head to head · open source
mcp-toolbox vs cayley
mcp-toolbox has 16,792 GitHub stars, 1,787 forks, 292 open issues and last shipped yesterday. cayley has 15,067 stars, 1,234 forks, 93 open issues and last shipped 2 months ago. mcp-toolbox leads on adoption by 11% (16,792 vs 15,067 stars). mcp-toolbox is written in Go under Apache-2.0; cayley is written in Go under Apache-2.0. mcp-toolbox has attracted 11% as many forks as stars, cayley 8%. mcp-toolbox was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee.
Two open source projects, one decision. Both are free and self-hostable — the differences are community size, license terms, language stack and release pace.
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Side by side
| mcp-toolbox | cayley | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 17K | ★ 15K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Go | Go |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-08-27 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.8K | ⑂ 1.2K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick mcp-toolbox if
- You weight community size — 17K stars and counting
- You want the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick cayley if
- You want the cayley feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and cayley fits your workflow better
About mcp-toolbox
MCP Toolbox for Databases MCP Toolbox for Databases is an open source Model Context Protocol (MCP) server that connects your AI agents, IDEs, and applications directly to your enterprise databases. It serves a dual purpose : 1. Ready to use MCP Server (Build Time): Instantly connect Gemini CLI, Google Antigravity, Claude Code, Codex, or other MCP clients to your databases using our prebuilt generic tools . Talk to your data, explore schemas, and generate code without writing boilerplate. 2. Custom Tools Framework (Run Time): A robust framework to build specialized, highly secure AI tools for your production…
read the full mcp-toolbox overview →
About cayley
Cayley is an open source database for Linked Data. It is inspired by the graph database behind Google's Knowledge Graph (formerly Freebase)). Documentation Features Built in query editor, visualizer and REPL Multiple query languages: Gizmo: query language inspired by Gremlin GraphQL inspired query language MQL: simplified version for Freebase) fans Modular: easy to connect to your favorite programming languages and back end stores Production ready: well tested and used by various companies for their production workloads Fast: optimized specifically for usage in applications Performance Rough performance testing…
read the full cayley overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is mcp-toolbox or cayley more popular?
mcp-toolbox has 16,792 GitHub stars and cayley has 15,067. mcp-toolbox has the larger community by that measure.
Are mcp-toolbox and cayley free?
Both are open source. mcp-toolbox is licensed under Apache-2.0 and cayley under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between mcp-toolbox and cayley?
mcp-toolbox is written in Go and cayley in Go. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, mcp-toolbox or cayley?
Choose mcp-toolbox if you want the larger community (16,792 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose cayley if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.