# Display.dev alternative — MCP-native, replace-in-place · Stacktree

Source: https://stacktr.ee/display-dev-alternative

[Skip to content](#main) [Stacktree](/)[Developers](/developers)[Agents](/agents)[Docs](/docs)[Use cases](/use-cases)[Pricing](/pricing)[Blog](/blog)[Dashboard](https://app.stacktr.ee)[Sign in →](https://app.stacktr.ee)      By [ Steve Smith ](/about) · Founder, Stacktree  ·  Last updated September 20, 2026          alternative

#  A Display.dev alternative that starts with a tool call.

   Display.dev wraps HTML in company auth. Stacktree wraps HTML in an MCP tool call — so the agent publishes directly, the URL replaces in place across iterations, and a developer can try it without spinning up a workspace.

  [ Get started free ](https://app.stacktr.ee/?join=1&from=seo_display_dev_alternative)   install npx stacktree-install
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##  What is a Display.dev alternative?

Stacktree. Both products solve the "agent emitted HTML, now what?" problem with a private URL. Display.dev is workspace- and SSO-first; Stacktree is primitive-first — anonymous publishes, MCP tool calls, `update_site` for stable URLs across revisions, and three independent gating layers (unguessable URL, password, email-domain gate) so you can match the security to the artifact instead of the org.

## Where they agree

  - HTML emitted by agents needs a home that isn't a screenshot in Slack.
 - Private-by-default beats public-by-default for anything internal.
 - Per-seat pricing is the wrong shape for agent-scale workloads.

## Where they differ

The product shape is the biggest divergence. Display.dev is "gated publishing as a managed workspace": you create an account, you invite teammates, you wire SSO, agents publish on behalf of the workspace, viewers authenticate via your IdP.

Stacktree is "gated publishing as a primitive": the first publish takes one MCP tool call with no account at all. When you do sign up, what unlocks isn't a workspace — it's longer expiries, replace-in-place across sessions, custom domains, and the ability to layer password + email-domain gates per link.

## Three things Stacktree does that Display.dev doesn't

  -  Replace-in-place via MCP. update_site is a first-class verb, designed for the case where an agent revises the same artifact 12× in a session. The URL stays put; the content changes underneath it.

 -  Anonymous first publish. The 60-second test path is "install MCP, publish, send link to coworker" — no workspace, no SSO, no invite chain. You upgrade when you outgrow the anonymous 24-hour expiry, not before.

 -  End-to-end encryption. A toggle on upload — AES-GCM in the browser, key in the URL fragment, ciphertext on the server. Useful when the HTML embeds real customer data and the answer to "could Stacktree read this?" needs to be no.

## When Display.dev is still the right pick

If your primary requirement is "every viewer must be in our IdP," and you want every artifact across the org auto-gated to your SSO without per-link configuration, Display.dev's workspace model is a tighter fit today. Stacktree's per-link gates cover ~90% of the practical cases ("only my team," "only @yourco.com," "only people with the password"), but they're configured per artifact rather than once per workspace.

##  Stacktree vs. Display.dev

     Criterion Display.dev Stacktree     Anonymous first publish  No: workspace + account required.   Yes: 24-hour link, no account.   MCP server  Roadmap / partial.   Yes: twenty-nine verbs, stdio + HTTP.   Replace-in-place URL  Limited: workspace-scoped artifacts.   First-class: update_site verb.   SSO (SAML/OIDC)  Yes: workspace-level.   Per-link email-domain gate; full SSO on roadmap.   Email-domain gate  Via workspace SSO only.   Per-link, magic-link verified.   Password gate  Limited.   Yes: toggle on any link.   End-to-end encryption  No.   Yes: AES-GCM, key in URL fragment.   Custom domain  Yes (paid).   Yes (from Solo, Cloudflare for SaaS).   Pricing shape  Workspace flat tier.   Workspace flat tier.
FAQ

## Frequent questions

     How is Stacktree different from Display.dev? +  Both put a private URL in front of agent-emitted HTML. Display.dev focuses on company SSO and team workspaces. Stacktree focuses on being an agent primitive: anonymous first publish, MCP tool call, `update_site` for stable URLs across iterations, and three gating layers (unguessable URL → password → email-domain gate) that scale from solo to team without a workspace setup step.   Does Stacktree do SSO? +  Email-domain gating with magic-link verification covers the common case ("only people with @yourco.com can see this"). For SAML/OIDC SSO in front of every site on a workspace, that's on the roadmap; today the verification is per-link.   Is there a free tier on Stacktree? +  There is a free trial and a truly anonymous publish that requires no account at all. A free account gets 3 pages in total, expiring after 7 days; paid plans start at Solo, $19 a month. Display.dev gates publishing behind a signed-up workspace from the start.   Can agents publish without me approving each upload? +  Yes. The MCP tool call goes straight to publish. If you want to spot-check, `list_sites` lets the agent (or a human) review what's been published and delete or expire any of it.   Do I need a company email to use Stacktree? +  No. Sign in with any email (or skip signing in altogether for 24-hour anonymous publishes). Paid plans are billed per workspace, not per seat.   How does pricing compare? +  Both have a free entry point and flat, non-per-seat paid plans; Stacktree starts at Solo, $19 a month. The more important difference is that Stacktree's free trial does not require a workspace, so a developer can prove value in an afternoon before bringing the team.
Keep reading

## Related guides

   -  [ MCP server for publishing HTML A Model Context Protocol server that gives any MCP client twenty-eight tool calls to publish, gate, replace, delete ](/mcp-publish-html)
-  [ Tiiny Host alternative The drag-and-drop side of the market. ](/tiiny-host-alternative)
-  [ Private GitHub Pages alternative For repo-driven workflows. ](/github-pages-private-alternative)
-  [ Publish from Claude Code How Claude Code users hand off artifacts. ](/claude-code)
-  [ Agent-loop hosting Why replace-in-place matters for agent workflows. ](/agent-loop-hosting)

References

## Sources and further reading

   -  [ display.dev ↗ Official site of the product compared on this page. ](https://display.dev)
-  [ Model Context Protocol — spec ↗ The protocol Stacktree exposes for direct agent publishing. ](https://modelcontextprotocol.io/specification/2025-11-25)
-  [ SubtleCrypto — AES-GCM (MDN) ↗ The browser API used for Stacktree's end-to-end encryption option. ](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/SubtleCrypto/encrypt)

##  Try the primitive in 60 seconds.

 No workspace setup. No SSO wiring. Install the MCP server, publish, share.

 [ Sign up free → ](https://app.stacktr.ee/?join=1&from=cta_display_dev_alternative)   install npx stacktree-install
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       Private hosting for the HTML your agents make.

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## Product

- [Page video](/page-video)
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## Alternatives

- [All comparisons](/alternatives)
- [Head-to-head comparisons](/compare)
- [Tiiny Host](/tiiny-host-alternative)
- [GitHub Pages (private)](/github-pages-private-alternative)
- [Vercel](/vercel-alternative-for-agents)
- [ngrok](/ngrok-alternative-for-html)
- [Display.dev](/display-dev-alternative)
- [Static.app](/static-app-alternative)
- [OpenAI Codex Sites](/openai-codex-sites-alternative)
- [here.now](/here-now-alternative)
- [Shippage](/shippage-ai-alternative)
- [Best private hosting](/best-private-html-hosting)

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## Learn

- [Blog](/blog)
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- [FAQ](/faq)
- [Where AI output should live](/where-ai-output-lives)
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- [MCP servers explained](/blog/mcp-servers-explained-for-developers)
- [What changed in the 2026-07 MCP spec](/blog/mcp-2026-spec-changes)
- [Sites in Codex explained](/blog/sites-in-codex-explained)
- [Private-by-default hosting](/blog/private-by-default-html-hosting)
- [An agent paid us $1 (x402)](/blog/agent-paid-to-provision-itself)
- [When a loop hits a paywall](/blog/loop-engineering-paywall)
- [Pricing](/pricing)
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