Smithery and CuratedMCP solve adjacent problems with different philosophies. This is the honest comparison written by us, the CuratedMCP team — yes, we're biased, but we're going to tell you exactly when Smithery is the right answer.
The 30-second answer
- Use Smithery when: you want the largest selection (7,000+ servers), you're comfortable evaluating quality yourself, or you're publishing a brand-new server and need maximum discovery.
- Use CuratedMCP when: you want human-reviewed servers, you care about security/compliance, you'd rather skip quality evaluation, or you're a publisher who wants to monetize via subscriptions.
Both can coexist. Many serious developers use Smithery for breadth and CuratedMCP for production-grade stuff.
Side-by-side comparison
| Dimension | Smithery | CuratedMCP |
|---|---|---|
| Total servers | ~7,000+ | 70 (and growing slowly) |
| Quality bar | Open submission | Human review, 22 rejected |
| Security audit | None | Sovereign Certification per server |
| Risk classification | None | 🟢🟡🔴🟣 per server |
| Free tier | Yes (Hobby) | Yes (browse + free servers + Auditor CLI) |
| Pro pricing | Custom (Pro/Custom tiers) | $29/mo (annual: $19/mo) |
| Publisher rev-share | Variable | 80/20 (publisher keeps 80%) |
| Multi-client | Claude-focused | Claude / Cursor / Windsurf / Copilot / Gemini |
| Enterprise | Custom tier available | Live — control plane + $7,500 60-day pilot |
| Hosting infra | Yes (managed runtime + ngrok) | Tool Pass for select servers ($9/mo) |
Where Smithery wins
Smithery has real strengths, and we'd be foolish to pretend otherwise:
- Catalog size. If you want to find a specific niche tool, the probability is much higher on Smithery than us. We list 70 servers; they list 7,000+.
- Hosting infrastructure. Their managed runtime + OAuth integration is solid. If you don't want to think about how a server is hosted, their offering is mature.
- First-mover brand. They've been called “the Docker Hub of MCP” for two years. That mental model is sticky.
- Distribution for new publishers. If you're shipping a brand-new MCP and want maximum eyeballs, Smithery is one of the highest-traffic places to list it.
Where CuratedMCP wins
Where we focus, and what we believe is worth more than volume:
- Quality + security review. Every server in our catalog has been hands-tested for install correctness, schema compliance, error handling, credential safety, and dependency hygiene. 22 servers have been rejected. The quality bar is the product.
- Sovereign Certification. A visible, defensible signal that a server has passed full review. Smithery has nothing equivalent.
- Risk classification per server. Read-only vs. read/write vs. executes-commands vs. network-egress. Lets you match the risk tier to the task.
- Publisher economics. We take a 20% platform fee on subscription revenue. You keep 80%. Top publishers on comparable platforms (Apify) earn $2,000+/mo; our quality bar means traffic-per-server is denser.
- Multi-client support. We test every server against Claude Desktop, Cursor, Windsurf, Copilot, and Gemini. Smithery is more Claude-biased.
- Sovereign Suite. MCP Auditor (free), Sentinel ($19.99/mo), and Private Counsel ($29/mo) are tools for serious MCP users. No equivalent on Smithery.
- Live enterprise control plane. Our control plane (RBAC, audit, policy) is live today, sold as a 60-day governance pilot. We tell you exactly what ships now versus what's on the roadmap.
How to decide
Three questions:
- Are you installing MCPs into a production AI agent that touches real credentials or data? If yes, prefer human-reviewed. CuratedMCP is the safer choice.
- Do you need a niche server we don't list? Smithery's catalog is broader. Get it from there, then run MCP Auditor against it before trusting it.
- Are you a publisher who wants to charge for your server? Our 80/20 rev-share + premium positioning gives you better economics than open marketplaces, where most servers compete by being free.
The both/and answer
Realistically, most serious developers will use both. Smithery as a wider directory you check when looking for niche tools; CuratedMCP as the curated layer for anything you actually trust in production.
That's not a dodge. Different problems. Different products. We're not trying to out-volume Smithery — we'd lose. They're not trying to out-curate us — that would dilute their brand. Both businesses can grow.
Try us
If you want to see what curation looks like in practice, the marketplace is free to browse. The MCP Auditor CLI is free forever. Pro is $29/mo (annual $19/mo) with a 14-day trial — no credit card to start. If we don't earn the subscription, the trial just expires.