Kotlin Coroutines without
Coroutines without
the SDK ceremony.
zeromcp vs kotlin-sdk — side by side.
Dependencies
2 ZeroMCP
vs. ~30 Official SDK
Throughput
3.40K req/s ZeroMCP
vs. 328 req/s Official SDK
Memory
194 MB ZeroMCP
vs. 204 MB Official SDK
This is a hello world
Server options, map-based schemas, CallToolResult wrapping, and transport setup. 11 lines of Kotlin DSL that could be simpler.
kotlin-sdk 11 lines
val server = Server(ServerOptions(
name = "test", version = "1.0.0"))
server.addTool("hello", "Say hello",
inputSchema = mapOf(
"name" to mapOf("type" to "string")
)) { args ->
CallToolResult(content = listOf(
TextContent("Hello, ${args["name"]}!")
))
}
server.connectStdio()This is the whole server
No ServerOptions. No CallToolResult. No map-based schemas.
A DSL that reads like Kotlin should.
ZeroMCP 8 lines
val server = Server()
server.tool("hello") {
description = "Say hello"
input { required("name", "string") }
execute { args, ctx ->
"Hello, ${args["name"]}!"
}
}
server.serveStdio()HTTP Performance — Head to Head
Mixed workload across all 7 MCP method types. 5-minute sustained load in Docker. Ktor for ZeroMCP, stdio proxy for the official SDK.
req/s CPU Memory Ratio
ZeroMCP (Ktor) 3.40K 0.11% 194 MB 10x
Official SDK 328 0.19% 204 MB
The tradeoff
Choose the official SDK
If you want the coroutine-based API with full MCP spec coverage and don't mind the ~30 transitive dependencies.
- DSL definitions — full Kotlin SDK DSL with typed parameters
- Spec parity — tracks every spec change immediately
- Enterprise support — maintained by the MCP specification team at Anthropic
Choose ZeroMCP
If you want 2 dependencies (kotlinx essentials), a clean DSL, and 10x more throughput.
- 2 dependencies (kotlinx essentials)
- Clean DSL — reads like Kotlin should
- Ktor HTTP embedding
- Built-in sandbox with enforced permissions
- 3.40K req/s on Ktor