Agentic Index
Arcade vs Stacklok (2026)
Both stand between agents and the tools they call, at 8 and 11 of 14.
Arcade is an authentication and authorization layer letting agents act on behalf of users against third party services without holding raw credentials. Stacklok is an enterprise MCP platform built on open source ToolHive, running, governing and securing MCP servers and agent skills in isolated containers, Kubernetes native and self hosted, from the Kubernetes co creators. Arcade solves who the agent is acting as; Stacklok solves where the tool code runs and what it can touch.
Choose Arcade if
- Agents acting on behalf of individual users without holding credentials is your problem.
- Third party service authorization is the specific gap.
- You want a focused auth layer rather than a platform to operate.
Choose Stacklok if
- Documented coverage is materially broader and container isolation per MCP server is required.
- Kubernetes native self hosting is your platform standard.
- Governing which MCP servers may run at all is the control you need first.
| At a glance | Arcade | Stacklok |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Agent infrastructure | Agent infrastructure |
| Entry price | From $25/mo · free tier | Free open source core; Enterprise is annual subscription (contact sales) |
| Free / trial | Free tier: 100 user challenges, 1,000 standard tool executions, 50 pro tool executions per month, unlimited tools | ToolHive open source core is free to run; evaluate on open source, then license Enterprise for production |
| Pricing confidence | public exact | contact only |
| Feature |  Arcade |
 Stacklok |
|---|---|---|
| Action & orchestration | ||
|
Integrations & Tool Calling Ability to connect agents to real systems through native integrations, OAuth-authenticated actions, custom tools, APIs, webhooks, or MCP-compatible tools. |
Full / Explicit | Full / Explicit |
|
Workflow Orchestration Ability to sequence, branch, retry, route, and combine deterministic workflow nodes with autonomous agent steps. |
Partial | Full / Explicit |
|
Triggers & Channel Coverage How agents wake up and where they work: schedules, webhooks, message events, CRM events, inbox events, chat, email, voice, and collaboration tools. |
Partial | Partial |
| Knowledge & context | ||
|
Knowledge Grounding & RAG Ability to ground agent behavior in company data through document ingestion, retrieval, external knowledge APIs, semantic search, or RAG layers. |
No / Not documented | Full / Explicit |
|
Memory & State Persistence Ability to persist context across a run, conversation, workflow, user, team, or longer-term memory layer. |
No / Not documented | No / Not documented |
| Control & trust | ||
|
Human Oversight & Guardrails Approval steps, consent checkpoints, escalation rules, structured guardrails, policy constraints, and pause/resume controls. |
Partial | Full / Explicit |
|
Security, Identity & Governance RBAC, SSO, auditability, encryption, least-privilege tool access, compliance posture, and data handling policy. |
Full / Explicit | Full / Explicit |
|
Observability & Auditability Traces, logs, execution histories, metrics, audit events, and debugging detail for production agent behavior. |
Partial | Full / Explicit |
|
Deployment & Data Residency Deployment modes and options, including SaaS, dedicated cloud, VPC, on-prem, hybrid, local runtime, and self-hosting. |
Full / Explicit | Full / Explicit |
| Solution readiness | ||
|
Prebuilt Agents, Templates & Packs Ready-made workflows, packaged employees, templates, blueprints, industry solutions, and role-specific agents that reduce time-to-value. |
Full / Explicit | Full / Explicit |
| Platform extensibility | ||
|
Model Flexibility & Routing Ability to work across multiple foundation models, route tasks to different models, or let buyers bring their own providers and keys. |
Partial | Full / Explicit |
|
APIs, SDKs & MCP Extensibility Composability layer: stable APIs, SDKs, MCP tool consumption/serving, custom tools, and integration into internal systems. |
Full / Explicit | Full / Explicit |
|
Testing, Debugging & Optimization Testing, debugging, scoring, retries, fallbacks, quality gates, and optimization loops for improving agent workflows before and after deployment. |
Partial | Partial |
| Specialist automation | ||
|
Browser & Computer Use Browser, desktop, or remote/local computer control for workflows that cannot be handled through stable APIs alone. |
No / Not documented | No / Not documented |
Pricing snapshot
Sourced from the Index pricing dataset · open each vendor's profile for full detail.
| Pricing | Arcade |
Stacklok |
|---|---|---|
|
Entry price Lowest public entry point |
From $25/mo · free tier | Free open source core; Enterprise is annual subscription (contact sales) |
|
Pricing confidence How public the numbers are |
Public — exact | Contact only |
|
Billing Primary billing axis |
Platform fee plus usage (user challenges and tool executions) | annual subscription (Enterprise); open source core is free |
|
Variable cost Workload / overage exposure |
Medium variable cost | Low variable cost |
|
Free tier / trial Try before you buy |
Free tier
|
Free tierTrial
|
|
Buying motion Self-serve vs sales call |
Mixed | Sales call |