Real Cookie Banner is a well-established cookie plugin, with 100,000+ active installations and a rating of 4.9 out of 5 on WordPress.org. The free Cookie Rocks Audit installs next to it and shows what it leaves to you.
We could have compared plans and prices. We would rather audit it.
Using Real Cookie Banner with the free Cookie Rocks Audit
The Cookie Rocks Audit is our free plugin. It installs next to the cookie plugin you already have, adds nothing to your visitors’ pages and changes none of your settings.
- Install the Audit from the download page, then open the Cookie Rocks menu. Installation
- Answer the four questions about your site and your countries: the Audit then knows which rules Real Cookie Banner has to meet. Obligations
- Scan your pages as a new visitor would: what loads before any choice, the cookies and the browser storage it finds, the scripts it does not know yet. Your cookies
- Read the findings on the Overview, the Google and the Consent pages, each with what to change. Consent
What the Audit checks, on any banner
- What loads before the visitor chooses, tracker by tracker
- The cookies and the browser storage your pages set, including scripts it does not recognise
- Google tags, Consent Mode signals and the WP Consent API
- Choice duration, against your countries’ rules
- Your privacy policy and cookie policy, point by point
- Global Privacy Control, where your countries ask for it
And in Real Cookie Banner itself, it reads
- Whether its setup was finished
- Its choice duration: how long a visitor’s choice lasts
- How its Reject button is set
- Whether it keeps records of consent
- Whether the free or the paid edition is installed
- Whether its banner is really on your pages
- Whether it honours the Global Privacy Control signal
If something needs fixing, Cookie Rocks Pro can take over the banner and set it right, country by country.
Checked with Real Cookie Banner 5.4.0 on 6 November 2026.
Keep Real Cookie Banner while you look: the Audit only reads it. When you switch to Cookie Rocks Pro, deactivate it; the Overview tells you if another consent plugin is still active.
What you set, and what is set for you
Real Cookie Banner can follow the European rules. In our test, these are the settings we changed to get there.
In Real Cookie Banner, to do yourself
- Choose how long a choice lasts: 365 days by default, longer than several European authorities advise.
In Cookie Rocks Pro, already done
- Known trackers wait for consent from the first page, without a setting.
- A choice lasts 6 months by default. With country rules on, it is shortened for visitors whose law sets a lower limit, and Cookie Rocks warns you when your countries ask for something else.
- Google Consent Mode is sent with every choice.
- “Reject all” and “Accept all” have the same look, unless your countries allow otherwise and you choose it.
Global Privacy Control: on with country rules or with one click; Cookie Rocks warns you when your visitors’ laws require it.
Automated test of Real Cookie Banner 5.4.0 on a clean WordPress site, 24 October 2026, read from its settings and from the page itself.
Measured on the same test site
A plain WordPress site, Real Cookie Banner and Cookie Rocks Pro each installed alone with their default settings, measured the same way.
| Cookie Rocks Pro | Real Cookie Banner | |
|---|---|---|
| First visit, banner includedWhat a new visitor downloads, compressed | 9.12 kB | 104.02 kB |
| Each next pageOnce the visitor has chosen | 1.10 kB | 10.80 kB |
| Requests on a first visit | 2 | 7 |
| Needs jQuery | No | No |
| Time added to the largest paintCompared with the same page without a banner | 0 ms | 0 ms |
| Blocking timeWhile the page loads | 0 ms | 0 ms |
| Response to a click on the bannerInteraction to Next Paint | 16 ms | 40 ms |
| Layout shift | 0 | 0 |
Cookie Rocks Pro 2.11.4 and Real Cookie Banner 5.4.0, measured on 6 November 2026 to 7 November 2026. Speed: median of 5 runs on a slowed-down processor; a few milliseconds change from one run to the next. How we measure
What these numbers leave out
- Each next page adds 10.80 kB against 1.10 kB: over 10 pages, 201.22 kB against 19.02 kB.
- 7 requests on a first visit against 2.
Looking for a Real Cookie Banner alternative?
Cookie Rocks Pro runs on your own site and applies each visitor’s country rules, with no account and no traffic limit.
What Cookie Rocks Pro does
- The cookie rules of 248 jurisdictions, country by country, kept up to date by our legal watch.
- The cookies of 675 tools, known by name and blocked until consent; the scan finds the others on your pages too.
- A banner in 54 languages, chosen from the page.
- Everything runs on your own site: no vendor account, no page or traffic limit.
Figures of Real Cookie Banner on WordPress.org read on 2 November 2026.
Already using Real Cookie Banner?
See it on your own site.
the Audit first, it’s free
Install the free Audit on the site that runs Real Cookie Banner: it reads its settings and tells you what is missing. Then try the complete plugin for 30 days, every feature, no card.
- During the trial: everything, including the full settings and the scans
- After 30 days without a key: the banner, your visitors’ choices and your proofs of consent keep working
- What waits for a key: most settings, updates and support
Get your trial key
Your e-mail and your site. Your key arrives as soon as you confirm your e-mail.
Names cited are trademarks of their respective owners. Cookie Rocks is not affiliated with them.