Tgden — Telegram catalog & search vs MCP Telegram

In-depth architectural comparison of the Tgden — Telegram catalog & search and MCP Telegram MCP servers. Compare execution transports, security boundaries, tool capabilities, quality scores, and ready-to-paste client installation snippets for Claude, Cursor, Windsurf, and VS Code.

Which MCP Server Should You Choose?

Choose Tgden — Telegram catalog & search when:

• You need dedicated capabilities in the Communication domain.
• You prefer remote streaming HTTP/SSE transport architecture.
• Your security boundary fits: No auth required (Free / Open Source).
• Primary tools included: search_telegram, best_channels_by_category, channel_stats.

Explore Tgden — Telegram catalog & search Details

Choose MCP Telegram when:

• You need dedicated capabilities in the Communication domain.
• You prefer local stdio subprocess transport architecture.
• Your security boundary fits: API Key required (Free / Open Source).
• You have access to required keys: TELEGRAM_API_ID, TELEGRAM_API_HASH.
• Primary tools included: MTProto user-account access through GramJS, QR-code login with persistent sessions, Global message search and chat reading.

Feature & Specification Comparison

Specification	Tgden — Telegram catalog & search Communication	MCP Telegram overpod Communication
Summary	Search 1.2M+ Telegram channels, 245k+ chats, 160k+ bots — no account, no key, no install.	Telegram MCP server via MTProto/GramJS — 20 tools for reading chats, searching messages, downloading media, managing contacts. QR code login, npx zero-install. Hosted version at mcp-telegram.com.
Category & Scope	Communication

Tools & Capabilities Breakdown

Ready-to-Paste Client Configurations

Paste either (or both) of these JSON server blocks into your client config file (e.g. claude_desktop_config.json or ~/.cursor/mcp.json).

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "tgden-telegram-catalog-search": {
      "url": "https://tgden.com/api/mcp"
    }
  }
}

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "overpod-mcp-telegram": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "@overpod/mcp-telegram"
      ],
      "env": {
        "TELEGRAM_API_ID": "YOUR_TELEGRAM_API_ID_HERE",
        "TELEGRAM_API_HASH": "YOUR_TELEGRAM_API_HASH_HERE"
      }
    }
  }
}

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