{
  "title": "MCP Gateway, Server, Registry, API Gateway, LLM Gateway, and Proxy Comparison",
  "schemaVersion": "1.0",
  "researchFreeze": "2026-08-26",
  "protocolRevision": "MCP 2026-07-28",
  "sourcePackage": "research/11",
  "integrityNote": "All 84 listed archive payloads verify by SHA-256. Public datasets are a narrow, noindex selection; product rankings and unexecuted test results are not published.",
  "checkedAt": "2026-08-26",
  "indexing": "noindex, follow",
  "evidencePolicy": "Archive source IDs are mapped to the site-wide canonical evidence library; analytical rows disclose dataset-level evidence.",
  "count": 8,
  "records": [
    {
      "Component": "MCP gateway",
      "Primary responsibility": "Live mediation, aggregation, routing, identity, policy and operations",
      "Protocol awareness": "MCP methods, primitives, versions and streams",
      "Not equivalent to": "Core protocol role",
      "id": "R11-COMP001",
      "sourceIds": [
        "S121",
        "S501",
        "S504",
        "S476"
      ],
      "evidenceStatus": "editorially compared against protocol, standards, and representative first-party documentation",
      "archive": {
        "namespace": "research/11/MCP_GATEWAY_COMPONENT_COMPARISON.json",
        "row": 1,
        "packageSourceIds": [
          "S001",
          "S017",
          "S022",
          "S024"
        ],
        "raw": {
          "Component": "MCP gateway",
          "Primary responsibility": "Live mediation, aggregation, routing, identity, policy and operations",
          "Protocol awareness": "MCP methods, primitives, versions and streams",
          "Not equivalent to": "Core protocol role"
        }
      }
    },
    {
      "Component": "MCP server",
      "Primary responsibility": "Expose capabilities and execute/delegate operations",
      "Protocol awareness": "Native server side",
      "Not equivalent to": "Fleet-wide policy layer",
      "id": "R11-COMP002",
      "sourceIds": [
        "S121",
        "S123",
        "S124"
      ],
      "evidenceStatus": "editorially compared against protocol, standards, and representative first-party documentation",
      "archive": {
        "namespace": "research/11/MCP_GATEWAY_COMPONENT_COMPARISON.json",
        "row": 2,
        "packageSourceIds": [
          "S001",
          "S009",
          "S012"
        ],
        "raw": {
          "Component": "MCP server",
          "Primary responsibility": "Expose capabilities and execute/delegate operations",
          "Protocol awareness": "Native server side",
          "Not equivalent to": "Fleet-wide policy layer"
        }
      }
    },
    {
      "Component": "API gateway",
      "Primary responsibility": "Govern REST, GraphQL, gRPC and HTTP APIs",
      "Protocol awareness": "HTTP/API; MCP optional",
      "Not equivalent to": "MCP capability governance by default",
      "id": "R11-COMP003",
      "sourceIds": [
        "S515",
        "S524",
        "S525",
        "S529"
      ],
      "evidenceStatus": "editorially compared against protocol, standards, and representative first-party documentation",
      "archive": {
        "namespace": "research/11/MCP_GATEWAY_COMPONENT_COMPARISON.json",
        "row": 3,
        "packageSourceIds": [
          "S034",
          "S043",
          "S044",
          "S048"
        ],
        "raw": {
          "Component": "API gateway",
          "Primary responsibility": "Govern REST, GraphQL, gRPC and HTTP APIs",
          "Protocol awareness": "HTTP/API; MCP optional",
          "Not equivalent to": "MCP capability governance by default"
        }
      }
    },
    {
      "Component": "LLM gateway",
      "Primary responsibility": "Govern model-provider calls, prompts, tokens and cost",
      "Protocol awareness": "Model APIs",
      "Not equivalent to": "Tool execution governance",
      "id": "R11-COMP004",
      "sourceIds": [
        "S536",
        "S537",
        "S542"
      ],
      "evidenceStatus": "editorially compared against protocol, standards, and representative first-party documentation",
      "archive": {
        "namespace": "research/11/MCP_GATEWAY_COMPONENT_COMPARISON.json",
        "row": 4,
        "packageSourceIds": [
          "S065",
          "S066",
          "S072"
        ],
        "raw": {
          "Component": "LLM gateway",
          "Primary responsibility": "Govern model-provider calls, prompts, tokens and cost",
          "Protocol awareness": "Model APIs",
          "Not equivalent to": "Tool execution governance"
        }
      }
    },
    {
      "Component": "Reverse proxy",
      "Primary responsibility": "Forward network traffic",
      "Protocol awareness": "Usually transport only",
      "Not equivalent to": "Catalog and MCP policy",
      "id": "R11-COMP005",
      "sourceIds": [
        "S517",
        "S519",
        "S528"
      ],
      "evidenceStatus": "editorially compared against protocol, standards, and representative first-party documentation",
      "archive": {
        "namespace": "research/11/MCP_GATEWAY_COMPONENT_COMPARISON.json",
        "row": 5,
        "packageSourceIds": [
          "S036",
          "S038",
          "S047"
        ],
        "raw": {
          "Component": "Reverse proxy",
          "Primary responsibility": "Forward network traffic",
          "Protocol awareness": "Usually transport only",
          "Not equivalent to": "Catalog and MCP policy"
        }
      }
    },
    {
      "Component": "MCP Registry",
      "Primary responsibility": "Publish server metadata and distribution references",
      "Protocol awareness": "Metadata, packages, endpoints",
      "Not equivalent to": "Runtime authorization",
      "id": "R11-COMP006",
      "sourceIds": [
        "S067",
        "S066"
      ],
      "evidenceStatus": "editorially compared against protocol, standards, and representative first-party documentation",
      "archive": {
        "namespace": "research/11/MCP_GATEWAY_COMPONENT_COMPARISON.json",
        "row": 6,
        "packageSourceIds": [
          "S020",
          "S021"
        ],
        "raw": {
          "Component": "MCP Registry",
          "Primary responsibility": "Publish server metadata and distribution references",
          "Protocol awareness": "Metadata, packages, endpoints",
          "Not equivalent to": "Runtime authorization"
        }
      }
    },
    {
      "Component": "MCP host",
      "Primary responsibility": "Coordinate model, user, permissions and clients",
      "Protocol awareness": "Client side and product behavior",
      "Not equivalent to": "Central intermediary",
      "id": "R11-COMP007",
      "sourceIds": [
        "S121"
      ],
      "evidenceStatus": "editorially compared against protocol, standards, and representative first-party documentation",
      "archive": {
        "namespace": "research/11/MCP_GATEWAY_COMPONENT_COMPARISON.json",
        "row": 7,
        "packageSourceIds": [
          "S001"
        ],
        "raw": {
          "Component": "MCP host",
          "Primary responsibility": "Coordinate model, user, permissions and clients",
          "Protocol awareness": "Client side and product behavior",
          "Not equivalent to": "Central intermediary"
        }
      }
    },
    {
      "Component": "Identity provider",
      "Primary responsibility": "Authenticate users/services and issue identity",
      "Protocol awareness": "OAuth/OIDC",
      "Not equivalent to": "MCP router",
      "id": "R11-COMP008",
      "sourceIds": [
        "S531",
        "S005",
        "S192",
        "S006",
        "S003"
      ],
      "evidenceStatus": "editorially compared against protocol, standards, and representative first-party documentation",
      "archive": {
        "namespace": "research/11/MCP_GATEWAY_COMPONENT_COMPARISON.json",
        "row": 8,
        "packageSourceIds": [
          "S050",
          "S051",
          "S052",
          "S053",
          "S055"
        ],
        "raw": {
          "Component": "Identity provider",
          "Primary responsibility": "Authenticate users/services and issue identity",
          "Protocol awareness": "OAuth/OIDC",
          "Not equivalent to": "MCP router"
        }
      }
    }
  ]
}