Speakeasy vs Docker MCP Gateway: Who governs your agents' tool calls?

Speakeasy compares its managed MCP gateway with Docker MCP Gateway and Docker’s AI Governance and Enterprise Gateway offerings, arguing that they address different security layers for Model Context Protocol tools. Docker’s open-source gateway emphasizes local server containment through containers, resource limits, restricted host access, signed images, secret scanning, OCI-based distribution, and Cedar policies that can evaluate tool arguments and require confirmations, while its enterprise products add organization policies, auditing, SIEM forwarding, and options for VPC or air-gapped deployment. Speakeasy emphasizes identity-provider-based access controls for individual users, roles, agents, tools, and approved AI clients; managed per-user, shared, or Okta-provided upstream credentials; runtime and administrative logging; and private connectivity through Tailscale or tunnels. The comparison notes limitations on both sides, including Docker’s team-oriented identities, metadata-only audit records, and lack of client-specific policy, alongside Speakeasy’s lack of self-hosting, air-gapped deployment, argument-level policy conditions, and confirmation workflows. It concludes that Docker may suit organizations primarily concerned with safely running local MCP server processes or requiring self-hosted deployment, while Speakeasy may suit those focused on centralized identity, tool-level permissions, client admission, and managed credentials, with some organizations potentially using both products together.

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