MCP Server Distribution: Publish Once, the Other 9 Platforms Copy It for You

MCP (Model Context Protocol) is the standard protocol for AI applications to connect to external tools. Marc Köhlbrugge made a list: 41 places where you can submit MCP servers, ranked by monthly visits from Google search, checked on 2026-10-27T00:00:00.000Z.

The most hassle-free strategy is hidden in the data. Publish to the official MCP Registry (registry.modelcontextprotocol.io), and Glama, PulseMCP, mcp.directory, and GitHub will automatically sync. The official Registry has no manual review; just write a server.json and publish with mcp-publisher. One commenter summarized: "publish once and 9 others copy it is the laziest distribution strategy and honestly the best one." (Publish once, and 9 other platforms copy it for you. The laziest distribution strategy, and also the most effective.)

Top 10 ranked by traffic:

registry.modelcontextprotocol.io — publish once, other platforms copy it themselves
mcpmarket.com — 81k/month
mcpservers.org — 45k/month
mcp.so — 18k/month
smithery.ai — 4,500/month
hub.docker.com/mcp — 3,200/month
lobehub.com/mcp — 2,900/month
glama.ai — 2,100/month
cursor.directory — 1,600/month
github.com/punkpeye/awesome-mcp-servers — 97k stars

Traffic distribution is very uneven. Of the 21 directory sites, only 3 have over 10k monthly visits. At the bottom of the list, MCP Pub has 70/month and Launch MCP has 10/month. 10, and that's an estimate.

Submission channels fall into three categories.

Built-in stores in AI applications (12)

The hardest to get into, but where users actually are. ChatGPT Plugin Directory requires identity verification, ZIP upload, and passing automated scans; manual review requires 5 positive and 3 negative test cases, plus a video demo. Claude Directory requires a paid Claude plan, and submissions need a privacy policy and a review test account. Cursor Marketplace has manual review, accepts only open source, and often gives no response for weeks. Gemini CLI Extensions has no form; put gemini-extension.json in the root of a public repo and add the gemini-cli-extension tag; a crawler comes by every day to collect it. Goose Extensions stopped accepting new servers as of 2026-07-30T00:00:00.000Z.

Directory sites (21)

Traffic is highly fragmented, and the pricing models are interesting too. MCP Market (81k/month) is free with a 4-6 week queue; for $29 you can get listed within 24 hours; remote servers use a separate $69 form. mcpservers.org (45k/month) is free, or $39 buys a 24-hour review, an official badge, and search priority. mcp.so (18k/month) is a one-time $39, with a verified badge. Smithery is free and only accepts Streamable HTTP public addresses or .mcpb packages.

GitHub lists (8)

awesome-mcp-servers is the most famous, with 97k stars. Prerequisite: first have a Glama listing. Also, thousands of PRs are queued. The other lists range from 2.1k to 24 stars.

submitmcp.com itself provides llms.txt, so you can directly have agents in Claude Code, Codex, and Cursor help you run the submission process. One commenter's take: ten forms are no problem; ten logins are the part agents hate most.

Replies also mention MCPExplorer (mcpexplorer.com), a verification-focused index site with 5,704 servers and 32,171 tools verified. It emphasizes that all entries are manually confirmed, to avoid users betting their agents on strangers' repos. This is a different path from those directory sites above where you can get in by paying.

Data comes from Marc Köhlbrugge's submitmcp.com. Original tweet: x.com/marckohlbrugge/status/2115106902841397750.