With privacy regulations like GDPR and CCPA becoming more strict and users getting more conscious about how their data is handled, it is now a must to employ a consent management solution for all websites. But compliance doesn’t just end with cookie consent. Cookie categorisation, control, script management, privacy policy, there’s a lot to work that goes into making a website compliant. And with these ever-changing regulatory laws, this process needs constant monitoring. This is where CookieScript comes in. An open-source tool promises to simplify compliance while offering customisation and automation features tailored to businesses of all sizes.
But does CookieScript deliver on its promise? In this review, we’ll break down what CookieScript offers and help you decide if it fits your website’s compliance and consent management.
Pros and Cons of CookieScript
Before we get more into the features and pricing, this pros and cons list should sum up what we’re about to discuss.
Pros
- Highly customisable cookie banners with geo-targeting
- Supports up to 34 languages
- Comprehensive privacy policy generator
- Affordable premium plans
- Advanced cookie control and script manager
Cons
- Free plan is too limited
- No short-term subscription options
- No single-domain option
Features That Make CookieScript Stand Out
Responsive and Customisable Cookie Banners
The cookie banner is often the first line of interaction between a website and its visitors. CookieScript ensures compliance with privacy laws and delivers a polished, user-centric experience.
Usage and Control
The banner serves a dual purpose. It notifies users about cookie usage and gives them control over their data. Visitors can opt in or out of specific cookie categories, which aligns with global privacy regulations. The banner displays links to cookie policies. The banner offers the user comprehensive details about the website’s data collection practices.
Customisation Features
Customisation is a key strength of CookieScript’s banners. You can modify colours, fonts, and layouts to reflect your website’s branding. The banner follows a responsive design that ensures it looks great on desktops, tablets, and smartphones.
Geo-Targeting and Multilingual Support
For websites with international audiences, CookieScript offers banners with multilingual support. It detects a user’s browser language and translates the banner into over 40 languages. Advanced features such as geo-targeting enable you to tailor banners to specific regions, ensuring compliance with localised laws.
Behavioural Settings
The banner allows users to block non-essential cookies with flexible behavioural settings until explicit consent is given. This can help your website build trust with the user while staying compliant.
Automatically Detect, Categorise, and Describe Cookies with Cookie Scanner
CookieScript’s Cookie Scanner is a powerful tool that does much more than just basic cookie detection. It offers thorough analysis and categorisation. CookieScript ensures compliance by giving website owners a clear picture of their cookie usage and helps maintain user transparency.
Comprehensive Detection
The scanner executes JS scripts and simulates website browsing to detect cookies comprehensively, even on complex sites with advanced tracking mechanisms. After the scanning is complete, it generates a detailed cookie declaration report, listing each cookie’s purpose, duration, and origin.
Automatic Categorisation
Cookies are automatically grouped into necessary, analytics, advertising, and functional categories. This categorisation makes it easier for users to understand what they are consenting to while simplifying compliance for website owners and developers.
Easy Scheduling
The scanner is straightforward to use, allowing website owners to perform initial compliance checks and schedule regular updates. By doing so, CookieScript ensures that your site remains up-to-date with evolving privacy regulations.
Generate Unique and Professional Privacy Policies
Crafting a compliant and professional privacy policy can be a lot of work, but CookieScript simplifies this process with its Privacy Policy Generator. It tailors policies to meet the requirements of major global privacy laws like GDPR, CCPA, LGPD, and CNIL.
Detailed Cookie Declaration
The generator integrates seamlessly with your cookie compliance efforts, incorporating a unique Cookie Declaration that details active cookies on your website. It specifies their purposes and how they handle user data. Website owners can also include information about third-party services, ensuring full transparency about data-sharing practices.
User-Friendly and Customisable
The customisation options are impressive. Every aspect of the policy can be adjusted to reflect your data collection, storage, and processing practices. The process is user-friendly: enter your website and business details, specify your data usage, and instantly download a ready-to-use privacy policy.
Multilingual
The Privacy Policy Generator caters to global audiences, with professionally translated policies available in nine languages. It is a critical tool for businesses with diverse user bases.
Customisable Blocking of First and Third-Party Cookies with Cookie Control
CookieScript’s Cookie Control feature ensures compliance by allowing website owners to block cookies dynamically based on user preferences. Both first-party cookies originating from the website and third-party cookies from external services like advertisers are managed with precision.
Granular Control and Custom Script Blocking
Granular control allows cookies to be blocked until users provide explicit consent. Cookies are grouped into categories: necessary, analytics, advertising, and functional. So users can opt in or out of specific types. CookieScript supports custom script blocking, enabling administrators to block cookies from specific scripts manually.
Seamless Integration
The integration with tools like Google Tag Manager ensures smooth compatibility and avoids redundant scanning. This feature balances compliance and user trust, ensuring that no cookies are deployed without user consent.
Comprehensive Recording and Management of User Consents with Consent Manager
Compliance doesn’t end with cookie blocking; proper consent management is a bit more critical. CookieScript’s Consent Manager provides a robust framework for securely recording, storing, and managing user consent.
Automatic Documentation and Secure Storage
Each instance of user consent is automatically documented, including timestamps, cookie categories, and selected preferences. These records are securely stored and easily accessible for audits or regulatory requirements. Administrators can download logs in formats like CSV and filter them by date ranges, making reporting straightforward.
Revisit Consent
The Consent Manager also allows users to revisit and modify their cookie preferences anytime through a revisit consent button or dedicated link. This non-intrusive approach ensures that declining cookies do not hinder access to website services, ensuring easy compliance maintenance after regulatory changes.
Complete Control Over Third-Party Scripts with Script Manager
Managing third-party scripts can be a compliance headache, but CookieScript’s Script Manager simplifies this process by providing complete control directly from its dashboard. The Script Manager also works hand-in-hand with the cookie banner, informing users about scripts operating on the site. This enhances transparency and reduces the risk of non-compliance.
Non-Essential Script Blocking
Third-party scripts, such as Google Ads or Facebook Pixel, are automatically blocked until users consent to their corresponding cookie categories. Administrators can assign scripts to specific categories and configure them to remain inactive until explicit consent is granted.
Automatic Script Management
Unlike traditional methods requiring manual code edits, CookieScript automates script management without altering the original third-party code. This makes it a hassle-free option for website owners who lack technical expertise. Compatibility with Google Tag Manager further ensures seamless integration without duplication or interference.
Is CookieScript Worth It? – Pricing & Plans
CookieScript’s pricing structure caters primarily to businesses managing multiple websites, starting with at least two domains for every plan. And it’s not flexible regarding scalability. This approach is ideal for larger organisations but less accommodating for small businesses, individual website owners, or startups, who may find the lack of a single-domain option both costly and unnecessary. Despite this limitation, CookieScript offers a range of plans to meet varying needs and website sizes. Let’s look at the available options and assess their value.
Free Plan
CookieScript’s Free Plan is an entry-level option that provides basic tools for websites needing minimal compliance functionality. It includes essential features like Google Consent Mode, multilingual support for 42 languages, and compatibility with tracking regulations. However, its capabilities are limited as it offers only ten scanned pages per domain and a maximum of 10,000 monthly pageviews. Advanced features like Privacy Policy generation and automatic scanning are absent, making this plan best suited for low-traffic websites with static content.
While the Free Plan is a great starting point for testing CookieScript’s capabilities, its limited functionality might compel even modestly growing websites to upgrade sooner rather than later.
Premium Plans
Lite (€8/month)
The Lite Plan builds on the Free Plan by introducing features that enhance branding flexibility and audience targeting. At €4 per domain, this plan is designed for medium-sized websites looking to customise their cookie banners while maintaining basic compliance.
With the Lite Plan, you can access features like a Privacy Policy Generator, geo-targeting for tailoring banners to specific audiences, customisable banner colours, and the ability to self-host JavaScript code. Additionally, it removes CookieScript branding from banners, giving your site a more professional appearance. The plan supports up to 100 scanned pages per domain. It allows for unlimited monthly pageviews, making it suitable for slightly larger websites that require more branding options and broader audience reach.
Standard (€15/month)
The Standard Plan is a step up for websites seeking semi-automated compliance solutions, offering features designed to reduce manual intervention. Priced at €7.50 per domain, it includes all the features of the Lite Plan and introduces automatic monthly scans to detect new cookies and automated script blocking for third-party cookies.
With support for up to 1,000 pages scanned per domain and unlimited pageviews, this plan is ideal for businesses that update their websites frequently or handle dynamic content. The automation features significantly ease the burden of maintaining compliance, making it an excellent choice for organisations that need efficiency without sacrificing transparency or user control.
Plus (€19/month)
The Plus Plan is the top pricing structure. It is designed for high-traffic websites that prioritise comprehensive compliance and detailed analytics. At €9.50 per domain, this plan is tailored for enterprises that demand robust tools to manage data privacy effectively.
The Plus Plan includes all features of the Standard Plan while adding cookie banner analytics to track user interactions, consent recording and management for audit purposes, and cross-domain consent capabilities for a seamless user experience across multiple websites. Integration with the IAB TCF 2.2 framework further enhances compliance for businesses operating in regulated industries like digital advertising.
With a page scan limit of 3,000 pages per domain and unlimited monthly pageviews, this plan is well-suited for enterprises managing large websites or multiple interconnected platforms.
Is CookieScript Good Value For Money?
CookieScript offers a comprehensive range of features across its pricing plans, making it a strong contender in the cookie compliance space. The Free Plan provides a low-risk way for smaller websites to get started. But the free version is extreamly limited as it cannot scan more than 10 pages per site. Given that there are free plans for other consent management tools that can do up to 100 pages on the free tier, for long term use, this free version is not really good enough.
The premium plans lack scalability and include a minimum of 2 domains. However, compared to other services, their pricing is very low. They also offer many features, customisation, and automation capabilities at lower price tiers. The lite plan is too basic and includes features that are available for free in many other similar services. However, it also allows users to remove CookieScript branding, which is often reserved for the highest pricing tier.
Meanwhile, the Standard Plans introduce significant customisation and automation capabilities. The Plus Plan is ideal for high-traffic enterprises requiring detailed compliance and user transparency. It comes with all the benefits of the lower tiers and advanced analytics and consent management features.
In conclusion, CookieScript is worth considering for multi-domain websites and organisations that prioritise automation and advanced compliance tools. Its higher tier plans offer significantly better value compared to the free and lite plans. And if you have a change of mind after purchasing, you can ask for a refund within the first 7 days.
Should You Try CookieScript?
CookieScript offers an attractive solution for businesses that manage multiple domains and value customisation. It provides great automation and customisation features. Its multilingual support and geo-targeting, along with compliance with a wide range of regulatory laws, make it a great option for websites targeted towards a global audience. It can also generate privacy policies and translate them into nine languages. For those exploring top-tier consent management platforms, CookieScript offers notable features tailored for multi-domain use cases.
CookieScript’s free and lower-tier plans are really limiting. There is no single-domain option, and many of the features of the lite tier are available in other services for free. Where CookieScript truly shines is in its affordability at higher tiers. The Plus Plan, for instance, packs advanced features like cross-domain consent and analytics, making it an excellent choice for enterprises.
However, CookieScript is less accommodating for smaller websites. The absence of a single-domain option and the limitations of the Free and Lite plans might deter startups and individual site owners who need more flexibility. Additionally, while the plans are affordable for multi-domain users, the annual subscription model might not appeal to those seeking short-term solutions.
To sum it all up, CookieScript is a strong contender for businesses managing multiple sites, especially those prioritising regional compliance and automation. If your needs align with its multi-domain structure, CookieScript offers excellent value for its price.
Comparing CookieScript to Competitors
CookieScript vs CookieYes
CookieScript and CookieYes serve different audiences. CookieScript has more advanced features, like customisable blocking for first and third-party cookies, geo-targeting, and multilingual support in 34 languages. This makes it perfect for larger businesses managing multiple domains and an international audience.
CookieYes shines with its simplicity and automation, one-click scanning, and policy generation, perfect for beginners and smaller businesses. Its free plan is more flexible than CookieScript’s, with 100 scanned pages vs 10. However, CookieYes lacks customisation compared to CookieScript’s dynamic cookie blocking and granular user control. For businesses that need simple compliance tools, CookieYes is a good choice, but for those that need deeper customisation, CookieScript is the winner.
CookieScript vs Cookiebot
CookieScript and Cookiebot both have compliance solutions, but Cookiebot has a slight edge for larger and more complex websites. Cookiebot has daily scans, so compliance updates are immediate, while CookieScript offers monthly automatic scans. Cookiebot also provides detailed compliance reporting, which is perfect for enterprises navigating complex advertising regulations.
CookieScript excels in its dashboard and has advanced cookie control features like dynamic blocking of first- and third-party cookies. It also integrates with Google Tag Manager, just like Cookiebot. Regarding pricing, CookieScript has plans for multi-domain setup but lacks flexibility for single-domain users. Cookiebot, on the other hand, offers a 14-day trial period, which is missing on CookieScript’s end. Cookiebot’s pricing is more scalable but becomes expensive for websites with many subpages. Both are for businesses with complex compliance needs, but Cookiebot’s enterprise features make it more robust for larger-scale websites.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is CookieScript Legit?
Yes, CookieScript is a real and trusted cookie compliance solution. It’s a Google CMP partner and has gone through IAB Europe’s CMP Compliance Programme checks. These certifications mean CookieScript meets high standards for privacy and consent management. Plus it has great ratings on Trustpilot, G2 and Google, so you can trust and rely on it.
Does CookieScript Store User Data?
CookieScript doesn’t store user data itself. It ensures that the website you’re visiting collects and processes data in accordance with privacy regulations like GDPR and CCPA. CookieScript is a facilitator, ensuring that the website’s data collection practices using its tools comply with the law. This way, users can trust you, and you can stay compliant.
Is CookieScript Free?
Yes, CookieScript has a free plan, but it’s very limited. The free tier supports up to 2 domains, scans 10 pages per domain, and has 10,000 monthly pageviews. It has basic compliance tools like multilingual support and Google Consent Mode but no advanced features like Privacy Policy generation, automatic scanning, and consent management. It’s suitable for very small, low-traffic websites or to test the platform.