Regulatory laws like GDPR and CCPA are shaping the internet as we know it. And it’s for the best, as these laws are created to protect user rights and their data. In this landscape, managing cookie compliance has never been more important.
Cookiebot by Usercentrics is a powerful tool that simplifies this process. With automated cookie scanning, detailed compliance reporting and customisable consent banners, Cookiebot makes regulatory compliance easy for any website. Plus it integrates seamlessly with major platforms like WordPress, Shopify and Squarespace. But is it right for you? This review breaks down the features, pricing, and usability to help you decide if Cookiebot should be on your plugins list.
Pros and Cons of Cookiebot
Before we dive deep into the features of Cookiebot, let’s get the pros and cons out of the way. This section should serve as a summary for the whole article.
Pros
- User-friendly interface
- Comprehensive cookie compliance with major laws
- Highly customisable consent banners
- Easy integration with popular CMS platforms
- Secure consent storage with strong encryption
Cons
- Limited features in the free plan
- Requires Manual Implementation for Some Platforms
Features That Make Cookiebot Stand Out
Cookiebot’s extensive suite of privacy and consent management tools revolve around compliance, customisation, and automation. It is an excellent choice for website owners and developers who must deal with complex privacy regulations. Here’s a closer look at the standout features.
Easy Consent Banner Customisation
Cookiebot’s consent banners serve more than just compliance. They are customisable components that can seamlessly integrate into your website’s design. The platform ensures that banners meet regulatory requirements while also allowing businesses to tweak them to their liking.
Predefined Legislation Presets
Cookiebot offers predefined presets tailored to major privacy laws, including GDPR, CCPA, LGPD, and more. These presets are there to make sure that your consent banner meets specific regional requirements, saving you the hassle of deciphering complex regulations. For example, you can select a preset for GDPR compliance in Europe or CCPA compliance for California users, and Cookiebot will configure the banner accordingly.
Customisable Themes, Colors, and Layouts
The consent banners are fully customisable to match your website’s aesthetics. You can choose between layouts like bars or popups and adjust themes to fit either a light or dark mode. Colours, fonts, and styles can also be tailored to reflect your branding. Cookiebot even allows businesses to upload logos for a more professional and cohesive look, ensuring that the banner blends in with your website and does not look out of place.
Multi-Language Support with 47 Languages
Cookiebot’s multilingual capabilities make it a global compliance solution. The platform supports auto-detection of a user’s browser language and displays the consent banner in one of 47 supported languages. This feature ensures that your banner is accessible and compliant for audiences from many different regions.
Flexible Consent Modes
Cookiebot offers great flexibility when gathering consent. It caters to both explicit and implicit consent models. You can configure the banner to allow users to accept all cookies, reject all, or customise their preferences. Moreover, it includes options like “Do Not Sell or Share” that align with CCPA requirements.
Automated Cookie Scanning
Cookiebot’s automated scanning capabilities take the burden of manual cookie management off your shoulders. Its advanced tools identify cookies and classify and describe them, making compliance straightforward.
Comprehensive Scans for All Cookies and Trackers
Cookiebot scans your website to detect all cookies and trackers, even those embedded deep within scripts or third-party integrations. It simulates real browsing sessions to identify cookies that other tools might overlook. This ensures a thorough understanding of what data your website is collecting and allows you to remain compliant with privacy laws.
Detailed Reports for Compliance
The platform generates detailed cookie declaration reports, which include details about each cookie, such as its purpose, duration, and origin. These reports are essential for transparency and can be shared with users through your privacy policy. They also serve as valuable documentation for audits and regulatory checks.
Daily or Monthly Scanning Options
With Cookiebot, you can choose between daily or monthly scanning schedules based on your needs. Daily scans are ideal for websites that frequently update or add new plugins, while monthly scans work well for more static sites. This flexibility ensures that your compliance efforts remain up to date without unnecessary resource use.
Privacy Trigger and Cookie Declaration
Cookiebot’s tools for user consent don’t stop at banners. Its privacy trigger and automated cookie declarations help with transparency and allow users to manage their data preferences.
Easy Access for Users to Update Consent Preferences
The privacy trigger is a small icon displayed on your website. It allows users to revisit and modify their consent preferences at any time. This feature aligns with privacy laws that require easy access to consent management. The trigger can be customised in terms of colour, position, and theme to match your website’s design.
Automated Cookie Declarations with Detailed Descriptions
Cookiebot automatically generates cookie declarations, providing users with detailed information about every cookie and tracker on your site. These declarations include descriptions of what each cookie does, its duration, and whether it’s necessary, functional, or non-essential and only used for advertising.
Integration and Compatibility
Cookiebot works well with various platforms and tools, making it versatile and easy to implement. Whether you’re using a CMS, e-commerce platform, or advanced analytics tools, Cookiebot should easily integrate with all of them.
Google Consent Mode and IAB TCF v2.2 Compliance
Cookiebot supports Google Consent Mode, which helps websites maintain ad performance and accurate analytics even when users opt out of certain cookies. It also complies with the IAB TCF v2.2 framework, which ensures that your consent management practices are aligned with digital advertising and privacy industry standards.
Plugins for WordPress, Drupal, Joomla
Cookiebot offers plugins for popular CMS platforms like WordPress, Drupal, and Joomla. The plugins allow you to manage compliance directly from your CMS dashboard, reducing the need for any manual coding or extensive configuration.
Integration Guides for Shopify and Squarespace
Cookiebot provides detailed integration guides for e-commerce and website-building platforms like Shopify and Squarespace. These resources ensure that businesses of all types can implement cookie compliance tools without technical hurdles.
Consent Record Storage and Security
Cookiebot’s services don’t end at collecting consent. It can also securely manage and store those records. Cookiebot excels in this area with its robust consent record storage features.
SSL-Secured Storage with Encryption
Cookiebot stores all consent records securely, using SSL connections and strong encryption. This ensures that the data is protected from unauthorised access and meets the stringent security requirements of privacy laws.
Exportable Consent Logs for Audits
Consent logs can be easily exported in CSV, making them accessible for audits or regulatory reviews. This feature simplifies compliance and provides peace of mind by ensuring you have the documentation needed to demonstrate adherence to privacy regulations.
Is Cookiebot Worth It? – Pricing & Plans
Cookiebot offers a tiered pricing structure designed to accommodate websites of various sizes and compliance needs. Here’s a closer look at the pricing options and what each plan offers.
Free Plan
Cookiebot’s Free Plan is a great entry point for small sites with basic compliance needs. It supports one domain and can scan up to 50 pages, making it perfect for low-traffic sites or those just starting out.
The Free Plan has basic compliance features like a consent banner and cookie declaration but lacks advanced features like detailed cookie reports, multi-language support, or daily scans. It’s a free way to try out Cookiebot, but it’s not scalable for sites with dynamic content or a global audience. You’ll need to upgrade to a paid plan pretty quickly.
Premium Plans
Lite Plan
The Premium Lite Plan is €6 per month per domain for smaller sites that need more functionality. It has all the features of the Free Plan but can scan 50 pages, has multi-language support, and has automated cookie scanning.
This plan has banner customisation options so you can match your design and branding. However, higher plans might be more suitable for sites with more than 50 pages or complex compliance needs.
Small Plan
€14 per month per domain. Supports up to 500 pages. Ideal for medium-sized sites, it has all the features of the Lite Plan plus advanced cookie blocking, detailed compliance reports and integration with tools like Google Consent Mode.
The bigger subpage limit and automation tools make it an excellent choice for sites that update frequently or rely heavily on third-party integrations. The ability to provide detailed cookie descriptions also increases transparency, which is critical to building trust with users.
Medium Plan
The Premium Medium Plan is €30 per month per domain and supports up to 5,000 pages. It is for larger businesses with a big web presence. It has all the features of the lower plans plus daily scanning, so compliance stays up-to-date as your site evolves.
With multi-domain management and IAB TCF v2.2 compliance, this plan is perfect for businesses in the digital advertising space or across multiple regions. The higher page limit and automation tools make it a cost-effective solution for enterprises that prioritise compliance.
Large Plan
The Premium Large Plan is €90 per month per domain and supports up to 50,000 pages. It is for enterprises with complex sites or multiple domains. It has all the features of the Medium Plan but scales to much larger operations.
It is perfect for corporations with lots of content or who need detailed analytics on user consent. Premium features like advanced reporting and deeper customisation options will ensure that you meet the most complex compliance requirements.
Is Cookiebot Good Value for Money?
Cookiebot’s pricing structure provides value for small and large businesses, offering flexibility to scale features as your website grows. The Free Plan is a solid starting point, but its limited subpage allowance and lack of advanced features make it suitable only for the smallest websites.
The Premium Lite Plan is affordable for those needing basic customisation and compliance tools. However, for businesses with more extensive content or traffic, the Small and Medium Plans offer a better balance of features and scalability. The Large Plan, while expensive, is well-suited for corporations needing robust compliance solutions across multiple subdomains.
In conclusion, Cookiebot’s pricing caters to a wide range of users, from individual website owners to enterprises. While the costs can add up for multi-domain setups, the features provided, such as automation, integration capabilities, and advanced compliance tools, make it a worthwhile investment for businesses that prioritise privacy and transparency.
Comparing CookieScript to Competitors
Cookiebot vs. CookieScript
Cookiebot and CookieScript both target mid-to-large-sized businesses, but they approach things very differently. Cookiebot excels at automation and scalability, with features like daily cookie scanning and IAB TCF v2.2 compliance, making it the go-to for big cookie volume businesses. It integrates with platforms like WordPress and Shopify and has 47 language support, so it’s perfect for global audiences.
CookieScript is equally capable but focuses on advanced cookie control and granular customisation. It allows dynamic blocking for first-party and third-party cookies and geo-targeting to tailor banners by region. It has 42 language supports, slightly less than Cookiebot, but the dashboard is intuitive, and the consent management tools are robust. CookieScript is more affordable for multi-domain users, while Cookiebot’s subpage tiers make it better for bigger operations. Ultimately, Cookiebot’s automation is better, but CookieScript’s customisation is more appealing to businesses that want customisation.
Cookiebot vs CookieYes
Cookiebot and CookieYes offer consent management solutions but target different market parts. Cookiebot stands out with its advanced scanning capabilities, which use daily scans to detect and block cookies proactively. It also has IAB TCF v2.2 compliance features like detailed reporting and multi-domain consent management for complex compliance needs.
CookieYes, on the other hand, focuses on simplicity and affordability. Its automated cookie scanner and GDPR-compliant policy generator are easy to use for small to medium-sized businesses. CookieYes integrates well with platforms like WordPress and Shopify but lacks the advanced features of Cookiebot, such as detailed tracking reports and cross-domain consent handling. Cookiebot’s toolset is more expensive, while CookieYes is budget-friendly, so it’s more appealing to businesses with simple compliance requirements. For big compliance needs, Cookiebot is the better option, but for simplicity and cost-effectiveness, CookieYes is the way to go.
Should You Try Cookiebot by Usercentrics?
Cookiebot by Usercentrics is a solid solution for websites that need to comply with global privacy laws and be transparent and trusted by their users to protect their data. Cookiebot’s automated cookie scanning and reporting take the manual compliance burden away, and multilingual and multi-platform support means it’s for businesses that serve diverse audiences. The Free Plan is a good starting point for small websites. Still, the premium plans have cross-domain consent management, detailed compliance reports, and daily scanning, so they are better suited for bigger operations.
For those exploring great consent management platforms, Cookiebot’s pricing may be too much for smaller sites, but the toolset and dashboard deliver big value for businesses that need complex compliance. Whether you have a small blog or a high-traffic corporate site, Cookiebot is a solid player in the consent management space. If privacy compliance, user trust, and global adaptability are important for your website, then try Cookiebot.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Cookiebot used for?
Cookiebot is a consent management platform designed to help websites comply with global privacy laws such as GDPR, CCPA, and LGPD. It automates cookie scanning, provides customisable consent banners, and generates compliance reports to ensure transparency in data collection. Cookiebot simplifies managing user consent and blocking non-essential cookies until permission is granted.
What is the difference between Cookiebot and Usercentrics?
Cookiebot and Usercentrics serve different but complementary purposes. Cookiebot, now part of Usercentrics, specialises in cookie compliance by scanning websites for trackers and managing cookie consent. Usercentrics, on the other hand, offers broader data privacy solutions, including consent management for other types of personal data. While Cookiebot focuses on cookies, Usercentrics caters to a wider range of privacy and data processing requirements.
Can cookies track your search history?
Yes, cookies can track your search history and online behaviour, especially third-party cookies used by advertisers. These cookies collect data to show personalised ads or recommend content based on your browsing habits. However, many websites now provide consent banners allowing users to accept or reject tracking cookies to maintain privacy compliance.
Related Guides:
Cookie Consent Requirements