When you’re building your website, you’ll want to think about how you store your visitors’ browsing data. Because data is such a sensitive matter, there are rules that go along with it. Using a cookie plugin on your WordPress website can help you meet the requirements, and manage them effortlessly. In this post, we’ll share the 7 best cookie plugins out there, so you can easily find the plugin that matches your needs the best!
Cookie plugins help website owners comply with cookie laws and regulations. When a cookie plugin is enabled, it will notify visitors about the use of cookies on a website. This usually happens in the form of a banner or corner popup. This banner or popup will give your visitor the option to either accept or reject cookies. Cookie plugins can also track user behavior, personalize content, and perform other actions.
Here are some benefits of using a cookie plugin on your website:
Clearly, ensuring your website uses cookies properly is super important, especially considering the rules and regulations behind them. So let’s take a look at the best cookie plugins available in 2023.
CookieYes is a WordPress plugin with over a million active users and a 5-star rating. Its primary purpose is to enable website owners to comply with GDPR, CCPA, and other privacy regulations. In addition, the plugin provides a range of customizable cookie consent banner templates, automatic cookie scanning, and support for popular cookie consent solutions.
Key Features for CookieYes:
Additionally, CookieYes provides website owners with a comprehensive cookie consent solution, with a range of customizable consent banner templates and support for multiple languages. In addition, you can customize the font, color, and position of the banner on your page.
The plugin also automatically scans and categorizes cookies, making managing and controlling them easy. Additionally, website owners can set granular cookie settings and permissions to ensure compliance with all applicable regulations.
Best For:
CookieYes is a great option if you want to customize your cookie banner easily. It also provides you with the option to choose from more than 30+ languages. With CookieYes, you get pretty good control over the cookies you collect through your website. You can also easily access a detailed cookie report and schedule monthly cookie scanning.
Pricing: Free. Pro version starts at $100/yr.
Complianz is a WordPress plugin for cookie consent developed by the same company behind the popular Really Simple SSL plugin (which helps migrate WordPress sites from HTTP to HTTPS.)
This plugin supports GDPR, CCPA, and other cookie consent regulations. Moreover, it allows visitors to apply different consent behaviors based on location, ensuring compliance and optimal user experience for each location.
Key Features for Complianz:
My favorite feature of this plugin is its comprehensive and easy-to-use setup wizard, which guides users through the process of ensuring privacy compliance, making it an excellent choice for those who are new to privacy compliance.
Best For:
Complianz is an excellent choice for website owners who want to provide visitors with a transparent and secure browsing experience while ensuring compliance with privacy regulations.
Pricing: Free. Pro version starts at $49.00/yr
GDPR Cookie Compliance is a widely used cookie plugin that is available for free with the option to upgrade to a premium version offering additional features (Like most other plugins on the list.) Although it is named after the GDPR, the plugin is compatible with other cookie regulations, including CCPA, PIPEDA, LGPD, and more.
The free version of the plugin focuses primarily on creating a cookie consent banner that can be triggered based on user actions, such as scrolling or clicking on a link. However, the premium version provides more advanced compliance management features, such as consent logs and cookie blocking until acceptance.
Key Features for GDPR Cookie Compliance:
The key feature of this plugin is its customizable cookie consent banner, which can be styled to match your website’s design and branding. The banner can be triggered based on user actions, such as scrolling or clicking on a link, and can include options for accepting or rejecting cookies.
The plugin also provides the option to block scripts and cookies until consent is obtained, which can help ensure compliance with cookie regulations. Additionally, GDPR Cookie Compliance includes an automatic cookie scanner that detects cookies on your website and generates a cookie declaration, making it easy to provide transparent information about the cookies used on your site.
Best For:
GDPR Cookie Compliance is best for website owners who want a simple and effective way to comply with cookie regulations. It’s particularly well-suited for small businesses and bloggers who want a lightweight solution that won’t slow down their website. For those who want additional features such as lead generation tools, OptinMonster is a great choice.
Pricing: Free. The premium version starts at $59/yr
Cookie Notice & Compliance for GDPR / CCPA is a well-known WordPress cookie plugin with a nearly perfect 4.9-star rating from almost 2,900 reviews. The plugin is divided into two main parts, Cookie Notice and Cookie Compliance.
First, Cookie Notice is a straightforward banner that informs website visitors about the usage of cookies on your site and allows them to provide consent in various ways. On the other hand, Cookie Compliance is a full-featured Consent Management Platform (CMP) that adheres to guidelines from more than 100 countries and offers users detailed options for managing their privacy. For instance, users can permit some cookies but block others.
Still, Cookie Notice features are fully self-contained within the plugin, while the Cookie Compliance features require a connection to the developer’s web application. However, the plugin provides the flexibility to use only the Cookie Notice features if you prefer,
Key Features for Cookie Notice & Compliance for GDPR / CCPA:
One of the standout features of Cookie Notice & Compliance for GDPR / CCPA is its advanced consent management functionality. The plugin allows website owners to block cookies until users provide consent, and it also offers options for revoking consent and managing user preferences.
Best For:
First, Cookie Notice & Compliance for GDPR / CCPA is best for website owners who need a comprehensive cookie compliance solution that supports multiple regulations. However, for those looking for a free solution, the plugin’s basic features are suitable.
Pricing: Free, with premium licenses starting at $13.00/yr.
Iubenda is an all-in-one solution that streamlines compliance for your website by providing cookie consent banners and notices, as well as privacy and cookie policy pages. In addition, it allows you to create terms and conditions pages with ease.
The main aim of this plugin is to simplify the process of ensuring your website is compliant with different regulations, including the GDPR, the ePrivacy directive, the LGPD, the CCPA, and more.
Key Features for Iubenda:
To begin, in terms of cookie consent, Iubenda enables you to fully customize your cookie banner. For example, you can adjust its location, design and include your logo. Additionally, Iubenda empowers users to choose what data they want to share, which can provide you with more opportunities for obtaining user consent.
The plugin also allows you to determine the duration of cookies and block third-party scripts for services such as Facebook and Google Analytics.
Best For:
Iubenda is best for website owners who want an all-in-one compliance solution that covers not only cookie consent but also privacy policy, terms and conditions, and more.
Pricing: Free. The pro version starts at $29/year
As a free plugin for WordPress, WP AutoTerms offers a straightforward method to generate essential legal pages, including privacy policies, terms of service, and cookie consent pages. Boasting over 100,000 active installations and a solid 5-star rating on WordPress.org, this plugin has gained popularity among website owners.
Moreover, WP AutoTerms is regularly updated, ensuring that website owners can stay up-to-date with the latest legal requirements. The plugin offers a range of templates and layouts to choose from, as well as customization options to tailor the legal pages to your website’s specific needs. Additionally, WP AutoTerms provides support for multiple languages, making it an excellent choice for website owners with a global audience.
Key Features for WP AutoTerms:
First and foremost, WP AutoTerms allows users to generate legal policies that are specific to their website needs. In addition, the plugin keeps up-to-date with legal changes and updates policies accordingly, ensuring that websites remain compliant with relevant laws and regulations.
Best For:
WP AutoTerms is best for website owners who need legally compliant policies without having to navigate the complexities of legal language and regulation. In addition, it is a great fit for those who want to automate the process of generating privacy policies and other legal documents for their websites.
Pricing: Free. Premium version is $39/lifetime
MonsterInsights is a popular WordPress plugin that provides website owners with comprehensive tracking and analytics capabilities. But besides that, it also offers an add-on focused on EU compliance. Enabling this add-on will help you make your Google Analytics compliant with GDPR.
The add-on will, for instance, allow you to anonymize IP addresses and limit demographic collection. It’s important to mention that to use this add-on, you have to connect it to a Cookie plugin. Amongst other cookie plugins, MonsterInsight integrates with the following plugins that are mentioned in this post:
Key Features for the EU Compliance Add-on MonsterInsights:
MonsterInsights helps website owners create a harmonized experience between their cookies and Google Analytics plugin. You’ll be able to view all the data you need in your WordPress dashboard, without having to worry about EU regulations.
Best For:
MonsterInsights is perfect for website owners who want to comply with GDPR and take advantage of a ton of other marketing features. To use this plugin on your website, you will need an additional Cookie plugin, such as CookieYes.
Pricing: Free, Pro version starts at $99.50/yr
| Plugin | Price | Free Option | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 🥇 | CookieYes | $100.00 per year | ✔️ | Visit |
| 🥈 | Complainz | $49.00 per year | ✔️ | Visit |
| 🥉 | GDPR Cookie Compliance | $59.00 per year | ✔️ | Visit |
| 4 | Cookie Notice and Compliance For GDPR / CCPA | $13.00 per year | ✔️ | Visit |
| 5 | Iubenda | $29.00 per year | ✔️ | Visit |
| 6 | WP AutoTerms | $39.00 for lifetime license | ✔️ | Visit |
| 7 | MonsterInsights | $99.50/yr | ✔️ | Visit |
Adding a cookie plugin to your WordPress website is essential for complying with privacy regulations and providing a transparent user experience. After evaluating the plugins available, we recommend CookieYes and Complianz as our top choices.
Regardless of which plugin you choose, it’s important to prioritize transparency and user privacy when implementing cookies on your website. While CookieYes offers a comprehensive solution for cookie compliance with customizable cookie banners and consent management, MonsterInsights provides an add-on that focuses on GDPR compliance.
When choosing a cookie plugin, it’s crucial to prioritize transparency and user privacy above all else. Always ensure that your website visitors are aware of the cookies being used and provide them with options to manage their preferences. And as a final note: remember to regularly review your website’s cookie usage and update your cookie policy accordingly to comply with any changes in privacy regulations.
Need more plugins? Check out our article featuring the best WordPress plugins.
Featured Image via Aygun Ali / shutterstock.com
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