The unique advantages of a native WordPress consent management plugin

Most users don’t really think about it, but unlike many other cookie banner solutions, Complianz is a fully WordPress native cookie banner plugin that works directly from your server! This is not by accident: when we started building Complianz we analyzed the different possible approaches and concluded that a cloud solution has no advantages to the user (see below), only to us as developers (it’s easy to prevent unlicensed use, ease of maintenance, quick roll-out of changes and so on).

For this reason, Complianz has been a native WordPress solution from the start. Of course, some information about cookies is pulled in from cookiedatabase.org so we can describe cookies on the cookie policy, but your user’s data is not stored on a remote server, like with most cloud cookie banner solutions. Even better, with our Proof of Consent, consent data never leaves your website visitor’s browser!

When is a plugin a cloud service, and when is it a native WordPress plugin?

A cloud service uses a javascript on a the server of the provider. You embed this script in your site, either directly, or by installing a plugin which does that for you. Such cloud services usually require you to register on their third party server as a user. In most cases, the pricing is based on the number of webpages or number of visitors you have.

A native WordPress plugin on the other hand works only from the website’s own webserver, without any usage of third party javascript. Pricing is usually per year, based on the number of websites you use it for. I’ve listed the most popular plugins below, categorised by cloud/native.

I’ve highlighted some of the main advantages of using a native WordPress application, as opposed to a cloud solution.

Your user’s data stays in their browser

If you follow the GDPR, you have to make sure that your user’s data is not shared with third parties without their consent. Only recently, a court decided that CookieBot, which stores user consent on a US server, can’t be used on the website of State University RheinMain. Reading that article, one might conclude that German websites can’t use CookieBot anymore.

(Using the discussed cloud service) leads to a transmission that is not permitted under the General Data Protection Regulation

This is not something that is limited to Cookiebot only.  When using cloud services for your cookie banner, you always run the risk that your user’s data is stored on non-EU servers. Using a native WordPress solution prevents such issues.

Your data stays on your server

Using a native WordPress application without any cloud service behind it also makes sure your data is your own. The data you gather is stored on your server. For example, even if you generate a Records of Consent Database, this data is stored on your own web server and is not shared with Complianz.

Better performance in Web Vitals

Installing a cookie banner affects web performance. With the Complianz Cookie Blocker, it might even improve your website performance, as your third parties are effectively lazy-loaded: the third-party script is not loaded until the user consents. But we have to be realistic: if you add additional HTML, CSS and Javascript to your website, the browser has to load slightly more bits and execute some more code. But we can optimize it so it has a negligible effect on your website.

Complianz is fully optimized for performance.  It hardly affected web vitals in our tests. But more important for this discussion is the fact that it’s served directly from your own webserver. If you use a cloud service, the javascript that loads your cookie banner is served from another server. The website visitor not only has to load data from your web server, it also needs to get the script from the third-party cloud provider.

Generally speaking, you can expect a cookie notice from third-party providers to have a greater impact on performance than a cookie notice that you build yourself.
Katie Hempenius on web.dev

A cookie notice that you build yourself, is effectively the same as using a native WordPress plugin. For the full article, read this very interesting article by Katie Hempenius on cookie banners and performance.

Full control over the application

If you use a native WordPress cookie banner solution, you have the added advantage that all code runs on your own server. This means that the code only can change if there’s an update. And you are in control of updating. Unlike cloud solutions, which can change their third-party javascript overnight, this can never happen with a native plugin.

Of course, we do our very best to make each update an improvement, so we strongly encourage everyone to regularly update! You are in control.

Conclusion

Using a native WordPress solution is preferable to a cloud solution for many reasons. As a developer, there are several advantages to setting things up as a cloud server, but for the website administrator, a native WordPress solution is by far the fastest and privacy-friendly solution.