Neuledge vs. Context7
Context7 (by Upstash) is a popular cloud-hosted MCP server with a large pre-indexed library catalog. Both tools solve the same problem — giving your AI agent accurate docs — but take fundamentally different approaches.
Feature Comparison
| Neuledge | Context7 | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free (Apache 2.0) | Free tier / Pro $10/seat/mo / Enterprise custom |
| Rate limits | None | 1,000/mo free · 5,000/seat pro |
| Latency | <10ms (local SQLite) | 100–500ms (network round-trip) |
| Works offline | Yes | No |
| Privacy | 100% local — no data leaves your machine | Queries processed by Upstash cloud |
| Version pinning | Exact git tags | Supported |
| Private repos | Free (runs locally) | Pro plan · $15/1M tokens |
| Open source | Full (Apache 2.0) | Client only (MIT) · backend proprietary |
| Setup | context add <repo> | MCP config + optional API key |
| Pre-indexed catalog | No — you index what you need | Yes — large library catalog |
| Auto doc updates | Manual re-index | Automatic |
The Core Difference
Context7 is a cloud service — it hosts and indexes docs on Upstash's servers and your AI agent queries them over the network. Neuledge is a local tool — it downloads docs once, indexes them into a SQLite file, and serves queries from your machine.
This architectural difference drives every trade-off: Neuledge has no rate limits and sub-10ms latency because there's no network call. Context7 has zero-setup and auto-updates because there's a managed backend doing the work.
Where Neuledge Wins
No Rate Limits
Context7's free tier caps you at 1,000 calls/month. Users have reported being blocked for 24+ hours after exhausting their quota. During an intensive coding session, your AI agent can easily make hundreds of doc lookups — and hitting a limit mid-session means it falls back to stale training data.
10x–50x Faster
Local SQLite queries return in under 10ms. Context7 requires a network round-trip to Upstash's servers, typically 100–500ms. For a session with dozens of lookups, the difference adds up.
Full Privacy
Context7 processes queries on Upstash's cloud. While they state only "generic topics" are sent, queries still transit their infrastructure. Neuledge keeps everything local — your queries, project structure, and internal docs never leave your machine.
Truly Open Source
Context7's MCP client is open source (MIT), but the API backend, parsing engine, and indexing system are all proprietary. Neuledge is fully open source under Apache 2.0 — you can inspect, audit, and modify everything.
Free for Teams
Context7 Pro costs $10/seat/month, and private repo parsing adds
$15/1M tokens. Neuledge is free for any team size — build a
.db file once and share it.
Works Offline
Context7 requires an internet connection for every query. Neuledge works anywhere — airplane mode, air-gapped networks, or environments with strict firewall rules.
Where Context7 Wins
Context7 is a solid tool. Here's where it has genuine advantages.
Pre-Indexed Library Catalog
Context7 comes with a large catalog of already-indexed libraries.
You can start querying docs immediately without running any setup
commands. With Neuledge, you need to run
context add for each library.
Automatic Updates
Context7's indexes are updated automatically by their backend. With Neuledge, you re-run the CLI to get updated docs. If you always want the latest docs without manual intervention, this is a real advantage.
Broad Client Support
Context7 supports 20+ MCP clients out of the box, including one-click installs for editors like Cursor. Neuledge works with any MCP client, but setup is manual.
Enterprise Features
Context7 offers Enterprise plans with SOC-2/GDPR compliance, SSO, and self-hosted options. Neuledge is a local tool — it doesn't need these, but if your org requires vendor compliance certifications, Context7 Enterprise has them.
Switch from Context7
Moving from Context7 to Neuledge takes a few steps.
1. Install Neuledge
2. Add the libraries you use
3. Update your MCP config
Replace the Context7 MCP server entry with Neuledge's. See integrations for editor-specific instructions.
4. Remove Context7
Delete the Context7 MCP config entry and revoke your API key from the Context7 dashboard.