10 Best Enterprise MCP Gateways in 2026
For a company-wide rollout, Metorial is the best fit: one URL behind your SSO, per-person access and audit logs, and shared skills. Runlayer is strongest for security-led teams that need device-level discovery, and Arcade.dev for engineering teams that need fine-grained agent authorization.
Giving one engineer an MCP server is easy. Giving three hundred employees the right tools in whichever AI client they use, with each tool call traceable to a person, is the hard part, and it is what an enterprise MCP gateway is for.
This guide is for IT, security and platform teams choosing one. It covers ten gateways, from managed platforms to open-source projects you run yourself, and says plainly which one fits which kind of rollout.
What makes an MCP gateway ready for a company, not just a laptop
- SSO and SCIM. People sign in with the identity provider you already run, and leavers lose access when they leave.
- Per-user OAuth. Every tool call runs as the person behind it, not through one shared key.
- Tool-level access. Admins grant whole apps or single tools by role, including read-only sets.
- An audit log per person. You can answer "who did this, through which agent" after the fact.
- Remote and local servers. Vendor-hosted servers, your own internal ones, and packaged local servers all sit behind the same rules.
- An upgrade path. Start with one team and grow to the whole company without rebuilding the setup.
Architecture: local proxy vs remote gateway vs managed platform
A local proxy runs next to one AI client and keeps credentials on that machine. It is the fastest way for a developer to try MCP servers, but nothing is shared or audited across people.
A remote gateway is one endpoint your team points every client at. You deploy and operate it, and you connect identity, policy and log storage yourself.
A managed platform includes identity, per-person access and the audit log, whether the vendor runs it or you self-host it. This is where most company-wide rollouts end up.
Problems the right gateway prevents
Shadow MCP. People install servers on their own to get work done, and nobody knows which tools touch company data. A gateway gives them an approved path that is easier than the workaround. More in what is shadow AI.
API keys in config files. A personal token pasted into a laptop config works, gets copied, and outlives the person who made it. Per-user OAuth through a gateway removes the reason to do it.
No audit trail. When an agent emails the wrong customer, the first question is whose access it used. Without per-person logs there is no answer. See are MCP servers secure.
One shared credential for everyone. A single service account means every agent can reach everything the account can. Per-user OAuth and per-tool rules limit each agent to its person's own access.
How to evaluate an MCP gateway: 5 criteria
Identity: SSO, SCIM and per-user OAuth
Check that sign-in goes through your identity provider, that SCIM provisioning works with it, and that tool calls run with each person's own OAuth connection rather than a shared token.
Access control: per-tool allow and deny, read-only modes
Look for rules by group or role down to single tools, and a way to give a team read-only tools without building a second integration.
Visibility: an audit log per person, SIEM export
Every call should record the person, the agent, the tool and the result, and the log should reach the tools your security team already watches.
Deployment and license: self-host effort, license terms, managed option
Decide early whether it must run in your cloud, on-prem or air-gapped, who patches it, and whether there is a managed option for teams that don't want to operate it.
Coverage: catalog size, remote and custom servers
A maintained catalog saves weeks of setup. Equally important is registering your own internal servers and vendor-hosted remote servers under the same rules.
Run this checklist during a proof of concept:
- Sign in with your identity provider and remove a test user; confirm access disappears.
- Connect one app with two different people and confirm each call runs as its own person.
- Give one group read-only tools and try a write.
- Find a specific tool call in the audit log by person and time.
- Add one internal MCP server next to a catalog integration.
- Connect the same setup in two AI clients, for example Claude and Cursor.
The top picks, compared
The picks, one by one
1. Metorial
Metorial is an open-source MCP and skills gateway: one URL behind your company SSO that gives every employee and agent the tools their role allows, in any AI client, with 1,100+ MCP servers and 21,000+ tools in its catalog.
Best for: IT teams rolling AI out to the whole company, not just engineering.
Strengths
- People sign in through a portal with SSO, and one Magic MCP URL works the same in Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor and Codex.
- Access control by role down to single tools, read-only modes, a per-person audit log, and Protoguard checks every call for prompt injection.
- Skills are written by your own experts in a shared editor, synced to Git and delivered by role, so non-engineers can build on it.
Limits
- There is no LLM gateway or per-person model spend tracking yet; teams that need budgets on model usage pair it with one.
- It governs the tools you approve and does not scan employee devices for unapproved MCP servers, which Runlayer and Obot do.
License · deployment · pricing: open core on GitHub; Metorial Cloud, self-hosted, or on-prem; free Dev plan, see pricing.
github.com/metorial/metorial · How the MCP gateway works
2. Runlayer
Runlayer is a closed-source AI enablement platform that combines an MCP gateway with hosted agents, discovery of unmanaged AI tools on employee devices, and AI spend tracking.
Best for: security-led rollouts that need to find and block shadow MCP on managed devices.
Strengths
- An endpoint agent deployed through device management discovers and blocks unmanaged MCP servers, skills and client configs.
- ToolGuard scans tool descriptions, outputs and arguments for prompt injection, tool poisoning and PII, with masking.
- Per-user, per-team and per-agent spend tracking with budgets.
Limits
- There is no published pricing; every path leads to booking a demo.
- Audit logs reach a SIEM through continuous S3 delivery rather than a native connector.
License · deployment · pricing: license not published; Runlayer-hosted or self-hosted on AWS or Kubernetes; contact sales.
runlayer.com · Metorial vs Runlayer
3. Arcade.dev
Arcade.dev is an MCP runtime with 8,000+ permission-aware tools, per-user auth, gateways and policy hooks, and it has owned the Smithery registry since August 2026.
Best for: engineering teams that need programmable, per-call authorization for their own agents.
Strengths
- Users authenticate with their own credentials for each service, and gateways expose exactly the tools you choose.
- Contextual Access hooks run your own logic before and after each tool call to filter tools, block inputs and redact output.
- Enterprise deployment in your VPC or fully air-gapped.
Limits
- SSO, RBAC and audit logs are listed on the Enterprise plan only.
- Prompt-injection protection depends on hooks you write yourself.
License · deployment · pricing: MIT for the arcade-mcp framework, runtime license not published; Arcade Cloud, VPC or air-gapped on Enterprise; free plan, Team from $25 a month plus usage.
arcade.dev · Metorial vs Arcade.dev
4. Mintive (formerly MintMCP)
Mintive is a hosted MCP gateway with an LLM gateway, agent monitoring, the Mint Guard security layer and coworker agents. It was renamed from MintMCP in October 2026.
Best for: teams that want a governed, hosted gateway running quickly, with model spend in the same place.
Strengths
- Hosts stdio MCP servers in managed containers behind OAuth, so teams share a stable URL without running anything locally.
- An LLM gateway with policy budgets and per-person and per-agent cost ranking.
- Native SIEM export over OTLP or Splunk HEC, with EU and US data residency.
Limits
- Pricing is a custom quote, and Mint Guard is on the Enterprise plan only.
- Self-hosting is by arrangement, and ChatGPT connectors need developer mode.
License · deployment · pricing: license not published; hosted, self-hosted by arrangement; custom quote per active user.
mintmcp.com · Metorial vs Mintive
5. Barndoor
Barndoor is a closed-source AI gateway with governed MCP access, an LLM gateway, data loss prevention and a policy engine, available as SaaS, in a private cloud or on-prem.
Best for: regulated teams that need data protection and per-call approval in the MCP layer.
Strengths
- The Data Control Center detects, blocks or redacts PII, secrets and prompt injection in MCP traffic.
- Per-call human approval for any governed tool, with history and alerts when tool inventories change.
- Enterprise plan includes air-gapped and on-prem deployment and an LLM gateway with budgets.
Limits
- No published prices and no permanent free plan, only a 14-day trial.
- SCIM is documented for Okta and Entra ID; other identity providers sync roles on login.
License · deployment · pricing: license not published; SaaS, private cloud, on-prem or air-gapped; contact sales.
barndoor.ai · Metorial vs Barndoor
6. Cloudflare MCP server portals
Portals are a Cloudflare Zero Trust feature that puts several remote MCP servers behind one Access-protected URL, with tool toggles and logs.
Best for: companies whose employees already sign in through Cloudflare Access.
Strengths
- Bundled into Cloudflare Zero Trust, free for up to 50 users, with existing Access policies and identity providers.
- Users connect with their own credentials, and turned-off tools disappear from the portal's tool list.
- Can reach MCP servers on private networks without exposing them publicly.
Limits
- Only remote servers can be added, so local stdio servers need an HTTP endpoint first.
- Exporting portal logs to a SIEM is Enterprise-only, and there is no integration catalog or shared skills.
License · deployment · pricing: commercial; runs on Cloudflare's network; free up to 50 users, then $7 per user a month.
Cloudflare MCP portals docs · Metorial vs Cloudflare
7. Obot
Obot is an MIT-licensed MCP gateway, server host, skills registry and LLM gateway, self-hosted on Kubernetes or run as Obot Cloud.
Best for: teams that want a broad open-source platform and have the people to operate it.
Strengths
- An LLM gateway alongside the MCP gateway, with per-user model access and token and cost analytics.
- Runs MCP servers itself in isolated environments with domain-level egress control.
- Device management inventories local AI clients, MCP servers and skills on employee machines.
Limits
- Entra, Okta and other enterprise sign-in need a free Community registration or an Enterprise license.
- Skills are authored in GitHub and are read-only inside Obot; SOC 2 Type II is in progress.
License · deployment · pricing: MIT; self-hosted or Obot Cloud; free up to 100 users, Enterprise through sales.
8. IBM ContextForge
ContextForge is an Apache-2.0 gateway and registry that federates MCP, A2A agents, REST and gRPC services behind one endpoint.
Best for: platform teams that want one self-hosted endpoint for MCP, agents and existing APIs.
Strengths
- Translates REST and gRPC services to MCP in the same gateway as MCP and A2A.
- A library of 40+ plugins, including PII filtering, secrets detection and content moderation.
- SSO with Entra ID, Okta, Keycloak, Google and generic OIDC, with OAuth tokens scoped per user.
Limits
- There is no hosted integration catalog; you register your own servers.
- Per-person audit logging is partial: requests are logged per token, and security event logging is off by default.
License · deployment · pricing: Apache 2.0; self-hosted via PyPI, Docker or Kubernetes; free.
github.com/IBM/mcp-context-forge · Metorial vs ContextForge
9. Docker MCP Gateway
Docker's MIT-licensed gateway runs each MCP server in its own container, with a catalog of 300+ servers and a sales-led Enterprise Gateway.
Best for: developers and teams who want each MCP server isolated in a container.
Strengths
- Signed images, SBOMs, secret blocking and network blocking for local servers.
- Ships with the MCP Toolkit in Docker Desktop, with one-command client connect.
- The Enterprise Gateway adds policies with default-deny, per-request approval and SIEM-streamed decisions.
Limits
- Identity-provider sign-in and per-person audit logs are in the Enterprise Gateway only, which is sales-led.
- In the open-source gateway each developer authorizes OAuth on their own machine.
License · deployment · pricing: MIT; self-hosted wherever Docker runs; free, Enterprise Gateway through sales.
github.com/docker/mcp-gateway · Metorial vs Docker
10. Microsoft MCP Gateway
An MIT-licensed reverse proxy for MCP servers on Kubernetes, alongside Azure API Management, which can expose REST APIs and MCP servers as governed MCP endpoints.
Best for: companies standardized on Azure and Entra ID that want no new vendor.
Strengths
- Azure API Management turns REST APIs it already manages into MCP servers, with existing policies applied to tool calls.
- The same APIM instance works as an LLM gateway with token limits and content moderation.
- Native Entra ID auth, with Azure API Center as a private MCP registry.
Limits
- There is no pre-built integration catalog; you expose your own APIs and servers.
- Per-user OAuth for MCP is partial and depends on APIM's credential manager.
License · deployment · pricing: MIT for the gateway, APIM is an Azure service; self-hosted on Kubernetes or Azure; gateway free, APIM by Azure tier.
github.com/microsoft/mcp-gateway · Metorial vs Microsoft MCP Gateway
Which one should you choose?
| If you are... | Your priority | Pick |
|---|---|---|
| An IT team rolling AI out company-wide | SSO, per-person access and audit, skills for every team | Metorial |
| A security team worried about tools nobody approved | Device-level discovery and runtime scanning | Runlayer |
| An engineering team building its own agents | Programmable per-call authorization | Arcade.dev |
| A team that wants hosted governance plus model spend | Fast setup, LLM gateway, SIEM export | Mintive |
| A regulated team handling sensitive data | DLP and per-call approval, on-prem | Barndoor |
| A company already on Cloudflare Access | One endpoint for remote servers | Cloudflare MCP portals |
| A platform team that wants open source to operate | Broad self-hosted platform | Obot or IBM ContextForge |
| A developer or small team | Container isolation, zero cost | Docker MCP Gateway |
Whatever you pick, connect a few real apps during the trial, such as Slack, GitHub, Gmail and Salesforce, and run the checklist above.
Related: what is an MCP gateway · Composio alternatives · what is shadow AI
Frequently asked questions
What is an enterprise MCP gateway?
An MCP gateway sits between AI clients such as Claude, ChatGPT and Cursor and the MCP servers that connect them to company apps. An enterprise gateway adds what a company needs on top of routing: sign-in through your identity provider, access granted by role, a record of every tool call tied to a person, and a way to run it where your data rules require.
What is the difference between an MCP gateway and an MCP server?
An MCP server exposes one tool or data source to an AI client. A gateway sits in front of many servers and handles sign-in, access control and logging once, so each team and each tool does not have to solve them separately.
Which MCP gateways can be self-hosted?
Metorial, Runlayer, Obot, IBM ContextForge, Docker MCP Gateway and Microsoft MCP Gateway all document self-hosting. Arcade.dev and Barndoor offer it on their Enterprise plans, and Mintive by arrangement. Cloudflare MCP server portals run on Cloudflare's network.
Do I need an enterprise gateway if only engineers use AI today?
Not urgently. The need shows up when a second department asks for access and people start sharing API keys in config files. Setting up a gateway before that point is easier than untangling the keys afterwards.
Which gateway is best for non-technical teams?
Metorial is built for people outside engineering: employees sign in through a portal, get the tools their role allows in the AI client they already use, and experts can write and share skills in the browser without a Git repository.
How much do enterprise MCP gateways cost?
It varies. Metorial, Arcade.dev and Cloudflare publish prices, the open-source gateways are free to run on your own infrastructure, and Runlayer, Barndoor and Mintive quote on request. Compare the total cost of the rollout, including the engineering time to operate a self-hosted option.