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Blocks.ai vs DIY

Blocks.ai

Network for AI agents: a free public network, and a private network for each company

Build it yourself (DIY)

Building agent connections and controls in-house from open protocols, existing infrastructure, and open-source tools

Short answer

Blocks.ai is a network: a free public network, and a private network for each company, giving it one place to connect, govern, and audit its agents.⁠Source 1, Source 2 DIY is not a product: you supply the registry and access rules yourself, on open protocols such as A2A and MCP that leave authorization logic to the implementer.⁠Source 3, Source 4, Source 5, Source 6

Where each one sits

Six layers of running AI agents at a company, and what each product’s own public sources say it covers.

These aren’t the same kind of product

Where they overlap
Both cover how agents find, reach, and authorize each other: Blocks.ai as one product, DIY as protocols such as A2A plus a registry and access rules you build.⁠Source 2, Source 3, Source 4, Source 7, Source 8, Source 9
Where they differ
Blocks.ai doesn’t build, host, or orchestrate agents; under DIY, frameworks such as LangGraph build and deploy them.⁠Source 10, Source 11, Source 12 DIY can also mean maintaining services such as a registry.⁠Source 3
Running both
Blocks.ai’s docs say agents built with LangChain or LangGraph can join Blocks.ai without rewriting their chain, graph, tools, or prompts.⁠Source 12, Source 13
Public sources · checked 2 October 2026
  • Offered
  • You build it
  • Not included

Blocks.ai

  • Build agents: Not includedUse LangChain or CrewAI⁠Source 10
  • Host and run agents: Not includedYou run your agent⁠Source 11
  • Identity and access: OfferedMachine identity per agent⁠Source 14
  • Registry and governance: OfferedPrivate registry and Admin Console⁠Source 2
  • Traffic between agents, tools, and models: OfferedPrivate network for every agent⁠Source 2
  • Agents across organizations: OfferedPartners share only chosen agents⁠Source 15

DIY

  • Build agents: You build itOpen-source frameworks like ADK⁠Source 16
  • Host and run agents: You build itSelf-hosted, like LangGraph⁠Source 12
  • Identity and access: You build itYour own identity provider⁠Source 17
  • Registry and governance: You build itYour own agent registry⁠Source 3
  • Traffic between agents, tools, and models: You build itYour gateway and service mesh⁠Source 18
  • Agents across organizations: You build itA2A with API management⁠Source 19

At a glance

TopicBlocks.aiDIY
What it isA product: a network for AI agents, with a free public network and a private network for each company.⁠Source 1, Source 2, Source 7Not a product: an in-house build on open protocols such as A2A and MCP, with components such as Istio and LangGraph.⁠Source 4, Source 5, Source 12, Source 20
How agents connectOutbound HTTPS on port 443.⁠Source 21 No inbound ports.⁠Source 21MCP servers on Streamable HTTP provide an HTTP endpoint, and A2A agents declare a URL.⁠Source 4, Source 22 A standard outbound-only binding is not publicly documented.
Registry and accessOn your company’s private network, agents join your private registry.⁠Source 2, Source 23 Each agent gets its own identity and starts private, open only to its owner and those invited.⁠Source 14, Source 24, Source 25Yours to build: A2A prescribes no standard API for curated registries and calls authorization logic implementation-specific.⁠Source 3, Source 4
Agents at other companiesOn the Pro tier, a partner company joins your private network as its own organization.⁠Source 1, Source 26 You can call only the agents it shares with you.⁠Source 15, Source 25A2A is built for agents from different companies on separate servers, and each server authorizes requests under its own policies.⁠Source 4, Source 27
PricingThe public network is free.⁠Source 1 Pro pricing is set with each customer.⁠Source 1The A2A and MCP specifications are openly licensed, A2A under Apache 2.0.⁠Source 4, Source 5 Build and running costs are not publicly documented.

What each one is

Blocks.ai

Blocks.ai is a network: a free public network, and a private network for each company.⁠Source 1, Source 2 A company’s private network gives it one place to connect, govern, and audit its agents, whoever built them and wherever they run.⁠Source 2 Blocks.ai does not build, host, or orchestrate agents.⁠Source 10, Source 11

Build it yourself (DIY)

DIY means connecting and governing agents without buying an agent platform: protocols such as A2A and MCP wired together in-house, existing infrastructure stretched, an in-house platform, self-hosted open source, or no central approach; Uber says that before its gateway, teams built integrations independently, duplicating infrastructure.⁠Source 18

The differences that matter

  1. How agents connect

    Blocks.ai

    Every Blocks.ai agent connects out over HTTPS on port 443, and its host needs no inbound ports, DNS records, or static IP.⁠Source 21

    DIY

    A remote MCP server on Streamable HTTP provides an HTTP endpoint, and an A2A agent declares the URL where it is available.⁠Source 4, Source 22

    A standard outbound-only binding for remote MCP servers or A2A agents is not publicly documented. Blocks.ai does not support air-gapped networks.⁠Source 28

  2. Registry and access

    Blocks.ai

    On your company’s private network, agents join your private registry and start private: only the owner and those invited can call one.⁠Source 2, Source 9, Source 23, Source 24, Source 25

    DIY

    A2A prescribes no standard API for curated registries and calls authorization logic implementation-specific; MCP makes authorization optional.⁠Source 3, Source 4, Source 29

    Uber starts every MCP server and tool disabled until its owning team reviews it.⁠Source 18 A review step before a Blocks.ai agent registers is not publicly documented.

  3. Agents at other companies

    Blocks.ai

    On the Pro tier, a partner company joins your private network as its own organization.⁠Source 1, Source 26 You can call only the agents it shares with you.⁠Source 15, Source 25

    DIY

    A2A is built for agents from different companies on separate servers, and each server authorizes requests under its own policies.⁠Source 4, Source 27

    On Blocks.ai, your administrators can see a partner’s registered agents and, on the Pro tier, take one offline.⁠Source 15, Source 25 Connecting two separate Blocks.ai deployments is not publicly documented.

For security teams

What a security review asks, answered from each vendor’s public documentation.

TopicBlocks.aiDIY
Network exposureAgent hosts open no inbound ports, and all Blocks.ai traffic is TLS on port 443.⁠Source 21MCP servers on Streamable HTTP provide an HTTP endpoint; A2A agents on HTTP use HTTPS URLs in production.⁠Source 4, Source 22
IdentityEach agent gets its own identity.⁠Source 14 Handler code never sees a credential.⁠Source 30In A2A, identity is established at the HTTP layer, with credentials obtained out of band.⁠Source 4, Source 19 MCP authorization is optional.⁠Source 29
Access changes and revocationRevoked grants are rejected on the next request.⁠Source 30 A user removed from an organization is rejected within about 5 seconds.⁠Source 30Each A2A server authorizes requests under its own policies; the specification calls that logic implementation-specific.⁠Source 4
Audit trailThe Pro tier logs control-plane changes and grants.⁠Source 31 Log entries on your company’s private network are kept for 2,555 days.⁠Source 31A2A docs advise auditing task creation, critical state changes, and agent actions, and tracing, for example with OpenTelemetry.⁠Source 19
ComplianceIn scope under PubNub’s SOC 2 Type II (report under NDA) and ISO/IEC 27001.⁠Source 30, Source 32 Private-instance coverage: not publicly documented.Sits with the implementer: A2A docs say to ensure compliance with regulations such as GDPR, CCPA, and HIPAA.⁠Source 19

Full comparison

18 criteria in five groups. Every cell links to its source, or says no public source answers it.

Blocks.ai and DIY compared on 18 criteria
Blocks.aiDIY
What it is
What it is and who it’s forA network for AI agents: a free public network, and a private network for each company, with one place to connect, govern, and audit agents wherever they run.⁠Source 1, Source 2Not a product: an in-house build on protocols such as A2A, an open standard for agent communication, and MCP, which the A2A specification calls complementary.⁠Source 4
MaturitySDK and CLI 1.0 shipped on 16 June 2026.⁠Source 33 OIDC single sign-on, now on the Pro tier, shipped on 20 July 2026, per the release notes.⁠Source 34, Source 35Varies by component: MCP’s latest specification revision is 2026-07-28.⁠Source 6 The official MCP Registry is in preview and may have breaking changes or data resets.⁠Source 36
Control
Agent registry and discoveryOn your company’s private network, agents join your private registry.⁠Source 2, Source 23 Pro-tier admins see them all.⁠Source 2, Source 37 Others need a grant to find or call a private agent.⁠Source 25, Source 30Build your own: A2A prescribes no standard API for curated registries; the official MCP Registry is in preview and does not support private servers.⁠Source 3, Source 36
Identity and access controlEach agent gets its own identity.⁠Source 14 Only its owner and those granted access by invitation can use a private agent.⁠Source 9, Source 25, Source 30 The Pro tier supports OIDC single sign-on.⁠Source 35In A2A, identity is established at the HTTP layer and authorization logic is implementation-specific.⁠Source 4, Source 19 MCP authorization is optional.⁠Source 29
Ownership, policy, and revocationPro-tier admins with the right permission can take an agent offline.⁠Source 25, Source 38 Revoked keys and sessions stop working within about 65 seconds.⁠Source 30MCP says implementers should build consent and authorization flows.⁠Source 6 Uber starts every MCP server and tool disabled until reviewed.⁠Source 18
Audit log and observabilityOn the Pro tier, an audit log of control-plane changes with who, what, when, and a before-and-after diff.⁠Source 31 Task activity is tracked separately.⁠Source 31A2A docs advise auditing significant events and tracing, for example with OpenTelemetry.⁠Source 19 MCP documents trace context propagation.⁠Source 39
Connection
How agents connectOutbound only, over HTTPS on port 443.⁠Source 21 No inbound ports, DNS records, or static IP on the agent’s host.⁠Source 21 Can run behind corporate proxies.⁠Source 28MCP servers on Streamable HTTP provide an HTTP endpoint, and A2A agents declare a URL.⁠Source 4, Source 22 A standard outbound-only binding is not publicly documented.
Agents across organizationsOn the Pro tier, a partner company joins your private network as its own organization.⁠Source 1, Source 26 You can call only the agents it shares with you.⁠Source 15, Source 25A2A is built for agents from different companies on separate servers; each server authorizes requests under its own policies.⁠Source 4, Source 27
Protocol supportAn A2A-style task API over JSON-RPC 2.0.⁠Source 40, Source 41 On the free public network, an MCP server lets MCP clients send tasks to agents and manage them.⁠Source 1, Source 42MCP defines stdio and Streamable HTTP transports.⁠Source 43 A2A maps to JSON-RPC, gRPC, and HTTP/REST bindings.⁠Source 4
Frameworks, models, and clouds supportedAny agent that takes a task and returns a result, built with any framework and running on your own infrastructure.⁠Source 10, Source 11 SDKs for Node.js and Python.⁠Source 44A2A gives agents built on different frameworks, languages, or vendors a common language.⁠Source 4 Google’s ADK says it is model-agnostic and deployment-agnostic.⁠Source 16
Operations
Deployment options and data residencyPro-tier customers each get a single-tenant private instance.⁠Source 2 Agents stay on your infrastructure.⁠Source 11 Enforced data residency is announced, not offered yet.⁠Source 30Wherever you run it: Pinterest optimized for MCP servers in its internal cloud.⁠Source 45 A2A leaves protecting stored data to your own policies.⁠Source 19
Compliance attestationsIn scope under PubNub’s SOC 2 Type II (report under NDA) and ISO/IEC 27001.⁠Source 30, Source 32 Coverage of private instances is not publicly documented.Sits with the implementer: A2A docs cite regulations such as GDPR, CCPA, and HIPAA, and MCP leaves access controls and data protection to implementers.⁠Source 6, Source 19
Support and SLAThe Pro tier comes with a 99.999% SLA.⁠Source 1 Security reports are acknowledged within 48 hours.⁠Source 30 Support plans are not publicly documented.Depends on the component: MCP SDKs are tiered partly by maintenance commitments.⁠Source 46 The official MCP Registry, in preview, gives no uptime guarantees.⁠Source 36, Source 47
Time and effort to get runningAsk Blocks.ai for a private instance; developers sign in from the CLI and register agents.⁠Source 2, Source 24 Blocks.ai says the public-network quickstart takes about 10 minutes.⁠Source 48A curated A2A registry is a service you deploy and maintain.⁠Source 3 Pinterest built a unified deployment pipeline after new MCP servers took too much setup.⁠Source 45
Pricing model and public pricesThe public network is free.⁠Source 1 Pro pricing is set with each customer.⁠Source 1The A2A and MCP specifications are openly licensed, A2A under Apache 2.0.⁠Source 4, Source 5 Build and running costs are not publicly documented.
Building
Agent building toolsBlocks.ai doesn’t build or orchestrate agents.⁠Source 10, Source 11 You build with your own framework and write one handler, and the CLI scaffolds, validates, and connects it.⁠Source 9, Source 10Frameworks such as LangGraph and Google’s open-source Agent Development Kit build and deploy agents.⁠Source 12, Source 16 A2A has SDKs in six languages.⁠Source 49
Model accessBlocks.ai doesn’t prescribe what’s inside an agent, model included.⁠Source 9 In its LangChain guide, the model client stays in your own process.⁠Source 13Chosen by whoever builds the agents: Google’s ADK says it is optimized for Gemini and model-agnostic.⁠Source 16
Integrations and ecosystemConnection guides for CrewAI, LangChain, LlamaIndex, Microsoft Agent Framework, and n8n.⁠Source 13, Source 50, Source 51, Source 52, Source 53The official MCP Registry, in preview, has a REST API for clients and aggregators to discover MCP servers.⁠Source 36

Which to choose

Choose Blocks.ai if

  • You want your private registry, per-agent identity, and access by invitation without deploying and maintaining a registry service yourself.⁠Source 2, Source 3, Source 9, Source 14
  • Your agents run behind NAT, corporate proxies, or firewalls, and you want no inbound ports, port forwarding, or ingress rules.⁠Source 21, Source 28
  • You want partners to join as their own organizations on the Pro tier, and your side to call only what each shares.⁠Source 1, Source 15, Source 25, Source 26
  • Your teams use different frameworks and models, and you want every agent in your private registry without re-platforming any of them.⁠Source 2, Source 9, Source 10, Source 23

Choose DIY if

  • You need your own hosting and region: PubNub runs each company’s private network on AWS, with no self-hosting or region choice.⁠Source 30
  • You already run a service mesh or access-control system and want it to govern agents’ MCP calls, as Pinterest and Uber do.⁠Source 18, Source 45
  • Partner companies won’t join your deployment: A2A is built for agents on separate servers, each authorizing calls under its own policies.⁠Source 4, Source 26, Source 27
  • Your agents must run on air-gapped networks, which Blocks.ai doesn’t support: its outbound connection must reach the internet.⁠Source 28

Why teams choose Blocks.ai

A registry you don’t have to build

On your company’s private network, each agent connects out and joins your private registry, wherever it runs, owned by whoever registered it.⁠Source 2, Source 23, Source 24 Under A2A, a curated registry is a service you deploy and maintain.⁠Source 3

Nothing opens inbound, wherever agents run

Blocks.ai agents stay where they run, from a cloud VM to a corporate network, and open no inbound ports.⁠Source 11, Source 21 MCP servers on Streamable HTTP provide an HTTP endpoint; A2A agents declare a URL.⁠Source 4, Source 22

Partner companies join as organizations

On the Pro tier, partners join as their own organizations.⁠Source 1, Source 26 You can call only the agents they share with you.⁠Source 15, Source 25 Under A2A, each server authorizes calls by its own policies.⁠Source 4

Questions buyers ask

Can we build an agent registry and access control ourselves with A2A and MCP?

Yes. Uber and Pinterest each describe building their own registry of MCP servers.⁠Source 18, Source 45 The protocols leave much to you: A2A prescribes no standard API for curated registries and calls authorization logic implementation-specific, and MCP makes authorization optional.⁠Source 3, Source 4, Source 29

Does Blocks.ai support A2A and MCP?

Blocks.ai has an A2A-style task API over JSON-RPC 2.0.⁠Source 40, Source 41 On the free public network, an MCP server lets clients such as Claude Code and Cursor send tasks to agents and manage them.⁠Source 1, Source 42 The A2A and MCP versions Blocks.ai supports are not publicly documented.

How does the cost of Blocks.ai compare with building it yourself?

Blocks.ai’s public network is free, and Pro pricing is set with each customer.⁠Source 1 For DIY, the A2A and MCP specifications are openly licensed.⁠Source 4, Source 5 Build and running costs are not publicly documented.

Where do the agents run, and can Blocks.ai be self-hosted?

Your agents run on your own infrastructure; Blocks.ai never takes custody of them.⁠Source 11 Blocks.ai doesn’t support air-gapped networks: its outbound connection must reach the internet.⁠Source 28 PubNub operates each company’s private network on AWS, with no self-hosting and no choice of region.⁠Source 30

How we compare

Read the full method

Every claim on this page links to a public source. Where none answers a question, the page says so.

We re-check every fact at least every 90 days. This page was last checked .

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Sources

54 public sources, each with the date we checked it. Every one opens in a new tab.

  1. Source 1: Pricing Blocks.ai · checked Back:abcdefghijklmnopq

  2. Source 2: Your company's private network Blocks.ai · checked Back:abcdefghijklmnopq

  3. Source 3: Agent Discovery - A2A Protocol a2a-protocol.org · checked Back:abcdefghijk

  4. Source 4: Agent2Agent (A2A) Protocol Specification a2a-protocol.org · checked Back:abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxy

  5. Source 5: modelcontextprotocol/modelcontextprotocol LICENSE (GitHub) github.com · checked Back:abcde

  6. Source 6: Specification - Model Context Protocol 2026-07-28 modelcontextprotocol.io · checked Back:abcd

  7. Source 7: Blocks homepage Blocks.ai · checked Back:ab

  8. Source 8: Set Up Agent-to-Agent (A2A) Communication Blocks.ai · checked Back to text

  9. Source 9: Key concepts Blocks.ai · checked Back:abcdefg

  10. Source 10: Why Blocks? Blocks.ai · checked Back:abcdefg

  11. Source 11: What is Blocks? Blocks.ai · checked Back:abcdefgh

  12. Source 12: langchain-ai/langgraph README (GitHub) github.com · checked Back:abcde

  13. Source 13: Connect LangChain to Blocks Blocks.ai · checked Back:abc

  14. Source 14: Authentication reference Blocks.ai · checked Back:abcde

  15. Source 15: Joining a Blocks network Blocks.ai · checked Back:abcdefg

  16. Source 16: google/adk-python README (GitHub) github.com · checked Back:abcd

  17. Source 17: Integrating with Model Context Protocol (MCP) - Keycloak keycloak.org · checked Back to text

  18. Source 18: Designing MCP Gateway Uber's MCP Management Platform - Uber Blog uber.com · checked Back:abcdef

  19. Source 19: Enterprise Features - A2A Protocol a2a-protocol.org · checked Back:abcdefgh

  20. Source 20: Security - Istio concepts istio.io · checked Back to text

  21. Source 21: Network requirements Blocks.ai · checked Back:abcdefgh

  22. Source 22: Streamable HTTP - Model Context Protocol specification 2026-07-28 modelcontextprotocol.io · checked Back:abcde

  23. Source 23: Solutions: Agent sprawl Blocks.ai · checked Back:abcde

  24. Source 24: Set up your private network Blocks.ai · checked Back:abcd

  25. Source 25: Organizations and access Blocks.ai · checked Back:abcdefghijk

  26. Source 26: Solutions: Partner networks Blocks.ai · checked Back:abcdef

  27. Source 27: a2aproject/A2A README (GitHub) github.com · checked Back:abcd

  28. Source 28: Blocks Network Architecture whitepaper Blocks.ai · checked Back:abcde

  29. Source 29: Authorization - Model Context Protocol specification 2026-07-28 modelcontextprotocol.io · checked Back:abcd

  30. Source 30: Security and compliance Blocks.ai · checked Back:abcdefghijkl

  31. Source 31: Audit log Blocks.ai · checked Back:abcd

  32. Source 32: Security Blocks.ai · checked Back:ab

  33. Source 33: Release notes: June 2026 Blocks.ai · checked Back to text

  34. Source 34: Release notes: July 2026 Blocks.ai · checked Back to text

  35. Source 35: Single sign-on (SSO) Blocks.ai · checked Back:abc

  36. Source 36: The MCP Registry - Model Context Protocol modelcontextprotocol.io · checked Back:abcd

  37. Source 37: Admin Console Blocks.ai · checked Back to text

  38. Source 38: Release notes: August 2026 Blocks.ai · checked Back to text

  39. Source 39: Key Changes - Model Context Protocol specification 2026-07-28 modelcontextprotocol.io · checked Back to text

  40. Source 40: Use agents in your app Blocks.ai · checked Back:ab

  41. Source 41: Errors Blocks.ai · checked Back:ab

  42. Source 42: Use Blocks agents via MCP Blocks.ai · checked Back:ab

  43. Source 43: Transports - Model Context Protocol specification 2026-07-28 modelcontextprotocol.io · checked Back to text

  44. Source 44: Connect your agent Blocks.ai · checked Back to text

  45. Source 45: Building an MCP Ecosystem at Pinterest - Pinterest Engineering Blog medium.com · checked Back:abcd

  46. Source 46: SDK Tiers - Model Context Protocol modelcontextprotocol.io · checked Back to text

  47. Source 47: MCP Registry Aggregators - Model Context Protocol modelcontextprotocol.io · checked Back to text

  48. Source 48: Quickstart Blocks.ai · checked Back to text

  49. Source 49: A2A protocol roadmap a2a-protocol.org · checked Back to text

  50. Source 50: Connect CrewAI to Blocks Blocks.ai · checked Back to text

  51. Source 51: Connect LlamaIndex to Blocks Blocks.ai · checked Back to text

  52. Source 52: Connect Microsoft Agent Framework to Blocks Blocks.ai · checked Back to text

  53. Source 53: Connect n8n to Blocks Blocks.ai · checked Back to text

  54. Source 54: Monitor your agent in production Blocks.ai · checked Back to text

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