Hanko vs Unkey
Unkey scores higher on the AgentReady, 56/100 against 48/100. They differ on 7 of the 41 signals. Which ones decides whether an agent can adopt them without a person watching.
What each one is
Hanko. Hanko is an open-source authentication and user management platform for modern web and mobile apps.
Unkey. Unkey is a developer platform for modern APIs that unifies infrastructure, allowing developers to deploy APIs instantly, route traffic through global gateways, and understand usage in one place.
Where Hanko is ahead
Hanko passes llms-full.txt / full agent docs, and Unkey does not. That is discover, whether an agent can find the product at all without being told it exists.
It also holds operate: structured, predictable output. Unkey misses it.
Where Unkey is ahead
Unkey passes clear product positioning, and Hanko does not. That is discover, whether an agent can find the product at all without being told it exists.
It also holds understand: structured api reference, authentication documented and limits / constraints documented. Hanko misses those.
And on adopt, cli available. Hanko misses it.
What neither does
Both fail mcp discoverable, openapi / spec quality, request examples provided, response examples provided, errors and status codes documented, no mandatory sales call, agent-compatible signup flow, programmatic credential creation, mcp integration available, machine-readable errors, retry behavior documented, idempotency support, rate-limit behavior predictable, agent compatibility verified. If your agent needs any of those, you will be building it yourself either way.
Score, pillar by pillar
The AgentReady splits into four pillars, scored separately, because a product can be easy to find and still impossible to adopt.
Discover. Unkey leads 80 to 73. Hanko misses clear product positioning, mcp discoverable; Unkey misses llms-full.txt / full agent docs, mcp discoverable.
Understand is whether an agent can read the docs and work out how the API behaves before calling it. Unkey leads 54 to 23. Hanko misses structured api reference, openapi / spec quality, authentication documented, request examples provided, response examples provided, errors and status codes documented, limits / constraints documented; Unkey misses openapi / spec quality, request examples provided, response examples provided, errors and status codes documented.
Adopt. Unkey leads 55 to 50. Hanko misses no mandatory sales call, agent-compatible signup flow, programmatic credential creation, cli available, mcp integration available; Unkey misses no mandatory sales call, agent-compatible signup flow, programmatic credential creation, mcp integration available.
Operate. Hanko leads 47 to 35. Hanko misses machine-readable errors, retry behavior documented, idempotency support, rate-limit behavior predictable, agent compatibility verified; Unkey misses structured, predictable output, machine-readable errors, retry behavior documented, idempotency support, rate-limit behavior predictable, agent compatibility verified.
Pricing
Hanko starts at $29/month and has a free tier. Unkey starts at $5/mo and has a free tier.
| Hanko plans | Unkey plans |
|---|---|
| Starter Free | Starter $5/mo |
| Pro $29/month + $0.01 per monthly active user > 10,000 | Pro $25/mo |
| - | Business Custom |
Signal by signal
| Signal | Hanko | Unkey |
|---|---|---|
| AgentReady | 48 | 56 |
| Discovery | 73 | 80 |
| Understanding | 23 | 54 |
| Adoption | 50 | 55 |
| Operability | 47 | 35 |
| Public API | Yes | Yes |
| MCP server | No | No |
| OpenAPI spec | Unknown | Yes |
| CLI | Unknown | Yes |
| llms.txt | Yes | Yes |
| Self-serve signup | Yes | Yes |
| Free tier | Yes | Yes |
Which to pick
Unkey clears more of the signals an agent needs, so it is the safer default for unattended use. Full profiles: Hanko and Unkey. Alternatives to each: Hanko, Unkey.
An agent can fetch this as data: POST /v1/compare {"slugs": ["hanko", "unkey"]}