Alternative to Borlabs Cookie for WordPress websites
You find Borlabs Cookie too complicated to set up, you miss important features, or you are not sure if you are really legally compliant with this solution? Real Cookie Banner as an alternative to Borlabs Cookie for WordPress website tries to help you better in these points. Make your website GDPR and ePrivacy Directive compliant!
Why you should choose Real Cookie Banner
Real Cookie Banner is a cookie and consent management plugin. Obtain consent to load services and set cookies for your visitors in accordance with the GDPR and ePrivacy Directive. In addition, content blockers help you to be compliant even if your theme, plugin or content loads styles, scripts or iframes that would transfer personal data. Start now with our guided-configuration and avoid legal risks!
Consent Management
You can use Real Cookie Banner to store all technical and legal information about services and cookies to obtain informed consent. You can use 150+ service templates and 120+ content blocker templates to quickly and securely provide all the information you need.
Content Blocker
Themes, plugins and co. usually load scripts, styles and content that transfer personal data and set cookies before you have the consent of your visitors. You usually cannot control this by yourself. Content blockers make sure that these features are only executed after you have obtained consent.
Customize design
You can design the cookie banner according to your wishes. 20+ design templates and 200+ options give you the flexibility to customize the cookie banner perfectly to your needs. From colors and effects to texts, you can unleash your creativity! All changes are displayed in a live preview.
Guided configuration
After installation, the checklist will guide you through all steps to be able to set up Real Cookie Banner in a legally compliant manner. We also explain the legalities of features and the legal consequences if you change settings. So, you can quickly and safely set up your cookie banner!
Documentation of consents
According to the GDPR, you have to prove that a visitor has consented to cookies and processing of personal data if he or she doubts this. We document consent completely and make it possible to trace the origin of the consent afterwards. You are on the safe side even in the worst case!
Native in WordPress
Real Cookie Banner is a cookie plugin specially designed for WordPress. It is fully installed in your WordPress as a native plugin. All consents are processed and stored on your server. Nothing is downloaded from a cloud in your visitor’s browser, which avoids further legal issues.
Compare us with Borlabs Cookie
Borlabs Cookie is a widely used solution as cookie banner for WordPress. Probably also because the plugin was the pioneer in WordPress, which implemented an opt-in cookie banner for the first time with many features. Unfortunately, compared to Real Cookie Banner, Borlabs Cookie offers fewer templates for popular services like Google Analytics, does not automatically respect youth protection regulations for obtaining consents or documents the consents only in parts (only accepted services/cookies). Real Cookie Banner tries to do that and much more better. Compare us with alternative WordPress plugins to get your own opinion!
Do you already use a similar solution like Borlabs Cookie?
Switch to Real Cookie Banner for 1 € in the first year.
The comparison of consent mangement solutions for WordPress was created in July 2025 based on Borlabs Cookie 3.3.11, Complianz 7.5.4 Premium, Cookiebot 4.5.10 (WordPress plugin) variant “Admin Interface”, Usercentrics with Cookiebot 4.5.10 (WordPress plugin) variant “v3” and Real Cookie Banner 5.1.12. New versions of the software with modified features may have become available in the meantime.
| Real Cookie Banner | Borlabs Cookie | Complianz | Cookiebot | Usercentrics | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Yearly price (for one website; up to prices depend on billing units used and are limited to public prices; incl. 19% VAT) | €59.00 | €58.31 | €59.00 | €99.96 up to € 714.00 | €99.96 up to € 10,710.00 |
| Billing unit | per website (unlimited page views/sessions) | per website (unlimited page views/sessions) | per website (unlimited page views/sessions) | per user session & domain | per user session & domain |
| Free version available |  |  | | | |
| Translations of plugin into # languages (> 90% completeness; language variants not counted) | 17 texts in cookie banner are customizable | 8 texts in cookie banner are customizable | 10 texts in cookie banner are customizable | 60 texts in cookie banner are customizable | 60 texts in cookie banner are customizable |
| Audited by external law firm | Legally advised by meibers.rechtsanwälte | no information provided by developer | not adverised, but in-house legal team | not adverised, but in-house legal team | not adverised, but in-house legal team |
| Cookie & Consent Management | |||||
| Covered jurisdictions | EU/EEA, CH, GB | EU/EEA | EU/EEA, GB, US-CA, CA, BR, ZA, AU | EU/EEA, CH, GB, US (some states), BR, ZA, AU | EU/EEA, CH, GB, US (some states), BR, ZA, AU |
| Service (cookie) templates (legal and technical information for obtaining consent) | 180+ templates | 270+ templates | 35+ templates | 2,200+ templates | 2,200+ templates |
| Per-service consent in cookie banner | | | disabled by default | | |
| Individual service groups | | | | | |
| Information obligations per service (information in accordance with Art. 13 GDPR) | |  without non-postal contact of controller | only link to provider’s privacy policy | only link to provider’s privacy policy | |
| Disclosure of cookies used per service (HTTP cookies and cookie-like information) | | | | | |
| Safety mechanism disclosures for third-country transfers (requirements of Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR) | adequacy decision, standard contractual clauses, TADPF | | | | |
| Consent to unsafe third-country data processing (according to Art. 49(1)(a) GDPR) | for every third country | only USA without consideration of TADPF; no disclosure for which services | | | only in individual settings for the respective service described |
| Minor protection measures (requirements of Art. 8 GDPR) | age notice | age notice | | | |
| Compliance for CDN use (e.g. explanations of necessary safeguards) | recommendations for 28 CDN providers | | | | |
| Cookie policy generator (improves transparency for website visitors) | content automatically allied with cookie banner | | required to manage consents per service | content automatically allied with cookie banner | |
| Auto-delete first-party cookies (upon website visitor opt-out) | | | | | |
| Executing code on opt-in or opt-out (enables integration of e.g. Google Analytics directly via cookie banners) | | | only per service group, but not per service | only with implementation via code | scripts must be integrated with code and modified manually |
| Region-based cookie banner visibility (shows cookie banner only if legally required) | local IP-to-country database used | local IP-to-country database used; manual country selection | local IP-to-country database used | cookie banner adapted by country | hiding or showing different cookie banner per region |
| Transfer of service consents to Google Tag Manager (allows firing of tags only with legal basis) | using Google Consent Mode or custom events | using custom events | using Google Consent Mode; only per service group, but not per service | using custom events; only per service group, but not per service | using custom events |
| Banner-less consent obtaining (consent management with only content blockers) | | | | | |
| Anti-adblocker technology (prevents cookie banner blocking in most cases) | | | | | |
| Legal pages linked in footer of cookie banner (e.g. privacy policy or legal notice/imprint linkable) | any link | only privacy policy and legal notice (imprint) | only cookie policy, privacy statement, imprint & disclaimer | can be added in an “About” tab of cookie banner | only privacy policy and legal notice (imprint) |
| Hide banner on legal pages (e.g. on privacy policy or legal notice/imprint page) | for any page | for any page | for any page | only with custom coding | only with custom coding |
| Automatic service consent for bots (GDPR only applies to natural persons) | | | | | disabled by default |
| Scanner | |||||
| Check of for used services (detects used services across all subpages) | every page indexed in sitemap | scans only front page, 3-page preset, or manual URLs (≤ 100 per scan) | scanner reads only the admin’s browser first-party cookies | every page found by crawler | every page found by crawler or vistited pages by website visitors |
| Edit-triggered page rescan (scans pages immediately after editing) | | | | | |
| Periodic website scans without specific cause (schedulable and regular scans) | | | | monthly/weekly/daily | monthly/weekly |
| Detection of external services (with and without service template) | based on HTML markup | | detected cookies not always auto-associate with a service | based on found cookies | |
| Detection of known WordPress plugins (service need to be available) | | | | | |
| Detection of unknown external connections (manual entry of service details required) | | | | | |
| Content Blocker | |||||
| Content blocker templates (blocks services until consent is given) | 200+ templates | 175+ templates | 30+ templates | one blocker for all services based on regex | no templates, but auto-blocking without visible replacement or settings possible |
| Embeds replaced by similar placeholder (e.g. YouTube video replaced by dummy video player) | | | | one blocker for all services based on regex | needs to be developed by website operator |
| Blocking of already integrated links, styles, scripts & iframes | | | only scipts & iframes; only per service group, but not per service | for services known by Cookiebot or manual blocking | for services known by Usercentrics or manual blocking |
| Blocking of elements by URL | | | only per service group, but not per service | | |
| Split inline styles per selector (enables fine-grained inline CSS blocking) | | | | | |
| Automatic video playback post-consent (if consent is given via content blocker) | for YouTube, Vimeo, Dailymotion and Loom videos | for YouTube and Vimeo videos | | | |
| Disclosure parity in content blocker (same level of as in cookie banner to meet GDPR information obligations for informed consents) | | e.g. missing consent for third-country transfers, revocation rights, and minors’ safeguards | only “I agree” and link to cookie policy | content blockers do not allow consent, but instead ask to reopen cookie banner | no visual content blockers offered without custom coding |
| Design customization | |||||
| Cookie banner design presets | 20+ design presets | | | depending on chosen legislations | |
| Customizable design of cookie banner (e.g. colors, fonts, sizes) | 200+ design settings | 150+ design settings | 60+ design settings | 20+ design settings | 45+ design settings |
| Live preview of design changes (changes immediately visible without saving; displayed as appearing on the website) | | schematic preview available after saving | | | |
| Mobile-optimized design options (cookie banners design on e.g. smartphones customizable) | | | | | |
| Interaction-triggered banner loading (e.g. load after click/scroll; may interrupt user flow) | | | | | |
| Accessibility | |||||
| WCAG 2.1 Level AA or later compliance (to comply with European Accessibility Act) | | | | | |
| Accessibility scoring for design settings (evaluates contrast, font size compliance, etc.) | accessibility score similar to PageSpeed Insights Score | | | | |
| Consent Mode | |||||
| Google Consent Mode v2 support | | | | | |
| Explicit consent per purpose (consent type) (to fulfil purpose limitation of Art. 5(1)(b) GDPR for Google Consent Mode) | | | | | |
| Microsoft UET Consent Mode support | in service template pre-configured | | feature to activate | consent automatically passed once detected | consent automatically passed once detected |
| Transparency & Consent Framework (TCF) | |||||
| TCF v2 or newer support | | | | | |
| Google certified CMP (for AdSense, Ad Manager, or AdMob) | | | | | |
| Vendors from GVL selectable (Global Vendor List provided by IAB Europe) | | | all vendors using at least one selected purpose or feature | | |
| Auto-import of vendor lists from ad servers (may create hundreds of vendors fully automatically) | for Google AdSense and The Moneytizer | but manual import of TCF vendor ID lists | vendors not freely selectable | | |
| Publisher restrictions for vendors (requested purposes can be reduced) | per vendor | | globally restrictable, but not per vendor | per vendor | globally restrictable, but not per vendor |
| Content blocker for TCF vendors (prevents loading vendor content and scripts without consent) | | | | | |
| Stacks for user-friendly visualization | | | | | disabled by default |
| Proactive design violation notices (in accordance with the TCF Policy) | | | | | |
| Consents and documentation | |||||
| Documentation of consents (to fulfill accountability under Art. 5(2) GDPR) | all services, texts, and design settings, as well as the choice of website visitors and interactions leading to consent | without text and design settings in the cookie banner; only consented services (not all available onces) | without text and design settings in the cookie banner; only consented services (not all available onces) | without the services/cookies, text, and design settings displayed in the cookie banner | all services, texts (except of manually described services), and design settings, as well as the choice of website visitors |
| Documentation by contract processor (proof stored by third party; data processing agreement may be necessary) | stored in WordPress | stored in WordPress | stored in WordPress | stored on Cookiebot’s servers | stored on Usercentrics’s servers |
| Interactive visualization of consent creation (displays cookie banner and behavior that led to consent) | including player (see how users clicked, scrolled, …) | | | | |
| Consent history, modification & revocation links (enables website visitors to exercise their rights) | as menu items, sticky widget (floating) and shortcodes | as shortcodes or sticky widget (floating) | as shortcodes, Gutenberg blocks or sticky widget (only consent changing) | as sticky widget (floating) or JavaScript code | as sticky widget (floating) or JavaScript code |
| Proactive notice for consent re-solicitation on banner modification | | manually to trigger | | | disabled by default |
| Statistics on visitor consents | three statistics with dynamic time range | one statistic with fixed date ranges | one statistic with all-time data | one statistic for public plans; more for custom quotes | six statistics with dynamic time range + reportable reports |
| Consent documentation fault tolerance (e.g. delayed logging & auto-retry on overload) | local storing & auto-retry to document consent | local storing; no documentation for website operator | local storing; no documentation for website operator | consent not saved; cookie banner reappears every page visit | local storing; no documentation for website operator |
| Multilingual support | |||||
| WPML support | | | | translations stored in cloud | translations stored in cloud |
| Polylang support | | | | ||
| TranslatePress support | | | | ||
| Weglot support | with machine translations | with machine translations | | ||
| Language switcher in cookie banner | | | | | |
| Technical solution | |||||
| Native solution in WordPress (consent management in WordPress plugin code) | | | | cloud-hosted script + integrations via WordPress plugin | cloud-hosted script + integrations via WordPress plugin |
| Cache clearing after banner modification (proactive offer to clear page cache) | for 35 page-cache plugins | for 11 page-cache plugins | | | |
| WordPress Multisite support | | | seperate plugin needed; starting at 399 € / year | no explicitly need, as cloud-hosted | no explicitly need, as cloud-hosted |
| Consent forwarding across multiple websites (website visitors consent only once; consent applies to all linked websites) | one-way and two-way sync; for standalone- and multisite installations | consents shared via cross-domain-cookie, but without e.g. documentation of consent | consents shared via cross-domain-cookie, but without e.g. documentation of consent | consents shared via cross-domain-cookie | consents shared via cross-domain-cookie |
| Import and export settings | | | | | |
| Export of collected consents | | | | | one by one |
| Compatible WordPress version | 5.9 or newer | 4.7 or newer | 5.8 or newer | 4.4 or newer for WordPress plugin | 4.4 or newer for WordPress plugin |
You want to know more?
Have we caught your interest in Real Cookie Banner? The WordPress plugin offers you even more than what you’ve seen here. To learn more, have a look at the full list of features, services templates and more in the product description!
Wow, you are still here looking for an alternative to Borlabs Cookie?
It looks like you are really interested in trying Real Cookie Banner. But if you don’t like or can’t install the free version into your WordPress right now, we have an alternative for you:
Just create a free sandbox. This is a WordPress installation in which Real Cookie Banner PRO is pre-installed for you. You can try all features without any risk. And if you break this test website, we won’t hold it against you. We promise!