MCP connectors explained: let AI work inside your website tools (2026)

What MCP is, in one minute

MCP stands for Model Context Protocol. It is an open standard, a shared set of rules, that lets AI apps like Claude or ChatGPT connect to outside tools and data. Anthropic introduced it on November 25, 2024, and called it “a new standard for connecting AI assistants to the systems where data lives.”

Three words come up on every MCP page:

• Server. An MCP server is what a company publishes so AI apps can work with its product. Think of it as a menu of actions the company allows on your account, such as “list my orders” or “publish this page.”
• Client. The client is the AI app that connects to the server: Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini, or a code editor like Cursor or VS Code.
• Connector. This is what most AI apps call the finished link between the two. You may also see “apps,” “integrations” or “plugins.”

The AI picks items from the menu. You decide which items it is allowed to use.

Who made it and who runs it now

Anthropic, the company behind Claude, created MCP. At launch it shipped servers for Google Drive, Slack, GitHub, Git, Postgres and Puppeteer, and named early adopters including Block, Apollo, Zed, Replit, Codeium and Sourcegraph (Anthropic’s announcement).

On December 9, 2025, MCP became a founding project of the Agentic AI Foundation (AAIF), a fund run under the Linux Foundation. Anthropic, Block and OpenAI founded it, with support from Google, Microsoft, AWS, Cloudflare and Bloomberg. According to the MCP blog, technical decisions stay with MCP’s existing maintainers, while the foundation’s board handles budget, members and new projects.

The current version

MCP versions are named by date. The current specification is dated July 28, 2026 (MCP versioning page). Its biggest change is that MCP became “stateless”: every request carries its own information, which makes servers hosted at a company’s web address simpler to run. It also tightened the sign-in rules. Earlier versions are dated November 25, 2025, June 18, 2025, March 26, 2025 and November 5, 2024.

You do not need to track versions yourself. The AI app and the company handle that.

Local vs remote: the one difference that matters

A local server is a small program you install on your own computer. It can reach your files, so only install ones you trust. Mostly developers use these.

A remote server is hosted by the company at a web address, for example https://mcp.vercel.com. You click Connect in a directory, or paste the address into your AI app, then log in. There is nothing to install. This is the kind most small business owners will use.

Remote servers usually sign you in with OAuth, the familiar “Sign in with…” screen. You log in on the company’s own site and approve what the AI may do. The AI app gets a token (a digital key), not your password, and you can usually revoke it later in the company’s account settings.

Some servers ask for an API key instead: a long code you copy from your account dashboard. Treat it like a password. It often grants broad access and does not expire on its own.

What a connector can do for your site

Connectors do not all have the same power. Our MCP server directory sorts them by what each company’s docs say the AI can do.

In practice, a read-only connector can pull a traffic report from your Google Analytics account. A connector that can change your account can draft a blog post on WordPress.com or update a contact in HubSpot. A publish-level connector can push changes to the site your customers see.

That last level is where care matters. Wix’s docs say its server can create, update and publish sites. Framer’s help article says its server publishes only when you explicitly ask, and can work on a branch for review. Webflow’s docs do not say whether its server can publish a site.

Which AI apps support MCP, and on which plans

Gemini Enterprise also lets admins register a custom MCP server, but Google’s setup page does not state the edition or whether the feature is in preview. Plans change often, so check the help pages linked in our how-to-connect guide before you pay for an upgrade.

Start here

1. Pick one tool you already use. Look it up in the directory and confirm the company runs an official server. The server address should be on the company’s own domain.
2. Start with read-only work. Ask for a traffic summary or a list of draft posts before you let the AI change anything.
3. Keep tool approval on. Tool approval is the prompt that asks you to allow or deny an action before it runs. Do not let the AI auto-approve publish, delete, refund or DNS actions.
4. Use drafts, branches or a staging site. A staging site is a private copy where mistakes do not reach customers.
5. Read the safety guide before you connect a store or payment account. Our MCP security guide covers prompt injection, keys and what to do if something goes wrong.

What it costs

Most official servers cost nothing extra. You pay for the AI app and your normal platform plan. A few exceptions are worth knowing: Zapier says each successful tool call uses 2 Zapier tasks from your plan, Ahrefs and Semrush draw from your API units, and Lovable’s create_project and send_message tools use normal Lovable credits.

Who it suits, and who should wait

MCP fits owners on Webflow, Wix, WordPress.com, Framer, Shopify, HubSpot or Stripe who want routine edits and reports done by chat. It also fits anyone whose CRM is Salesforce or Pipedrive, since both now run hosted servers.

On a self-hosted WordPress site the setup is more technical. WordPress 6.9 added the Abilities API on December 2, 2025, and the MCP Adapter plugin turns those abilities into tools an AI app can use. On October 7, 2026, the WordPress AI team announced that the plugin, at version 0.7.0, is now in the WordPress.org plugin directory. It is plumbing with no settings screen for end users, so most owners will meet it through a plugin such as Elementor (version 4.3.0 and up), which builds its own MCP on top of it.

Wait if you are not ready to review what the AI does, or if your tool has no official server yet. As of October 23, 2026, we found none for Google Search Console or Bolt, and Squarespace’s server covers domain search only, not editing your site.

What’s new

• 2026-11-30: Upcoming: Stripe MCP stops accepting full secret keys and untagged restricted keys after this date. (source)
• 2026-10-22: Framer launches Framer MCP (remote, OAuth, publish only on request). (source)
• 2026-10-07: WordPress MCP Adapter 0.7.0 lands in the WordPress.org plugin directory. (source)
• 2026-10-06: Elementor blog describes the official Elementor MCP (Elementor 4.3.0+). (source)
• 2026-07-28: MCP spec 2026-07-28 released: stateless protocol, server/discover, OAuth hardening. (source)
• 2026-07-23: Vercel MCP can deploy code. (source)
• 2026-07-20: Webflow MCP 2.0: no Bridge App for most tasks, all site plans at no extra cost. (source)
• 2026-06-30: Pipedrive launches its MCP server on all plans. (source)

The full history, from the first announcement on, is at the bottom of the MCP server list. Dates come from each company’s own posts, and the few from outside reports are marked in the directory.

Where to go next

• MCP server list: every official server we found for website builders, stores, hosts, CRMs, payments and marketing tools, with what each one can do.
• How to add an MCP connector: step by step for Claude, ChatGPT and VS Code, with a worked Webflow example and how to remove a connector.
• MCP security for site owners: prompt injection, least access, approvals, keys and a recovery plan.

MCP is about AI working inside your tools. If you want to know how AI chat apps find and describe your website, that is a different topic: see websites and AI search. To have AI build a site from scratch, see AI website builders.