A side-by-side look at the TinySearch and Exa MCP Server MCP servers: transport, auth, tools, quality signals, and the config to install either one in Claude, Cursor, Windsurf or VS Code.
Verdict: choose TinySearch for search & data extraction work as a local process; choose Exa MCP Server for search & data extraction over a hosted endpoint. You can also run both side by side in one mcpServers block.
web_search_exa, web_fetch_exa, agent_run.Rows where the two servers differ are marked.
| Spec | ||
|---|---|---|
| Category | Search & Data Extraction | Search & Data Extraction |
| Quality signal | 56/100 · Good | 65/100 · Great |
| Install command | Confirmed | Confirmed |
| Transport | Local subprocess (stdio) | Remote HTTP/SSE |
| Auth | No auth required | No auth required |
| Pricing | Free | Free |
| Required env vars | None listed | None listed |
| Verified owner | Community listing | Community listing |
| GitHub stars | 230 | 5,107 |
| Directory activity | 2 views 0 installs 0 upvotes | 5 views 0 installs 0 upvotes |
| Tools | Not listed | 4 |
| Full listing | View TinySearch | View Exa MCP Server |
No tool names declared yet. Check the project README from the listing page.
web_search_exaSearch the web for any topic and get clean, ready-to-use contentweb_fetch_exaRead a webpage's full content as clean markdown from one or more URLsagent_runRun an [Exa Agent](https://docs.exa.ai/reference/agent-api-guide) for multi-step research, list-building, enrichment, and structured outputweb_search_advanced_exaAdvanced search with filters, domains, dates, highlights, summaries, and subpage crawlingPaste either block (or both) into your client config, e.g. claude_desktop_config.json or ~/.cursor/mcp.json. We only show a config when the install command is confirmed.
{
"mcpServers": {
"marcellm01-tinysearch": {
"command": "uvx",
"args": [
"--from",
"tinysuite-search[server]",
"tinysearch"
]
}
}
}
{
"mcpServers": {
"exa-labs-exa-mcp-server": {
"url": "https://vscode.dev/redirect/mcp/install?name=exa&config=%7B%22type%22%3A%22http%22%2C%22url%22%3A%22https%3A%2F%2Fmcp.exa.ai%2Fmcp%22%7D"
}
}
}