MonsterInsights

What is MonsterInsights

MonsterInsights is the most popular Google Analytics plugin for WordPress, with more than three million active installations. It is developed by Awesome Motive, the WordPress ecosystem company that also owns WPForms, OptinMonster and Smash Balloon. The plugin connects a WordPress site to a Google Analytics 4 property, automatically renders the gtag.js snippet on every page and ships configurable add ons for ecommerce tracking, file downloads, outbound links, form events, scroll depth and custom dimensions. From a privacy perspective, the plugin acts as a relay for Google Analytics: the data it produces lives at Google, not at Awesome Motive.

What data and cookies are involved

On the visitor side, MonsterInsights does not set cookies of its own. The Google Analytics 4 tag it injects, however, sets _ga and _ga_<MEASUREMENT_ID> first party cookies, and may trigger _gid, _gac_<id> and DoubleClick cookies depending on the configuration. Each page view causes a request to www.google-analytics.com with the visitor IP, User Agent, page URL, screen and a client identifier. On the WordPress side, the plugin stores aggregated metrics fetched from the Google Analytics API and the Awesome Motive license key.

GDPR and ePrivacy implications

The plugin inherits the consent obligations of Google Analytics 4. Article 5(3) of the ePrivacy Directive requires consent before any non strictly necessary cookie or read of the device, which clearly covers _ga and the GA4 measurement protocol calls. The CNIL still treats the Universal Analytics architecture as unlawful in the EU and considers GA4 acceptable only when paired with strict safeguards (IP truncation, EU US Data Privacy Framework, consent mode v2, no advertising features). MonsterInsights bundles an EU Compliance addon that integrates IP anonymisation and disables certain Google features.

Is consent required

Yes. The MonsterInsights plugin must be paired with a consent management platform (Complianz, CookieYes, Real Cookie Banner, Cookiebot, Iubenda, Borlabs) that gates the gtag.js code until the user accepts the Analytics or Marketing category. The plugin exposes a consent_default = denied option through Google Consent Mode v2 that holds the tag until the CMP signals acceptance. Without this gate, the plugin is not compliant in most EU jurisdictions.

Data transfers to the United States

Every analytics call goes to Google LLC servers in the United States. Google is self certified under the EU US Data Privacy Framework, which provides an adequacy decision for transfers. EU customers should still document the SCC fallback present in Google's Analytics terms, the IP truncation option, the disabling of Google Signals and the retention setting in GA4 (recommended 2 or 14 months). Awesome Motive itself is a US company but processes only license metadata, not the visitor analytics.

Practical compliance steps

Install a real consent management platform alongside MonsterInsights, configure the plugin in EU Compliance mode, enable IP anonymisation in GA4, disable Google Signals and advertising features unless they are independently consented, set GA4 data retention to the shortest acceptable period, and document Google LLC and Awesome Motive as recipients in the privacy policy. Consider a server side proxy or an alternative like Matomo, Plausible, Fathom or Piwik PRO for cleaner GDPR posture.