Cowboy MCP vs Easy MCP AI

What is Easy MCP AI?

Easy MCP AI is a free WordPress plugin, published on WordPress.org by Themeisle, that turns your own site into an MCP server so Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor and other AI agents can read, write and publish on it — with a tool catalogue that reaches into SEO and analytics providers as well as WordPress itself. Version 2.1.1 at the time of writing, it was added to the directory on 25 March 2026, and the directory data gathered for the plugin comparison hub put it at 10,000 active installs in early October 2026, with fourteen five-star ratings.

Its strengths are real and worth stating plainly. The endpoint is native — PHP on your own site at /wp-json/easy-mcp-ai/v1/mcp — and the listing is explicit that there is no hosted relay, account or usage fee (opens in new tab). Authentication is OAuth 2.1 with PKCE, dynamic client registration and refresh-token rotation, or SHA-256-hashed API tokens, and every tool call runs as the WordPress user bound to that token, with that user's capability checks. The catalogue is broad: the listing claims 280+ MCP tools — 130+ for core WordPress, 90+ for plugin integrations such as WooCommerce, ACF, The Events Calendar and BuddyPress, and 50+ that pull Google Analytics 4, Search Console, Semrush, SE Ranking, DataForSEO and Ahrefs data into chat through your own provider accounts. It also acts as an adapter for the WordPress Abilities API: you choose which abilities other plugins register, and those become MCP tools. And it documents an unusually long client list — Claude on the web, desktop, Cowork and Claude Code, ChatGPT, Cursor, VS Code with Copilot, Codex CLI, Google Antigravity, Windsurf, Cline, Roo Code, Zed, OpenCode, LibreChat, Manus, Pydantic AI and n8n — while its vendor site (opens in new tab) publishes its own comparison pages against WPVibe, Novamira, Royal MCP, miniOrange and AI Engine.

How do Cowboy MCP and Easy MCP AI differ?

The two plugins are closer in architecture than most pairs on this site: both are free, both run a native endpoint on your own domain, and both sign clients in with OAuth. The real difference is what happens after a write — Easy MCP AI records before-and-after snapshots in a Change History you can inspect, while Cowboy MCP records a per-change undo journal you can roll back, backed by database checkpoints, safe mode and dry runs. The table below lines them up on the attributes that actually differ; every Easy MCP AI claim links to a primary source.

Last verified: 13 October 2026.

Attribute	Cowboy MCP	Easy MCP AI
Architecture & endpoint	Native MCP endpoint — a REST route inside your WordPress at /wp-json/cowboy-mcp/v1/endpoint	Native endpoint on your own site at /wp-json/easy-mcp-ai/v1/mcp (dataset); "no hosted relay, account or usage fee" (listing (opens in new tab))
Authentication	API key as a hashed bearer token, or a native OAuth connector (OAuth 2.1, one-click sign-in)	OAuth 2.1 with PKCE, dynamic client registration and refresh-token rotation, or SHA-256-hashed API tokens; each call runs as the WordPress user bound to the token (listing (opens in new tab))
What it exposes	203 built-in tools across content, WooCommerce, users, files, the database, security and diagnostics	Vendor-claimed 280+ MCP tools: 130+ for core WordPress, 90+ for plugin integrations, 50+ for SEO and analytics providers (listing (opens in new tab))
Undo & history	Per-change undo journal (seven days by default) rolled back from the Activity tab or by asking the agent; one-click database checkpoints	Change History with before/after snapshots and diffs, queried through wp_history_list, wp_history_get and wp_history_diff; the listing describes no undo tool (listing (opens in new tab))
Action guardrails	Safe mode on by default, dry runs on every write tool, audit log, per-connection scope, Connection Doctor	Per-token tool selection including read-only, 60 requests a minute per token by default, optional IP allowlist, "Force Draft on Create" (off by default), Audit Log kept 30 days when logging is on (listing (opens in new tab))
External data	None built in — tools act on your site, and outbound requests happen only when you ask the agent to make one	Google Analytics 4, Search Console, Semrush, SE Ranking, DataForSEO and Ahrefs tools using your own provider credentials, stored with AES-256-GCM encryption; the providers bill separately (listing (opens in new tab), site (opens in new tab))
Abilities API	Both ways since 1.6.4 — registers its tools as abilities and consumes other plugins' abilities	Adapter for other plugins' abilities: the ones you select become MCP tools (listing (opens in new tab))
Client sign-in	One click for Claude, ChatGPT, Perplexity, Grok, the Gemini app, Cursor and VS Code; one command for Claude Code, Codex and Gemini CLI; an n8n panel; Codex connects directly	Connect-to-Claude and Connect-to-ChatGPT buttons, Add to Cursor, Install in VS Code; the Codex CLI command connects through the mcp-remote bridge, as do stdio-only clients (listing (opens in new tab))
Requirements	WordPress 6.2+, PHP 8.0+	WordPress 6.0+, PHP 7.4+ (listing (opens in new tab))
License & price	Free, GPL-2.0; no Pro tier	Free; "no second subscription needed"; third-party SEO APIs paid separately to those providers (site (opens in new tab))

Because both are self-hosted native endpoints, neither puts a relay or a vendor in your data path — the self-hosted vs hosted WordPress MCP comparison explains why that matters against the hosted options in the category.

When is Easy MCP AI the better choice?

Easy MCP AI is worth choosing when the questions you ask your agent reach beyond the site itself. Easy MCP AI is the better choice when you want SEO and analytics data in the same chat as your WordPress site, or when your hosting is still on PHP 7.4. Its external-data tools let an agent answer "what does my homepage rank for, and how many clicks does it get?" from Search Console, Semrush or GA4 without leaving the conversation, and no other plugin in the comparison table bundles that.

That makes it a strong fit for SEO practitioners and content teams who already pay for those providers, for sites on older PHP, and for anyone who values a very long documented client list — Roo Code, Manus, LibreChat and Pydantic AI included. Its own safety story is honest and useful: the Change History keeps before-and-after snapshots and diffs, so you can see exactly what an agent changed, and per-token permissions plus the Force Draft option let you keep an agent on a short leash. The tradeoff is that seeing a change is not the same as reversing it: the listing describes no undo tool, so putting a post, product or option back the way it was is a manual step or a fresh instruction to the agent.

When is Cowboy MCP the better choice?

Cowboy MCP is the stronger pick when the agent is working on a live site and a mistake has to be reversible in one move. Cowboy MCP is the better choice when you want a way back from every change — a per-change undo journal, one-click database checkpoints, safe mode and dry runs — and one-click sign-in from the cloud apps, Perplexity, Grok and the Gemini app included.

Cowboy MCP ships 203 ready-to-use tools across content, WooCommerce, users, files, the database, security and diagnostics, and every write lands in the undo journal, where it can be rolled back from the Activity tab or by asking the agent — the undo guide walks through it. Database checkpoints are taken automatically before plugin and theme updates and can restore every site table in one click; safe mode holds destructive tools until the agent confirms; and any write can be previewed as a dry run, as the security page sets out. Connecting is one-click sign-in for Claude, ChatGPT, Perplexity, Grok, the Gemini app, Cursor and VS Code, and one command for Claude Code, Codex and Gemini CLI — Codex connects to the endpoint directly, with no mcp-remote bridge — while a Connection Doctor names the exact host, firewall or caching problem when a connection fails. It is free under GPL-2.0 with no Pro tier, and it requires PHP 8.0 or newer, which rules out some older hosting but lets the plugin use modern PHP throughout.

Can you run both at the same time?

Running Cowboy MCP and Easy MCP AI on the same site is a valid setup rather than an either-or choice. Cowboy MCP and Easy MCP AI are independent WordPress.org plugins with separate REST endpoints (/wp-json/cowboy-mcp/v1/... and /wp-json/easy-mcp-ai/v1/...), separate OAuth servers and separate key stores, so installing both creates no conflict.

In practice you might point one AI client at Easy MCP AI for its Search Console and Semrush tools and another at Cowboy MCP for the work that changes the site — publishing, store updates, plugin maintenance — where the undo journal and checkpoints matter. Both also meet in the Abilities API: Cowboy MCP registers its tools as cowboy-mcp/* abilities, and Easy MCP AI can expose the abilities you select from other plugins, so the two can even see parts of each other on WordPress 6.9 or newer. What does not change is the recovery model: changes made through Easy MCP AI appear in its Change History, and changes made through Cowboy MCP appear in its undo journal, and each plugin can reverse its own journaled changes.

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