Best MCP gateway for developer teams starting out
| Rank | Gateway | Total | G1 15 | G2 15 | G3 5 | G4 10 | G5 5 | G6 15 | G7 35 | Deployment | Price as published |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Aembit | 8.25 | 8 | 10 | 2 | 4 | 8 | 10 | 9 | Self-hosted VM | Free tier; $20/agent/mo |
| 2 | NewCore | 6.90 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 8 | 9 | 5 | 4 | SaaS | No list price |
| 3= | agentgateway | 6.45 | 6 | 4 | 2 | 4 | 5 | 7 | 9 | Open source, self-hosted | Free (Apache 2.0) |
| 3= | ContextForge | 6.45 | 5 | 5 | 2 | 7 | 5 | 5 | 9 | Open source, self-hosted | Free (Apache 2.0) |
| 3= | Obot | 6.45 | 5 | 5 | 2 | 8 | 6 | 4 | 9 | Open source, self-hosted | Free (MIT) |
| 6= | Docker | 6.20 | 3 | 6 | 2 | 7 | 3 | 5 | 9 | Open source, local | Free (MIT) |
| 6= | Silverfort | 6.20 | 9 | 5 | 9 | 7 | 9 | 5 | 5 | SaaS | Quote |
| 8= | Microsoft | 6.00 | 5 | 4 | 2 | 6 | 5 | 6 | 8 | Open source or Azure | Free (MIT) or Azure |
| 8= | Idira | 5.90 | 8 | 9 | 2 | 6 | 7 | 6 | 4 | Platform add-on | Add-on, no price |
| 10= | Kong | 5.45 | 6 | 7 | 2 | 6 | 7 | 7 | 4 | Self-managed or Konnect | Not found |
| 10= | TrueFoundry | 5.45 | 6 | 4 | 2 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 6 | SaaS | Free start |
| 12= | Mintive | 5.10 | 7 | 8 | 3 | 8 | 8 | 3 | 3 | SaaS | Demo |
| 12= | Cloudflare | 5.00 | 7 | 5 | 2 | 5 | 6 | 6 | 4 | SaaS | Not found |
| 14 | Lasso | 4.50 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 5 | 2 | 8 | Open source, local | Free (MIT) |
In short: Aembit leads for developer teams starting out with a weighted score of 8.25, ahead of NewCore at 6.90 and agentgateway at 6.45. This view reuses the selection table scores with its own weights, putting 35 percent on deployment. The full ranking is below.
Why these weights?
Deployment carries 35 percent because a small team needs to start free today. Standards carry 15 percent so the setup survives the next spec change.
| Criterion | This view | Main table |
|---|---|---|
| G1 Identity-bound per-call authorization | 15 | 25 |
| G2 Credential brokering | 15 | 20 |
| G3 Human approval and escalation | 5 | 15 |
| G4 Server registry and discovery | 10 | 10 |
| G5 Audit evidence | 5 | 10 |
| G6 Standards | 15 | 10 |
| G7 Deployment and buying clarity | 35 | 10 |
The criterion scores are the same as on the selection table. Only the weights change. Other views are listed on the pick by need index.
By The Datasheet desk · Published and reviewed 2026-11-03