Arcade vs Smithery
A side-by-side comparison of Arcade and Smithery, two MCP tools, drawn from Ignaite's continuously-verified listings.
Compared from listings verified as of
At a glance
| Attribute | Arcade | Smithery |
|---|---|---|
| Category | MCP | MCP |
| Pricing | FREEMIUM | FREEMIUM |
| License | Proprietary | Proprietary |
| Deployment | Cloud | Cloud |
| Platforms (differs) | API | Web, CLI, API |
| Model support | Model-agnostic | Model-agnostic |
| Vendor (differs) | Arcade | Smithery |
| Capabilities (differs) |
|
|
The honest brief
Arcade
Auth-first MCP runtime: brokers per-user OAuth so an agent acts as the real end user, not behind one shared token.
- Real actions in Gmail, GitHub, Slack
- Prebuilt agent-optimized tools
- Open framework for custom tools
- Exposed over MCP standard
- Closed/hosted core platform
- Newer entrant in MCP space
- Setup needed per integration
- Free tier limited
Smithery
Largest MCP registry (6,000+ servers) with managed OAuth and hosting, so agents get authenticated tool access without config wrangling.
- Browse and install community servers
- CLI installs without editing JSON
- Persistent authenticated connections
- Deploy your own servers
- Only the CLI is open-source (AGPL)
- Registry/hosting is a closed platform
- Quality of community servers varies
When to pick which
Both cover MCP gateway / registry.
Pick Arcade if you need Tool / function calling and MCP server.
- Tool / function calling (primary capability)
- MCP server (secondary capability)
Pick Smithery if you need App / agent deployment.
- App / agent deployment (primary capability)
Smithery leans on MCP gateway / registry as a headline capability; Arcade treats it as secondary.
- MCP gateway / registry (primary capability)
They also differ on:
- Platforms
- API · Web, CLI, API