Free Cookie Consent Plugins for Small WordPress Sites
The useful question about a free consent plugin is not what it costs. It is whether it blocks anything. A banner that appears while Google Analytics has already fired is decoration, and a large share of free plugins in this category are exactly that: a well-designed notice attached to nothing.
The good news is that two of the free options here genuinely block scripts before consent, and one of them scans your site as well. This article sorts the free tier on that single functional test, covers what you give up by not paying, and says plainly where the free version stops being enough.
Verified August 2026 against plugin repository listings and vendor pages.
The test that sorts this category
Open your site in a private window with developer tools on the Network tab. Load a page. Do not touch the banner. If requests to google-analytics, googletagmanager, facebook, doubleclick, or fonts.googleapis appear, the plugin is not blocking, and no amount of banner styling changes that.
Setting non-essential cookies before consent is the breach regulators act on, and automatic blocking before consent now sits among the baseline expectations for 2026. Free plugins split cleanly on this line: some implement real interception, some assume you will wrap your own scripts, and some only manage the notice. All three describe themselves similarly.
Run the test after installing whatever you choose from this list. It takes two minutes and it is the only thing that tells you about your site rather than about a plugin.
The 6 options compared
1. Complianz, free version
The best free consent plugin for WordPress, and it is not close. The free version blocks third-party cookies from services including Google Maps, Facebook, Instagram, AdSense, HubSpot, reCAPTCHA and X, and blocks iframes for embedded video from YouTube, Vimeo and Dailymotion. It also runs a periodical cookie scan checking for changes in cookies, plugins and third-party services.
Blocking plus scanning, for nothing, on over a million installations. Region coverage in the free version spans the EU, UK, US, Australia, South Africa, Brazil and Canada with basic configuration. What is held back is worth knowing precisely: records of consent, Google Consent Mode, geo-IP notices, TCF integration, and US state-level configuration are premium, at $59 a year flat. Those are real gaps if you advertise or need to prove consent, and irrelevant if you run a small site with analytics and a contact form.
- Blocking: Yes, third-party scripts and iframes, in the free version
- Scanning: Yes, periodic, in the free version
- Best for: Almost every small WordPress site
- Premium adds: Consent records, Consent Mode v2, geo-IP, US states
2. GDPR Cookie Compliance by Moove
The strongest alternative and, on one point, ahead of Complianz: Google Consent Mode v2 is supported in the free version, alongside direct integration with Google Tag Manager, Google Analytics and the Meta pixel. On more than 300,000 installations, last updated July 2026.
Script blocking is free here too, implemented as a decision about which scripts load by default and which wait for consent. That model gives you more control and asks more of you than Complianz’s automatic recognition, which is a fair trade if you know your own stack. Data is stored locally with no server-side collection, and the plugin claims WCAG and ADA attention for the banner itself, which matters more than it sounds given that a consent notice is the first thing every visitor meets. Consent logging, geolocation, cookie walls and multisite management are the paid add-on.
- Blocking: Yes, free, with per-script control
- Scanning: No
- Best for: Sites needing Consent Mode v2 without paying
- Premium adds: Consent logging, geolocation, multisite
3. Real Cookie Banner, free version
A WordPress-native plugin with a free version and a German regulatory orientation, which in this category is a mark in its favour rather than a quirk of translation.
Its distinguishing idea is treating each third-party service as a defined entity with known cookies, purposes and blocking rules, rather than filtering scripts generically. That produces more accurate categorisation and better behaviour when a service changes what it sets, and it also produces content blocking for embeds rather than blanket removal. For a small site with a few embedded videos and a map, that is precisely the hard part handled. Confirm which capabilities sit in the free version against your own configuration, since the split between free and paid is the thing most likely to have moved since any comparison was written.
- Blocking: Yes, service-oriented, with embed handling
- Scanning: Service-based rather than a crawl
- Best for: Small sites with embedded content
- Premium adds: Confirm the current split with the vendor
4. CookieYes, free tier
A hosted platform with a free tier, quick to configure, and able to present several jurisdictions from one banner. Paid plans start at $10 a month on a pageview meter.
The structural difference from the plugins above is that the heavy lifting happens on the vendor’s infrastructure, which means the free tier carries limits expressed in pageviews and features rather than in capability. That is fine while you are small and becomes the reason you upgrade, which is the design. Read the current free-tier limits before committing, because they are the whole product decision, and run the blocking test afterwards: ease of setup and thoroughness of interception are different properties, and this optimises for the first.
- Blocking: Present; verify against your own scripts
- Scanning: Yes, within the platform
- Best for: Very small sites wanting multi-region quickly
- Paid from: $10 a month, scaling with pageviews
5. Termly and iubenda free tiers
Both hosted compliance platforms with genuine free tiers, and both worth considering for a reason that has nothing to do with the banner: they generate the surrounding paperwork.
A small site usually needs a privacy policy and a cookie policy as much as it needs a consent notice, and writing those is the task people avoid. Getting all three from one free account is a real convenience. Termly is the more US-oriented of the two, which matters if your visitors are American, and its paid pricing runs around $0.67 per site per day; iubenda’s paid plans start near €4.99 a month. Both free tiers carry meaningful limits, and both are more useful for documentation than for the depth of their blocking, so pair either with the developer tools test.
- Blocking: Present but not the strength; test it
- Scanning: Yes, within limits
- Best for: Getting policies and a banner from one free account
- Paid from: ~$0.67 per site per day, or ~€4.99 a month
6. Removing the trackers instead
Free, permanent, and the option nobody sells you. A small site running one analytics tool and a couple of embeds can frequently eliminate the consent requirement rather than manage it, and the result is faster as well as simpler.
Three substitutions do most of the work. Self-host your fonts, which removes a third-party request that transmits visitor IP addresses before consent and has drawn enforcement in several jurisdictions. Switch to cookieless analytics, where free self-hosted options store data in your own database and set nothing on the device. Replace embeds with links or static images, so a video becomes a thumbnail linking to the platform. What remains after that is often a site with nothing requiring consent at all, and the correct plugin for that site is none.
- Blocking: Not required, because there is nothing to block
- Scanning: Worth one pass to confirm you are clean
- Best for: Brochure sites, portfolios, small businesses
- Watch out for: Adding one marketing tool reinstates the whole problem
Comparison table
| Option | Blocks before consent | Scans | Consent Mode v2 free | Consent log free |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Complianz free | Yes, scripts and iframes | Yes, periodic | No, premium | No, premium |
| Moove GDPR Cookie Compliance | Yes, per script | No | Yes | No, add-on |
| Real Cookie Banner free | Yes, per service | Service-based | Confirm with vendor | Confirm with vendor |
| CookieYes free | Present, verify | Yes | Yes | Tier-limited |
| Termly / iubenda free | Present, verify | Yes, limited | Varies | Tier-limited |
| Remove the trackers | Not applicable | One pass | Not applicable | Not applicable |
When free stops being enough
Free is the right answer for a great many small sites, and there are four specific points at which it stops being one. Each is a capability rather than a size threshold.
- You need to prove consent. Records of consent are premium in Complianz and an add-on in Moove. If a regulator or a client may ask for evidence, this is worth $59 a year on its own.
- You advertise. Consent Mode v2 governs how much conversion data survives a refusal. Moove includes it free; with Complianz it is a premium feature, and if you are spending on ads it pays for itself.
- You serve several jurisdictions properly. Geo-differentiated behaviour, so European visitors get opt-in and Americans get opt-out, is premium almost everywhere and is the correct architecture once both audiences are real.
- You manage client sites. Multisite management and support response times are what agency tiers sell, and a free plugin across twenty sites becomes a maintenance liability rather than a saving.
Notice what is absent from that list: traffic. None of these plugins degrades because your site got popular, which is exactly the advantage a self-hosted plugin holds over a metered platform. Growth is a reason to upgrade a hosted service and not, by itself, a reason to leave a free plugin.
Related guides
Frequently asked questions
Is a free plugin actually compliant?
It can be. Compliance is a property of your configuration, not your invoice. A free plugin that blocks before consent, offers a visible Reject All, and is honestly categorised does more for you than a paid one left on defaults.
Do I need a consent log on a small site?
The obligation to demonstrate consent does not scale with size. In practice the risk does, and many small sites accept it. If you handle anything sensitive or work with clients who ask, buy the records.
Which free plugin should I pick?
Complianz if you want blocking plus scanning and no configuration work. Moove if you run ads and want Consent Mode v2 without paying. Real Cookie Banner if your pages are full of embeds.
Will a consent banner hurt my traffic?
It will reduce your measured traffic, because refusals stop being counted. Real visits are unchanged. Note the date you installed it so you do not later mistake the drop for a ranking problem.
Can I just use a plain cookie notice?
An informational bar with no choice and no blocking satisfies nothing under European rules. If that is all you want, the honest alternative is to remove the trackers so the notice is unnecessary.
What about Google Fonts?
Self-host them. Loading them from Google transmits visitor IP addresses before consent, it has attracted enforcement, and self-hosting removes a render-blocking request at the same time. This is free and permanent.
The verdict
Install the free version of Complianz. It blocks third-party scripts and iframes before consent and scans for changes, at no cost, which is more than most paid tools in adjacent categories manage.
If you run advertising: Moove GDPR Cookie Compliance instead, because Consent Mode v2 is free there and premium in Complianz, and that single difference decides how much conversion data survives.
If your pages are full of embeds: Real Cookie Banner, for service-level blocking with placeholders rather than gaps.
Then run the two-minute test. Private window, network tab, load a page, do not touch the banner. If nothing fires, your free plugin is doing the job a paid one would. If something fires, no upgrade will fix a configuration you have not checked.
