stackone/ai`, `stackone-ai`) and the Defender package (`@stackone/defender`) are Apache-2.0 |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| MCP registry | not listed | `com.stackone/mcp` |
| Last release | 2026-07-20 | 2026-09-24 |
| Terms last updated | no document linked | 2026-03-30 |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2025-06-20 | 2023-12-01 |
| Customer content may train models |  | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict automated access |  | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict benchmarking |  | not found in the text |
| Terms or service can change without notice |  | not found in the text |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver |  | not found in the text |
| Popularity | 840 stars, 2.7k npm/wk | 30 stars, 277 npm/wk |

## Verdicts

**Smithery.** Service tokens can be limited by namespace, resource, operation and connection metadata, with a lifetime of at most 24 hours. No terms of service, rate limits or SLA were found, the pricing page could not be read, and the newest client release is from 20 July 2026.

**StackOne.** StackOne's MCP server signs each person in with OAuth, lets them grant individual accounts and actions, and by default exposes two search and execute tools in place of the full catalogue. Session token URLs carry the credential in the query string for a year by default, and the Consumption Schedule and pricing page disagree on whether failed calls are billed.

## Before you call either

### Smithery

1. Keep the API key on the backend and hand an agent a service token limited to `connections` with `read` and `execute` and a `metadata` match
2. Create connections with `PUT /connect/{namespace}/{connectionId}`, which is an upsert, and check `status.state` before calling a tool
3. On `auth_required` or `input_required`, send the person to `setupUrl`, then retry with the same `connectionId`
4. Tool names on the namespace MCP endpoint are prefixed with the connection ID, such as `user-123-github.search_repositories`
5. Do not rely on `smithery skill` commands. Version 1.1.1 of the CLI removed them

### StackOne

1. Send `Accept: application/json,text/event-stream` on every MCP request to `https://api.stackone.com/mcp`, by POST only. Without it the server answers 406
2. In `search_execute` mode call `{provider}_search_actions` first and pass the returned `action_id` to `{provider}_execute_action`. Never hardcode action ids
3. Pass the API key as the Basic auth username with an empty password, and name the linked account in `x-account-id`
4. On 429 or 408 wait the seconds given in `Retry-After`. StackOne has already retried a provider's 429 up to five times within a 60-second request lifetime
5. On 412 read `errorCode` and `details.statusReasons`. `AccountErrorStatus` needs a person to re-authenticate the linked account

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, Smithery or StackOne?

StackOne scores 69.1 (B) on agent readiness against Smithery's 50.7 (D), and leads in every scored category.

### Do Smithery and StackOne need an API key?

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

### Can an agent call Smithery and StackOne without installing anything?

Yes. Smithery has a hosted endpoint at https://api.smithery.ai and StackOne at https://mcp.stackone.com/mcp.


## For agents

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

## Other comparisons with Smithery or StackOne

- [Composio (API + MCP) vs Smithery](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/composio-rube-vs-smithery.md)
- [Composio (API + MCP) vs StackOne](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/composio-rube-vs-stackone.md)
- [Merge Agent Handler vs Smithery](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/merge-agent-handler-vs-smithery.md)
- [Merge Agent Handler vs StackOne](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/merge-agent-handler-vs-stackone.md)
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- [StackOne vs Unified.to MCP Server](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/stackone-vs-unified-to-mcp.md)
- [StackOne vs Zapier MCP (agent actions)](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/stackone-vs-zapier-mcp.md)
- [letme vs Smithery](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/letme-vs-smithery.md)
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