Elementor has released its own MCP server, which lets AI tools like Claude, Codex and Cursor build and edit Elementor pages directly. That raised a question for me, because I’d already paid for Novamira Pro, a WordPress MCP plugin that also promises AI-assisted Elementor editing (and a lot more besides). Surely the company that makes Elementor would build the best MCP for Elementor?
So I spent a day testing them side by side on two identical sites. This post covers the results, which one I’d use where, and a couple of security points to think about before you connect either of them to a live website.
The short answer
For building and editing Elementor V4 pages, Elementor’s own MCP is currently the stronger tool. In my tests it could natively build tabs, accordions, forms and reusable components, and Novamira Pro struggled. On simpler pages the two were close to identical.
Novamira Pro does far more than Elementor, though. It can work across your whole WordPress site, not just Elementor pages, and it can also pass Elementor’s MCP tools through to your AI. So for most of my own sites, the answer turned out to be “both”.
What an MCP is
MCP stands for Model Context Protocol. It’s a standard way for an AI assistant to connect to another system and use tools inside it. Without an MCP, an AI can only tell you what to click. With one, it can do the work itself: read a page’s structure, add a section, apply your global styles and save it as a draft for you to review.
Connecting an MCP doesn’t give the AI free run of your website. It can only use the tools that particular MCP server offers, and the number and type of tools on offer is the biggest difference between these two plugins.
What each plugin is
Elementor MCP is built into Elementor itself (you’ll find it under Elementor → Elementor MCP in the dashboard). Connecting is free, though Pro elements still need an Elementor Pro licence. At the time of writing it offers a little over 20 tools, all focused on Elementor: building layouts, managing global classes and variables, creating components, preview links and publishing.
Novamira is a third-party plugin with a free version and a Pro version. Its Elementor abilities are only in Pro, so Novamira Pro is the version I tested. For Elementor work I wouldn’t have bothered testing the free version at all. Its scope is also much wider than Elementor’s MCP. On one of my test sites it offered 162 abilities covering Elementor, SEO, templates, design systems, files and more, including the ability to run PHP on the server.
How I tested them
I set up two identical copies of a real client website (an ecommerce site built entirely with Elementor V4 atomic elements). Both had the same design system: seven global colour variables and nine global classes for things like section widths, cards, headings and buttons. I wanted to see whether each one would use that design system, because AI-built pages are often a mess of one-off inline styles that are a headache to maintain later.
One copy had only Elementor MCP connected, and the other had only Novamira Pro. I used Claude for both, in separate fresh chats, with the same brief word for word. Versions at the time: WordPress 7.1.2, Elementor 4.3.3, Elementor Pro 4.3.1, Novamira 1.12.7 and Novamira Pro 1.11.0.
Connecting them: OAuth versus passwords
The first difference showed up before I’d built anything. Novamira supports OAuth: in Claude, I added it as a connector, approved it in the WordPress dashboard, and it was connected. It works in Claude on the web, on mobile and in the desktop app.
Elementor MCP uses WordPress application passwords. Elementor generates a prompt with the password included and asks you to paste it into your AI tool, which then edits a local config file and runs a small bridge program called mcp-remote. It works, but only in desktop apps and command-line tools on the computer you set it up on, and it needs Node.js installed.
If you’re on Windows and the connection fails with “Server disconnected”, it’s a known bug: Claude Desktop doesn’t handle the space in “Authorization: Basic …” correctly. The fix is to move the header value into an environment variable, like this:
"args": [
"-y",
"mcp-remote",
"https://yoursite.com/wp-json/elementor/mcp/",
"--header",
"Authorization:${AUTH_HEADER}"
],
"env": {
"AUTH_HEADER": "Basic your-encoded-credentials"
}The “Basic” string in that config isn’t encrypted. It’s your username and application password encoded, and anyone who has it can use the WordPress REST API with that user’s full permissions. Don’t paste it anywhere you wouldn’t paste your password, and revoke it under Users → Profile → Application Passwords when you’re done testing.
Test 1: a simple landing page
The first brief was straightforward: a new draft page with a hero, a three-step “How it works” section and a call-to-action band, matching the style of an existing page and using the site’s existing classes and variables wherever possible.
The results were remarkably similar. Both used the same seven global classes for the same jobs, coloured everything with the site’s variables, fixed the same mobile padding problem, checked the page at desktop, tablet and mobile sizes, and even spotted the same bug in the site footer.
The differences were mostly design choices. Novamira Pro’s version copied the reference page’s hero background image, which I liked. Elementor’s version added little “eyebrow” labels above the headings, which has become a bit of an AI tell. Either MCP could have built either version, so on a simple page I’d call it a tie.
The eyebrows may not have been pure chance, though. Each MCP gives the AI its own design guidance before it builds anything. Novamira’s includes a set of “anti-slop” rules that apply on every page, and one of them limits eyebrows to one per three sections, calling them “the most-overused tell”. The same rules steer the AI away from purple gradients, the Inter font, em dashes and rows of three identical cards. Elementor’s guidance leans the other way, encouraging the AI to be “distinctive” with ideas like monospace accents, serif headlines and layered gradient backgrounds. Novamira’s rules aren’t foolproof (its version still added numbered “01, 02, 03” labels, which they also discourage), but it’s a nice touch, and you can add your own house rules on top with a saved design system.
Test 2: an interactive page
The second brief was harder, and this time the aim was to test the MCP tools themselves. It asked for a page built only from native Elementor V4 features, with no custom code:
- Tabs to switch between three options, each holding a timeline
- A reusable “stage” component used for every timeline step, filled in through overrides
- Scroll-triggered reveal animations, hover effects and a progress line that fills as you scroll
- A FAQ accordion
- A reminder form with a date picker
- One new global class and one new colour variable
Elementor MCP built all of it natively. It created the component and used it 14 times, built real tabs, used the native accordion (with FAQ structured data turned on) and made a working form that collects submissions.
Novamira Pro couldn’t create atomic tabs, accordions, components or the form wrapper. To its credit, it stopped and asked me how to handle those gaps, and didn’t try to fake them. The finished page laid the three options side by side instead of in tabs, used 14 copies of the same elements instead of a component, and set out the FAQ as plain headings and text. The form fields were there, but without the form wrapper around them the submit button didn’t do anything.
Both hit a few limits. Neither could style the active tab with my new colour without raw CSS, both had small caching quirks in previews, and Novamira’s animation changes needed an editor save before they showed up. Those were minor next to the missing tabs, accordion, component and form.
Novamira does a lot more than Elementor
I paid a fair bit for Novamira Pro, so after Test 2 I did wonder whether I’d wasted my money. I don’t think I have, because page building is only a small part of what it does.
- It can run PHP and read and edit files on the server, which makes it useful for troubleshooting, custom code and maintenance work.
- It manages Elementor templates, theme builder conditions, dynamic tags and V3 global colours and typography.
- It has its own skills (step-by-step playbooks for things like migrating custom fields between plugins), a saved design system with checks against your style rules, and a memory that persists between sessions.
- It works with other page builders and plugins, not just Elementor.
It also exposes abilities registered by other plugins. Rank Math, for example, now registers 29 of its own abilities (site audits, redirects, sitemaps, llms.txt, even AI visibility reports), and Novamira passes them straight through to your AI. Elementor’s MCP tools work the same way. If Elementor’s MCP is enabled on a site, Novamira picks up its tools too, and you can switch them on or off in Novamira’s Abilities Hub.
That breadth is also its biggest risk. Novamira’s own instructions describe it as giving the AI “unrestricted control” of the site. I’m happy with that on my own sites and on staging copies, but I’d think twice before connecting it to a client’s live site.
Elementor MCP doesn’t do V3 widgets (yet)
At the time of writing, Elementor’s MCP only works with V4 atomic elements. If your site is built with the classic V3 widgets, which is still most existing Elementor sites, it can’t edit them. Elementor says V3 support is coming soon.
It also needs Atomic Widgets switched on under Elementor → Settings → Features. On one of my own sites that setting was off, so the MCP tools showed up but had nothing to work with.
Novamira Pro handles both V3 and V4, and can help migrate pages from V3 to V4. If most of your sites are still V3, Novamira Pro is currently the only one of the two that can help.
Using both together
Because Novamira passes through Elementor’s tools, you can connect just Novamira (with its easier OAuth login) and still have Elementor’s page building tools available. The catch is that your AI then has two ways to build an Elementor page, and it might reach for Novamira’s own tools and hit the same gaps as in Test 2.
Novamira has a Context screen where you can add instructions that every connected AI receives. I’d add something like this:
For building or editing Elementor V4 pages, use Elementor's own
elementor/* abilities. Create tabs, accordions, forms and components
only with elementor/* abilities, never by writing raw document data
or PHP. Use novamira/* abilities for everything else: SEO, templates,
design system, memory and server tasks. If something can't be done
natively, say so rather than working around it.My recommendations
- For a simple V4 site where the owner just wants AI help with content and layouts, I’d use Elementor MCP on its own. It’s the better V4 page builder, and because it can only touch Elementor content, it’s safer. The setup is still fiddly for non-technical users, though.
- On my own sites and the sites I manage, I’ll run Novamira Pro with Elementor’s MCP enabled alongside it and a context rule like the one above. That gives me Elementor’s page building tools plus everything else, through one connection.
- For sites still built with V3 widgets, Novamira Pro is the only option until Elementor adds V3 support.
- On a client’s live site, whichever you choose, give the AI its own WordPress user instead of your main admin account and try things on staging first.
Caveats
Both plugins are changing quickly. The gaps I found in Novamira’s V4 support could be closed in the next update, and Elementor’s V3 support could arrive any day.
Every Novamira result in this post comes from Novamira Pro, so don’t expect the same from the free version. I also only ran each test once, with one AI (Claude). AI output varies from run to run, so I wouldn’t read too much into the design differences in Test 1. I’m more confident in the Test 2 results, because they came down to which tools existed, and the AI’s design choices didn’t change that.
I also didn’t use Novamira’s design system or context features in these tests, to keep things fair. On a real project they’d give it an edge in following your house style.
Whichever you use, open the result in the Elementor editor before you sign it off. A page can look right on the front end and still be a tangle of one-off styles underneath, and that’s what costs you time later.
For more on each tool, including pricing and what else they can do, see the Elementor and Novamira listings in our WordPress AI Tool Directory.
