CookieYes – Cookie Banner for Cookie Consent (Easy to setup GDPR/CCPA Compliant Cookie Notice) vs CookieRay – Cookie Banner for Cookie Consent (GDPR/CCPA Compliant)

CookieYes is a Google-certified CMP and cookie banner plugin with over 1 million active installations on WordPress.org and a 4.8-star rating from 3,200+ reviews. Add a customizable cookie banner, popup, or notice in minutes, with automatic cookie blocking, Google Consent Mode v2, AI-powered cookie classification, and auto-generated policy pages to help you meet GDPR and CCPA cookie consent requirements. CookieYes helps you work toward compliance with the ePrivacy Directive, UK GDPR, DSGVO (DE) and PECR, LGPD (Brazil), PIPEDA and Law 25 (Canada/Quebec), POPIA (South Africa), nFADP (Switzerland), and US state laws including CCPA/CPRA, VCDPA, CPA, CTDPA, and UCPA. Why site owners choose CookieYes Working banner on activation: a consent banner appears immediately, no configuration needed. Zero database bloat: scanning, consent logs and processing run in the CookieYes cloud, so nothing weighs down your WordPress database or slows your site. Free plan with core features included: banner, auto-blocking, scanner, policy generators and consent logging. Features Consent Management Cookie Consent Banner: Show a cookie banner with Accept/Reject options for GDPR cookie consent and CCPA requirements. Automatic Cookie Blocking: Block non-essential cookies until users give explicit consent. Preference Center: Let users manage cookie preferences by category (analytics, marketing, etc.). Revisit Consent Button: Floating button for updating consent choices anytime. CCPA/CPRA Opt-Out: Add a “Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information” link for California residents. Consent Logging: Record and export user consent in CSV for audits. Google Consent Mode v2 (Basic): Pass consent signals to Google Analytics, Ads and Tag Manager automatically. Microsoft UET Consent Mode: Activate UET Consent Mode so tag behavior follows Microsoft’s EU consent requirements. EU Data Storage: Consent data is stored in EU-based data centers under a Data Processing Agreement. AI & Agent-Ready Compliance Tools AI Cookie Classification: Automatically classify unknown cookies found during scans, keeping your cookie records, banner and Cookie Policy page accurate with less manual work. CookieYes MCP Server: Connect AI assistants to your CookieYes account via the Model Context Protocol (MCP). Works with MCP-compatible clients including Claude, ChatGPT, VS Code and GitHub Copilot CLI. Check banner status, run cookie scans, review your configuration and update banner settings using natural language. WP Consent API Integration: Shares consent states with compatible plugins for consistent site-wide consent handling. Banner Customization Layout Options: Choose top/bottom bar, or box layouts for your WordPress cookie banner. Reload page on consent action: Automatically reload the page when users click “Accept All” or “Reject All”. Cookie Scanner & Management Automatic Scanning: One-click scan to detect and categorize cookies on your site. WordPress Cookie Manager: Add, edit, or delete cookies and define categories/descriptions. Integrations and Compatibility Works with WooCommerce, Elementor, Divi, Gutenberg, Contact Form 7, WPForms, WPML, Polylang and TranslatePress, alongside Google Tag Manager, Google Analytics 4, Google Ads, Microsoft Advertising (UET), Microsoft Clarity and Meta Pixel. Compatible with major caching plugins and optimized for PHP 8. Multilingual & Accessibility Auto-Translation: Translate the banner into 40+ languages based on browser settings. Multilingual Compatibility: Works with WPML and Polylang for multilingual sites. Accessibility: The banner meets WCAG 2.1 AA accessibility. Legal Policy Tools Policy Generators: Create multilingual and auto-updating WordPress Cookie Policy and Privacy Policy pages tailored to your data practices. Web App Integration Centralized Management: Connect to the CookieYes Web App for advanced features, remote management, and centralized control of scans, policies, and settings. Premium Features Access the following features by subscribing to a premium plan on the CookieYes web app account. See all features and compare plans Advanced Consent Management ✅ Geo-Targeting: Show region-specific banners (e.g., GDPR banner for EU, CCPA banner for California, and so on). ✅ IAB TCF v2.3 Framework: Full support for the Transparency and Consent Framework for publishers and advertisers. ✅ Google’s Additional Consent Mode: Manage consent for Google’s Ad Tech Providers outside the IAB GVL. Enhanced Banner Customization ✅ Customizable Styles & Layouts: Adjust banner colors, fonts, and position to match your website design, with the option to use the Cookie Popup layout. ✅ Page-Specific Controls: Disable the banner on specific pages (e.g., login, checkout). ✅ Custom CSS: Custom CSS for advanced design customization. ✅ Custom Logo: Add your brand’s logo to the cookie banner. ✅ Remove Branding: Remove the “Powered by CookieYes” branding for a fully customized banner. Extended Cookie Management ✅ Increased pageviews limit: Extend pageviews from 5,000 up to unlimited. ✅ Increased Scan Limits: Scan up to 8,000 pages for a full cookie audit. ✅ Scheduled Scans: Automate recurring scans to keep cookie data updated. ✅ Scan Behind Login: Detect cookies on protected, login-only pages. Subdomain & Multi-User Support ✅ Subdomain Consent Sharing: Apply consent settings across multiple subdomains. ✅ Multi-User Management: Control roles and permissions within the CookieYes Web App. Enhanced Security & Compliance ✅ Two-Factor Authentication (2FA): Add an extra security layer to your CookieYes account. ✅ Global Privacy Control (GPC): Respect GPC signals automatically for global compliance. Connection to app.cookieyes.com & feedback.cookieyes.com This plugin connects your site to app.cookieyes.com to enable features such as cookie scanning, syncing settings with your CookieYes account, and showing scan results and consent data in the dashboard. It also connects to feedback.cookieyes.com for collecting feedback when the plugin is deactivated. See our Privacy Policy and Terms & Conditions for details on data collection and usage. The CookieYes GDPR Cookie Consent Plugin Uses The Following Cookie Only “cookieyes-consent” – CookieYes sets this cookie to remember users’ consent preferences so that their preferences are respected on their subsequent visits to this site. It does not collect or store any personal information of the site visitors. Setup Guide Our WordPress cookie plugin user guide will help you set up the plugin on your website. Useful links CookieYes support Plugin FAQ Additional Resources CookieYes Knowledge base GDPR cookie consent Cookie Law Cookie banner guide Translate CookieYes Legal & Compliance Privacy Policy Data Processing Agreement NOTE: INSTALLING THIS PLUGIN ALONE DOES NOT MAKE YOUR SITE GDPR AND CCPA COMPLIANT. SINCE EACH SITE USES DIFFERENT COOKIES, YOU NEED TO ENSURE YOU HAVE THE NECESSARY CONFIGURATIONS IN PLACE WITH A SUPPORTING COOKIE NOTICE.

CookieRay is a cookie consent and privacy tooling plugin for WordPress. It stores data on your hosting account and runs in your environment. There is no external SaaS dashboard for site operation. CookieRay helps website owners manage cookie consent settings for GDPR, CCPA, ePrivacy, and other privacy-related requirements. Legal compliance depends on your website setup, third-party tools, region, and how the plugin is configured. CookieRay provides a visitor-facing consent experience, configurable script blocking, cookie discovery from your site, detailed consent records, and a setup dashboard to help you manage cookie consent records and support privacy-related workflows. Cookie consent banner A customizable consent surface with card and bar layouts, live preview in the admin, and nine placement positions. Visitors can Accept All, Decline All, or open a Preferences modal to choose which categories to allow (Necessary, Analytical, Functional, and Marketing). Banner text, colors, buttons, and fonts are editable without writing code. Script blocking Choose Log Only recording or Strict blocking in Settings. In Strict mode, CookieRay delays known tracking scripts until the visitor agrees to categories that match those trackers. Common patterns for services such as Google Analytics, Meta Pixel, Hotjar, HubSpot, TikTok Pixel, and many others are included out of the box. Google Consent Mode v2 When enabled, CookieRay outputs consent state in the visitor’s browser for Google tags (such as GA4, Google Ads, or Google Tag Manager) that you have already placed on your site. Google Consent Mode v2 lets Google tags adjust their behavior based on visitor consent choices while supporting privacy-conscious measurement modes when consent is withheld. CookieRay itself does not open separate server-side uploads of visitor payloads to Google; instead it surfaces JavaScript so tags you load can read consent signaling. Behavior of those downstream tags depends on how you configured Google products. Further reading: Google’s Consent Mode documentation (linked under External Services). Cookie scanner Run a cookie scan from the WordPress admin to detect cookies surfaced on responses from your own site. When an administrator starts a scan, CookieRay queues work on your server and uses the WordPress HTTP API to request public URLs belonging to your site domain (for example the homepage, published content URLs, WooCommerce storefront pages where applicable, and related routes depending on plugins). Cookie names surfaced in responses can be merged with your inventory for categorization alongside the plugin’s bundled tracking-cookie reference data. CookieRay also runs deeper script-discovery passes that analyze HTML fetched from a bounded set of URLs (the embeddable deep scan inspects up to 50 URLs on the same domain, chosen from the XML sitemap when available or from the home page plus recent posts and pages). Scan coverage still depends on plugins, caches, authenticated-only flows, and what responses your site serves to CookieRay’s unauthenticated crawler. There is no recurring unattended scan timetable built into CookieRay. You start scans from CookieRay screens (background processing completes those runs without another manual click). Cookie inventory View, edit, and categorize cookies discovered on your site. Assign cookies to Necessary, Analytical, Functional, or Marketing categories. Bulk-categorize or delete entries. Custom cookies can be added manually, with regex pattern support where appropriate. Consent logs Consent events can be logged with identifiers, statuses, granted categories, page URL, banner version, and timestamp fields available for review. Entries are searchable and filterable in the admin. You can export records as CSV, and export individual receipts as PDF for your record-keeping process. Dashboard See a summarized score guided by configurable checks (blocking mode, categorized cookies, policy link usage, consent expiry and scan recency reminders, whether Google Consent Mode output is enabled, and related items). Use it as onboarding guidance alongside your legal or compliance review. Scan history Review past scans: timing, URLs covered, counts, and summaries of results to track changes over time. Settings Configure consent behavior (Log Only vs Strict blocking), consent expiry, consent log retention, Google Consent Mode v2 toggle, optional data portability export flows, and related options. Banner and behavior settings are stored through WordPress options alongside plugin metadata. Privacy and data handling CookieRay does not send usage data, telemetry, or visitor payloads to CookieRay-operated servers. Consent logs and inventories stay in your site’s database unless you export them elsewhere. Third-party trackers you integrate yourself (such as Google Analytics, Google Ads, Google Tag Manager, Meta Pixel, marketing pixels, embedded chat widgets, and similar vendors) may still collect information according to their own tags, configurations, vendor accounts, regions, and published policies, even when CookieRay delays or respects categories for scripts it recognizes. A WordPress Cron task deletes consent records older than the retention period configured in Settings, whenever WordPress Cron runs normally on your host. Pro Features Scheduled automatic cookie scans Geo targeting – show or hide the banner by country Integration with Google Tag Manager, Meta Pixel, Adobe Experience Platform Trust Badge – “Privacy Protected” badge displayed in the site footer Premium support and priority updates Upgrade to CookieRay Pro Support For questions, bug reports, or help with configuration, visit the CookieRay support page. External Services CookieRay does not send analytics, telemetry, or visitor data to CookieRay-operated servers. 1. Same-site cookie scanner When an administrator runs a cookie scan, CookieRay uses the WordPress HTTP API (wp_remote_get) to fetch public URLs belonging to the same WordPress site — for example the homepage, published post URLs, WooCommerce storefront pages, and sitemap entries. What is sent: Standard HTTP GET requests to your own site’s public URLs. When: Only when an administrator triggers a scan from CookieRay admin screens. Who receives the requests: Your own web server. No data is sent to CookieRay or any third party. Source file: includes/class-scanner.php 2. Google Consent Mode v2 (optional, admin-enabled) When enabled in Settings, CookieRay outputs JavaScript on visitor pages that signals consent state to Google tags you have independently installed (e.g. GA4, Google Ads, Google Tag Manager). CookieRay does not make server-side HTTP calls to Google. What is sent: Browser-side consent signals read by locally loaded Google tags you control. When: When Consent Mode is enabled in CookieRay Settings and visitors load pages that include your Google tags. Who receives downstream data: Google, per your Google account and tag configuration. Google Privacy Policy: https://policies.google.com/privacy Google Terms of Service: https://policies.google.com/terms Google Consent Mode documentation: https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/9976101