Perplexity API Platform vs Alion: jobs, employers and labour-market data
Perplexity API Platform is an MCP server published by perplexity.ai. Marketplaces we read that list it: 3 (Official MCP Registry, Docker MCP Catalog, Community GitHub marketplaces). Alion: jobs, employers and labour-market data is an MCP server published by alion.io. Marketplaces we read that list it: 1 (Official MCP Registry). As of our marketplace pass on 2026-10-14. This pair was picked by a reader, not by our comparison rule, so search engines are asked not to index the page.
Where each is published
| Marketplace |   Perplexity API Platform | |
|---|---|---|
| Official MCP Registry | Listed Version: 1.2.1 Downloads/month (npm): 104 497 Downloads/week (npm): 14 694 Not marked · First seen |
Listed Version: 1.1.0 No figure published Not marked · First seen |
| Docker MCP Catalog | Listed Version: sha256:7816f45a6f26 Forks (GitHub): 380 Pulls (Docker Hub): 79 944 Stars (Docker Hub): 17 Stars (GitHub): 2 563 Not marked · First seen |
Not listed |
Each figure is the marketplace's own and is never added up across marketplaces. A marketplace that publishes no figure shows none: no number is not zero.
The facts side by side
| Fact | Perplexity API Platform | Alion: jobs, employers and labour-market data |
|---|---|---|
| Marketplaces that list it (differs) | 3 (better) | 1 (worse) |
| Stars (GitHub) (differs) | 2 563 | No figure on GitHub |
| Pulls (Docker Hub) (differs) | 79 944 | No figure on Docker Hub |
| Forks (GitHub) (differs) | 380 | No figure on GitHub |
| Last release | Not published | Not published |
| Where it runs (differs) | On your machine (@perplexity-ai/mcp-server) | Remote server (alion.io/mcp) |
| Transport (differs) | stdio | Streamable HTTP |
| Tools it declares (differs) | 3 | Not published |
| Environment variables it asks for (differs) | 2, secrets among them: 1 | Not published |
| Parts of the bundle (differs) | 1 | Not a bundle |
| Licence (differs) | MIT | Not stated |
| Repository (differs) | github.com/ppl-ai/modelcontextprotocol | Not stated |
| Changes in the last 7 days (differs) | 3 | 0 |
| First seen | 2026-10-11 | 2026-10-11 |
| Endpoint at the last check (differs) | no remote endpoint we check | Responded 17 h ago |
Lines where the two differ have a tinted background and bold values. Where the data itself says which value is better (more marketplaces, a larger figure of the same marketplace, a fresher release, a verified mark on a marketplace that lists both), the better one is also marked green with ▲ and the worse one red with ▼. Where it runs, the transport, the tools, the settings, hooks, the bundle's parts, the licence and the week's changes are marked only as different: more or fewer is not better in itself.
What each says it does
Perplexity API Platform
Real-time web search, reasoning, and research through Perplexity's API
Alion: jobs, employers and labour-market data
Verified job postings from employer ATS boards, employer hiring signals and pay statistics.
How to run each
Perplexity API Platform As a local MCP server: npm package
claude mcp add --transport stdio perplexity-api-platform -- npx -y @perplexity-ai/mcp-serverAlion: jobs, employers and labour-market data As a remote MCP server
claude mcp add --transport http alion https://alion.io/mcp --header "Authorization: Bearer <YOUR_TOKEN>"Requires: Authorization header
Commands built only from what the marketplaces declare; the full set for every client is on each card.
Only Alion: jobs, employers and labour-market data has a remote endpoint we check. How we check endpoints
Tools each declares
The marketplaces of Alion: jobs, employers and labour-market data publish no list of tools, so we do not compare tools.
Settings each asks for
The marketplaces of Alion: jobs, employers and labour-market data publish no settings it asks for, so we do not compare settings.
What it can do: Perplexity API Platform · What it can do: Alion: jobs, employers and labour-market data · Compare two other plugins
Data comes from the Official MCP Registry (registry.modelcontextprotocol.io), CC0 1.0. Data comes from the Docker MCP Catalog (desktop.docker.com/mcp/catalog) and Docker Hub. Data comes from public marketplace files in GitHub repositories of their authors. Figures come from our own regular passes over the marketplaces, last read on . We publish no contact details for plugin publishers.