Cookie Consent Plugins for Static Sites

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If you’re looking for cookie consent plugins to use on your static WordPress website and manage site cookies effectively, we’re here to help.

Only a few cookie consent plugins are designed to work on a static WordPress website. Because of this, finding the best one that is suitable and fully supported by your static WordPress site is no easy feat.

In this article, we’ll help narrow down this search for you by introducing you to the best static site generator you can use. It supports popular plugins to help make cookie consent management on a static WordPress website possible!

Throughout this guide, we’ll cover the following:

What are cookie consent plugins?
The best cookie consent plugins for static WordPress sites.

Before anything else, let’s describe what a cookie consent pluginA piece of software that adds specific features to WordPress. is.

Cookie consent plugins are WordPress plugins that allow you to add a cookie consent banner or popup to your website. This is a notification that informs website visitors that your website uses cookies and obtains their consent to store cookies on their devices.

What are website cookies?

Cookies are small text files that collect bits of data about users as they browse your website. They help you to deliver a personalized experience to your customers, manage user login sessions, and even track their behavior. Some (third-party cookies) collect user information for targeted advertising.

As a website owner, if you collect this data on users, you’re legally required to inform them. A cookie consent banner can help you obtain user consent before doing so, enabling you to comply with data protection laws.

To ensure data privacy on your website, there are several data privacy regulations you need to comply with.

The two main ones are the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in the European Union and the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) in California. Other privacy regulations include PIPEDA, CNIL, and LGPD for Canada, France, and Brazil.

Compliance with these regulations is one of the main reasons for integrating a cookie consent plugin into your website. With that in mind, how exactly do these plugins facilitate compliance with data privacy regulations?

Generally, cookie consent plugins facilitate GDPR and CCPA compliance in the following ways:

It informs users. The plugin often displays a cookie notice on a website to inform users about the site’s use of cookies: the types of cookies you use, their purposes, and how the collected data will be used. It also links to your privacy policy page for more detailed information.
It obtains user consent. Consent plugins normally show a cookie consent banner upon a user’s first visit. This pop-up requires users to provide explicit consent before cookies are used. It’s a key requirement under GDPR. In practice, both cookie notices and consent banners are often combined.
It categorizes cookies. It’s a requirement that cookies are categorized (e.g., strictly necessary, performance, targeting, functionality, etc). In this way, users can make informed choices about which types of cookies they want to consent to.
It gives your users control over their cookie preferences. Users can opt in or opt out of different cookie categories. This aligns with GDPR and CCPA requirements for user control over personal data.

Note: Only necessary cookies, such as performance and functionality cookies, are exempt from these laws.

Users can also change their consent choices at any time through cookie settings panels provided by these plugins.
User rights. Under CCPA, users can access and delete their personal data upon request. They should also be able to opt out of selling their personal information. Many cookie consent plugins include this feature.

So, what features make up the best cookie consent plugin?

Consider the following features to choose a plugin that meets your specific needs and helps you comply with privacy regulations:

User-friendly. The plugin should be easy to install, use, and customize.
Customization options. Every site has its unique style. Look for a plugin you can customize the look and content of consent banners to match your website’s design and comply with specific legal requirements
User consent management. The plugin must enable users to manage their cookie preferences and change their consent choices anytime.
Plugin functionality. Free plugins have limited features. Comprehensive functionalities like advanced cookie management, granular consent options, or detailed consent logs require paid options.
Documentation and reporting. Check if it records consent logs, provides compliance audit reports, and offers granular control over consent options (so you can comply with detailed regulatory requirements).
Compatibility with WordPress. The plugin should work well with your WordPress themes and plugins to avoid functionality issues on your site.
Regular updates. The plugin should receive regular updates to keep it up-to-date with the latest privacy laws.
Multilingual support. If your site reaches a global audience, find a plugin that supports multiple languages to cater to this audience.

Note: By itself, a plugin doesn’t guarantee full compliance. You must still update your privacy policy independently to ensure complete compliance. For example, inform users how long the cookies will be active (if you use email solutions or analytics like Google Analytics). Also, let them know how to opt out, delete their data, and more.

That being said, let’s get to the bottom of the issue. Do cookie consent plugins really work on a static WordPress site? Let’s find out in the next section.

Several cookie consent plugins rely on a dynamic WordPress environment to function correctly. Unless adjusted, finding the best cookie consent plugin to help you comply with regional (or global) cookie laws is quite challenging.

Fortunately, there is an effective workaround for this. Simply Static doesn’t just convert your WordPress website into its static version. It fully supports a handful of plugins to manage cookie consent on your statically converted WordPress website.

Firstly, what is Simply Static?

What is Simply Static?

Simply Static is a robust static site generator for WordPress.

It lets you easily generate static HTMLHyperText Markup Language. It’s the standard language for creating web pages. copies of your entire WordPress website, including CSSCascading Style Sheet. It’s a language used for describing the look and formatting of a document written in HTML. and JavaScriptA programming language used in web development to create interactive elements on a webpage. files. This includes your theme, posts, and dynamic content like forms, search functionality, and comments.

Because these static WordPress file copies do not rely on server-side processing or database, the final static website offers several benefits.

Make your website even faster with Simply Static Pro

Get Simply Static Pro

The benefits of making your WordPress site static using Simply Static

The following are some major benefits of using Simply Static.

Maximum site performance

Static files do not rely on server-side processing or databases, resulting in fast-loading pages. Because of this, static websites are extremely fast.

Besides, this plugin optimizes your static site further for greater speed using pro features like modification, image optimization, etc., for maximum performance.

Effortless and diverse deployment options

Site owners get the added advantage of hosting their static websites on simpler deploymentThe act of pushing the static files generated by Simply Static to a live environment where users can access them. options.

It offers diverse hosting platforms to choose from, like our very own SimplyCDN, local development, GitHubA web-based platform for version control and collaboration, allowing multiple people to work on projects at once. (including Cloudflare Pages, GitHub PagesA hosting service from GitHub for publishing static websites directly from a GitHub repository., NetlifyA platform for automating web projects that provides hosting and serverless backend services for web applications and st…, and Vercel), Amazon AWSAmazon Web Services (AWS) is a cloud computing platform that offers various services, including storage solutions like S…AWS S3Amazon Web Services (AWS) is a cloud computing platform that offers various services, including storage solutions like S…, Digital Ocean SpacesA scalable and secure object storage service that works similarly to Amazon AWS S3., or even BunnyCDN.

Tighter security

This plugin reduces security vulnerabilities by eliminating database requests made to your web server. Your static site won’t have a database to connect to or contain sensitive information, including personal information such as credentials. Hence, there are limited avenues for malicious hackers to exploit or interfere.

It cuts down WordPress hosting costs

Since static sites only require fewer server resources and infrastructure requirements, this could lower hosting fees.

Reduced site maintenance

Static sites are easy to maintain in the future. It takes out the stress of regular WP updates. If you want to update site content, you can do so quickly using WordPress as a content management system.

It offers search functionality

Simply Static Pro enables you to add both basic and advanced search capabilities to your website.

Basic search uses Fuse.jsA lightweight JavaScript library for searching, which allows for more flexible and forgiving searches., which allows for more flexible and forgiving searches. For advanced search functionality, it implements AlgoliaA record of all the actions and changes made within the Simply Static plugin. It helps you track what has been done. so users can find your content faster and more accurately.

Handle form submissions and enable comments

Static sites typically can’t collect, validate, and store user data using forms. With Simply Static Pro, you won’t have this inconvenience.

It easily integrates forms from popular plugins like Contact Form 7, Gravity Forms, or Elementor Forms.

You can also manage and display comments. This way, user interactions and feedback are not lost.

Once you’ve used Simply Static to turn your site static, that doesn’t mean you can’t use WordPress plugins like cookie consent banners. Simply Static supports a couple of plugins to manage cookie consent on your statically converted WordPress website.

These supported plugins include:

Cookie YES.
Cookie Consent Banner.
Cookie Bot.
Complianz.

Let’s handle these cookie consent management platforms (CMP) individually until you find the best option for your static site.

CookieYes

Top of the list is CookieYes – a popular GDPR cookie consent plugin.

At first, it only added a GDPR-compliant consent banner on your website. However, it has now become a widely used consent plugin that aids websites in complying with cookie regulations worldwide. It provides a range of tools to manage cookie consent, develop compliant cookie policies, and guarantee transparency in data collection and processing activities.

Other critical features include customizable cookie consent banners, automatic cookie scanning, detailed consent management, geo-location targeting, cookie policy generation, and more.

What are the benefits of using CookieYes

Worldwide compliance with privacy regulations. Beyond GDPR, CookieYes supports CCPA, PIPEDA, LGPD, Privacy Act, and more. It’s also designed to align with significant state user privacy laws in the US, such as VCDPA, CPA (Colorado), CTDPA (Connecticut), and UCPA (Utah).
Fully customizable cookie banner. The banner’s layouts, colors, content, fonts, position on the page, and behavior are fully customizable, allowing website owners to blend this consent notice with your existing website. Users can add CSS customization for further branding consistency.

Because of this, it’s an excellent alternative for individuals who want granular control over how their cookie consent notification appears.

Thorough consent management. It helps with the categorization of cookies. It automatically blocks non-essential cookies to ensure GDPR compliance. It allows you to display the list of cookies neatly in a table on your Privacy & Cookies Policy page using a shortcode. And more.
It provides opt-in and opt-out banners. The opt-in consent banner is for GDPR & opt-out banner option is for CCPA/CPRA compliance.
It maintains an accurate historical record of consent logs. A user’s consent is logged and exported into a CSV file.
It implements Google Consent Mode v2 to keep your Google Analytics and ads running smoothly – that’s if you have one.

Is CookieYes freemium?

This plugin offers a tiered pricing model based on the number of subpages your website has.

If you only want to show a straightforward GDPR cookie compliance banner, its free version should work just fine.

But if you’re after more flexible consent management capabilities and compliance features, go for the paid options.

Cookiebot

Like CookieYes, Cookiebot also provides an easy-to-use and fully automated cookie banner for WordPress sites that’s quite reliable.

One major difference is it offers limited cookie law compliance with global privacy regulations. These include only GDPR, CCPA, DMA, POPIA, ePrivacy Directive, VCDPA, and LGPD.

It’s a leading privacy compliance solution for SMB marketing and non-marketing teams.

Why should you choose Cookiebot?

Highly customizable consent banner. It offers pre-built banner templates you can modify to match your site’s style to start collecting user consent as soon as possible.
Fully automated cookie scanning and reporting. Cookiebot automatically scans your website to identify and categorize all cookies and tracking technologies in use. It then generates detailed reports on the cookies found, including their purpose, duration, and provider. This can help you keep an accurate inventory of your site’s cookies.
User consent management. It provides granular consent options. Users can give or withdraw consent for specific types of cookies. This granularity respects user preferences and enhances compliance and trust.
Secure consent storage and monitoring. For your consent logs, they’re securely stored up to 12 months and are readily available for audit purposes or data subject access requests.
Support and regular updates. The Cookiebot CMP WordPress plugin is regularly updated and managed to help you keep your website compliant with relevant privacy regulations at all times.

Besides, it’s one of the few WordPress cookie consent plugins that easily integrates with Google Tag Manager and Google Consent Mode to help ensure you get higher quality, more compliant data.

Does it have a free plan?

Cookiebot offers a tiered pricing model based on the number of subpages your website has.

It offers a free trial for up to 50 subpages with limited features to try out. But for more comprehensive features, you’ll need to go pro depending on the number of pages in your static WordPress site.

All Pro pricing plans include all premium features.

Termly’s Cookie consent banner is one of the easiest and most effective ways to comply with the extensive EU and UK legal requirements.

Installing this plugin adds all of Termly’s compliance features to your WordPress dashboard. Once you connect your Termly account, you can scan your site for cookies, add a unique consent banner, and enable Auto Blocker using the WordPress plugin.

In this way, you can meet strict legal requirements by GDPR and CCPA.

It also shares similar features with CookieYes and Cookiebot like automatic cookie scans, cookie configurations, choice of banner position, etc.

But why is it the best option for small business websites?

It’s easy to set up. Simply install and activate the plugin, fill in your business info, scan your site for cookies, and customize your settings to get a live cookie consent banner and compliant cookie policy on your site.
It’s a thorough US/EU data privacy law coverage. This plugin helps you comply with the strict requirements of these regulations. Plus, compliance with international laws like the GDPR, CCPA, and ePrivacy Directive is made fast and easy.
Easy consent management. Including scanning your site for cookies, gathering user consent, creating a cookie preference center, and more.
It provides banner translation. While you can modify unique cookie notices, (including text, font, theme, and colors) using their banner settings editor. This plugin offers multiple banner translations to cater to your EU audience. It includes languages like English, German, French, Spanish, Italian, and more is coming soon.
Comprehensive legal policies are made to fit your unique business needs.
It’s always up to date. This plugin automatically updates all of your policies to meet the requirements of any new laws or regulations.

The free version of cookie consent banner has basic features but has a limit on monthly visitors.

When that limit has been reached, your banner will be deactivated until the following month.

Consider upgrading to the Pro+ plan for more consent banner features and higher visitor limits.

Complianz

Aside from CookieYes, Complianz is another WordPress plugin designed to help you comply with worldwide user privacy regulations.

It helps websites comply with data protection regulations such as GDPR, CCPA, PIPEDA, and other privacy laws using the following features.

These include cookie policy generation, automatic cookie scanning, automatic cookie blocking, fully customizable cookie banners, granular consent management, geo-location targeting, etc.

So, why should you use it?

Why should you choose Complianz?

Worldwide compliance. Complianz is one of the most powerful WordPress-native solutions that covers major privacy legislation around the globe like GDPR and CCPA.
It’s built to offer easy configurationThe setup process where you specify the settings and options for how a software or system will operate. and styling of the consent banner. Though if you are an accustomed developer, Complianz offers all that is needed to completely build your cookie banner template and consented services from scratch.
It’s cookiedatabase.org. This plugin is synced with cookiedatabase.org to provide your legal documents (like your cookie policy) with detailed descriptions of cookies and services.
This plugin has amazing support and an in-house legal team if you need help. This team will ensure your legal documents and cookies are up-to-date.

Is Complianz free or premium?

The Complianz plugin has no free plan.

Its premium version offers three plans based on the number of websites managed: personal, professional, and agency. Each plan includes comprehensive compliance features and support.

As long as your website uses cookies you must add a cookie consent banner or popup to obtain your users’ consent. The cookie consent plugins we’ve covered in this guide can help you do this on your WordPress website.

However, using cookie consent plugins on a static WordPress website can be challenging. Fortunately, you can work around this with the powerful static site generator plugin Simply Static.

Simply Static doesn’t only convert your entire WordPress website into its static version. If the site has cookies, this tool supports popular plugins like CookieYes, Cookiebot, Temly, and Complianz to help you manage cookie consent within a static WordPress environment.