Agent identity and MCP authorization platforms
Descope, Stytch Connected Apps, Auth0 for AI Agents, WorkOS AuthKit and Arcade compared on their role in MCP OAuth, DCR and CIMD support, delegated tokens for third-party APIs, human approval, pricing and SDKs.
Comparison
| Entry | Role in MCP OAuth | DCR and CIMD | Delegated third-party tokens | Human-in-the-loop approval | Pricing and free tier | SDKs |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Descope Agentic Identity Hub | Authorization server for your MCP server, plus a token vault (Connections / Outbound Apps) | Both, plus pre-registration and JWT Bearer for cloud workloads | Yes: stores OAuth tokens and API keys per user or tenant and refreshes them | CIBA for confidential clients (off by default), with out-of-band approval such as email | Free Forever: 7,500 MAU, 2,000 monthly active consents, 2,000 monthly active tokens. Pro from $249/mo, Growth from $799/mo (billed annually) | MCP SDKs for Express and Python; FastMCP DescopeProvider; gateway integrations such as Portkey |
| Stytch Connected Apps (MCP auth) | Turns your app into an OAuth/OIDC authorization server, with your own hosted authorization page (React IdentityProvider component) | DCR is opt-in in the dashboard (DCR clients count as third-party). CIMD is not documented | No token vault found; supports Cross App Access | OAuth consent screen; no async approval flow found | Pay as you go, $0 base, with 10,000 monthly active members and agents and 1,000 M2M tokens included | Frontend and backend SDKs with React components; MCP guides for Cloudflare and Vercel |
| Auth0 for AI Agents | Authorization server (Auth for MCP), plus Token Vault | DCR supported. CIMD only by manually importing a hosted metadata document, for third-party apps | Token Vault calls third-party APIs on the user's behalf. The Free plan allows 2 Token Vault connections; the add-on makes it unlimited | Asynchronous authorization through CIBA with RAR (push, SMS or email). Not on Free; an add-on on paid plans | Free up to 25,000 MAU. The AI Agents add-on costs 50% of the base plan price (for example $18/mo on Essentials at 500 MAU) | JavaScript and Python, with integrations for LangChain/LangGraph, LlamaIndex, Vercel AI, Cloudflare Agents and Genkit |
| WorkOS AuthKit for MCP | Authorization server; your MCP server is the resource server | CIMD supported (off by default; enable it in the dashboard). DCR can be enabled for backwards compatibility | Not covered by AuthKit for MCP. WorkOS Vault is encrypted key storage, not an OAuth token broker | OAuth consent; no async approval flow found | AuthKit free for the first 1M MAU, then $2,500/mo per additional 1M | WorkOS SDKs; works with the official MCP SDKs. Resource indicators set aud on tokens |
| Arcade | Tool-calling runtime and MCP gateway. It handles users' OAuth to third-party services and federates tools behind one gateway URL | Not documented. Gateways accept browser OAuth or, as a fallback, an API key plus a user-ID header. Self-hosted arcade-mcp servers accept tokens from an external authorization server such as WorkOS, Auth0 or Descope | Yes, the core feature: built-in auth providers (Google, Microsoft, Slack and more) or raw tokens for direct API calls | Users authorize tool scopes interactively. Contextual Access webhooks can validate or filter each tool call | Free: 2,000 auth events and 2,000 tool calls per month. Team $25/mo plus $0.10 per auth event and $0.01 per tool call. Enterprise custom (VPC or air-gapped) | Python (arcadepy), JavaScript (@arcadeai/arcadejs) and Java clients; arcade-mcp server framework (MIT); integrations for LangChain, OpenAI Agents, Google ADK, Vercel AI, Mastra and others |
Verdict: To issue tokens for your own MCP server, WorkOS AuthKit has the cleanest fit with the current spec (CIMD, resource indicators) and is free to 1M MAU. Descope supports both CIMD and DCR and adds a token vault and CIBA in one free tier. Auth0 suits existing Auth0 tenants, but Token Vault and CIBA need the paid add-on. Stytch is a simple DCR-based authorization server. Arcade sits on the other side: it holds users' third-party tokens and runs the tools.
Two different jobs
MCP authorization makes your MCP server an OAuth protected resource. The server publishes Protected Resource Metadata, clients send a resource indicator, and the server checks the token audience. The spec also bans token passthrough: a client may only send the MCP server tokens issued by that server's authorization server. So if a tool needs a user's Gmail or GitHub token, that token has to come from somewhere else. That is the token vault or tool-calling gateway.
- Authorization server: WorkOS AuthKit, Stytch Connected Apps, Descope, Auth0.
- Delegated-token vault: Descope Connections, Auth0 Token Vault.
- Tool-calling runtime/gateway: Arcade (and Composio, not covered here).
Client registration in 2026
The 2026-07-28 spec tells authorization servers to support Client ID Metadata Documents (CIMD) and keeps Dynamic Client Registration (DCR) only for backwards compatibility. Descope and WorkOS support CIMD. Auth0 supports it only through a manual import. Stytch documents DCR only. If you want clients such as Claude Code or Cursor to connect without pre-registration, test the flow with MCP Inspector.
Standout findings
- Auth0's free plan covers 25,000 MAU but not CIBA. The AI Agents add-on, priced at 50% of the base plan, unlocks unlimited Token Vault and CIBA.
- WorkOS AuthKit ships CIMD switched off. Enable it in the dashboard, and set a default Resource Indicator for clients that omit
resource. - Arcade meters auth events and tool calls, not seats. Its MIT-licensed
arcade-mcpframework can validate tokens from WorkOS, Auth0 or Descope.
For the client side of the flow, see Connect an agent to a remote MCP server. If you build with FastMCP, Descope ships a provider for it.
Directory entries in this comparison
- Descope Agentic Identity Hub: Manage authentication, authorization and external credentials for AI agents and MCP servers with Descope.
- Stytch Connected Apps (MCP auth): Stytch Connected Apps: authorization for remote MCP servers and connected agent integrations.
- Auth0 for AI Agents: Auth0's identity toolkit for AI agents: user authentication, delegated authorization, human-in-the-loop (CIBA) and fine-grained authorization for RAG.
- WorkOS AuthKit for MCP: WorkOS AuthKit guide and support for securing MCP servers that require authentication.
- Arcade: Actions runtime for enterprise AI agents: agent authorization, agent-optimized tools (MCP servers) and governance, plus an open-source MCP framework.
- MCP Authorization (OAuth 2.1 for MCP): The MCP specification's transport-level authorization flow for HTTP-based MCP servers, based on a subset of OAuth 2.1 and related RFCs.
- Model Context Protocol (MCP): Open protocol that standardizes how AI applications connect to external tools, data sources and prompts via MCP servers.
- Composio: Tool platform for agents: 1,000+ toolkits with tool search, delegated authentication and sandboxed execution.
- FastMCP: The fast, Pythonic framework for building MCP servers, clients and interactive applications.
- MCP Inspector: Official interactive developer tool for testing and debugging MCP servers in the browser, on the command line or in the terminal.
Related
- Add OAuth authorization to your own MCP server (Guide)
- Agent auth and delegated access, step by step (Guide)
- Connect an agent to a remote MCP server (Guide)
- Connect a remote MCP server (Skill)
- Publish an MCP server so agents can find it (Guide)
- Memory layers for AI agents (Comparison)
- Database MCP servers compared (Comparison)
- DevOps and observability MCP servers compared (Comparison)
- MCP gateways compared (Comparison)
Sources
- MCP specification 2026-07-28, Authorization, accessed
- Descope Agentic Identity Hub docs, accessed
- Descope pricing, accessed
- Stytch Connected Apps docs, accessed
- Stytch pricing, accessed
- Auth0 for AI Agents docs, accessed
- Auth0 documentation index, accessed
- Auth0 pricing, accessed
- WorkOS AuthKit MCP docs, accessed
- WorkOS pricing, accessed
- WorkOS Vault docs, accessed
- Arcade docs index, accessed
- Arcade pricing, accessed
- Arcade MCP Gateways, accessed
- Arcade, Add Resource Server auth, accessed
- arcade-mcp repository, accessed