A side-by-side look at the TranscriptFetch and VidWords YouTube MCP servers: transport, auth, tools, quality signals, and the config to install either one in Claude, Cursor, Windsurf or VS Code.
Verdict: choose TranscriptFetch for social media work as a local process; choose VidWords YouTube for social media as a local process. You can also run both side by side in one mcpServers block.
TRANSCRIPTFETCH_API_KEY, TRANSCRIPTFETCH_BASE_URL.get_transcript, search_videos, list_channel_videos.VIDWORDS_API_TOKEN, VIDWORDS_MCP_URL.Rows where the two servers differ are marked.
| Spec | ||
|---|---|---|
| Category | Social Media | Social Media |
| Quality signal | 52/100 · Good | 40/100 · Fair |
| Install command | Confirmed | Confirmed |
| Transport | Local subprocess (stdio) | Local subprocess (stdio) |
| Auth | Not declared | Not declared |
| Pricing | Not declared | Not declared |
| Required env vars | TRANSCRIPTFETCH_API_KEYTRANSCRIPTFETCH_BASE_URL | VIDWORDS_API_TOKENVIDWORDS_MCP_URL |
| Verified owner | Community listing | Community listing |
| GitHub stars | 1 | 0 |
| Directory activity | 1 views 0 installs 0 upvotes | 0 views 0 installs 0 upvotes |
| Tools | 5 | Not listed |
| Full listing | View TranscriptFetch | View VidWords YouTube |
get_transcriptTranscript for a video. YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, or a direct media URL. Set `ai_fallback: true` to transcribe the audio when no captions exist (typically ~30 seconds for short videos, longer for long ones)search_videosSearch YouTube by keywordlist_channel_videosList a YouTube channel's videos (handle, ID, or URL)list_playlist_videosList a YouTube playlist's videos (ID or URL)get_creditsRemaining credit balance for the key. Never billedNo tool names declared yet. Check the project README from the listing page.
Paste 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": {
"transcriptfetch-2": {
"command": "npx",
"args": [
"-y",
"transcriptfetch-mcp"
],
"env": {
"TRANSCRIPTFETCH_API_KEY": "YOUR_TRANSCRIPTFETCH_API_KEY_HERE",
"TRANSCRIPTFETCH_BASE_URL": "YOUR_TRANSCRIPTFETCH_BASE_URL_HERE"
}
}
}
}
{
"mcpServers": {
"vidwords-youtube-2": {
"command": "npx",
"args": [
"-y",
"@vidwords/mcp"
],
"env": {
"VIDWORDS_API_TOKEN": "YOUR_VIDWORDS_API_TOKEN_HERE",
"VIDWORDS_MCP_URL": "YOUR_VIDWORDS_MCP_URL_HERE"
}
}
}
}