Decision FrameworkDecision layer

Rayrun: Buy vs Skip (Multi-Client MCP Credential Control)

IF your agency runs MCP servers for two or more clients and needs upstream credentials held centrally with per-client, per-tool allow/ask/block policies, THEN start on the Free tier (USD 0/mo, 25 source-built services, 50,000 tool calls a month) and move to Team at $25/mo per developer once you need the shared credential vault, roles, and 100,000 pooled tool calls per developer. IF client volume stays under roughly 50,000 calls a month and one developer owns delivery, the Free tier covers the work and a paid plan is premature. IF projected usage is unpredictable or clients resist per-call billing, DEFER, because Rayrun charges USD 0.2 per 1,000 calls and margin depends on forecasting client consumption.

By InnovaAI ResearchPublished Updated

Decision Frame

Rayrun: Buy vs Skip (Multi-Client MCP Credential Control)

IF your agency runs MCP servers for two or more clients and needs upstream credentials held centrally with per-client, per-tool allow/ask/block policies, THEN start on the Free tier (USD 0/mo, 25 source-built services, 50,000 tool calls a month) and move to Team at $25/mo per developer once you need the shared credential vault, roles, and 100,000 pooled tool calls per developer. IF client volume stays under roughly 50,000 calls a month and one developer owns delivery, the Free tier covers the work and a paid plan is premature. IF projected usage is unpredictable or clients resist per-call billing, DEFER, because Rayrun charges USD 0.2 per 1,000 calls and margin depends on forecasting client consumption.

When is it the right choice?
  • Two or more client engagements need MCP servers hosted behind one endpoint, and the Free tier's 25 source-built services already covers the first wave of deployments
  • Clients refuse to store upstream API keys in their own environments, which the encrypted credential vault and Team-tier shared vault directly address
  • Security review or multi-tenant isolation is a stated client requirement, and per-client, per-tool allow/ask/block rules plus recorded caller identity satisfy the audit trail
  • Delivery spans Claude, Cursor, VS Code, and Windsurf, so a single Rayrun endpoint avoids rebuilding auth per client IDE
  • The agency can bill MCP setup as a fixed productized offer, for example the $1,800 Rayrun Starter MCP Deploy at 16 hours of setup, rather than absorbing it into an existing retainer
When should you skip it?
  • Client tool-call volume is high or spiky enough that USD 0.2 per 1,000 calls makes the per-call model more expensive than a flat hosting arrangement
  • The agency only needs one internal MCP server for itself, where the Free tier's 50,000 monthly calls and 30 days of activity history are already sufficient and no client-facing policy layer is required
  • No client workflow depends on MCP at all, so Rayrun's deploy-from-source, remote MCP, OpenAPI, npm, and container image paths solve a problem the agency does not have
  • The agency cannot forecast client usage well enough to price a retainer against per-call billing, since margins move with consumption rather than a fixed seat count
  • Clients demand a white-label agent product they resell under their own brand, which is a different shape of engagement than hosting and governing MCP servers
ai-agents