Alternatives
The Best Glama Alternatives in 2026
By Ethan Halfhide · Updated October 23, 2026
BestMCPTools
The Best Glama Alternatives in 2026
bestmcptools.org
Last verified 2026-10-23
The best Glama alternatives in October 2026 are the Docker MCP Catalog and Toolkit if you want a catalog and gateway that run on your own machine, Composio if you want a hosted MCP gateway with managed auth, mcp.so for free browsing, Zapier MCP for app actions without running servers, and the official MCP Registry for vendor-neutral server metadata. Smithery, the usual first answer, shuts down its MCP proxy and managed identity on October 31, 2026 and stays online as a directory only. Glama itself bundles three things: a registry that listed more than 108,000 servers on October 23, 2026, one-click hosting, and a gateway with call logs and per-tool access control. Most alternatives replace one of those pieces, not all three, so the right pick depends on which part of Glama you actually use.
TL;DR, Quick Verdict
No single product copies all of Glama. For a catalog plus gateway you control, use the Docker MCP Catalog and Toolkit. For a hosted gateway with managed OAuth, use Composio (Hobby $0, Pro $29 a month, as of October 2026). For free discovery, use mcp.so or the official MCP Registry. Do not move to Smithery for hosting: its proxy URLs stop working on October 31, 2026.
Quick Picks
Docker MCP Catalog and Toolkit
300+ catalog servers, Docker-built and signed local images, and an open source gateway with tool allowlists.
Composio MCP Gateway
One governed endpoint per team, managed OAuth, 1,500+ toolkits and your own MCP servers behind it.
mcp.so
Free community directory with separate sections for servers, remote servers, clients and rankings.
Zapier MCP
Reach 9,000+ apps from Claude, ChatGPT or Cursor; each tool call uses two Zapier tasks.
Official MCP Registry
The MCP project's own registry with a public REST API that aggregators, Glama included, build on.
How we chose
We started from the registries, catalogs and gateways that already have listings on this site and kept the ones that replace at least one of Glama's three jobs: finding servers, hosting them, or putting a governed endpoint in front of them. For each one we read the official homepage, documentation, pricing page or GitHub README on October 23, 2026, and we recorded the source for every claim. We did not run, connect or benchmark any of them. We ranked higher when a product documents how servers are built or checked, when it handles OAuth instead of asking you to paste secrets, and when its price is public. PulseMCP, a well known directory and one of the backers of the official registry, is not ranked because its site blocked our requests today, so we could not confirm anything current about it. If you are deciding between the two largest directories head to head, our Glama vs Smithery comparison covers that question, so this page focuses on the wider field.
What Glama does and why people switch
Glama describes itself as a superset of the official MCP Registry. On October 23, 2026 its directory listed more than 108,000 servers with filters for remote, local and hybrid hosting, and letter grades for license, quality and maintenance. Its methodology page says submitters must prove write or admin access to the GitHub repository, and that each server is built and run inside an isolated Firecracker microVM where its tools are listed and its behaviour is watched for things like reading credential files. On top of the directory, Glama hosts servers from its registry, from a GitHub repository or from a Dockerfile, npm or PyPI package, and puts every deployment behind its gateway, which logs every JSON-RPC call, gates individual tools and manages OAuth 2.1 tokens. People look elsewhere for three common reasons: they only need one of those pieces, they want servers on their own machines, or they want a public price. Glama bills hosting on top of a workspace plan, metered by machine hours and egress, with the rate card shown only inside the workspace.
Registries vs gateways vs catalogs
These words get used loosely, so it helps to separate them. A registry stores metadata about servers: the official MCP Registry holds a server.json for each entry that says where the package lives on npm, PyPI or Docker Hub, or which URL a remote server answers on, and it hosts no code. A catalog is a curated set you can actually run: the Docker MCP Catalog ships container images that Docker builds and signs, with provenance and SBOM metadata. A directory such as mcp.so is a browsable index with categories, rankings and links, meant for people rather than clients. A gateway sits between your AI client and many servers, appears to the client as one MCP server, and adds auth, logging and per-tool rules. Glama, Composio and Docker each offer one, but Glama and Composio run theirs as a hosted service while Docker's runs locally. Knowing which layer you need stops you from comparing a free directory with a paid gateway. Our remote MCP server guide explains the hosted side in more detail.
Self-hosted options
If the reason you are leaving Glama is that you want servers and credentials on infrastructure you control, there are two documented routes. The first is Docker's gateway, the open source docker mcp CLI plugin behind the Docker MCP server listing. It can work inside Docker Desktop or on its own, groups servers into profiles that can pull from the Docker catalog, any OCI image or the official MCP Registry, and can serve several clients at once over SSE or streaming transport. Docker's docs say catalog tools are limited to 1 CPU and 2 GB of memory and get no host filesystem access unless you allow it. The second route is a private registry: the official registry does not accept private servers, so its docs recommend hosting your own private MCP registry and publish an OpenAPI spec that private registries can implement. The MCP Registry repository does publish a container image at ghcr.io/modelcontextprotocol/registry, but the docs say the official codebase is not designed for self-hosting and its maintainers do not support that use, so a fork is yours to run and maintain. Composio also lists your own VPC and fully self-hosted deployment for its gateway, aimed at enterprise buyers.
Pricing and lock-in
Prices below are as of October 2026. Glama does not publish a hosting rate card outside the workspace. Composio's Hobby plan is $0, needs no card, includes 100,000 tool calls a month and pauses usage at the cap instead of billing you; Pro is $29 a month with $29 of usage credit that does not roll over. Zapier MCP is included in every Zapier plan and each tool call uses two tasks from the same quota as your Zaps, so the Free plan's 100 tasks a month covers about 50 tool calls. The Docker MCP Toolkit lists no separate fee, but Docker Desktop is free only for personal use, education, non-commercial open source and companies under 250 employees and $10 million in revenue. mcp.so, the official registry and the reference servers are free. Lock-in is mostly about URLs and credentials. Smithery shows the risk: its run.tools and server.smithery.ai URLs, API, accounts and keys stop working on October 31, 2026, and users are told to switch to each vendor's official MCP URL. Pointing clients at vendor URLs, or at a gateway you can move, keeps that kind of change cheap.
How to choose
Start with the job you use Glama for. If you mainly search for servers, mcp.so and the official MCP Registry cover discovery for free, and the registry's REST API is the better source if you are building a tool that needs machine-readable data. If you used Glama to host open source servers privately for your team, the closest like-for-like swap is a gateway: Composio if you want it hosted with SSO and audit logs, or Docker's gateway if you would rather run containers yourself. If you only wanted your assistant to act in Gmail, Slack or a CRM, Zapier MCP or Composio's managed toolkits may remove the need to host anything. Developers learning the protocol should read the official reference servers, which the MCP project says are educational examples and not production-ready. Coming from Smithery instead of Glama? Our Smithery alternatives page covers that migration, and once you have a catalog in place our list of the best MCP servers is a good place to pick what to connect first.
What we could not verify
We could not see Glama's prices, because its pricing page shows a sign-up form. PulseMCP's site returned a block page to every request we made today, so we left it unranked; the official registry docs do name PulseMCP among the registry's backers. Docker's catalog page gives a figure of 300+ servers and labels the catalog and Toolkit as Beta, and does not state a plan requirement for the Toolkit itself. We did not find a server count on mcp.so's public pages, and we did not check Composio's per-connection or per-event add-on prices beyond those quoted above.
Quick Comparison
| Alternative | Type | Hosting | Auth | Pricing as of October 2026 | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Glama (what you are replacing) | Registry, hosting and gateway | Glama-run dedicated machines | Managed OAuth 2.1, per-tool access control | Hosting metered on top of a workspace plan; rate card not public | Teams that want all three in one account |
| Docker MCP Catalog and Toolkit | Catalog plus local gateway | Containers on your machine | OAuth through the browser, credentials managed by the Toolkit | No Toolkit fee listed; Docker Desktop paid for larger companies | Developers who want isolated, self-run servers |
| Composio MCP Gateway | Hosted gateway with managed toolkits | Composio Cloud, your VPC or self-hosted | Managed OAuth, SSO and SCIM | Hobby $0 (100,000 tool calls/mo), Pro $29/mo, Enterprise custom | Teams that need governed app access |
| mcp.so | Community directory | None | None (links to each server) | Free to browse | Wide, free discovery |
| Zapier MCP | Hosted app actions | Zapier cloud | Zapier managed app connections | Included in every Zapier plan, 2 tasks per tool call; Free plan 100 tasks/mo | Acting in business apps without servers |
| Official MCP Registry | Metadata registry (preview) | None; docs suggest your own private registry for private servers | Namespace verification via GitHub, DNS or HTTP | Free | A vendor-neutral source of server metadata |
| Official MCP reference servers | Reference code | You run them | Depends on the server | Free, open source | Learning how MCP servers are built |
| Smithery | Directory (proxy ends Oct 31, 2026) | None after October 31 | Points to vendor URLs | Free directory; paid plans cancelled and refunded | Looking up official server URLs |
The Tools, Ranked
Docker MCP
Docker's MCP Catalog lists 300+ servers, and Docker builds and signs the local ones, with provenance and SBOM metadata for verified images. The MCP Toolkit in Docker Desktop runs each server in an isolated container, handles OAuth for servers such as GitHub, Notion and Linear through your browser, and connects clients like Claude, Cursor and VS Code to a single gateway. That gateway is the MIT licensed docker/mcp-gateway CLI plugin. It is the nearest self-run match for Glama's catalog plus gateway, without Glama's hosting.
Pros
- ✓Docker builds and signs local catalog images
- ✓Gateway is open source (MIT) and runs without Docker Desktop
- ✓Per-tool enable and disable in profiles
- ✓No host filesystem access by default
Cons
- ✗Catalog and Toolkit are labelled Beta
- ✗Runs locally, not a hosted endpoint for remote teammates
- ✗Tools capped at 1 CPU and 2 GB memory
- ✗Docker Desktop needs a paid plan in larger companies
Composio MCP
Composio's MCP Gateway puts one managed endpoint between your agents and both its 1,500+ managed toolkits and your own MCP servers. It handles OAuth consent, token storage and refresh, gives each team its own endpoint carrying only permitted tools, and can block individual actions. Composio says tool-call payloads are never stored and lists SOC 2 Type II and ISO 27001. As of October 2026 the Hobby plan is free with 100,000 tool calls a month and Pro is $29 a month.
Pros
- ✓Public pricing with a hard-capped free tier
- ✓Bring your own MCP servers alongside managed toolkits
- ✓Action-level access control and per-team endpoints
- ✓SSO, SCIM and audit export
Cons
- ✗Not a public directory of community servers
- ✗Team governance features are pitched at enterprise buyers
- ✗Add-ons such as advanced white-labelling and a HIPAA BAA cost extra on Pro
mcp.so
mcp.so is a free community directory with sections for servers, remote servers, clients, CLI tools, skills and rankings, plus category pages and Featured and Verified filters. Its remote servers section collects hosted MCP endpoints from SaaS providers that you connect to directly, and anyone can submit a server. It replaces Glama's directory, not its hosting or gateway, and it sells sponsor placements, so treat featured slots as advertising.
Pros
- ✓Free to browse
- ✓Separate remote servers section
- ✓Rankings, categories and Verified filter
- ✓Open submissions
Cons
- ✗No hosting or gateway
- ✗Paid sponsor placements sit beside organic listings
- ✗No published server scanning method that we found
Zapier MCP
Zapier MCP lets Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor and other clients search Zapier's 9,000+ apps and 66,000+ triggers and actions and run them with Zapier's managed auth. Admins get action restrictions, managed connections, app access controls and workspace scoping, and IT can turn MCP on or off per workspace. It is not a registry of MCP servers, so it replaces Glama only if what you wanted from Glama was hosted connectors to everyday apps. As of October 2026 it is included in every Zapier plan and each tool call uses two tasks, so the Free plan's 100 tasks a month allow about 50 calls.
Pros
- ✓9,000+ apps behind one connection
- ✓No servers to host or update
- ✓Admin controls per workspace
- ✓Uses your existing Zapier plan
Cons
- ✗Not a directory of MCP servers
- ✗Two tasks per tool call adds up on busy agents
- ✗Free plan covers only about 50 tool calls a month
The modelcontextprotocol/servers repository holds the small set of reference servers maintained by the MCP steering group: Everything, Fetch, Filesystem, Git, Memory, Sequential Thinking and Time. Its README points anyone looking for a list of servers to the official MCP Registry at registry.modelcontextprotocol.io, which stores metadata only, verifies publisher namespaces through GitHub, DNS or HTTP challenges and offers a public REST API. The registry is still in preview, so breaking changes or data resets may occur, and it does not accept private servers. Together they are the vendor-neutral source Glama and other aggregators build on, but neither hosts or proxies anything.
Pros
- ✓Maintained by the MCP project
- ✓Free and open source
- ✓Registry API for machine-readable metadata
- ✓OpenAPI spec for building your own private registry
Cons
- ✗Reference servers are educational, not production-ready
- ✗Registry is in preview
- ✗No hosting, gateway or quality grades
Smithery
Smithery, now part of Arcade.dev, is shutting down its connection management on October 31, 2026. After that date its run.tools and server.smithery.ai URLs, API, Connect, Toolbox, accounts and API keys stop working, and its CLI and SDKs are marked deprecated. smithery.ai stays online as a public, non-proxied directory with a curated set of verified servers whose pages show the vendor's direct MCP URL. Paid subscribers are being refunded for charges since August 5. That makes it a reasonable place to look up official endpoints, but not a replacement for Glama's hosting or gateway.
Pros
- ✓Free directory
- ✓Verified server pages show direct vendor URLs
- ✓Clear migration notice from the company
Cons
- ✗Proxy, accounts and API end on October 31, 2026
- ✗CLI and SDKs deprecated
- ✗No hosting or gateway after the shutdown
The Verdict
Pick the alternative by the part of Glama you use. For a catalog and gateway you control, the Docker MCP Catalog and Toolkit is the strongest match: signed local images, an open source gateway and per-tool allowlists, at no extra cost for most small teams. For a hosted gateway with managed OAuth and audit logs, Composio has the clearest public pricing, with a free Hobby tier and Pro at $29 a month as of October 2026.
For discovery alone, use mcp.so to browse and the official MCP Registry when you need clean metadata or an API. Zapier MCP suits people who want an assistant to act in business apps and never touch a server. Avoid moving hosted connections to Smithery: its proxy stops on October 31, 2026.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is there a free Glama alternative?
Yes. As of October 2026, mcp.so, the official MCP Registry and the official reference servers are free. Composio's Hobby plan is $0 with 100,000 tool calls a month, and the Docker MCP Toolkit lists no separate fee, though Docker Desktop needs a paid plan in companies with 250 or more employees or $10 million or more in revenue.
What is the best Glama alternative?
It depends on which part of Glama you use. The Docker MCP Catalog and Toolkit is the closest match for a catalog plus gateway you run yourself, Composio is the closest hosted gateway, and mcp.so or the official MCP Registry cover discovery.
Is Smithery still a good alternative to Glama?
Only as a directory. Smithery says its MCP proxy, managed identity, API, accounts and API keys shut down on October 31, 2026. After that, smithery.ai remains a public directory that shows each verified server's direct vendor URL.
Can I self-host an MCP registry or gateway instead of using Glama?
Yes. Docker's open source mcp-gateway runs locally or on its own outside Docker Desktop, and the official MCP Registry docs recommend running your own private registry, built to its OpenAPI spec, for servers that should not be public, while noting that the official registry codebase is not designed for self-hosting. Composio also offers self-hosted and VPC deployment of its gateway.
Does the official MCP Registry replace Glama?
Not fully. The official registry stores metadata such as package locations and remote URLs and offers a REST API, but it hosts no code, has no gateway, does not accept private servers and is still in preview. Glama describes its own registry as a superset of it.
How much does Glama cost?
Glama does not publish a public rate card. Its hosting page says hosting is billed on top of your workspace plan and metered by machine hours and egress, with current rates shown inside the workspace subscription settings.
Sources
- Glama MCP server directory
- Glama homepage
- Glama MCP hosting
- Glama MCP gateway
- Glama indexing methodology
- Docker MCP Catalog documentation
- Docker MCP Toolkit documentation
- Docker MCP gateway repository
- Docker Desktop license terms
- Composio MCP Gateway
- Composio pricing
- mcp.so servers
- mcp.so remote servers
- mcp.so advertising
- Zapier MCP
- Zapier pricing
- Official MCP Registry
- MCP Registry documentation
- MCP Registry repository
- MCP reference servers repository
- The future of Smithery
About the author
Ethan Halfhide
Ethan Halfhide is an AI technologist who works with AI agents and Model Context Protocol integrations. He curates BestMCPTools' server directory, checking each server's documentation, supported clients and setup steps.