A year into the Model Context Protocol’s rise, most teams have moved past the question of whether to use MCP and into the harder one of how to run it safely at scale. When agents call tools that touch real systems, you need a layer that governs those calls: authenticating clients, controlling which tools each agent can use, keeping credentials out of application code, and recording everything for audit. That layer is the MCP gateway, and the market now offers credible options for production, from cloud-native platforms to open-source projects. For organizations building secure, scalable MCP infrastructure, mcp server development can help create and integrate customized MCP servers around specific enterprise tools, workflows, and governance requirements.
This guide is the shortlist: five MCP gateways worth serious evaluation for production use, and how they differ.
How we picked
The criteria for a production MCP gateway: federation of many MCP servers behind one governed endpoint; strong authentication and per-tool access control; server-side secret handling; observability and audit; and a deployment model that fits how you run everything else. We also weighed how well each connects MCP governance to the rest of the AI stack, because tool calls rarely exist in isolation from model calls and agents. The five below span managed and self-hosted approaches.
1. TrueFoundry — the most complete, unified option
TrueFoundry tops the list because its MCP Gateway is part of one platform that governs models, tools, and agents together, and runs in your own cloud. It offers centralized MCP server management, authentication with per-user delegation, human-in-the-loop tool approvals, virtual MCP servers that combine tools from multiple sources, OpenAPI-to-MCP conversion, managed pre-vetted MCP servers, and full metrics, all under the same access control and observability as your LLM traffic.
The reason it leads a general “top picks” list rather than a niche one is that it removes integration overhead: you govern MCP with the same identities, policies, and dashboards you already use for models and agents. The full capability set is in TrueFoundry’s MCP gateway documentation.
Best for: teams that want production MCP governance unified with models and agents, self-hosted. Watch-out: more platform than a single-purpose proxy.
2. Azure API Management — MCP governance for the Microsoft estate
For organizations on Microsoft, Azure API Management brings MCP into an established governance plane. It can expose existing REST APIs as MCP servers and pass through to remote MCP servers, apply governance policies once, and log traces over OpenTelemetry to Application Insights, with integration into Microsoft Foundry for agents. If Azure is your control surface, it keeps MCP inside the same identity, policy, and monitoring you already run.
Best for: Microsoft-centric teams governing MCP within Azure. Watch-out: strongest inside the Azure ecosystem.
3. Portkey — MCP alongside a popular AI gateway
Portkey extended its well-known AI gateway into MCP, so teams already using it for model traffic can govern tool calls in the same place. Its MCP gateway includes OAuth-based auth and brings Portkey’s routing, observability, and cost controls to MCP interactions, which is convenient for teams that want models and tools under one familiar roof. As with its AI gateway, some enterprise-grade capabilities sit in the hosted or enterprise tier.
Best for: existing Portkey users who want MCP governance in the same tool. Watch-out: check which MCP features are in the open build versus the paid tier.
4. IBM ContextForge — open-source registry and gateway
ContextForge, IBM’s Apache-2.0 project, is a strong self-hosted pick. It unifies MCP, REST, and gRPC behind one endpoint with a central registry, discovery, and governance, translating existing services into MCP tools and fronting agents over A2A. With OpenTelemetry tracing, JWT/OAuth auth, rate limiting, and Kubernetes-ready federation, it’s a capable open foundation for teams that want to own the stack.
Best for: teams that want an open-source MCP gateway and registry to run themselves. Watch-out: broad capability means real configuration effort.
5. Docker MCP Gateway — containerized MCP with secret hygiene
Docker’s MCP Gateway is a pragmatic pick for teams that already build with containers. It runs MCP servers as containers with resource limits, manages catalogs of servers, and keeps credentials out of environment variables by pulling them from Docker’s secrets engine at runtime, with built-in OAuth and payload scanning for leaked secrets. It turns MCP servers into managed, secure infrastructure using tools developers already know.
Best for: container-native teams wanting secure, catalog-managed MCP servers. Watch-out: fits most naturally in Docker-centric environments.
How to choose
If you’re a Microsoft shop, Azure API Management keeps MCP in your existing plane, and Portkey is the easy add if you already run it for models. For self-hosted control, ContextForge gives you an open registry and gateway, and Docker’s gateway is ideal for containerized servers with strong secret handling. But if you want the most complete option, MCP governed together with models and agents in one self-hosted control plane, TrueFoundry is the top pick.
The bottom line
The MCP gateway has become essential production infrastructure, and there are now solid choices across managed and open-source approaches. Each fits a different stack. The one that unifies MCP with model and agent governance in a platform you can run yourself is TrueFoundry, which is why it’s the one to beat.