Since 25 May 2018, the EU data protection basic regulation (GDPR) has been effective in all member states of the European Union. This means for WordPress agencies, freelancers and website operators: Those who have not GDPR yet implemented the requirements of the guidelines risk being warned and fined by the supervisory authorities. But this is no reason to panic! Fortunately, there are helpful GDPR plugins, which help you to WordPress - to make them legallysite secure. We'll show you what plugins they are and how to use them.

Disclaimer: This article does not replace legal advice. Within the scope of our work as WordPress hoster we have intensively dealt with the applicable German data protection regulations and the EU GDPR. We assume no liability for the completeness, topicality and correctness of the contents recommended plugins by us.

In the following article I would like to show you to what extent various WordPress -Plugins can support you in the lawful implementation of the GDPR requirements. If you would like to delve deeper into the matter and are interested in concrete measures for your WordPress website , I recommend our free GDPR -Guide.

The plugins ones I want you to meet today are:

• WP GDPR Compliance
• GDPR
• WP GDPR Tools
• The GDPR Framework
• WP GDPR

The order plugins in which they appear in this list is based on the number of their active installations (as of February 2019).

WP GDPR Compliance

Active installations | Rating
Over 100,000 | 3.7 out of 5 (105 ratings)

Who developed it?
WP GDPR Compliance was developed by the Dutch WordPress agency "Van Ons". The Plugin is available in 11 languages (including German, English, Dutch and Spanish).

What does the plugin cost ?
WP GDPR Compliance was developed for the WP community and is therefore free of charge. However, the Van Ons team is happy to receive Donations for the support effort or "beer money" 😉 .

What functions does the Plugin offer you ?
WP GDPR Compliance automatically adds GDPR -compliant checkboxes to the Plugins Contact Form 7 , Gravity Forms and WooCommerce as well as to the WordPress comments. With these opt-ins, visitors to your site can give their consent for you to process their personal data with the respective Plugin .

Furthermore, visitors of your site can request their personal data from your database. They will then be given temporary access to a site , where their personal data is listed. From there, they can send you a request to delete their data.

What can't the Plugin do?
As with all GDPR -Plugins, you will not achieve one hundred percent legal certainty. After all WP GDPR Compliance on only a handful of Plugins. This means that you may be using other extensions that are not GDPR compliant. However, according to the roadmap, more features will be added in the future. Currently, the integration of MailChimp and HTML Forms is being worked on. In addition, a GDPR -compliant cookie banner is on the plan.

GDPR

Active installations | Rating
Over 40,000 | 4.3 out of 5 (57 ratings)

Who designed it?
The Plugin GDPR was developed by the Canadian online marketing agency "Trew Knowledge". The Plugin is currently available in 12 languages, but not yet in German.

How much is Plugin?
GDPR is free of charge, Donations for the support and further development of Plugins are welcome.

What functions does the Plugin offer you ?
GDPR comes with a variety of functions. With the help of Plugins you can, for example, manage the consent for your terms and conditions and privacy policy. Furthermore, the opt-in and opt-out for tracking through cookies can be managed with the Plugin .

You can also plugins implement the right to access and delete data on request of a user or as an admin with the help of the. When users request their data, they can download it as JSON or XML format. It Pluginalso supports you in your duty of proof by creating an encrypted log of all users' consent and deletion requests.    

What can't the Plugin do?
The function to obtain consent for the use of certain Plugins with GDPR -compliant checkboxes is currently not yet offered by Plugins . However, integrations of MailChimp, SalesForce, Marketo and HubSpot as well as other WordPress -Plugins are planned.

WP GDPR Tools

Active installations | Rating
Over 30,000 | 3.9 out of 5 (44 ratings)

Who developed it?
WP GDPR Tools was developed by the Linz-based online marketing agency "Shapepress" together with data protection experts and tested for German and Austrian law.

For the sake of transparency, I would like to mention here that the makers of the plugin are Raidboxes customers. That's how it came about that we contacted the developers of WP GDPRTools with our questions about the development and functionality. After our senior dev had a look at the technical siteof the plugin, we were so convinced that we would like to recommend it with a clear conscience.

What does the Plugin cost ?
There is a completely free version, a Blog Edition for one-time 9,90 Euro and a Premium Version for yearly 29 Euro. These versions only differ in the amount of features. For several websites there are also corresponding bulk licenses.

What features does Plugin offer you?
Already in the free version of WP GDPR Tools you can use templates for legally compliant privacy texts, easily set up Google Analytics and the Facebook Pixel GDPR compliant, create a cookie banner, implement the right to be forgotten (with time option) and make user data downloadable and deletable as PDF or in JSON format. Also included is the integration of Contact Form 7 and a GDPR -compliant checkbox for comments. There are also lots of tips and helpful GDPR templates.

In the Blog Edition you can also customize the cookie banner and the texts of the checkboxes in the comments. Recently, the Blog Edition also includes a Custom Google Analytics and Facebook code.

The Premium Version also supports WooCommerce, Gravity Forms, MailChimp, bbPress and BuddyPress and has other additional features.

What can't the Plugin do?
WP GDPR Tools offers you numerous features and integrations, but no Plugin developer will be able to guarantee you one hundred percent legal security. Nevertheless, the Plugin covers important areas (such as Google Analytics and the FB Pixel) that many GDPR -Plugins do not even consider.

The GDPR Framework By Data443

Active installations | Rating
Over 20,000 | 4.8 out of 5 (54 ratings)

Who developed it?
The GDPR Framework By Data443 was developed by Estonian WordPress experts "Codelight" together with a law firm. So far it is only available in English, Spanish and Swedish.

How much is Plugin?
The GDPR Framework By Data443 is free of charge.

What functions does the Plugin offer you ?
The motto of the creators ofTheGDPR Framework By Data443: "You don't need to drown your customers in pointless acceptance checkboxes if you know what you're doing!".

One of the features of Plugins is to allow your users and visitors to view, export and delete their data. On the other hand, you can track and manage your collected consents. In addition, Plugin provides you with a template of a GDPR -compliant privacy policy and helpful documentation for site operators and developers.

The GDPR Framework By Data443 Supports Contact Form 7, Gravity Forms, Formidable Forms and WPML. Next integrations planned are Ninja Forms and Flamingo.

What can't the Plugin do?
Currently, The GDPR Framework By Data443 seems to focus on formPlugins . However, according to the Plugin authors, further integrations with WP Migrate DB, WooCommerce and Easy Digital Downloads are in the pipeline.

WP GDPR

Active installations | Rating
Over 6000 | 3.6 out of 5 (22 ratings)

Who developed it?
WP GDPR was created by the Belgian WordPress developers "AppSaloon" and is available in English, Dutch, Spanish and Swedish so far.

How much is Plugin?
For a single website the annual license for WP GDPR with only one Plugin integration costs 20 Euro. If you want to use all available Plugin integrations, you pay 50 Euro per year. There are also special freelancer and agency rates for multiple WordPress websites .

What features does Plugin offer you?
With WP GDPR you can make your website visitors' personal data (such as emails and comments) accessible and deletable. This disclosure includes data from Plugins Gravity Forms, Contact Form 7, WooCommerce, Flamingo and MailChimp. For these Plugins WP GDPR also creates opt-ins for data processing.

What can't the Plugin do?
Even with WP GDPR , one hundred percent legal security is not guaranteed, as it only supports five Plugins so far. Further Plugin integrations such as Formidable Forms are planned.

GDPR tools for the WordPress Core

Also in the WordPress core the WP GDPR Compliance team is working hard to make WordPress GDPR -compliant in time. For this purpose, various GDPR and privacy tools are being developed, which will be integrated into the core step by step. The current update to WordPress 4.9.6 already contains some of these adjustments.

At Raidboxes we have also developed GDPR tools to support our customers in the implementation of data protection requirements. With the "WP Session Eraser" you can e.g. define with a few clicks in your RB-Dashboard after which time period the session data of all your WP users will be deleted after they have logged out. 

Conclusion: No guarantee, but a handle under the arms

Which Plugin is the right one for you depends entirely on your needs. Before choosing one of GDPR -Plugins you should check which extensions you are currently using and which of them process any personal data at all. This GDPR Plugin list from Blogmojo can help you with this. In case of doubt, you should contact the Plugin developer yourself.

If you need not only checkboxes for integrated plugins, but also additional support on topics such as privacy policy, cookie banners, right to delete and CoGDPR plugin But then you will quickly get to the paid area. Especially for the DACH region the plugin WP GDPR Tools because it was developed according to Austrian and German law and you get German-speaking support.

Have you already tested one of the mentioned GDPR plugins or do you think one plugin is missing in the list? Then please leave me a comment, I'm looking forward to your feedback!