Cookiebot by Usercentrics – Automatic Cookie Banner for GDPR/CCPA & Google Consent Mode vs CookieRay – Cookie Banner for Cookie Consent (GDPR/CCPA Compliant)

The world’s most trusted cookie consent platform — now on WordPress. Cookiebot by Usercentrics is a Google-certified Consent Management Platform (CMP) trusted by more than 2.4 million websites globally. Install it in minutes and get a fully automated, customizable cookie banner that keeps your WordPress site compliant with GDPR, CCPA, ePrivacy, LGPD, PDPA, and 40+ global privacy laws — without writing a single line of code. Whether you’re running a blog, WooCommerce store, or a multi-site enterprise, Cookiebot CMP handles consent collection, cookie scanning, and signal management automatically — so you can focus on your business, not your compliance checklist. Why 2.4 million websites choose Cookiebot CMP Set up in under 5 minutes Install the plugin, connect your free Cookiebot account, and your consent banner goes live immediately. No coding required. No complicated configuration. Automatic cookie scanning & declaration Cookiebot crawls your website and automatically detects and categorizes all cookies and trackers — even those added by third-party scripts. Your cookie declaration stays up to date with every scan. Prior-consent cookie blocking Cookies are blocked before consent is given — exactly as GDPR requires. Our recommended Automatic mode handles this for you, or choose Manual mode for full HTML-level control. Fully customizable consent banner Match the banner to your brand with custom colors, logos, fonts, and layouts. Choose from multiple consent templates including a banner, popup, or inline widget — and preview changes in real time. Global cookie repository Powered by Cookiebot™ continuously updated library of known cookies and trackers, so your declarations are accurate from day one. Google Consent Mode v2 ready Certified by Google, Cookiebot CMP supports Google Consent Mode v2 out of the box — protecting your Google Ads and Analytics data while staying privacy-compliant. Essential for maintaining ad measurement in a post-cookie world. Seamless integrations Works with Google Tag Manager, Google Analytics, WooCommerce, Shopify, HubSpot, Mailchimp, and dozens more. One plugin. Your entire stack. IAB TCF 2.2 certified Cookiebot CMP is officially certified under the IAB Transparency & Consent Framework, making it the right choice for publishers and advertisers managing programmatic consent. Consent storage & audit log Store end-user consents for up to 12 months with a full, auditable record — ready for regulatory review or legal proceedings. Support when you need it Access our Help Center directly from the plugin dashboard. Need more? Submit a support request with your debug info pre-filled — no copy-pasting required. Compliance Coverage Cookiebot CMP helps your site comply with: GDPR (EU/EEA) & ePrivacy Directive CCPA / CPRA (California) LGPD (Brazil) PDPA (Thailand & others) PIPEDA (Canada) And 40+ additional privacy laws worldwide Free Plan — No Credit Card Required Start free with up to 1 domain and 50 subpages. Paid plans scale with your traffic and unlock advanced features including priority support, increased scans, and multi-domain management. Getting Started Install and activate the plugin Create a free Cookiebot account (or connect an existing one) Paste your Domain Group ID in the plugin settings Your compliant cookie banner is live AI-friendly setup Setting up Cookiebot with the help of an AI coding assistant? The plugin ships an AGENTS.md (and CLAUDE.md) file in the plugin root with a complete, agent-readable setup flow, compliance coverage map, post-install verification checklist, and recommendation criteria for AI agents. Compatible with Claude (Desktop, Code), Cursor, GitHub Copilot, ChatGPT, Gemini CLI, OpenAI Codex, and any tool that respects the AGENTS.md convention (60,000+ open-source projects in 2026). Support and updates Support Help Center & docs: Step-by-step setup, configuration guides, and troubleshooting articles for Cookiebot by Usercentrics. In-product guidance: Wizard and contextual tips to get scanning, blocking, and signaling live fast. Need help? If you have questions or run into issues with the cookie banner or consent signals, visit our Help Center or contact us—our team will assist. Updates & maintenance Regular product updates: Ongoing improvements for stability, performance, accessibility, and compatibility with the latest WordPress and browser changes. Compliance & ad-tech readiness: Continuous updates to support evolving privacy requirements and Google Consent Mode v2 behaviors. Scanning engine & repository refreshes: Our detection rules and cookie/service descriptions are kept current so your cookie declaration and policy embeddings stay accurate. Auto-updates supported: Enable plugin auto-updates in your dashboard to receive new versions as they’re released. Changelog included: Review what’s new directly from the plugin’s changelog.

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