TayIT WordPress GDPR Cookie Plugin
Pricing & Feature Comparison

Are Free Cookie Banners GDPR Compliant?

The short answer is usually no – or at least, not reliably enough to withstand scrutiny. Free cookie banners solve the immediate problem of "making something appear" but often fail on the technical requirements that regulators and privacy professionals actually test for.

A typical free banner will show a notice and maybe let users click "accept" or "reject", but the underlying tracking scripts (Google Analytics, Facebook Pixel, etc.) frequently continue to fire regardless. PHP cookies set by plugins, WordPress.com stats trackers in the admin area, and WooCommerce attribution scripts often remain completely untouched. When someone later asks "can you prove this visitor actually had a choice about cookie X?", there's typically no log, no audit trail, and no evidence.

GDPR, UK GDPR, CCPA, and LGPD don't just require a banner; they require prior blocking of non-essential processing, clear granular choices, and demonstrable evidence of what each visitor decided. Free tools rarely deliver all three, which leaves site owners exposed to complaints, regulatory inquiries, or client questions they can't answer confidently.

What Are the Real Risks of an Inadequate Cookie Banner?

The most immediate risk is a complaint from a privacy‑conscious visitor who notices tracking still happening despite their "reject" choice. Under GDPR Article 21, they have the right to object to processing, and if your technical implementation doesn't honour that objection, you may need to demonstrate why.

For agencies, the stakes are higher: clients increasingly ask for proof of compliance as part of their own audits. If you're managing multiple EU/UK sites and can't quickly export consent logs or show that scripts were properly blocked, that becomes a much bigger problem. SaaS tools create additional risk by processing visitor consent data on external servers, which can conflict with data minimisation principles.

Fines remain rare for small sites, but the operational cost of redoing your cookie implementation after a complaint, hiring a lawyer for advice, or migrating away from a SaaS platform that no longer fits can easily exceed £1,000. For most WordPress agencies and business sites, this makes a properly engineered solution cheaper than the alternatives.

Why TayIT Stands Out

A lot of cookie tools focus on appearance first: they give you a banner, a message, and maybe a couple of buttons. Behind the scenes, the underlying tracking scripts often still load as normal, consent is not logged in a way you can prove, and cookies set by plugins or PHP code remain invisible. On the surface, the site “looks” compliant, but technically and legally, there are uncomfortable gaps.

TayIT was written the other way round. It starts from the technical behaviours regulators increasingly look for – prior blocking, granular choices, and evidence of consent – and then wraps them in a banner and admin interface that fits naturally into WordPress. Instead of outsourcing control to a separate SaaS platform, TayIT keeps everything on your server, under your configuration.

In practical terms, that means you are not just turning on a notice; you are putting a gatekeeper in front of the scripts and cookies that matter.

• Blocks key tracking scripts at the server level (so their cookies are never set), rather than just hiding them with CSS or JavaScript.
• Uses server-side scanning to detect PHP and plugin cookies that front-end tools miss.
• Helps stop WordPress.com stats calls (stats.wp.com, pixel.wp.com) in the WordPress admin area when they are injected without Jetpack, and blocks WooCommerce Order Attribution (Sourcebuster) scripts by default so their cookies cannot be set unless you consciously allow them.
• Provides a built-in DSR portal so you can handle data access and deletion requests from within WordPress.
• Stays completely on your server — no external API calls, no monthly fees, no data sharing with third-party consent platforms.

The result is a cookie consent setup that behaves more like an engineering control than a cosmetic banner: you can explain how it works, you can audit what it does, and you can show evidence when someone asks “what exactly happens when a visitor clicks reject?”.

Key Features in All Versions

Many tools reserve their most important compliance features – such as consent logs, DSR handling, or Google Consent Mode integration – for their highest paid tier. That can leave you in a difficult position: you thought you were covered, but the exact feature you need in response to a complaint or regulator question sits behind another paywall.

TayIT avoids that pattern. All licences share the same feature set, so the choice between Starter, Agency, and Unlimited is purely about how many sites you want to protect, not about which technical safeguards you can afford.

• Real cookie banner with accept, reject, and settings buttons.
• Server-side cookie scanner that finds PHP and plugin cookies.
• Script blocking: Google Analytics, GA4, Google Tag Manager, Facebook Pixel, and custom scripts.
• Google Consent Mode v2 support (data redaction, URL passthrough, data layer events).
• Iframe blocking: YouTube, Google Maps, Vimeo, and other embeds replaced with placeholders.
• Geo-awareness: GDPR (EU), CCPA (California), LGPD (Brazil) rules applied automatically.
• Accessibility-ready: WCAG 2.1 AA compliant, keyboard-navigable, screen-reader friendly.
• Appearance control: top/bottom, floating box, full colour and layout customisation.
• Admin Shield: targets specific admin trackers like stats.wp.com and pixel.wp.com in WP Admin when they appear without Jetpack.
• Cookie policy and DSR pages: auto-generated or shortcode-based policy and request form.
• Compliance reports and audit logs: view recent consent actions and export full history as CSV.
• Shortcodes: [tayit_cookie_list], [tayit_cookie_preferences], [tayit_gdpr_request_form].

Whether you run a single business site or an agency portfolio, you get the same technical foundations: proper blocking, proper logging, and a clear way to respond to access and deletion requests.

How TayIT Compares to Other Plugins

If you are currently using a free banner plugin or a cloud-based consent platform, it can be hard to tell from the outside what the real differences are. The table below focuses on the practical points that tend to matter in day‑to‑day use: what gets blocked, where the data lives, and which features are included as standard rather than hidden behind higher paid tiers.

Feature	TayIT GDPR	Typical Alternatives
GDPR / CCPA / LGPD support	✅ Yes	✅ Yes
Server-side cookie scanner	✅ Yes – finds PHP, plugin, and 3rd-party cookies	❌ Only client-side (misses PHP cookies)
Self-hosted, no SaaS dependency	✅ 100% self-hosted, no external API calls	❌ Cloud-based, external servers, or SaaS dependencies
Google Consent Mode v2	✅ Full support with data redaction + URL passthrough	✅ Partial / basic
Admin dashboard tracking protection	✅ Admin Shield targets stats.wp.com and pixel.wp.com in WP Admin when they are injected without Jetpack.	❌ No protection
WooCommerce Order Attribution (Sourcebuster) control	✅ Blocks Sourcebuster scripts by default so their cookies cannot be set, with an advanced option to allow WooCommerce order attribution if you rely on it.	❌ Typically left running regardless of consent choice.
Cookie policy & DSR page	✅ Auto-generated policy + DSR form	✅ Varies (policy auto-generated, DSR basic or missing)
Audit logs & proof of consent	✅ Server-side logs + CSV export for legal proof	✅ Often PRO/SaaS only
Data Subject Request (DSR) portal	✅ Built-in form, verification, and admin management	❌ Often missing or requires a separate platform
No monthly fees	✅ One-time purchase, no recurring charges	❌ Monthly subscription, often traffic-based
IAB TCF v2.2 support	❌ No (focused on Google Consent Mode v2 for business sites)	✅ Yes (for AdSense / programmatic publishers)

* Comparison based on typical market features as of January 2026.

Legal note: simple “notice only” cookie banners that do not actually block non-essential cookies or log consent may fall short of GDPR, CCPA, and LGPD expectations. Regulators increasingly look for prior blocking, clear choices, and evidence of consent. TayIT is designed to provide those technical controls in a self-hosted way, but it does not replace your responsibility to maintain accurate policies and review your setup with a qualified professional where needed.

Why TayIT Doesn’t Offer a Free Version

Free cookie banners are attractive because they are quick to install and appear to “tick the box”. The problem is that many of them stop at the banner itself: scripts still fire in the background before consent, cookies are not recorded consistently, and there is no structured way to prove what a particular visitor agreed to. That can leave you with a false sense of security.

TayIT deliberately avoids a cut‑down free edition. The plugin is sold as a paid product so it can include the full set of technical controls – server-side blocking, consent logs, DSR portal, Google Consent Mode v2 – and receive ongoing engineering work as guidance and browser behaviour changes. You are not being pushed towards a higher tier or a separate SaaS; you are buying the complete tool from day one.

In other words, the absence of a free version is not a limitation but a design choice: the aim is to avoid shipping something that looks compliant but quietly leaves important gaps.

Pricing Tiers

TayIT uses a simple one-time pricing model. There are no monthly fees, no traffic-based limits, and no external SaaS bills. You choose a licence based on how many WordPress sites you want to protect; every plan includes the same compliance features.

If you are a site owner running a single business site, the Starter licence is usually all you need. If you are a freelancer or agency looking after several client sites, the Agency licence tends to be the most cost‑effective. If you operate a larger portfolio or expect the number of sites to grow over time, the Unlimited licence lets you standardise on one solution without having to think about per‑site pricing again.

License & Renewal

The licensing model is intentionally straightforward. You decide how many sites you want to cover, activate the corresponding licence keys, and then focus on running your sites rather than on juggling subscriptions.

• Each license key is permanently bound to the first domain where it is activated.
• You can deactivate and reactivate on the same domain, but you cannot move the key to a new domain if all your license slots are used.
• After 1 year, you can renew for continued updates and support, but the plugin continues to work on existing sites even if you choose not to renew.
• If you do not renew, you keep all the features you already have; you simply miss out on future improvements and rule-change support.

Frequently Asked Questions

Ready to Implement Real WordPress Compliance?

Move beyond simple banner plugins to a self-hosted, auditable, engineer-led cookie consent solution for GDPR, CCPA, and LGPD.

Buy TayIT GDPR Plugin Read the Full Solution Guide