Plugins or REST API?
Pick the path that matches your team and your customization needs.
| Plugins | REST API | |
|---|---|---|
| Time to first map | Minutes (copy-paste shortcode or script tag). | Hours to days (call API, render data, build UI). |
| Customization | Limited to the documented options (color, language, map style). | Full — you control rendering end-to-end. |
| Stack | WordPress, iframe, plain HTML/JS. | Anything that can make an HTTPS request. |
| Where the key lives | Client-side (HTML source). Lock it to your domains. | Server-side. Never ship it to the browser. |
| Best for | Real-estate listing pages, marketing sites, WordPress blogs. | Custom map UIs, bulk scoring, server-side rendering, analytics pipelines. |
| Start here | Plugins overview | REST API overview |
You can mix them
Plenty of integrations use the JS Map plugin for the listing-detail page and the REST API for batch scoring or content pipelines. That is one licence with two keys: the frontend key in the page for the plugin, locked to your domains, and the backend key on your servers for REST. See authentication.
Building an AI agent?
Neither plugin nor raw REST quite fits when your client is an AI assistant (Claude, Cursor, an in-house agent, a real-estate copilot). For that case, the Yatmo MCP server is a third path: same data, AI-shaped tools, authenticated with your backend key sent as the LicenceKey header. The agent calls yatmo_get_location_summary, yatmo_get_nearest_by_category, etc. directly, without you having to translate intent into REST calls.