Best self-hosted and open source MCP gateway
| Rank | Gateway | Total | G1 10 | G2 10 | G3 5 | G4 10 | G5 10 | G6 15 | G7 40 | Deployment | Price as published |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Aembit | 8.20 | 8 | 10 | 2 | 4 | 8 | 10 | 9 | Self-hosted VM | Free tier; $20/agent/mo |
| 2= | Obot | 6.70 | 5 | 5 | 2 | 8 | 6 | 4 | 9 | Open source, self-hosted | Free (MIT) |
| 2= | agentgateway | 6.65 | 6 | 4 | 2 | 4 | 5 | 7 | 9 | Open source, self-hosted | Free (Apache 2.0) |
| 2= | ContextForge | 6.65 | 5 | 5 | 2 | 7 | 5 | 5 | 9 | Open source, self-hosted | Free (Apache 2.0) |
| 5 | NewCore | 6.55 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 8 | 9 | 5 | 4 | SaaS | No list price |
| 6 | Docker | 6.35 | 3 | 6 | 2 | 7 | 3 | 5 | 9 | Open source, local | Free (MIT) |
| 7= | Microsoft | 6.20 | 5 | 4 | 2 | 6 | 5 | 6 | 8 | Open source or Azure | Free (MIT) or Azure |
| 7= | Silverfort | 6.20 | 9 | 5 | 9 | 7 | 9 | 5 | 5 | SaaS | Quote |
| 9= | Idira | 5.60 | 8 | 9 | 2 | 6 | 7 | 6 | 4 | Platform add-on | Add-on, no price |
| 9= | TrueFoundry | 5.55 | 6 | 4 | 2 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 6 | SaaS | Free start |
| 11 | Kong | 5.35 | 6 | 7 | 2 | 6 | 7 | 7 | 4 | Self-managed or Konnect | Not found |
| 12= | Cloudflare | 4.90 | 7 | 5 | 2 | 5 | 6 | 6 | 4 | SaaS | Not found |
| 12= | Lasso | 4.90 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 5 | 2 | 8 | Open source, local | Free (MIT) |
| 12= | Mintive | 4.90 | 7 | 8 | 3 | 8 | 8 | 3 | 3 | SaaS | Demo |
In short: Aembit leads for self-hosted and open source with a weighted score of 8.20, ahead of Obot at 6.70 and agentgateway at 6.65. This view reuses the selection table scores with its own weights, putting 40 percent on deployment. The full ranking is below.
Why these weights?
Deployment carries 40 percent here, so open source licences and free self-hosting dominate. Standards carry 15 percent because self-hosters wire up their own authorization servers.
| Criterion | This view | Main table |
|---|---|---|
| G1 Identity-bound per-call authorization | 10 | 25 |
| G2 Credential brokering | 10 | 20 |
| G3 Human approval and escalation | 5 | 15 |
| G4 Server registry and discovery | 10 | 10 |
| G5 Audit evidence | 10 | 10 |
| G6 Standards | 15 | 10 |
| G7 Deployment and buying clarity | 40 | 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