MCP Comparison · 2026
Foursquare Places vs Time MCP Server
Comparing Foursquare Places and Time as MCP servers? Foursquare Places (poi search & metadata) is best when poi search by category, feature, or proximity. Time (time & timezone) is best when giving an agent the current time. Both run as Model Context Protocol servers and can coexist in the same client. Updated 2026.
Verdict
Generated by shared category rather than real overlap, and the two compose instead of competing. Foursquare Places is official, on a freemium key: POI search by category, feature, or proximity, address-to-venue resolution, and venue metadata like opening hours. Time is a free two-minute local utility that tells the agent the current time and does timezone math.
They pair naturally because a question about a place is usually also a question about when. Foursquare Places can tell you a venue's hours; Time is what lets the agent work out whether it is open now in the venue's timezone rather than the user's. Neither substitutes for the other, and together they cost one API key and a couple of minutes.
Know each one's edges. Foursquare Places rules out routing and driving directions - pair it with a maps MCP when you need to actually get somewhere - and street-view imagery. Time rules out recurring-event scheduling and holiday or business-hours calendars: it is a clock, not a calendar. If you install only one, install Time, because an agent silently reasoning from the wrong date corrupts everything downstream and the fix is free.
Verdict by top-mcps.com — both entries re-verified on catalog refresh.
Side-by-side specs
Pulled from each MCP's verified fact sheet.
| Foursquare Places | Time | |
|---|---|---|
| Primary function | POI Search & Metadata | Time & Timezone |
| Maintainer | Foursquare | Anthropic (modelcontextprotocol) |
| Pricing | Freemium | Open source |
| Setup complexity | Low · ~5 min | Low · ~2 min |
| Transport | stdio | stdio |
| Auth model | API key | None |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Language | TypeScript | Python |
| Latest version | latest | latest |
| Compatible clients | Claude, Cursor, Any MCP-compatible client | Claude, Claude Code, Cursor, VS Code, Zed, Any MCP-compatible client |
| Last verified | 2026-08-27 | 2026-08-31 |
Which one should you pick?
Decision rubric drawn from each MCP's documented strengths.
Choose Foursquare Places
- POI search by category, feature, or proximity
- Address → venue resolution (GeoTagging)
- Enriching location data with hours, photos, ratings
Choose Time
- Giving an agent the current time
- Cross-timezone meeting math
- Travel arrival-time reasoning
Pick something else if…
- Routing or driving directions
- Recurring-event scheduling
Feature breakdown
Key capabilities each server ships out of the box.
Foursquare Places
- Official Foursquare repo `foursquare/foursquare-places-mcp`
- 100M+ places with rich category taxonomies
- Search, autocomplete, place-details, GeoTagging
- Photos, reviews, ratings, hours, features
- Local stdio — bring your own Service API key
Time
- get_current_time for any IANA timezone
- convert_time between two IANA zones
- Automatic system-timezone detection
- No API key, no network, no account
- First-party Anthropic reference server
Install snippets
Open the detail page for ready-to-paste config for every major client.
FAQ
Do I need Time if Foursquare returns opening hours?
Usually yes. Hours are static text until something knows the current time in that timezone. Without a clock, an agent guesses the date and gets open-or-closed wrong.
Can Foursquare Places give directions?
No - routing and driving directions are ruled out in its listing. It resolves and describes places; pair it with a maps MCP for navigation.
Foursquare Places vs Time: which MCP server should I use?
Pick Foursquare Places when poi search by category, feature, or proximity. Pick Time when giving an agent the current time. Foursquare Places is built for poi search & metadata, while Time focuses on time & timezone.
Can I run both Foursquare Places and Time together?
Yes. MCP clients run each server as a separate process and surface every server's tools simultaneously, so you can install both and let your agent decide which to call. Be deliberate with auth scopes when stacking servers.
How fresh is this comparison?
Updated for 2026. Foursquare Places's last verification: 2026-08-27. Time's last verification: 2026-08-31. We refresh detail-page facts on every catalog rebuild.
More Foursquare Places comparisons
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