What is a remote MCP server?

A remote MCP server runs on a hosted machine and speaks to clients over HTTP or SSE instead of local stdio. Unlike a local server, which executes on your own computer, a remote server lives on a cloud instance, edge function, or VPS. Clients connect via a URL, making it ideal for teams, browser-based agents, or situations where local installation is impossible. Remote servers typically authenticate users with OAuth and can scale to many concurrent clients. MCPVault lists both local and remote servers, and you can filter by transport type. The protocol itself is the same; only the connection method differs.