Smithery
Registry and hosting platform for Model Context Protocol servers.
why this verdict
Keep it — Anthropic has not replaced it
Anthropic's version overlaps, but does not finish the dev tools job, so this one is still worth keeping open.
- A named launch, not a vibe named, unlinked
- Anthropic and OpenAI running official MCP registries inside their own products. Anthropic, January 20, 2026 — no announcement link recorded yet.
- How much of the job it covers not the job editorial call
- Parts of it. The job still needs the tool to get finished.
- Is there a free way to do it? yes
- 2 of 3 listed replacements have a usable free tier: MCP Registry and Pipedream.
- What the call is worth nothing to cancel
- No paid entry tier tracked, so there is no subscription to cancel.
- Threatened by
- Anthropic
- Since
- January 20, 2026
- List price
- free
- Per year
- —
The backstory
Smithery became the de facto index for MCP servers, letting developers find, install and host the connectors that give agents access to tools and data. Official registries from the protocol's own authors are the obvious risk to any third-party directory. Smithery's position is hosting rather than listing: running an MCP server reliably, with authentication and usage limits, is work that a registry entry does not do, and the number of servers needing that grew very fast through 2026.
Escape hatches
The official open registry for MCP servers
github.com open_in_newManaged tools and auth rather than raw servers
composio.dev open_in_newHosted connectors with an MCP interface
pipedream.com open_in_new2 of 3 replacements have a usable free tier.
