Written for Cookie Rocks 2.9.14, checked on 5 November 2026. The current version is 2.11.2: some details may have changed.
The Audit shows what to fix. Some points need a different banner: a “Reject all” button next to “Accept all”, trackers held until consent, signals sent to Google. Cookie Rocks Pro adds that banner to your site.
Pro is a second plugin, paid, with a free trial of 30 days and no card. During the trial, Pro works as with a paid key: every feature, every update, and support. Prices are on the pricing page. A non-commercial site can ask for a free Community key.
Install Pro
- Get a key on the pricing page.
- Free trial: give your e-mail address, the country where your business is established and your site, then click Start my 30-day trial. Open the e-mail from Cookie Rocks and click Confirm my trial. A second e-mail brings your key.
- Paid key: click Buy now and pay on the secure checkout page. A business gives its VAT or business number for the invoice. After payment, your account opens with your keys, and a copy arrives by e-mail.
- Click the link in that e-mail. It signs you in to your account. Download the Pro zip file there.
- In WordPress, open Plugins > Add New Plugin > Upload Plugin. Install the zip file, then activate it. It appears in the list as Cookie Rocks Pro.
- Open Cookie Rocks > Licence. Paste your key in the Key field and click Activate.
- Check the message: “Your key is active on this site.”
Keep the Audit installed and active. Pro adds its pages to the same Cookie Rocks menu, and does nothing on your site without the Audit.
If you see “Cookie Rocks Pro works together with the free Cookie Rocks Audit, a second plugin.” The Audit is missing or not active. Until it is, Pro does nothing on your site. Click the button of the notice:
- Install the Audit plugin downloads the Audit, checks that Cookie Rocks published it, then installs and activates it.
- Activate the Audit plugin appears when the Audit is installed but not active.
Nothing is installed before you click. If your hosting does not let WordPress write plugin files, the notice gives you a link to the Audit’s zip file and the steps to add it by hand.
Start the trial from WordPress
If Pro is installed but you have no key, use the Licence page:
- Under Free 30-day trial, check the Email address. It is filled with the site’s admin address.
- Choose the Country where your business is established. Cookie Rocks proposes the country you gave on the Obligations page.
- Click Start the trial.
- The page says “Check your inbox: a link confirms the trial, then your key arrives by email.” Open the e-mail from Cookie Rocks and click the link that confirms the trial.
- Your key then arrives by e-mail. Paste it in the Key field and click Activate.
One trial per site. If the site already had one, the page says “A trial was already used for this site.” If Cookie Rocks is not sold in your country yet, the page says “Cookie Rocks is not available in your country yet.”
If you see “This email address is not valid.” Check the address for a typing mistake, then try again.
If you see “The Cookie Rocks server could not be reached.” or “Something went wrong. Try again in a few minutes.” Wait a few minutes, then click the button again.
Activating a key sends Cookie Rocks the key, the address of your site and the version of the plugin. The daily reading of the legal watch carries the key too. Starting a trial sends your e-mail address, the country of your business, the address of your site and the language of your administration. Nothing about your visitors is sent.
What changes when Pro is active
The banner is live as soon as you activate Pro, even before you enter a key. There is no wizard to finish first. Visitors see a banner titled “A quick word about cookies”, with Reject all, Accept all and Let me choose.
Its default settings are chosen to be safe:
| Setting | Default |
|---|---|
| Banner | On |
| Layout | Floating box (recommended), on the left |
| Theme | Automatic (follows the visitor’s device) |
| Rounded corners | 20 px |
| Highlight “Accept all” | Off: both buttons look the same |
| Cookie button | Shown, on the left |
| Remember the choice for | 6 months |
| Known trackers | Hold them until consent (recommended) |
| Google reCAPTCHA and hCaptcha | Ask visitors before they send a form (recommended) |
| Consent Mode v2 | Send consent signals to Google tags (recommended), basic mode |
| Proof of consent | Keep a trace of each choice (recommended), for 24 months |
| Global Privacy Control | Do not apply it |
| Alerts | Only in the administration |
| Rules by country | Off: every visitor gets the same rules, the strictest of the countries of your site |
Two more defaults: Distance from the screen edges is 20 px, on the Appearance page. Credit, on the Consent page, is ticked: a short framed credit to Cookie Rocks shows at the bottom of your cookie policy. You can untick it.
The menu gains the Appearance, Rules by country, Proof of consent and Licence pages. The Google, Consent and Weight pages become the settings of the banner. The Overview checks the Cookie Rocks banner, and its Getting started card gains the Google and Appearance steps.
Tip. Deactivate the cookie plugin you used before, once Pro is set up. Two consent tools on one site give unpredictable results. When the Audit knows that plugin, the Overview shows a point with a Deactivate your current cookie plugin button. You confirm before anything happens.
Before a key is active
The Overview shows a red card: “Enter your key, or start the free 30-day trial.” The banner already works, with its default settings. Until a key is active, the settings of the banner are locked and Pro receives no updates. Click Enter a key or start the trial.
With a Community key
The plugin is called Cookie Rocks Community in the Plugins list and in the menu. The credit at the bottom of the cookie policy is always shown: “Always shown with a free key for a non-commercial site: it is the condition of the free key.”
When the trial or the key ends
A paid key is valid until the date shown under Valid until on the Licence page. A trial lasts 30 days. The lock starts the day after the end date: on day 31 for a trial. There is no extra time after that date.
Nothing stops on your site. These keep working:
- the banner and your visitors’ choices;
- trackers held until consent;
- the register of proofs;
- three settings: turning the banner off, choosing your policy pages, and asking everyone again;
- Cookie Rocks Audit, with its checks and its updates.
Locked until you renew:
- the other settings of the banner, its look included;
- classifying a cookie that a scan finds;
- updates of Pro, including those that follow changes in the law;
- support.
What you and your visitors see
- Your visitors see no difference: the banner looks the same, with no added link.
- The Overview shows a red card, “Your key has expired.”, with what keeps working, what is locked, and a Renew the key button. The Licence page shows the date under Expired on.
- Each page of the banner says that its settings are locked. If you change a locked setting, it keeps its value and a message says so.
- If a scan finds a cookie that your banner and your cookie policy do not mention, the point to fix asks you to renew the key to classify it.
- If the law changes in your countries after the end date, the Overview names these countries. It says your banner does not follow these changes until you renew, with a Renew your key link.
To renew, click Renew on cookierocks.com on the Licence page. Once the key is valid again, everything unlocks and WordPress looks for Pro updates at once.
If the Licence page shows “Not confirmed”. The last answer of the Cookie Rocks server could not be confirmed on this site. Paste your key again and click Activate.
To look for a Pro update without waiting, click Check for updates, after the version number at the bottom of every Cookie Rocks page. When a version is ready, the Overview shows it with an Update now button.
Move a key to another site
A key works on the site that activates it. On the Licence page, Remove the key from this site frees its place. You can then activate it on another site. A key also covers up to 3 subdomains of your domain and 2 places on staging hosts. Local development sites are never counted. See Move a key to another site and what a key covers.
Removing Pro
- Export your proofs of consent from the Proof of consent page if you need to keep them. Deleting Pro erases the register.
- On the Licence page, click Remove the key from this site. Its place is then free for another site. Deleting Pro also frees it.
- Deactivate and delete Cookie Rocks Pro in the Plugins list. Delete the Audit afterwards, if you want to remove it too.
Next step: make the banner yours, one task at a time, with the “I want to…” guides.