What is the best free alternative to Smithery?
MCP Registry (Official) is the closest free alternative to Smithery: same MCP Ecosystem sub-category, and it is free. The canonical open-source specification and docs for the Model Context Protocol
Best free Smithery alternatives
Looking for a free alternative to Smithery? Here are 9 mcp ecosystem worth trying — 9 with a free tier. Smithery itself is free tier + paid.
| Tool | Smithery (you searched) | MCP Registry (Official) | Composio | Glama |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pricing | freemium | free | freemium | freemium |
| Best for | Marketplace of 14,000+ hosted MCP servers with one-click connect | The canonical open-source specification and docs for the Model Context Protocol | Managed auth + tool-call infrastructure for agents across 250+ apps | Indexes and security-scans thousands of MCP servers for compatibility/safety |
| Visit | Open ↗ | Open ↗ | Open ↗ | Open ↗ |
Smithery alternatives — straight answers
Are there free Smithery alternatives?
Yes — 9 of the 9 alternatives listed here are free or freemium: MCP Registry (Official), Composio, Glama, Zapier MCP, Agent2Agent (A2A) Protocol. None of them are paid-only.
Is Smithery free?
Smithery is free tier + paid. There is a free tier you can work in, with paid plans above it.
How were these Smithery alternatives chosen?
They are the other tools in MCP Ecosystem, then the rest of AI Agents & Automation, ordered free tiers first and capped at 9. There is no sponsorship and no paid placement in that ordering — only the pricing tier decides.
All Smithery alternatives
Browse MCP Ecosystem →MCP Registry (Official)
MCP Ecosystem
✦ WhyA Smithery alternative — The canonical open-source specification and docs for the Model Context Protocol.
- The canonical open-source specification and docs for the Model Context Protocol
- Reference server/client SDKs and the official server registry
- Backed across the ecosystem — Claude, ChatGPT, VS Code, Cursor, MCPJam all implement it
Composio
MCP Ecosystem
✦ WhyA Smithery alternative — Managed auth + tool-call infrastructure for agents across 250+ apps.
- Managed auth + tool-call infrastructure for agents across 250+ apps
- Free tier: 20,000 tool calls/month with community support
- Ships both MCP servers and native SDKs for major agent frameworks
Glama
MCP Ecosystem
✦ WhyA Smithery alternative — Indexes and security-scans thousands of MCP servers for compatibility/safety.
- Indexes and security-scans thousands of MCP servers for compatibility/safety
- API gateway for connecting to MCP servers programmatically
- Free account tier plus paid gateway/enterprise options
Zapier MCP
MCP Ecosystem
✦ WhyA Smithery alternative — Turns any of Zapier's 9,000+ app integrations into callable MCP tools for any AI client.
- Turns any of Zapier's 9,000+ app integrations into callable MCP tools for any AI client
- Pre-authenticated connections avoid per-app OAuth setup for agent builders
- Included on all Zapier plans (including free), billed against existing task quota
✦ WhyA Smithery alternative — Open protocol for agents from different vendors to discover and talk to each other.
- Open protocol for agents from different vendors to discover and talk to each other
- SDKs in Python, JS, Java, .NET and Go
- Now hosted by the Linux Foundation
- Complements MCP for agent-to-agent communication
✦ WhyA Smithery alternative — Pythonic framework for building MCP servers and clients in a few lines.
- Pythonic framework for building MCP servers and clients in a few lines
- Proxying, composition and auth helpers
- Open source, Apache-licensed
✦ WhyA Smithery alternative — Visual testing and debugging tool for MCP servers.
- Visual testing and debugging tool for MCP servers
- Call tools, browse resources and view logs interactively
- Runs locally via npx
✦ WhyA Smithery alternative — Reference MCP servers such as filesystem, git, fetch and memory.
- Reference MCP servers such as filesystem, git, fetch and memory
- Starting point for building your own servers
- Open source
✦ WhyA Smithery alternative — GitHub's official MCP server for repos, issues, PRs and Actions.
- GitHub's official MCP server for repos, issues, PRs and Actions
- Works with Claude, Copilot, Cursor and other MCP clients
- Open source; needs a GitHub token