21st.dev Magic MCP vs QGIS MCP

A side-by-side comparison of two Design & Media servers — tools, transport, auth, maintenance, and copy-paste config for each.

	21st.dev Magic MCP Generate beautiful, modern UI components from natural-language descriptions inside your IDE. Unverified stdio (local) API key TypeScript	QGIS MCP Let Claude control QGIS Desktop — create projects, load layers, run processing algorithms, and execute PyQGIS code. Unverified stdio (local) No auth Stale Python
Category	Design & Media	Design & Media
Language	TypeScript	Python
Transport	stdio (local)	stdio (local)
Auth	API key	None
GitHub stars	5.2k	994
Last commit	5 months ago	10 months ago
Verified
Actively maintained
Install	`npx @21st-dev/cli@latest install <client> --api-key <key>`	`git clone git@github.com:jjsantos01/qgis_mcp.git`
Repo	Open	Open

Verdict

Pick 21st.dev Magic MCP if you want the official, vendor-maintained server, and you prefer the more popular, battle-tested option.

Pick QGIS MCP if you want zero-setup with no API key, and you need the broadest set of tools.

Add 21st.dev Magic MCP

Install / run

npx @21st-dev/cli@latest install <client> --api-key <key>

Paste into ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "21st-dev-magic-mcp": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "@21st-dev/magic@latest",
        "API_KEY=\"your-api-key\""
      ]
    }
  }
}

Add QGIS MCP

Install / run

git clone git@github.com:jjsantos01/qgis_mcp.git

Paste into ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "qgis-mcp": {
      "command": "uv",
      "args": [
        "--directory",
        "/ABSOLUTE/PATH/TO/PARENT/REPO/FOLDER/qgis_mcp/src/qgis_mcp",
        "run",
        "qgis_mcp_server.py"
      ]
    }
  }
}

FAQ

21st.dev Magic MCP or QGIS MCP — which is better?

Pick 21st.dev Magic MCP if you want the official, vendor-maintained server, and you prefer the more popular, battle-tested option. Pick QGIS MCP if you want zero-setup with no API key, and you need the broadest set of tools.

Can I use both 21st.dev Magic MCP and QGIS MCP?

Yes — MCP clients let you enable multiple servers at once. Add both configs to your client's mcpServers and use whichever tool fits the task.

Do 21st.dev Magic MCP and QGIS MCP work with Claude, Cursor and Windsurf?

Both do. Copy the per-client config below into Claude Desktop, Cursor, or Windsurf.

View 21st.dev Magic MCP →View QGIS MCP →More comparisons →