Consent Management Platforms: The Best Solution for Small Businesses to Control Cookie Permissions on Their Websites
In this post, we discuss the intricate world of Consent Management Platforms (CMPs), and how to navigate through them to find the best fit for your business.
In the digital age, where data protection and privacy have taken center stage, consent management has become crucially important. With increasing scrutiny from regulators and a growing awareness among users about their digital rights, how businesses manage user consent can significantly impact their reputation, customer trust, and even legal standing.
Gone are the days when a simple popup notifying visitors that your website uses cookies was enough, though many websites still use this type of notification. The landscape of digital consent has evolved dramatically. Now, consent management solutions need to be much more sophisticated and meet multiple technical and legal requirements:
Users must provide explicit consent for the use of cookies and should have the ability to modify their cookie preferences at any time.
Website owners are required to maintain a log of consents, recording how users opt in or opt out of the website’s data collection practices.
If the website operates across multiple jurisdictions, it must manage cookies in compliance with the legal requirements of each jurisdiction.
If GA4 and/or Google Adwords are in use, ideally, the implementation should be via Google Consent Mode. This ensures no data is lost from users who decline cookie usage permission.
If the website supports multiple languages, all cookie-related communications with users must be presented in the user’s chosen language.
Given this complex scenario, website owners essentially have two options at their disposal:
Build a fully custom solution tailored to their specific needs. This can involve significant time and resource investment, as well as ongoing updates to stay abreast of changing regulations.
Use a Consent Management Platform (CMP), a ready-made solution that is easy to implement.
For new and relatively small websites, using the second option is an ideal choice, since creating a custom cookie management solution from scratch and maintaining it regularly would likely be more costly.
Therefore, in this post, we’ll delve into CMPs, discussing their advantages and key characteristics. We’ll also take a close look at some CMPs available in the market. Let’s get started.
Key Features and Characteristics of Consent Management Platforms
First off, let’s discuss essential features that every consent management platform worthy of this name should possess.
#1: User-friendly Consent Interface
A key aspect of any CMP is a clear, easy-to-understand interface where users can make informed decisions about their data. The platform should clearly explain what data is being collected and why, and provide straightforward options for users to grant or deny consent.
#2: Compliance With Regulations
A robust CMP should be designed to help your organization comply with various international privacy laws like GDPR, CCPA, and others. It should handle user data in a way that respects these laws, reducing the risk of non-compliance penalties.
#3: Granular Consent Options
Users should have the ability to give or withhold consent not just on a general level, but for specific types of data collection or processing activities. A good CMP will offer granular consent options, allowing users to customize their privacy preferences.
#4: Audit Trails
To ensure accountability and transparency, a CMP should keep a record of when and how consent was obtained from each user. This audit trail can be crucial in demonstrating compliance in case of audits or disputes.
#5: Google Consent Mode Support
One of the most important characteristics of a CMP is support for Google Consent Mode (GCM). GCM is like a switchboard that controls when and how certain data-collecting tools on a website can operate. It’s designed to work with the user’s consent choices, meaning it respects whether a visitor agrees or disagrees to share their browsing data.
Imagine you visit a website and a popup appears asking if you’re okay with sharing your data. If you agree, GCM will enable all the data-collecting tools, allowing the website to gather insights about your visit. If you disagree, GCM ensures the website only collects the bare minimum, respecting your choice for privacy.
Why does this matter? Google Consent Mode strikes a balance between respecting user privacy and enabling businesses to make informed decisions. It allows users to browse with peace of mind, knowing their choices are respected, and helps businesses stay within the rules of data collection laws.
In essence, Google Consent Mode is a step toward a more user-friendly internet, where privacy is respected and trust is valued. It’s a crucial tool in the digital landscape, not just for compliance, but for building stronger, more transparent relationships with users.
For more information on Google Consent Mode, visit this page.
#6: Integration Capabilities
The CMP should seamlessly integrate with other systems and platforms you use, such as CRM systems, marketing automation tools, and analytics software.
One of the most important tools that a CMP should be able to leverage is Google Tag Manager (GTM), a free tool developed by Google that allows you to manage and deploy marketing tags (snippets of code or tracking pixels) on your website (or mobile app) without having to modify the code.
#7: Regular Updates
Data protection laws and consumer privacy expectations are constantly evolving. Therefore, a good CMP should offer regular updates to stay in line with the latest regulations and best practices.
#8: Customization
A good Content Management Platform (CMP) should offer customization options to meet the unique needs of an organization. This includes the ability to tailor the look and feel of the consent interface to match the organization’s branding, customize the content of the privacy policy and other legal documents, and adjust the consent management process according to the specific requirements of the business.
A customizable CMP should provide advanced features as well, such as the ability to manage consent preferences for different user groups or regions, which is crucial for businesses operating in multiple jurisdictions with varying privacy laws.
#9: Pricing
Last but not least, the cost of a Consent Management Platform is a vital consideration. CMPs come at various price points, depending on factors like the range of features they offer, the level of customer support provided, and the number of users or level of traffic your website receives.
A good CMP should offer a balance of cost-effectiveness and functionality. It’s not just about finding the cheapest option, but rather, finding a platform that offers value for money and aligns with your business’ needs and resources.
There’s no shortage of CMPs available in the market. Probably the most trusted source – Google – recommends a long list of consent management service providers. We’ve carefully reviewed this list and picked several CMPs that we’ve found worth exploring further.
Let’s take a look at them so that you have an idea of their main features and capabilities and, hopefully, choose one for your business needs.
A Review of Some Popular Consent Management Platforms Recommended by Google
iubenda
iubenda is a robust CMP that provides a comprehensive suite of tools to assist businesses in maintaining compliance with various data privacy laws.
Compliance With Regulations
One of the standout features of iubenda is its expansive legal coverage. The platform caters to several legislations including GDPR, the US’s CPRA (CCPA amendment) and CalOPPA, the ePrivacy, Australia’s APPSs, and more.
The provider maintains that they “make every effort to cover every country’s laws by adopting the strictest data privacy guidelines implemented in each country” and “regularly monitor all major global privacy laws.”
Customization
Customization is at the heart of iubenda, with the platform offering customizable legal documents and consent management tools.
In particular, their cookie management solution gives you full control over the appearance of your cookie banner. Choose any color, location, or dimensions you want. Add checkboxes or buttons. Change the way the banner behaves. You can also take advantage of some advanced customization options.
All that can be achieved through iubenda’s easy-to-use visual configurator or via CSS for the tech-savvy.
Audit Trails
The iubenda allows you to record and store the data about your users’ consent choices automatically. More than that. The platform comes with comprehensive consent analytics, which enables you to monitor and optimize your consent collection practices.
Google Consent Mode Support & Integration With Third-Party Solutions
iubenda is an official Google’s CMP Partner. As such, their cookie solution perfectly integrates with Google Consent Mode and Google Tag Manager. That makes privacy management almost effortless.
In addition, iubenda comes equipped with cookie consent plugins for multiple CMSs and e-commerce systems, including WordPress, Joomla!, PrestaShop, and Magento.
Consent Database for collecting GDPR and LGPD consent, documenting opt-ins and opt-outs efficiently.
Register of Data Processing Activities tool to document all data processing activities within your organization.
SDK for mobile (iOS and Android) to comply with the ePrivacy and GDPR requirements within your app.
Integration with IAB Transparency and Consent Framework v2.0.
Pricing
Unfortunately, there’s no free plan. iubenda comes with three pricing options, which differ in the number of available page views and feature sets:
Essentials
Advanced
Ultimate
5.99$ per site/app, per month when billed annually
24.99$ per site/app, per month when billed annually
99.99$ per site/app, per month when billed annually
Up to 25,000 page views/month included + $0.06 per 1000 extra page views
Up to 50,000 page views/month included + $0.06 per 1000 extra page views
Up to 150,000 page views/month included + $0.06 per 1000 extra page views
For more details on the iubenda pricing plans, visit this page.
Termly
Termly offers an impressive suite of tools aimed at helping businesses navigate the often-complex landscape of data privacy laws.
Compliance With Regulations
The platform offers a wide legal coverage, catering to Europe, Canada, USA, South Africa, Australia, and 20+ more regions. The most prominent privacy laws it ensures compliance with include GDPR, ePrivacy, CCPA, and UK GDPR.
Customization
Termly comes with a free custom cookie banner solution for the basic plan customers. You can choose specific colors, display style, fonts, and more. You can also determine the precise positioning of your banner on the page.
Above that, the platform allows you to select multiple languages (English, German, French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese (BR), Polish, Hungarian, Greek, Finnish, Dutch, Danish, and Swedish). The number of languages you pick is unlimited since they are detected automatically by identifying the user’s IP address.
Audit Trails
For all of your visitors, Termly gives you access to automatic consent logs. Additionally, you get a free Data Subject Access Request (DSAR) form that you can embed into your website.
Google Consent Mode Support & Integration With Third-Party Solutions
You can set up Google Consent Mode using regional consent settings in the Termly Dashboard or Google Tag Manager template.
Termly’s cookie banner works on any platform or CMS, including WordPress.
Other Features and Capabilities
Supports IAB TCF 2.2.
Includes a website cookie scanner, which searches every page of your site for cookies, and automatically categorizes them into essential, performance and functionality, analytics and customization, advertising, social networking, or unclassified.
Pricing
Termly features a free plan in addition to three premium options. Those differ in the number of banner views and users, frequency of cookie scans, and in their feature sets.
Free
Starter
Pro+
Agency
€0
€9.5 per website / per month
€13.5 per website / month
Custom
10,000/mo. banner views 1 User Quarterly cookie scans
Multi-User permissions Everything in Pro+ and more.
To learn more about Termly’s pricing plans, click here.
Cookie Script
Cookie Script is a robust consent management platform that has been available to businesses for almost a decade now. It is trusted by over 150,000 websites and boasts a 100,000+ cookie database.
Compliance With Regulations
When compared to the other platforms we’ve reviewed in this post, Cookie Script’s legal coverage is less extensive, although it does cater for important states and regions across the globe:
GDPR (EU)
CCPA (California)
PIPEDA (Canada)
LGPD (Brazil)
KVKK (Turkey)
POPIA (South Africa)
Customization
Cookie Script offers a fully customizable cookie popup banner with four layouts to choose from and a wide array of settings. Premium subscribers can change every popup element, including colors to match the look and feel of their website. You can also indicate the exact position of the popup on the page.
Additionally, display the banner in one of 34 available languages to your visitors from different regions and countries.
Installing the banner is as simple as just inserting a one-line code snippet into the HTML of your website.
Audit Trails
Cookie Script enables you to gather, record, and download website users’ cookie consent as a ZIP archive with CSV files inside. Each of the CSV files contains a list with the following details:
Unique key that is saved in the visitor’s cookies.
Masked IP address of a visitor.
Date and time when the user clicked the button.
Page where consent was given.
User browser agent.
Categories that the user selected (if you allow visitors to select cookie categories).
Text of cookie consent box that user agreed/disagreed to.
None of the data in the list is private, meaning that no special consent from the user to use Cookie Script is required.
Google Consent Mode Support & Integration With Third-Party Solutions
Cookie Script supports Google Consent Mode once you’ve registered and created a cookie banner.
The platform also integrates seamlessly with popular content management systems, e-commerce solutions, and marketing tools:
Google Tag Manager
WordPress
Shopify
Squarespace
Joomla!
Magento
Drupal
PrestaShop
Shopware
Wix
Weebly
OpenCart
Other Features and Capabilities
Cookie compliance geo targeting
Full integration with the latest version of IAB TCF 2.0 for selected pricing plans.
Pricing
Cookie Script features a free plan for small websites with a simple cookie consent banner. There are also three premium plans, starting at €8 a month. They differ in the cost of a domain, number of page views, number of pages scanned per domain, and other features.
Free
Lite
Standard
Plus
€0
€8 / month
€15 / month
€19 / month
10 pages scanned per domain 20.000 monthly page views
4.00 € per domain (included) 100 pages scanned per domain Unlimited monthly page views
7.50 € per domain (included) 1000 pages scanned per domain Unlimited monthly page views
9.50 € per domain (included) 3000 pages scanned per domain Unlimited monthly pageviews
All plans include:
Cookie banner
Cookie scanner
Cookie database
Cookie blocking
Consent control
Integrations to all popular website building platforms.
Find more information on Cookie Script’s pricing here.
CookieYes (Our Choice)
CookieYes is a comprehensive platform trusted by over 1.4 million websites worldwide for managing cookie consent and ensuring compliance with various data privacy laws.
Compliance With Regulations
The platform ensures a broad coverage of privacy laws across states, countries, regions, and continents:
CCPA California
CPRA California
CDPA Virginia
CPA Colorado
CTDPA Connecticut
GDPR EU & UK
LGPD Brazil
IAB TCF v2.2
PDPA Singapore
PDPL Saudi Arabia
PIPEDA Canada
POPIA South Africa
Quebec Law 25
UCPA Utah
With such extensive compliance coverage, businesses can confidently navigate the global market without the threat of legal consequences.
Customization
CookieYes offers a fully customizable cookie banner. You can use a unique layout, design, and text. Businesses that operate around the world can display the cookie banner in any of 30+ available languages.
The banner also comes with granular control. It automatically blocks third-party cookies before user consent is given and sets cookies according to user preferences.
With that being said, the level of customization depends on the pricing plan you choose. Premium plan customers can take advantage of some exciting advanced features, such as geo-targeting the banner for specific locations, auto-translating the banner into the user’s language, scanning cookies behind login, and even replacing the CookieYes branding.
Adding the banner to your website is childsplay. All you need to do is copy and paste the banner code into the HTML of your website and the banner will instantly appear on the page.
Audit Trails
With CookieYes, automating your cookie consent management is easy and trouble-free. You can regularly scan your website for an up-to-date cookie list (the frequency varies from plan to plan), record user consent logs for proof of consent, and generate custom cookie and privacy policy.
Google Consent Mode Support & Integration With Third-Party Solutions
CookieYes is one of the best consent management platforms as far as integration with third-party tools is concerned. It works seamlessly with these CMSs and e-commerce solutions:
Squarespace
Joomla!
Kajabi
WordPress
Wix
Weebly
Shopify
Magento
Drupal
Blogger
ImpressPages
Kartra
MODX
The platform also supports Google Consent Mode and integrates with Google Tag Manager.
Allows you to monitor the consent ratio of your website easily on the visual dashboard.
You can export the consent records as a CSV whenever required and store your cookie consent log locally.
Supports the user’s Do Not Track (DNT) browser settings and blocks tracking cookies even if the user has given consent.
Pricing
CookieYes offers a free plan and three premium plans with progressively richer feature sets.
Free
Basic
Pro
Ultimate
$0 /month /domain
$10/month /domain
$20 /month /domain
$40/month /domain
100 pages per scan 25,000 page views
100 pages per scan 25,000 page views
4,000 pages per scan 300,000 page views
8,000 pages per scan Unlimited page views
Why We Chose CookieYes
After careful consideration and testing of various consent management platforms, we decided to implement CookieYes as our preferred solution.
Our decision was influenced by several factors:
CookieYes’s broad regulatory coverage ensures our compliance with multiple international data privacy laws as we operate globally.
CookieYes comes equipped with an advanced website scanning feature, which identifies all cookies used on our website. This functionality helps us maintain transparency with our users and meet the necessary disclosure requirements.
The platform provides detailed consent logs, an essential feature for demonstrating compliance in case of audits or data subject access requests.
Excellent customer support. We can always count on issues being resolved quickly and efficiently. The average response time is around two working hours or less. With some other services, you have to wait for an entire business day for your questions to be answered.
Seamless integration with Google Tag Manager. Using GTM, we can easily create various custom event triggers.
Based on our positive experience with CookieYes, we highly recommend it to other businesses seeking an efficient and reliable consent management platform. Its robust features, ease of use, and comprehensive coverage of data privacy regulations make it a valuable tool for any company looking to streamline their digital consent management processes.
Comparison of the CMPs We Have Reviewed Based on Some Key Criteria
When choosing a CMP, the first thing you should consider is your specific business needs and requirements. The majority of the platforms, including those we have reviewed in this post, offer basic customization options and the consent log functionality.
That’s why the table below only contains several criteria that we find crucial. Hopefully, that will facilitate your search for the perfect consent management platform.
Need help with implementing your cookie consent solution? Reach out to us. We always stand ready to assist you with this vital task, whether that involves working with your preferred platform or creating a custom solution from scratch.
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