In 2025, with all the different kinds of websites and web services that deal with user data, ensuring cookie compliance is a must for all website owners and developers. Cookies are used to store pieces of information about a user’s past activities, login information, and other preferences on their device. Some cookies are essential to deliver the services a website has to offer, while other non-essential cookies are used for personalised advertising. As it deals with user data, most countries now require websites to comply with certain rules to ensure that the user data is well protected and the user consents to the use of their data. However, with different countries having different laws regarding cookies, it may be a lot of work for the websites to ensure that all the privacy laws are being met. And that’s where CookieYes comes in.
CookieYes claims to do the heavy lifting by scanning your sites for cookies, automatically categorising them, generating privacy policies that are compliant with region-based privacy laws such as GDPR and CCPA, and providing users with clear customisable consent banners. And we’re here to test these claims. In this review, we’ll deep dive into CookieYes to help you decide if it’s the right solution for your website.
Pros and Cons of CookieYes
Before we discuss the nitty-gritties, let’s first address the pros and cons. This should serve as a rough summary of what we’ll discuss in the review.
Pros
- Easy to use, no technical knowledge required
- Complies with dozens of different regional privacy laws
- Helps you customise cookie banners based on your needs
- Generates compliant privacy policies
- Free plan is suitable for small blogs and websites
Cons
- Free plan has limited features
- The process is not fully automated
- Limited advanced integration
Features That Make CookieYes Stand Out
Most of CookieYes’ features revolve around automation and customizability. And they do a great job of striking the perfect balance between the two. In this section, we will be breaking down some of the key features of Cookie Yes.
Automated Cookie Scanning
The hero feature of CookieYes is its automated cookie scanning. With just a click, the plugin can scan your website to identify cookies and categorise them into necessary, functional, analytics, or advertising groups. This means no more having to manually search the cookies on your website and figuring out how to classify them. This feature eliminates an overwhelming task, especially for users who aren’t familiar with the technical knowledge required for this categorisation.
Free and Premium Scanning
In the free plan, CookieYes allows up to 100-page scans per month, which is perfect for smaller websites and blogs. For larger sites, paid plans offer enhanced scanning capabilities, with the ability to scan up to 8,000 pages in one go.
Accurate Categorisation
CookieYes automatically sorts cookies into categories and even provides descriptions for commonly used cookies, such as those from Google Analytics. This saves you hours of manual effort and ensures accuracy.
Scheduled Scans
If you upgrade to a premium plan, you can schedule regular scans to ensure your website stays compliant as new cookies are added. This is particularly helpful for websites that frequently update plugins or features, which might introduce new cookies.
Customisable Cookie Banner
Do you notice those websites where the cookie banner looks out of place and does not go with the design of the website? Now, yes, there are certain standards that these banners need to maintain, so they cannot have just any kind of design. But that doesn’t mean you cannot tweak it a bit and customise it to match the look and feel of your website a little bit. Some customizability is essential and goes beyond aesthetics. CookieYes provides solid room for banner customisation while ensuring compliance.
Design Options
Colours, fonts, layouts, and positions. CookieYes gives you enough options to tweak your banner into your own. You can choose between simple banners or box-style popups and decide where they appear: top, bottom, or even as a full-screen overlay.
Behaviour Settings
There’s more to customisation than just look and feel. You also need to control how the banner behaves. For instance, you can decide whether cookies are blocked until consent is given or preload necessary cookies to improve website performance.
Multi-Language Support
CookieYes makes it easy to cater to global audiences by offering auto-translation in over 30 languages. It detects the visitor’s browser language and displays the banner accordingly, making compliance seamless for international websites.
Advanced Customization with CSS
If you have coding experience, CookieYes allows advanced customisation through CSS. This means you can bypass some of the default settings to create a banner that perfectly matches your site’s design. For example, you can adjust button shapes, add shadows, or make other design tweaks.
Privacy Policy Generators
Websites are also required to have a privacy policy that is compliant with the laws of the region they offer their services. Creating a GDPR or CCPA-compliant privacy policy is often daunting, especially if you’re unfamiliar with the legal jargon. CookieYes takes this challenge off your plate by offering automated privacy policies and cookie policy generators.
Ready-to-Use Templates
The plugin provides pre-built templates for privacy and cookie policies, which include all the essential elements required by laws like GDPR and CCPA. These templates are a great starting point and can be customised to reflect your website’s specific needs.
Automatic Updates
Privacy regulations constantly evolve, and staying compliant means updating your policies. CookieYes ensures your generated policies remain current with regulatory changes, reducing the risk of falling out of compliance.
Customisable Content
While the templates are thorough, CookieYes allows you to tweak them to suit your business. You can add details about collecting, storing, and sharing data or align the language with your brand’s tone.
Integration with Cookie Banner
The policies generated by CookieYes can be linked directly to your cookie banner. Visitors can click a “Read More” button to access detailed information about your privacy practices.
Preference Management for Users
CookieYes ensures your visitors have enough control over their data by providing a robust preference management system. This feature makes this whole process of data collecting very transparent.
Granular Consent Options
The preference centre allows users to manage cookie settings on a category level. Visitors can enable or disable cookies for analytics, advertising, or other purposes, ensuring they only consent to what they’re comfortable with.
Revisit Consent Button
A revisit consent button can be added to your site, allowing users to update their preferences at any time. This not only helps build user trust but also ensures ongoing compliance with regulations that require accessible opt-out options.
Transparency Through Cookie Lists
CookieYes allows you to display a detailed list of all cookies used on your website, categorised by type. This gives visitors full visibility into the data being collected and reinforces your commitment to privacy.
Geo-Targeted Consent
With select paid plans, CookieYes offers geo-targeting features that display consent options tailored to the visitor’s location. For example, European users will see GDPR-specific banners, while those in the United States will receive CCPA-compliant options.
Is CookieYes Worth It? – Pricing & Plans
CookieYes offers four pricing tiers, which include a free plan. The plans are designed for websites of different sizes and with traffic in mind.
Free Plan
The free plan is a great starting point for those just starting out with a small blog or website. It has basic tools to cover GDPR and CCPA requirements with no upfront cost. However, unlike the premium plans, it will not scan for GDPR and CCPA compliance simultaneously. It can scan up to 100 pages monthly, which should be enough for small websites with limited content. It can also handle up to 15,000 monthly page views, so it’s suitable for sites that don’t get heavy traffic.
Although the free plan is limited in customisation, you can still adjust the cookie banner to some extent to match your website’s design. So, even the basic setup doesn’t feel out of place. It’s a no-risk way to try out CookieYes and see if you need to upgrade as your site grows.
Premium Plans
For users who need more features and higher limits, CookieYes has three paid plans: Basic, Pro, and Ultimate. Each plan comes with a 14-day free trial, so you can try out premium features before committing to a subscription.
The Basic Plan is priced at $10 per month per domain and is designed for small businesses and startups. It builds on the free plan by allowing up to 500 page scans and 100,000 monthly page views. It also introduces advanced customisation options like custom CSS and popup layouts. For site owners growing their sites, the Basic Plan is the next step. Monthly scheduled scans also automate compliance checks, so you don’t have to do them manually.
The Pro Plan is priced at $25 per month per domain and is the most popular plan among CookieYes users. It’s designed for medium-sized businesses with larger audiences and more traffic. It can scan up to 4,000 pages and 1,000,000 monthly page views, so it’s perfect for sites in growth mode. The Pro Plan also has multilingual banner support, Google Consent Mode integration and the ability to disable cookie banners on specific pages. It’s an excellent plan for businesses targeting multiple markets or operating in regions with different privacy laws.
At the top of the pricing scale is the Ultimate Plan, which is priced at $55 per month per domain. This plan is for high-traffic websites and enterprises that need extensive compliance solutions. It can scan up to 8,000 pages and have unlimited page views, so you don’t have to worry about hitting limits. Weekly scheduled scans ensure compliance is always up to date, and features like geo-targeting, custom branding and staging site support give you enterprise-level functionality. Although this is the most expensive plan, its features are a must-have for sites with complex data collection requirements.
Is CookieYes Good Value for the Money?
CookieYes’ pricing is thoughtful and considers the needs of its wide range of users. The free plan is one of the most comprehensive free plans in the cookie compliance space, so it’s perfect for small sites that need essential tools without extra cost. It lets new users test the waters while getting their essential compliance sorted. For those exploring top-tier consent management platforms, CookieYes provides a solid starting point.
The paid plans, especially the Basic and Pro plans, are well balanced between cost and functionality. For $10 a month, the Basic Plan is a no-brainer for small businesses ready to take their compliance to the next level. The Pro Plan is more expensive but introduces multilingual banners and larger scan capacities, which are essential for businesses going international. The Ultimate Plan is perfect for businesses that need unlimited scalability and maximum customisation and automation.
However, there are some limitations to be aware of. The 100-page scan limit on the free plan may force users with slightly bigger sites to upgrade soon after they start using it. Geo-targeting and branding removal are also locked behind the higher-tier plans, which may not be what users are looking for at a lower price point. CookieYes makes up for these limitations with its feature set and performance.
To sum it all up, CookieYes offers great value across all plans. The free plan is a no-brainer for small sites, and the paid plans provide flexibility and scalability for businesses of all sizes. Whether you’re a beginner or an enterprise, CookieYes has a plan that will make your cookie compliance process smoother and easier.
Comparing CookieYes to Competitors
CookieYes vs CookieScript
CookieYes and CookieScript both have cookie compliance tools, but they are focused on different things. CookieYes is praised for its ease of use and automation, so it’s perfect for small to medium-sized websites or businesses new to compliance. The automated cookie scanner and customisable banners make GDPR and CCPA compliance easy, and integration with Google Consent Mode improves ad performance.
CookieScript has more granular controls and advanced features like dynamic blocking for first and third-party cookies. However, CookieScript’s pricing is less flexible for single-domain users, so it’s better suited for multi-domain businesses or websites that need high customisation. CookieYes offers both monthly and annual subscriptions and a 14-day trial. Sadly, both the monthly subcription and trial are missing on CookieScript’s end. However, they do offer a 7-day refund. While CookieYes is beginner-friendly, CookieScript’s advanced features are for users with more complex compliance needs, a balance of functionality and customizability.
CookieYes vs Cookiebot
CookieYes and Cookiebot are both well-known in consent management, but they are strong in different areas. CookieYes is focused on simplicity and accessibility, with a no-frills free plan and basic features like automated cookie scanning and policy generation. Its integration with platforms like WordPress and Shopify makes it more appealing to smaller websites.
Cookiebot, however, stands out with its advanced compliance tools and flexibility in handling complex regulations. Its daily cookie scanning feature ensures up-to-date compliance, which is unavailable in CookieYes. Cookiebot also supports more languages 47 compared to CookieYes’s 30 and has detailed reporting for consent management. However, Cookiebot’s pricing can be restrictive, especially for dynamic websites with many subpages. While CookieYes is budget-friendly and easy to use, Cookiebot’s powerful features make it the choice for larger enterprises that prioritise full compliance.
Should You Try CookieYes?
The free plan of CookieYes offers enough features to make it worth a shot. While CookieYes is known for its seamless integration with WordPress, you can also use it on Wix, Squarespace, Shopify, Blogger, Weebly, and many more platforms. It is also a certified CMP partner of Google, which means your compliance efforts won’t affect your ad performance or data collection if you’re using Google Ads and Analytics.
If you have a smaller site, the free plan is a no-risk way to get started with cookie compliance. For larger or more complex sites, the premium plans offer great scalability and advanced features like geo-targeting, multilingual support, and unlimited page views. Managing privacy policies, customising banners, and automating cookie scanning across multiple platforms make CookieYes a complete solution.
CookieYes delivers on its promise of making cookie compliance simple and offers great customisation and automation features. It is an easy recommendation from our end.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the CookieYes free plan?
The CookieYes free plan is designed for small websites and personal blogs that need basic compliance tools. It allows up to 100-page scans per month and supports 15,000 monthly page views. The free plan includes essential GDPR and CCPA compliance features and a customisable cookie banner. However, advanced features like geo-targeting, branding removal, and scheduled scans are not included.
Is CookieYes GDPR compliant?
Yes, CookieYes is fully GDPR compliant. It provides tools to ensure that your website meets GDPR requirements, including cookie categorisation, consent logging, and policy generation. CookieYes also supports explicit consent options, which are mandatory for GDPR compliance, and offers features like a revisit consent button to let users manage their preferences at any time.
Can CookieYes handle GDPR and CCPA compliance simultaneously?
Yes, CookieYes can manage GDPR and CCPA compliance simultaneously, but this functionality is limited to the premium plans. The free plan focuses on either GDPR or CCPA compliance at a time. Premium users can configure their cookie banners to cater to both regulations, making it ideal for websites with international audiences.
Is it safe to say yes to cookies?
Saying yes to cookies is generally safe, but knowing what you’re agreeing to is important. Cookies are used for purposes ranging from essential website functions to personalised advertising. With tools like CookieYes, users can customise their preferences and accept only the cookies they’re comfortable with. This transparency ensures users retain control over their data while websites stay compliant with privacy laws.