Cowboy MCP vs Royal MCP

What is Royal MCP?

Royal MCP is a WordPress plugin from Royal Plugins that runs an MCP server on your own site, with a free core on WordPress.org and a paid Royal MCP Pro tier that adds governance features for agencies. Version 1.5.8 at the time of writing, it was added to the directory on 14 January 2026 — earlier than most of the category — and the directory data gathered for the plugin comparison hub put it at 10,000 active installs in early October 2026, with seven five-star ratings and every one of its ten support threads resolved.

Its strengths are real and worth stating plainly. The endpoint is native, at /wp-json/royal-mcp/v1/mcp on your own domain, and the listing is explicit that every credential, token, session and log entry stays inside your own WordPress database with no hosted middleman, no license check and no telemetry (opens in new tab). Authentication is OAuth 2.0 with PKCE and dynamic client registration, or a timing-safe API key for clients that cannot do OAuth. The catalogue is wide: the listing counts 90 core tools and 136 integration tools that auto-load for WooCommerce, Elementor, Divi, ACF, Yoast SEO, UpdraftPlus, WPForms, Solid Security, Wordfence, Contact Form 7, MonsterInsights, W3 Total Cache, LiteSpeed Cache, Duplicator, BuddyPress and Redirection — Divi coverage in particular is rare in this category — and it consumes every ability registered through the WordPress Abilities API. It also has a genuine safety story: a reverse-state snapshot before destructive writes with a 72-hour undo token, a dry-run flag on high-blast option and permalink writes, new posts saved as drafts, and an activity log. Two forward-looking features stand out — server-side support for the WebMCP browser-agent standard, and machine-readable "agent readiness" metadata at the well-known locations.

How do Cowboy MCP and Royal MCP differ?

The two are architecturally alike — both self-hosted, both native endpoints, both OAuth-capable — so the differences sit in the business model and in how far undo reaches. Cowboy MCP puts every tool and every safety feature in one free plugin with a per-change undo journal covering any journaled write, while Royal MCP splits its feature set across a free core and a paid Pro tier and anchors its undo on 72-hour tokens for destructive operations. The table below lines them up on the attributes that actually differ; every Royal MCP claim links to a primary source.

Last verified: 13 October 2026.

Attribute	Cowboy MCP	Royal MCP
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/royal-mcp/v1/mcp (dataset); credentials and logs stay in your database, no hosted middleman (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); unlimited connections	OAuth 2.0 with PKCE and dynamic client registration, or a timing-safe API key (listing (opens in new tab)); the support site says the free plugin allows OAuth for one AI client at a time, with unlimited concurrent connections in Pro (support site (opens in new tab))
What it exposes	203 built-in tools across content, WooCommerce, users, files, the database, security and diagnostics	Vendor-claimed 90 core and 136 integration tools in the free plugin (listing (opens in new tab)); the vendor site counts 209 MCP tools, and Pro adds "100+ additional Pro tools" (pricing (opens in new tab))
Undo	Per-change undo journal for any journaled write — content, options, users, media, menus, terms, WooCommerce, SEO meta, layouts, plugin and theme changes — seven days by default; one-click database checkpoints restore every site table	Reverse-state snapshot before destructive writes and a 72-hour undo token reversed with mcp_undo_last_operation, worded in the tool list as reversing "the previous delete or reorder" (listing (opens in new tab)); Pro extends tokens to 72–168 hours and adds batch undo (pricing (opens in new tab))
Action guardrails	Safe mode on by default, dry runs on every write tool, audit log (30 days), per-connection scope, Connection Doctor	Client-side approval prompts for destructive calls, dry-run flag on high-blast option and permalink writes, new posts start as drafts, activity log, denylisted and redacted sensitive options, 60 requests a minute per IP (listing (opens in new tab)); 90-day audit retention in Pro (pricing (opens in new tab))
Plugin integrations	Built-in WooCommerce, Wordfence, ACF, Elementor, Beaver Builder, SiteOrigin, Yoast, Rank Math, AIOSEO, SEOPress, The Events Calendar, forms and caching tools	WooCommerce, Elementor, Divi, ACF, Yoast SEO, UpdraftPlus, WPForms, Solid Security, Wordfence, Contact Form 7, MonsterInsights, W3 Total Cache, LiteSpeed Cache, Duplicator, BuddyPress, Redirection and the Royal Plugins family (listing (opens in new tab))
Abilities API & browser agents	Both ways since 1.6.4 — registers its tools as abilities and consumes other plugins' abilities; no WebMCP	Consumes every ability registered through the Abilities API; server-side WebMCP support for browser agents and agent-readiness metadata at well-known URLs (listing (opens in new tab))
Requirements	WordPress 6.2+, PHP 8.0+	WordPress 5.8+, PHP 7.4+ (listing (opens in new tab))
License & price	Free, GPL-2.0; no Pro tier	Free core on WordPress.org; Royal MCP Pro at $99 a year for one site, $249 for five and $999 for a hundred, with founding-member rates such as $79 a year that rotate to standard pricing as seats fill (pricing (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 sets out how that distinguishes both of them from the hosted options in the category.

When is Royal MCP the better choice?

Royal MCP is worth choosing when its integration list or its platform bets match your site. Royal MCP is the better choice when you build with Divi, run a stack of the specific plugins it has dedicated tools for, or want WebMCP browser-agent support today. No other plugin in the comparison table lists Divi tools, and the UpdraftPlus, Duplicator, Solid Security, MonsterInsights and Redirection integrations cover maintenance workflows that most MCP servers leave to generic post-meta and option tools.

That makes it a strong fit for agencies standardising on the Royal Plugins family, for Divi shops, for sites still on PHP 7.4 or WordPress 5.8, and for anyone who wants their site discoverable by agent-readiness scanners with no configuration. Its safety model is credible — approval prompts, drafts by default, a dry-run flag on the riskiest writes, and a 72-hour undo token on destructive operations — and its support record on WordPress.org is spotless. The honest tradeoffs are the business model and the shape of undo: the features agencies most want, such as batch undo, longer undo windows, longer audit retention and more than one OAuth client at a time, sit in the paid Pro tier, and the free plugin's undo is scoped to destructive operations such as deletes and reorders rather than to every edit.

When is Cowboy MCP the better choice?

Cowboy MCP is the stronger pick when you want everything in one free plugin and want any change, not just a destructive one, to be reversible. Cowboy MCP is the better choice when you want a per-change undo journal that covers ordinary edits as well as deletes, database checkpoints that restore the whole site, and every safety feature and every connection included at no cost.

Cowboy MCP ships 203 ready-to-use tools, and every write — a changed price, an edited post, an updated option, a swapped menu item, a plugin update — lands in the undo journal, where it can be rolled back individually or as a batch from the Activity tab or by asking the agent, seven days by default; the undo guide walks through it. Database checkpoints are taken automatically before plugin and theme updates and mutating WP-CLI commands, 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, with as many connected apps as you like and a Connection Doctor that names the exact host, firewall or caching problem when a connection fails. It is free under GPL-2.0 with no Pro tier, no seat limit and no per-site licence; the price of that is a PHP 8.0 requirement and a shorter list of named plugin integrations than Royal MCP's.

Can you run both at the same time?

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

In practice you might point one client at Royal MCP for its Divi or UpdraftPlus tools, or to expose your site to WebMCP browser agents, and another at Cowboy MCP for day-to-day publishing, store work and maintenance where the undo journal and checkpoints matter — or run Royal MCP on sites that need PHP 7.4 and Cowboy MCP where the hosting is current. On WordPress 6.9 or newer the two also meet in the Abilities API: Cowboy MCP registers its tools as cowboy-mcp/* abilities, and Royal MCP consumes registered abilities, so Cowboy's tools can appear through Royal's endpoint with safe mode, dry runs, the audit log and undo still applied. Each plugin reverses only the changes made through its own endpoint, so pick one for writes you may want to undo.

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