We Built the First Marketplace for MCP Apps — Here's Why
The App Store Moment for AI Just Happened (and Nobody Noticed)
On January 26, 2026, Anthropic shipped MCP Apps — and quietly changed everything about how we interact with AI.
Before that date, MCP servers were plumbing. Useful, powerful, but invisible. Now? They can render full UI inside Claude, VS Code, Cursor, and other MCP clients. Interactive dashboards, forms, data visualizations — all living inside your AI chat.
It's the moment AI assistants went from "text in, text out" to genuine application platforms.
There's just one problem: where do you find these apps?
What Are MCP Apps, Exactly?
If you've used MCP servers, you know the drill: you connect a server, and your AI gets new capabilities — database access, API integrations, file management.
MCP Apps take this further. They use the create_document and resource primitives to render rich, interactive UI directly in the chat. Think:
- Dashboards that visualize your data inline
- Forms that collect structured input
- Code playgrounds that run and display results
- Design tools that generate and preview assets
It's not an iframe hack. It's native to the protocol. The AI can create, update, and interact with these UIs as part of the conversation flow.
The Discovery Problem
Here's what the ecosystem looks like right now: there are 17+ directories for MCP servers. Smithery, Glama, mcp.so, PulseMCP, awesome-mcp-servers on GitHub — the list goes on.
But they all treat MCP servers as backend tools. Search for "MCP Apps" specifically and you'll find... scattered README files and Twitter threads.
Nobody is curating, reviewing, or organizing the app layer. If you're a developer who just built an MCP App, your distribution strategy is "post it on Twitter and hope."
That's a problem worth solving.
What We Built: The Plug
The Plug (getmcpapps.com) is a curated marketplace specifically for MCP Apps.
Here's what makes it different from yet another directory:
🔍 Curated, Not Scraped
Every app is reviewed before listing. We check that it actually works, has proper install configs, and does what it claims.
⭐ Reviews & Trust Signals
Community ratings, verified author badges, GitHub stars, and install counts. Know what you're installing before you install it.
📋 One-Click Install Configs
Each app page includes copy-paste JSON configs for Claude Desktop, VS Code, and other MCP clients. No more hunting through READMEs.
🏷️ Organized by Category
Browse by what apps do — productivity, developer tools, data visualization, design — not by what protocol version they support.
Apps already on the platform include tools for everything from GitHub workflow management to interactive data exploration.
For Developers: Get Your App Discovered
If you've built an MCP App (or are thinking about it), here's why you should list it:
Submit in Minutes
Hit the submit button, connect your GitHub, and we pull in your metadata automatically. Add screenshots, write a tagline, configure install instructions — done.
README Badges
Add a badge to your repo's README to show your app is listed:
[](https://getmcpapps.com/apps/your-app)
Each app page on The Plug includes a ready-to-copy badge snippet. It links back to your listing where users can see reviews, install configs, and trust signals.
Analytics
Track views, installs, and ratings. Know how your app is performing.
What's Next
We're just getting started. Here's what's on the roadmap:
- 🏆 App of the Week — editorial picks highlighting the best new MCP Apps
- 📚 SDK Guides — tutorials for building MCP Apps across different frameworks
- 🤝 Community — we're spinning up a Discord for MCP App developers to share patterns, get feedback, and collaborate
- 🔌 Registry API — programmatic access to the directory for tooling and integrations
Come Build With Us
The MCP App ecosystem is early. Like, really early. That means the best apps haven't been built yet — and the developers who show up now will define what this platform becomes.
👉 Join our Discord (link on the site) to connect with other MCP App developers
If you've built something cool with MCP Apps, drop a link in the comments. We'd love to check it out.
The Plug is open to all MCP App developers. Free to list, free to browse. We believe the best way to grow this ecosystem is to make discovery effortless.