FAQ
Straight answers, before you install anything.
What Cookie Rocks does, what it costs, what happens when a key ends, how refunds work. No small print: if the answer is not here, ask us.
Getting started
Why does my site need a cookie banner?
Most sites load tools that store or read data in the visitor’s browser: statistics, ads, videos, maps, chat. In Europe, the United Kingdom and many other countries, the law asks for the visitor’s consent before those tools run, except the ones the site cannot work without. In several US states, visitors must be able to refuse the sale or sharing of their data. A banner is how you ask, and how you prove you asked. What the law asks, country by country.
What is Cookie Rocks?
A consent plugin for WordPress that you can actually understand. It tells you in plain words what the law asks of your site, checks your pages, holds trackers until the visitor chooses and shows a fair banner that weighs 11.43 kB. It comes in two parts: Cookie Rocks Audit, free, and Cookie Rocks, the complete consent plugin, with a key. See all the features.
How does it work?
You install it and answer four questions about your site: Cookie Rocks lists what the law asks of it. It scans your pages and finds the tools that store data in the browser. On your site, the banner asks each visitor, and the known trackers wait until the visitor accepts, then start on the same page. Every choice is kept as a proof of consent, and your cookie policy is written from the cookies really found. After that, the Audit keeps checking, and updates follow the laws. See it step by step.
Who is it for?
Anyone with a WordPress site: a business, a shop, a freelancer or an agency that builds sites for clients, and non-commercial sites, which get a free key. Cookie Rocks is a WordPress plugin: it does not run on other platforms.
Do I need to know the law, or to code?
No. The questions are in plain words, the answers come with their official sources, and everything is set from the WordPress dashboard. Developers get filters, events and shortcodes if they want them.
What is free, and what is paid?
Cookie Rocks Audit is free, forever, on as many sites as you like: it checks your site, your current consent plugin and the rules of your countries. Cookie Rocks, the complete plugin with the banner, the blocking and the proofs of consent, starts with a 30-day free trial, then a yearly key for businesses. Non-commercial sites get a free Community key.
Do I need both plugins?
Yes, for the complete plugin. Cookie Rocks works on top of Cookie Rocks Audit: install both, and the Audit keeps checking your site. The Audit alone works without the complete plugin. How to install them.
How long does it take to set up?
Minutes. Install, answer four questions about your site, and you have a fair banner, trackers held until consent and a cookie policy. Your first steps.
I already use another cookie plugin. What now?
Install the free Audit next to it: it reads the banner you have today and tells you, point by point, what is done and what is missing. Switch to Cookie Rocks when you are ready; the Audit keeps checking after the switch. How Cookie Rocks compares.
Does it work on a multisite network?
Yes. Each site of the network has its own settings, banner, cookie policy and proofs of consent, and each live site needs its own key. The multisite guide.
Prices and keys
How much does it cost?
One key per site, per year: $20€20 per site for one to nine sites. From 10 sites, the price per key drops, for every key on the subscription. Prices are the same in US dollars and euros, shown without tax. See the prices.
Is there a limit on pages, pageviews or visitors?
No. Cookie Rocks runs entirely on your site, so nothing is counted and nothing is capped. A key covers a site, whatever its size and traffic.
What does one key cover?
Your live site: your domain with or without www, plus 3 subdomains such as staging. or shop. Local development (localhost, .local, .test, IP addresses) is free and never counted, and 2 extra places on known staging hosts are included. You only pay for the live site.
My site changes domain. Do I buy a new key?
No. Move the key yourself from your account, up to 3 times a year. How to move a key.
I build sites for clients. Is there something for agencies?
Yes. One subscription holds as many keys as you need, with one dashboard for all of them. From 10 keys the price per key drops, and you add or remove keys from your account at any time. Each key locks to the first site that activates it. See the prices for 10 sites or more.
Who can buy a key?
Any business, of any size, anywhere: companies, agencies, self-employed people, associations and public bodies with a VAT or business number. You enter it at checkout and it goes on the invoice.
Are taxes included?
Prices are shown without tax, as usual between businesses. In the European Union, the United Kingdom and Switzerland, give your VAT number at checkout: no VAT is charged and the invoice says that you declare it yourself (reverse charge). Elsewhere, no tax is added to the price.
Can I pay by invoice and bank transfer?
Yes, from the first key. Ask for an invoice on the pay by invoice page: it is due within 14 days, payable by bank transfer or by card, and your keys are sent when it is paid.
My site is personal, or run by a club. Do I have to pay?
No. Non-commercial sites get a free Community key: a personal site, an art project, a band, a student club, a youth movement, a sports club without a shop. One year, free, then one click in your account for the next year. We read every request ourselves.
The free trial
How does the free trial work?
Enter your e-mail and your domain, confirm your e-mail, and your key arrives right away. You get every feature, every update and support for 30 days. One trial per domain. Start it on the pricing page.
Do I need a card?
No. Nothing to pay up front and nothing charged at the end. The trial is open to everyone, business or not.
What happens on day 31?
Nothing breaks. The banner, your visitors’ choices, the trackers held until consent and your proofs of consent keep working. The settings lock, except three: switching the banner off, changing your policy pages and asking everyone again. Updates and support wait for a key. Take a key at any time and everything opens again, with your settings as you left them.
And when a paid key ends?
The same as day 31: the banner keeps working, the settings lock, updates and support stop. Nothing about Cookie Rocks ever appears in your banner. A month later, if your site still uses Cookie Rocks, we send one reminder, and only one.
Renewal and refunds
Does my key renew automatically?
Yes, each year, at the price then in force, until you stop it. We send a reminder by e-mail 7 days before each renewal, with the amount. If we ever change our prices, we tell you at least 30 days before it applies to you.
How do I stop the renewal?
In your account, click “Stop renewal” and confirm. Your keys keep working until the end of the year you paid, then they stop renewing. No further payment is taken, and you can start again at any time.
Can I get a refund?
Yes. Every customer has a money-back guarantee: a first purchase is refunded if you ask within 14 days of the payment. A renewal is refunded if you ask within 14 days of the renewal date and have not activated the key on a new site since. No questions, no form to justify. The refund policy.
How do I ask for a refund?
Write to us from your account or at support@cookierocks.com. The money goes back to the card or account you paid with, and the keys of the refunded subscription are switched off. Paid by bank transfer? We refund by transfer, after checking the account details with you; bank fees are on us.
After 14 days, can I still get my money back?
The guarantee covers 14 days. After that, stop the renewal from your account: your keys keep working until the end of the year you paid, and nothing more is charged.
A payment failed. Do I lose my key?
No. We tell you by e-mail, the payment provider tries again for a few days, and your key stays valid until the end of the period already paid. Update your card from your account.
Can I add or remove keys during the year?
Yes, from your account, from one key to as many as you need. Added keys are charged for the rest of the current period, and the amount is shown before you confirm. Your account, step by step.
Where are my invoices?
In your account, with your keys. You also receive a receipt by e-mail after each payment.
Your data
Does Cookie Rocks send my visitors’ data anywhere?
No. The banner, the visitors’ choices, the proofs of consent and the settings stay on your site. Nothing about your visitors is sent to us.
Where are the proofs of consent kept?
In your own WordPress database. You can add a daily or weekly copy to your own storage: Dropbox, a WebDAV server, a signed webhook or an e-mail address. How to prove consent and how to copy your proofs.
You visit my site?
Yes, with a Cookie Rocks Pro key. Three days after activation, then from time to time, we visit a few public pages like an ordinary visitor: no account, no access to your site, your robots.txt respected. We check that no cookie is set before the visitor chooses, and write to you if one slips through. We keep the names of the cookies, never their values and nothing about your visitors. Turn the visits off in your account, in one click.
What do you know about my site?
When you activate a key, and about once a day after that, the plugin sends us the key, the site’s domain and the plugin version, and we see the address of your server. Nothing about your visitors or your content. If our server cannot be reached, the plugin keeps working with its last answer. Our privacy policy.
The law
Which laws does Cookie Rocks follow?
The consent rules of 248 jurisdictions, in plain words, with 1619 official sources and the authority of each. You tick the countries of your visitors, and every visitor gets the strictest rules among them; with Rules by country, each visitor gets the rules that apply to them. The laws covered.
Does it handle the GDPR and the US state laws?
Yes. In Europe, the banner asks before any tracker runs, with a Reject button as visible as Accept. In the United States, it honours the Global Privacy Control signal sent by the browser once country rules or one click turn it on, warns you when your visitors’ laws require it, shows the “Do Not Sell or Share” link where a state asks for it and keeps a record of refusals. The GDPR, country by country and where GPC is required.
Does it handle Google Consent Mode v2?
Yes, at the very top of every page, in basic or advanced mode, and Cookie Rocks recommends one after two questions about your traffic. It also keeps WP Consent API in sync, so Site Kit and WooCommerce read the visitor’s choice. The Consent Mode guide.
Does it only look at cookies?
No. The tools your pages load, such as Google Analytics, YouTube, a map or a chat, may set cookies, use other browser storage, or none at all, and still receive data about your visitors. Cookie Rocks knows 675 of them by name and finds the others on your pages. The cookies Cookie Rocks knows.
What about AI chatbots and accessibility?
Cookie Rocks also lists the rules on AI chatbots (50 jurisdictions) and on accessibility (99 jurisdictions): who they apply to, and from when. AI chatbots and accessibility.
Does Cookie Rocks make my site compliant?
It does the part a consent plugin can do: the banner, the blocking, the proofs and the cookie policy, checked against the rules of your countries. What your business does with data beyond the browser stays your responsibility. Legal questions, answered. The documents your site needs, country by country.
Is it legal advice?
No. Cookie Rocks explains the rules in plain words, with their official texts, and checks your settings. For your own case, ask a lawyer or your data protection authority.
Speed and compatibility
Will it slow my site down?
It adds 11.43 kB to the first page a visitor opens and 1.00 kB to each page after that. Nothing is personalised on the server, so your cache keeps working. See the measurements.
Does it work with my theme, page builder and cache plugin?
It is tested with the most common ones, including Divi, Elementor, WooCommerce, LiteSpeed Cache, WP Rocket and Polylang, and the main caching plugins are set up for you. Works with your stack and caching plugins.
Does Cookie Rocks reload the page?
Not when a visitor accepts: the held tools start right away, on the same page. The page reloads only when a visitor withdraws a consent already given, because a script that has already run can only be stopped by a reload, or when a visitor allows only reCAPTCHA or hCaptcha, which a form needs from the moment the page loads.
Which languages does the banner speak?
54 languages are built in, at no extra cost: English, Arabic, Azerbaijani, Bulgarian, Bangla, Catalan, Czech, Danish, German, Greek, Spanish (Spain), Spanish (Mexico), Estonian, Finnish, French, Irish, Hindi, Croatian, Hungarian, Armenian, Indonesian, Icelandic, Italian, Japanese, Georgian, Kazakh, Korean, Kyrgyz, Lithuanian, Latvian, Macedonian, Mongolian, Malay, Maltese, Norwegian Bokmål, Nepali, Dutch, Polish, Portuguese (Brazil), Portuguese (Portugal), Romanian, Russian, Slovak, Slovenian, Albanian, Serbian (Cyrillic), Serbian (Latin), Swedish, Turkish, Ukrainian, Uzbek, Vietnamese, Chinese (Simplified) and Chinese (Traditional). The banner speaks the language of the page, and works with Polylang and WPML. A site in one language can show it in the visitor’s browser language instead, with one option. For any other language, write your own texts.
Can I make the banner look like my site?
Yes, without code: a floating box or a bar, its place on the screen, a light, dark or automatic theme, the accent colour (your theme’s colours are offered in one click) and the words. The preview shows each change at once. The look of the banner.
What about Google Fonts and other web fonts?
Cookie Rocks Audit lists the fonts your pages load from another site before any choice, with what each licence allows. Cookie Rocks Pro copies the Google Fonts it finds in your pages and stylesheets to your site, so visitors’ addresses no longer go to Google for those fonts. It does not hold fonts until consent: your pages would lose their look. Web fonts and the law.
YouTube videos and maps on my pages?
They wait for consent: a short message and a “Load the video” button stand in place of the player, and the video starts in one click, without reloading the page. Its picture comes from your own server, so the visitor contacts no one before agreeing. A background video waits silently behind its fallback image. The Audit shows which ones load too early. Videos and maps.
Support
How do I get help?
Open a request from your account, with an active key or trial. We answer within two working days, in any language (English is the quickest). The documentation is open to everyone.
What does support cover?
The installation, the settings and the behaviour of Cookie Rocks, made to measure for your site. It is not legal advice.
Cookie Rocks does not know a cookie on my site. What do I do?
Tell us on the report a cookie page. We check it, and the next update holds it for everyone.
Who is behind Cookie Rocks?
People who build websites for a living, tired of playing lawyer for their clients. We wanted a consent plugin that explains the rules in plain words, checks what a site really does, weighs almost nothing and treats visitors fairly. About us.
30 days free
Try the complete plugin. Nothing breaks on day 31.
no card, no catch
Every feature, every update and support, for 30 days. Setting it up takes a few minutes; the month gives you time to get the purchase through your accounting.
- 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.