Elva
API management platform by Theneo that scans your repos into a scored catalog and hosts governed MCP servers.
Elva, from Theneo, finds the APIs in your code, scores them, governs what each audience sees through contracts, and exposes them through docs, SDKs and hosted MCP servers. Free covers 1 repo and 1,000 tool calls a month; Startup is $100 a month flat, and Business $600 a month billed annually or $720 billed monthly.
About Elva
You sign in at app.getelva.ai in a browser and bring in an API from a connected GitHub repository, an OpenAPI or Swagger file, Postman collections read with your Postman API key, or a plain-language prompt that generates OpenAPI 3.1. Repository scans parse code statically and never execute it, and recognise Express, Fastify, NestJS, Koa, Hono, FastAPI, Flask, Django, gin, echo, chi, net/http and Spring MVC routes. Every endpoint is graded on design, developer experience, AI readiness, security and performance.
A contract names an audience (partner, internal, public or AI agent), the endpoints and fields it gets and where it ships, and Elva says it diffs every commit against that promise. Free has no contracts and Startup one internal contract that only notifies; on Business and Enterprise, a breaking change can block the publish until someone approves it, and a contract can deploy a spec, docs, an MCP server, an SDK and a Postman collection.
MCP servers are generated from a contract and hosted behind Elva's gateway, which checks identity, tool scope, field redaction, rate and quota and writes an audit record for every call, so Claude, Cursor, ChatGPT and other MCP clients get scoped keys while upstream credentials stay in Elva. The MCP Playground tests a server with an agent without counting against the quota, and agents calling a live server tell you which tools confused them.
Every plan includes unlimited members and no per-seat fees. Startup, at $100 a month flat on monthly or annual billing, has 3 repos, 3 hosted MCP servers and 25,000 tool calls a month; Business has 10 repos, 20 contracts, 20 servers and 250,000 calls; Enterprise, priced on request, adds SSO/SAML, SCIM, audit logs and private-cloud or on-prem deployment. Startup and Business include a 14-day free trial with no credit card.
Sources: getelva.ai, /pricing, /mcp, /security, /enterprise, /vs/postman, docs.getelva.ai/api-collections/inside-the-code-scanner, docs.getelva.ai/cli-and-automation/install-authenticate-and-choose-a-workspace and docs.getelva.ai/api-collections/bring-in-your-apis, read 2026-10-27
Elva pros and cons
Pros
- Plans are flat per workspace with unlimited members, so adding a reviewer or stakeholder never costs extra.
- No OpenAPI spec is needed to start: Elva derives the catalog from route registrations, validators and serializers in your code and emits OpenAPI 3.1.
- Upstream API credentials stay in Elva's gateway, and agents get scoped keys that can be limited per tool and revoked.
- Downgrading deletes nothing: the catalog becomes read-only beyond the plan's limits.
Cons
- The Free plan pauses until the next month once its 1,000 tool calls are used; paid plans continue with metered overage at $10 per 10,000 calls.
- Governance rulesets, blocking breaking changes, automated and chaos testing and webhooks start at Business; SSO, SCIM, audit logs and self-hosted MCP servers come only with Enterprise.
- Static route detection covers JavaScript/TypeScript, Python, Go and Java/Kotlin frameworks; routes it misses are found only if AI scanning is enabled, which sends routing-looking files to an LLM.
- The CLI and coding-agent workflows are marked Preview, and the CLI needs Python 3.11 or later.
Elva alternatives
The closest alternatives to Elva.
Related reading
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</a>Frequently asked questions
- What is Elva?
- Elva is an API management platform by Theneo that scans your repos into a scored catalog and hosts governed MCP servers.
- Is Elva free?
- Elva offers a free tier and paid plans with higher limits or premium features.
- What platforms does Elva support?
- Elva's own site lists it for Web and CLI.
- What are the alternatives to Elva?
- The closest alternatives to Elva are NitroStack, FetchSandbox.
- What are the downsides of Elva?
- The Free plan pauses until the next month once its 1,000 tool calls are used; paid plans continue with metered overage at $10 per 10,000 calls. Governance rulesets, blocking breaking changes, automated and chaos testing and webhooks start at Business; SSO, SCIM, audit logs and self-hosted MCP servers come only with Enterprise. Static route detection covers JavaScript/TypeScript, Python, Go and Java/Kotlin frameworks; routes it misses are found only if AI scanning is enabled, which sends routing-looking files to an LLM. The CLI and coding-agent workflows are marked Preview, and the CLI needs Python 3.11 or later.
- Does Elva replace Postman?
- The Product Hunt badge on Elva's homepage is labelled 'Goodbye, Postman', but Elva's own comparison page says the two do different jobs: Postman is a client workspace for building and sending requests, Elva a system of record generated from your code. It says most teams keep a client for debugging and can import their Postman collections.
- How much does Elva cost?
- Free is $0 with 1 repo, 1 hosted MCP server and 1,000 tool calls a month. Startup is $100 a month flat on monthly or annual billing. Business is $600 a month billed annually or $720 billed monthly, and Enterprise is custom. Paid plans continue past their included calls at $10 per 10,000 calls.
- Does Elva need an OpenAPI spec?
- No. It derives the catalog from route registrations, validators and serializers in your code and emits OpenAPI 3.1, and existing OpenAPI or Swagger files from 2.0 to 3.1 can be imported instead. Rescans are manual on Free, weekly on Startup and on every commit on Business and Enterprise.
- Which AI clients can use Elva's MCP servers?
- Any MCP client, including Claude, Cursor and ChatGPT, plus partner agents with scoped keys through the same gateway. Every tool call is checked for identity, tool scope, field redaction, rate and quota and logged, and calls from the MCP Playground do not count against the tool-call quota.
- Can Elva be self-hosted?
- Only on Enterprise, which can run Elva in a private cloud or on-prem, including self-hosted MCP servers and a custom domain such as mcp.yourcompany.com. Self-hosted MCP deployment is not part of Free, Startup or Business.