Launch guides
Where to List Your MCP Server: Every Registry and Directory, Compared
Publish to the Official MCP Registry first: GitHub's registry and PulseMCP ingest it, and it is the only entry most clients treat as canonical. Of the 12 registries we checked on 6 September 2026, only Docker MCP Catalog, Cursor Marketplace, LobeHub and the Gemini CLI gallery link to your repo dofollow. The catalogues clients read most pass no link value at all.
Last updated September 2026
The comparison table
MCP discovery is a registry problem before it is a search problem. The Official MCP Registry takes a CLI publish with namespace proof by GitHub login or a DNS record, and downstream catalogues pick it up automatically. GitHub's own registry is curated by email and PulseMCP has paused direct submissions in favour of ingesting the official one, so a server that is not in the official registry is invisible to the largest share of clients. Docker's catalogue is the one entry that is both widely read and dofollow.
Two community directories sell a one time upgrade that lists a dofollow link as a feature while their free listings are verifiably nofollow. The price is the same on both. Whether that is worth it depends on whether you want the link or the reach, and for reach the free, nofollow catalogues win by a distance. Several older lists are closed or archived and are left out: a directory that no longer accepts servers is not a place to list one.
Toolfound is not an MCP registry and does not appear in this table. It is a launch directory for products, with its own MCP server for submitting and tracking launches, which is why we keep an eye on this space. Unverified cells show a dash.
| # | Platform | Best for | Launch model | Dofollow link | Cost | Notes | Verified |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Official MCP Registry | Any server that ships as an npm, PyPI, NuGet or Docker package | Evergreen listing | No | Free | CLI publish with mcp-publisher; no web form, no HTML listing page, so no link equity | 2026-09-06 |
| 2 | GitHub MCP Registry | Servers that want to show up inside VS Code and Copilot by default | Evergreen listing | No | Free | Curated: nominate by email to [email protected]; GitHub nofollows every external link | 2026-09-06 |
| 3 | Docker MCP Catalog | Containerised or remote servers that want one-click installs across several clients | Evergreen listing | Yes | Free | PR adding servers/<name>/server.yaml; permissive licence required, GPL is refused | 2026-09-06 |
| 4 | Glama MCP directory | Public GitHub repos that want to be indexed without doing anything | Evergreen listing | Conditional | Free | Auto-indexed from GitHub; the repository link is dofollow, every README link is ugc nofollow | 2026-09-06 |
| 5 | Cursor Marketplace | Servers whose users are already writing code inside Cursor | Evergreen listing | Yes | Free | Anysphere's own store, manually reviewed; do not confuse it with the community cursor.directory | 2026-09-06 |
| 6 | Claude Connectors Directory | Remote, OAuth-authenticated servers aimed at Claude users | Evergreen listing | No | Free | Submitting needs a Team or Enterprise org; no privacy policy means immediate rejection | 2026-09-06 |
| 7 | LobeHub MCP Marketplace | Servers that want a genuinely dofollow listing page with a client behind it | Evergreen listing | Yes | Free | Publish with the market CLI using GitHub OAuth, or the submit button on the site | 2026-09-06 |
| 8 | Cline MCP Marketplace | Servers that install cleanly with no human hand-holding | Evergreen listing | No | Free | Now a PR adding registry/mcps/<slug>/entry.json; the old issue queue has over 2,000 open items | 2026-09-06 |
| 9 | Gemini CLI Extensions gallery | MCP servers packaged as a Gemini CLI extension, listed with zero submission work | Evergreen listing | Yes | Free | Auto-crawled from the gemini-cli-extension GitHub topic; a CLI migration is announced, so check dates | 2026-09-06 |
| 10 | mcpservers.org | Founders who want reach and are willing to read the pricing before believing the link claim | Evergreen listing | Conditional | Free + paid options | Free listings are nofollow; a 39 dollar one-time fee buys faster review, a badge and a dofollow link | 2026-09-06 |
| 11 | mcp.so | Broad directory coverage when you are sweeping every index | Evergreen listing | Conditional | Free + paid options | Free listings are nofollow ugc; a 39 dollar one-time fee advertises a dofollow link and no review | 2026-09-06 |
| 12 | Awesome MCP Servers (punkpeye) | Getting in front of developers who browse a list instead of a registry | Evergreen listing | No | Free | Pull request adding one alphabetical line; the repo's stated homepage is the Glama directory | 2026-09-06 |
Every platform, one by one
Each entry links to the platform’s own submit or FAQ page — the primary source. The full cross-segment comparison, sequencing advice and launch-day playbook live in the complete launch guide; how we source these facts is on the methodology page.
1. Official MCP Registry
The upstream source almost every other entry on this page copies from, backed by Anthropic, GitHub, Microsoft and PulseMCP. There is no web form. You publish your package to npm, PyPI, NuGet or Docker Hub, add an mcpName field to the manifest so ownership can be checked, run mcp-publisher init to generate a server.json, then authenticate with GitHub OAuth for an io.github.* namespace or a DNS TXT record for your own domain. Publishing is instant and free; the moderation policy says outright that consumers should assume minimal to no moderation, and only illegal content, malware, spam and broken servers get removed. Two honest limits: it is still labelled preview, and it serves JSON only, so there is no page for search engines and no backlink. Publish here first anyway, because the downstream directories ingest it.
2. GitHub MCP Registry
This is the catalogue VS Code actually opens: code.visualstudio.com/mcp redirects straight to github.com/mcp, so a listing here is the difference between being installable in two clicks inside Copilot and not being there at all. That reach comes with the tightest door on this page. It is curated rather than self-serve, and the documented route is to nominate your server by emailing [email protected]; GitHub has said self-publication is coming and that servers in the official registry will flow through automatically, which is the more realistic path for an independent maintainer. On SEO it gives you nothing: the listing renders your README the way GitHub renders any README, with rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" on every outbound link, and the only dofollow links point back at github.com. Come here for installs, not for links.
3. Docker MCP Catalog
The best documented submission process here and one of only two catalogues with a client integration confirmed in vendor docs rather than marketing copy: Docker Desktop's MCP Toolkit browses this catalogue in-app and writes the config into Claude Desktop and VS Code for the user. You fork docker/mcp-registry, run task wizard (or task remote-wizard for a hosted server), and open a PR adding servers/<name>/server.yaml. Docker will build, sign and host the image for you at no cost. The bars are real: a permissive licence, with the contributing guide saying MIT or Apache 2 are great and GPL is not, a Docker team review on every PR, and test credentials shared through a separate form. The guide states an entry goes live within 24 hours of approval. We read a live catalogue page and the server's own documentation link carried only rel="noopener noreferrer", so it passes equity.
Visit: github.com/docker/mcp-registry/blob/main/CONTRIBUTING.md
4. Glama MCP directory
The largest index by volume, listing more than eighty thousand servers, and the one you are most likely to already be in without knowing: it crawls public GitHub repositories rather than waiting for a submission. Maintainers claim a listing by signing in with GitHub, or by adding a glama.json file to an organisation repo, and remote servers can verify through a well-known file on their own domain. Every server gets an automated tool-quality score and a sandboxed check for risky behaviour, so there is no human review queue and no wait. The link picture is split and worth knowing before you count on it: on a live listing page the canonical repository link carried no rel attribute at all, while every link rendered out of your README, including your own homepage, carried rel="ugc nofollow". No confirmed client reads it natively; treat it as a human discovery surface.
5. Cursor Marketplace
Cursor's first-party plugin store, and the only Cursor surface the editor itself reads. Submissions go through cursor.com/marketplace/publish and Cursor's help documentation states that every plugin is manually reviewed before it is listed, so expect a wait and expect to be judged on whether the thing works. It is free. The important distinction for anyone searching: cursor.directory is a separate community site run by an independent maintainer, has no confirmed integration with the editor, and was behind a bot challenge when we tried to verify it, so it sits in the appendix rather than here. On a live marketplace listing we found both the publisher's own website and its GitHub repository linked with rel="noopener noreferrer" only, which makes this one of the few client-owned catalogues that also passes link equity.
6. Claude Connectors Directory
The directory that reaches Claude on the web, on desktop, on mobile and in Claude Code, which makes it the highest-value placement here for a hosted server and also the hardest to get. Submission is open in principle but gated in practice: remote servers are submitted from an admin settings page that requires a Team or Enterprise organisation, so an individual on a Pro plan cannot file one, and desktop extensions use a separate form. The requirements are specific rather than vague, covering OAuth 2.0 for anything authenticated, title and readOnlyHint and destructiveHint annotations on your tools, and a published privacy policy whose absence is called out as an immediate rejection. Listings are split into reviewed and lighter-screened tiers. There is no public web page per connector, so there is no backlink to gain.
7. LobeHub MCP Marketplace
The marketplace behind LobeChat, and one of the few directories where the connection between the public site and the product is verifiable rather than claimed: the client's install flow calls the same backend that serves the public pages. You publish with a GitHub-authenticated CLI that proves you own the repository, or through the submit button on the site. There is no human review gate, and metadata is enriched afterwards rather than before. It was the cleanest link result we measured on this page. A live listing carried no rel attribute at all on any outbound link, so the repository, the npm packages and the server's own homepage were all dofollow. Weigh that against reach: the audience is LobeChat users and readers of a Chinese and English bilingual site, which is narrower than the Docker or GitHub catalogues.
8. Cline MCP Marketplace
Cline's in-editor marketplace, where a listing means a user can install your server in one click and let the agent handle cloning and configuration. The submission path moved: the current repository takes a pull request adding registry/mcps/<slug>/entry.json against a published JSON schema, validated by npm run validate before you open it. The older cline/mcp-marketplace repository still tells people to file a GitHub issue, and that queue now holds more than two thousand open submissions with no commits to the repository since mid-2025, though maintainers were still closing individual submissions this week. Read that as a real backlog, not a dead project, and use the newer PR route. Being GitHub-hosted, the listing itself is worth nothing for links: external README links render with rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow".
9. Gemini CLI Extensions gallery
The lowest-effort listing on this page. Google's own documentation states that the gallery automatically indexes public extensions and that you do not need to file an issue or email anyone: put the extension in a public GitHub repository, add the gemini-cli-extension topic to the repository's About section, and the crawler finds it. An extension bundles MCP servers with context files and custom commands, so a plain server needs a thin wrapper. The gallery page itself is server-rendered and we counted well over a thousand outbound GitHub links with no rel attribute at all, which makes it a genuine dofollow surface, although there is no per-extension page to rank. One caveat you should act on: the site currently carries a banner about Gemini CLI being replaced by Antigravity CLI for some tiers, so verify the destination before you invest.
10. mcpservers.org
A large SEO-driven directory with a web form and no GitHub requirement, claiming over two hundred thousand monthly visitors on its own advertising page. It is on this list because it is explicit about a trade most directories keep quiet. The free listing exists, and every outbound link we checked on a live free listing carried rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer", the repository link included. The 39 dollar one-time Premium Submit is described on the submit page as buying faster review approval, an official badge and a dofollow link, which is the same price and the same offer another large MCP directory sells. Above that sit sponsorships from 500 to 2,500 dollars a month. No AI client is known to read it and the operator is not named anywhere on the site. Submit free for the traffic; only pay if you are buying the link knowingly.
11. mcp.so
One of the earliest and most linked-to MCP directories, and still one of the biggest by listing count. Submission is a web form that expects a public GitHub repository, with a free review queue and a 39 dollar one-time paid tier whose bullet points promise immediate publication, a verified badge, featured placement and a dofollow project link. The free tier is definitively not that: on a live server page every external link, the repository included, carried rel="nofollow ugc noopener noreferrer". We did not pay, so the paid claim is unverified. We also found no evidence that any AI client reads the site, and the public GitHub project behind it has not been pushed to since 2025 even though the listings themselves are actively updated. Submit free for the coverage and judge the upsell on its own terms.
12. Awesome MCP Servers (punkpeye)
The most starred MCP list on GitHub by a wide margin, at more than ninety thousand stars, and still merging pull requests this month. Getting in costs one fork, one alphabetical line in the README and one PR, which is the lowest bar of anything here that involves a human. Two things are worth knowing before you treat it as independent. Its declared repository homepage is the Glama directory, so the list and that index share an owner, and a listing here is effectively part of the same surface. And because it lives on GitHub, the rendered README gives you nothing for SEO: we confirmed on the live page that external links carry rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow". The value is developer eyeballs and the chance of being copied into someone else's tutorial, not link equity.
Common questions
Where should I publish my MCP server first?
The Official MCP Registry. Package the server to npm, PyPI, NuGet or Docker, add the mcpName field to the manifest, and publish with the mcp-publisher CLI, proving your namespace with GitHub login or a DNS TXT record. GitHub's registry, PulseMCP and others ingest it, so one publish covers several catalogues.
Which MCP registries give a dofollow link to my repo?
On 6 September 2026: Docker MCP Catalog, Cursor Marketplace, LobeHub and the Gemini CLI Extensions gallery linked out dofollow from a live listing. The Official MCP Registry, GitHub MCP Registry, Claude Connectors, Cline and the awesome-mcp-servers list did not. Glama, mcpservers.org and mcp.so were conditional.
Is the paid submission on mcp.so or mcpservers.org worth it?
Both sell a one time upgrade that includes a dofollow link, and both free tiers are nofollow on a live listing. If you want the link, that is the price. If you want to be found by agents and clients, the free official registry and the client catalogues matter far more, and those cost nothing.
How do I get into the GitHub MCP Registry?
It is curated. The published route is an email to GitHub's partnerships address; GitHub has said self publication through the Official MCP Registry is coming. The VS Code MCP page redirects to the GitHub registry, so the two are one catalogue.
How did you verify these rows?
We fetched each submission page for its status code and the free path, then fetched a real listing page with a browser user agent and read the rel attribute on the anchor pointing at the listed server. Registries whose listing pages are client rendered, or that returned a bot challenge, are in the evidence appendix rather than the table.
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