Stop guessing which one. Put them side by side.

The grid says what these tools are. This says what builders did about it — one decision per person, changeable whenever you change your mind.

# Tool comparison — Exa MCP vs Chrome DevTools MCP vs Cline MCP Marketplace

Source: Kbaise, a directory of tools that work with Lovable projects.
Pick one and tell me why before writing any integration code.

## Exa MCP (exa-mcp)
- URL: https://exa.ai/docs/reference/exa-mcp
- Category: MCP servers & registries
- Cost: mixed — Free $20 signup + $10/mo credits · search $7 per 1,000 requests
- What it is: Exa's open-source server at https://mcp.exa.ai/mcp, or run locally via npm with your API key. Default tools are web_search_exa and web_fetch_exa, which returns pages as markdown; optional tools add agent_run for multi-step research and advanced filtered search. No API key is needed for casual use.
- Why builders pick it: Gives the agent embeddings-based search tuned to surface real technical pages rather than SEO filler. The keyless free tier means you can wire it up and test it inside a minute.
- Trap: Keyless use is rate-limited and not intended for production. Agent research runs cost $0.012 to $1.00 each, and raw search results dumped into context are expensive in tokens.
- Wiring: claude mcp add --transport http exa https://mcp.exa.ai/mcp
- Full dossier: /api/public/tools/exa-mcp

## Chrome DevTools MCP (chrome-devtools-mcp)
- URL: https://github.com/ChromeDevTools/chrome-devtools-mcp
- Category: MCP servers & registries
- Cost: free — Free, open source
- What it is: Maintained by Google's Chrome DevTools team. It lets a coding agent control and inspect a live Chrome browser with full DevTools access: performance traces and insights, console messages with source-mapped stack traces, network request inspection, screenshots, DOM interaction, Lighthouse audits and memory debugging.
- Why builders pick it: Closes the loop where the agent writes frontend code but cannot see the result. It reads the real console error and the real network waterfall instead of asking you to paste a screenshot.
- Trap: If you attach it to an existing Chrome instance it drives your real profile and logged-in sessions — never point it at anything sensitive. Performance traces return very large payloads.
- Wiring: claude mcp add chrome-devtools --scope user npx chrome-devtools-mcp@latest
- Full dossier: /api/public/tools/chrome-devtools-mcp

## Cline MCP Marketplace (cline-mcp-marketplace)
- URL: https://github.com/cline/mcp-marketplace
- Category: MCP servers & registries
- Cost: free — Free
- What it is: A curated marketplace built into the Cline VS Code extension. Authors submit a server via GitHub issue with a repo URL and logo; reviewers weigh community adoption, developer credibility, project maturity and security, usually within a couple of days. On install, Cline handles setup and configuration autonomously.
- Why builders pick it: Removes the config-file step entirely — pick a server in the sidebar and the agent installs and wires it up. The human review gate makes it far safer than pulling from a 70,000-entry index.
- Trap: Only useful if you already use Cline, and the curated list is a tiny fraction of what Smithery or Glama index.
- Full dossier: /api/public/tools/cline-mcp-marketplace

## Quick read

- Free with no card: Chrome DevTools MCP, Cline MCP Marketplace.

## Rules
1. Prefer the free tier when no budget was stated, and say what the ceiling is.
2. Read the full dossier before integrating.
3. Fetch /api/public/models before writing any AI model ID.

Agents can fetch the same thing: GET /api/public/compare?slugs=exa-mcp,chrome-devtools-mcp,cline-mcp-marketplace