30th Sep 2021 
16 Min Read
The introduction of the GDPR Cookie Law has made a lot of people scratch their heads wondering how to make their website comply with the law. And if you are one of those people who is wondering what cookies even are, then you are not alone.
If you have a WordPress website, making your website comply with the law is very easy. There are a lot of plugins that can help you achieve compliance with the Cookie Law. All you need to do is the right plugin that fits your need. Read on to find out how you can make your website Cookie Law compliant. This article list some of the best plugins that can make your website comply with the EU GDPR Cookie law. And best of all, all these plugins are free.
Also, there are certain things that need to be kept in mind when getting a cookie plugin. When it comes to the look and feel, the cookie bar generated by the plugin has to be responsive, it should be compatible with the theme you are using and should be customizable to match with the theme of your website.
When it comes to the functionality, it’s very simple. The cookie plugin should block all the cookies unless the user gives explicit consent and when the users have given their consent, they should be able to withdraw the consent any time that they want.
1 – GDPR Cookie Consent
The GDPR Cookie Consent plugin is undoubtedly one of the best plugins to make your website comply with the GDPR Law. It is a very intuitive and user-friendly plugin that can help you create an elegant looking cookie notification bar on the website to get the users consent.
After you have installed and configured the plugin, the plugin helps you make your website compliant by blocking the scripts of the non-necessary cookies until the user accepts. The scripts of the cookies are only rendered on the website when the users give their consent. And one of the features of the plugin is that the users can come back and reconsider their consent and reject the use of the cookies if the admin has configured the plugin so.
The plugin gives a lot of control to the admin of the website. For example, the admin can decide whether the user should be able to reject the use of the cookies or reconsider their consent. You can also display the cookies that are added to the plugin to the users using a simple shortcode.
One of the best parts about this plugin is that the cookie bar is highly customizable. You can easily customize the style of the background, text, font of the cookie bar, add a border to it and also the buttons on it. And if you don’t like buttons on the bar, you can make them show as links as well. The cookie bar thus created is completely responsive.
If you are looking for a plugin for your multilingual website, look no further. GDPR Cookie Consent is fully compatible with multilingual plugins like WPML, Loco Translate, and qTranslate
The support for the plugin is great and also the plugin is frequently updated.
Recommended Reading: Does My Website Uses Cookies?
2- GDPR Cookie Compliance
This is one of the best plugins to make your website comply with the GDPR Cookie Law. The plugin stands out from the rest because of the simplicity and elegance of the interface and its ease of use.
By installing and activating the GDPR Cookie Compliance, the plugin generates a notification bar on the screen that gives the users the option to accept the cookies directly, or they can configure which cookies they want to enable on their website and which they do not want to enable.
For the website owner, all these configurations of the plugin are very easy to complete.the plugin allows to add the scripts for the 3rd party cookies and they can also add if there are any additional cookies that are being added by the website. The scripts of the cookies can be added to the head section of the website or the body section.
It gives a little bit more control to the users than any other plugin as to which cookies they want to accept on their website. The users cannot disable the necessary cookies on the website, but they can choose whether or not they want to keep the 3rd party plugins and the additional cookies that are being used on the website by simply toggling a button. The users can also always come back and reconsider their consent.
The modal popup can be made to appear in a tab view or in a page view where the privacy overview of the website, the necessary cookies, the 3rd party cookies, and the additional cookies can be viewed and controlled in tabs, or as a page.
The plugin also gives multiple options to customize the cookie notification bar and the popup modal. You can change the text and the style of the notification bar and the modal popup as well to match the notification with the theme of the website.
3 – Cookie Notice for GDPR
This is one of the most popular cookie plugins that lets you add a simple cookie bar to the website. and take consent from the user. The most attractive feature of this plugin is its simplicity and ease of use.
The cookie bar created using this plugin is highly customizable. The plugin offers you many choices for positioning the cookie message box on the website. Most of the plugins only let you add the cookie bar either to the top or bottom of the screen. But Cookie Notice for GDPR plugin lets you display the cookie notification as a bar or a box and display them in various positions on the screen.
Using this plugin, when users visit the website, they are notified of the cookies being used by the website. The cookie scripts are only rendered when the user gives their consent and accepts the use of the cookies. The plugin also lets the users reject the cookies and reconsider the use of the cookies as well. i.e., they can change their mind if they have accepted.
The plugin lets to add the script to the head or body tag of the webpage, so that when the user accepts they will add to the head or body section of the plugin. For that, you would need to get the scripts that install the non-necessary cookies on the website and add them to the plugin.
Along with the wide customization options, the Cookie Notice for GDPR plugin also lets you add a privacy policy button that redirects to the privacy policy page of your website.
Since the plugin is compatible with WPML and Polylang plugins, you can use the plugin with your multilingual website easily.
4 – EU Cookie Law
Simply installing and activating the EU Cookie Law plugin adds a small cookie bar on the screen of your website that notifies the user that your website uses cookies.
One of the prominent features of the plugin is that it lets you configure the cookie acceptance duration. Which means that the admin of the website can decide up to the time in which the user’s cookie acceptance will be stored. It also gives you the option to share the cookies across the subdomains.
The cookie notification is customizable by the admin. The admin of the website can change the position, background color, and font color of the cookie notification. Also, the customization option extends to the text of the notification bar and the text of the accept button.
On the front end of the website, the plugin creates a popup for more information for the user which can also be configured to redirect to a different page. So, when a user visits your webpage, first they see the notification regarding the use of cookies and the users can be informed more about it using a popup. This can also be configured to be redirected to a different page, for example, the privacy policy page of a website.
The plugin gives you an option to automatically block all the scripts, iframes, and embeds. So once a user rejects to the use of the cookies, the plugin blocks all the scripts, iframes, and embeds, identified by the plugin, that installs cookies on the users’ browser.
The plugin is compatible with multilingual plugins which include the WPML plugin.
5 – Cookie Consent
Cookie Consent plugin is yet another user-friendly plugin that can help you make your website GDPR compliant. One of the best features of the plugin is that it gives you the option to exclude the zones to which the cookies notification will not be shown. Since the GDPR law only applies to the citizen of the EU, using this feature, you can choose to show the cookie notification for only the visitors from the EU.
With this plugin, you can set the number of days to which the cookies are set for. So, you can determine the duration to which the users’ consent will be valid, after which if the user visits the website again, they will have to give their consent to the use of the cookies again.
You can change the content of the cookie notification bar and for the Accept button for the cookies and gives you many customization options. The plugin gives you multiple options to position the cookie bar on the screen. Also, select how the cookies bar will be closed. The cookie bar can be closed with a click, on scrolling the page, or after a period of time.
The plugin gives you the control over which pages that you want to display the cookie notification on. You can choose to display the notification on the homepage only so the cookie notification will not be visible on any other pages of the website, or you can select the pages of the website on which the cookies notification bar will not be displayed.
The plugin also gives multiple options to customize the cookie notification bar. Also, the cookie notification bar is responsive so that the users can view the popup with ease on any device.
One drawback of the plugin is that the plugin does not give the users to opt out of the usage of the cookies or reconsider their consent.
6 – Ginger – EU Cookie Law
It is a very simple plugin that can be used to display a cookie notification bar to the user of the website. Simply activating the plugin and enabling the cookie notification will create a notification bar on the website. The users can then accept or reject the use of the cookies. Clicking on the “Accept” button will accept all the cookies and clicking on the “Reject” button will reject the use of the cookies.
There are many different options available to the admin with which they can customize the functionality and the style of the cookie bar. You can also customize the style and text of the buttons of the cookie notification bar. Along with that the admin of the website also has the option to add your custom CSS.
This plugin also does not provide the users the option to reconsider their consent to the use of the cookies. But one of the advantages of using this plugin is that it is compatible with server caching and different other caching plugins.
Summary
Complying with the GDPR laws for your website may sound like a tedious task for you. But there are a lot of services out there that can help you achieve compliance with ease. And if you are WordPress website owner, all you need to do is find the right plugin that best fits your requirements.
Disclaimer: Using a plugin, including any of the above does not ensure full compliance with the GDPR. It is the responsibility of the website owners to ensure proper measures have been taken in order to completely comply with the law.
