Best Consent Management Platforms

Choosing the right Consent Management Platform (CMP) will ensure you stay compliant with privacy laws while offering an excellent user experience. This article will take a look at some of the best consent management platforms offered today, with information about pricing, pros and cons of each platform.

What is a Consent Management Platform and How Does One Work?

A consent management platform is a piece of software installed on a website that informs visitors of which cookies are tracking them and requests consent from the user to use these cookies.

A CMP works by giving notice to users about cookies, and requesting and allowing visitors to accept or reject cookies. This helps website owners stay compliant with consent laws around the world.

Here's an example of how a CMP notice banner can look:

Note how users are informed about the use of cookies and are given multiple options and methods to give full consent, partial consent or deny consent at all. You can see how an interface like this helps both you and your users manage consent.

Why Do You Need a Consent Management Platform?

Different regions have different privacy laws, such as the GDPR in the European Union and the CCPA/CPRA in California. Complying with every law can be difficult, which is where a CMP comes in to help you obtain consent in a compliant way.

A CMP will help you comply with consent requirements that some laws may have. It will also help your users feel assured that you take their privacy and user rights seriously.

What are the Best Consent Management Platforms Available?

When looking for a CMP, look for ease of use, affordability, and compatibility with major privacy laws.

Here are the best consent management platforms available today.

TermsFeed

TermsFeed is an all-in-one solution that helps businesses follow privacy laws around the world, including the GDPR (EU), CCPA (California), PIPEDA (Canada), and others.

Depending on the visitor's location, TermsFeed's Privacy Consent solution will block third-party scripts until consent has been given or, if configured, it can block third-party scripts only where opt-out is required by default (i.e. EU) while third-party scripts can load for the other countries where opt-in is not required.

TermsFeed translates the consent notice banner to the visitor's language automatically and maintains cookie consent logs, which you can download as CSV files. These logs prove you obtained consent before tracking your users or handling their data. They are important in the case of a regulatory audit.

The design of the cookie consent banner is fully customizable through CSS. You can embed it on your site by copying and pasting a single line of code.

TermsFeed's Privacy Consent also supports consent for embeds such as YouTube, Google Maps, Vimeo player and others. You can integrate Privacy Consent solution from TermsFeed to gather consent before loading third-party media content like iframes, video players, maps and other resources.

In addition, TermsFeed offers tools that allow you to quickly generate important legal agreements such as a Privacy Policy, Terms and Conditions, Return and Refund Policy and others. Each policy will be customized for your business and can be edited at a later date. You can use these generators for free to generate customized policies within minutes.

Pricing

TermsFeed's platform is affordable at just $10/month. Annual subscribers get two months free (the annual cost is $100/year).

The pricing scheme is the simplest and most streamlined of all CMPs in this list. One subscription fee includes unlimited subdomains or pages and unlimited monthly visits, so you will not have to pay more when your business grows.

Pros

• Pricing is affordable
• TermsFeed is very user-friendly
• It doesn't require any coding knowledge
• There is a 7-day money-back guarantee
• You can add unlimited subdomains at no additional cost
• Unlimited website visits and page sessions (up to 1 million plugin loads / month)
• All features (geolocation, consent logs, embeds etc.) are included in the same pricing plan

Cons

• No free trial is available
• PayPal is not supported as a payment method for recurring subscriptions

Enzuzo

Enzuzo allows you to display geo-specific consent banners based on each visitor's IP address. You can test consent banners on demo sites before publishing them live.

Visitors can customize their consent, accepting cookies based on categories such as "Strictly Necessary" or "Marketing."

Enzuzo also collects audit logs, complete with each visitor's IP address and acceptance status of your cookies. That way, you can show auditors that you have maintained compliance.

Pricing

Enzuzo offers a limited free plan, which includes a cookie banner (with Enzuzo branding) and standard legal policies.

The Starter plan is just $9/month for one domain, but it doesn't include geo-specific targeting. Therefore, to remain within full compliance, you'll need at least the Growth plan. It costs $29/month and can be used on up to four domains.

Pricier plans include additional domains and advanced features.

Pros

• A simple cookie consent banner is available for free
• A 20% discount is available to annual subscribers
• It supports over 24 languages

Cons

• Geo-specific targeting is not available with the paid Starter plan
• Neither a Shipping Policy nor a Return Policy nor an EULA are available with the free plan
• Additional domains cost more

Osano

Osano is a simple-to-use CMP. Insert a single code of JavaScript into your website's header, and it will start scanning for cookies and trackers. Then, it will automatically display cookie consent banners based on the laws in the visitor's country.

Over 50 countries and 42 languages are supported out of the box, with no additional configuration needed.

If a user opts out or rejects cookies, the cookie will be blocked automatically. Visitors can also opt out at a later date after previously giving consent. All user decisions are stored in a log on a blockchain for auditing.

Osano also offers vendor risk management analysis. Vendor risk management allows you to stay informed of the potential risks involved when using third-party vendors, suppliers, and business partners. Osano offers alerts regarding lawsuits involving vendors you work with.

Pricing

Osano offers a free plan that supports one domain and up to 5,000 monthly visitors. This plan is ideal for small business owners and bloggers.

Larger businesses will need Osano Plus, which costs $239.99/month ($199.99/month when billed annually). It supports up to three domains and 30,000 monthly visitors and includes privacy and legal templates.

For unlimited domains or more than 30,000 website visitors, you'll need the custom Premier plan.

Pros

• A free plan is available
• There is a small learning curve
• It's great for agencies and large businesses

Cons

• The free plan is limited, and the paid option is very expensive when compared to alternatives like TermsFeed
• Even with the paid plan, only three domains are supported. You'll need the custom Premier plan for more domains.
• Most of its best features are hidden behind the Premier plan

CookieBot

CookieBot supports over 47 languages and multiple privacy laws.

It can scan your website for cookies. Its notice banner uses simple language so all website visitors can easily understand them.

All consent logs are kept for 12 months, keeping you prepared for a regulatory audit at all times.

While CookieBot supports multiple platforms, WordPress users will benefit from its WordPress plugin. The plugin allows you to easily manage consent on your WordPress site.

Pricing

CookieBot's free plan allows you to use it on up to 50 pages on one website domain.

However, the free plan only includes limited features. For example, it doesn't allow you to customize the cookie consent banners, although you can choose from several templates. Most importantly, geo-targeting is not available.

Therefore, to achieve full compliance, you'll need to upgrade to the premium plan. It costs €12/month, per domain, for 500 pages.

If your website has more pages, you'll pay more: €28 for up to 5,000 pages and €49 for 5,000+ pages.

CookieBot scans your website for the number of pages you published and automatically updates your plan.

The premium plan includes all features, such as geo-targeting, auto-translation, automatic daily/monthly scans, and implicit consent.

Implicit consent is a feature that automatically removes the consent banner when a user has taken no action after a while. That implies they understand they are being tracked and are okay with it.

Pros

• Small businesses will find it cost-effective
• A free trial is available on paid plans
• It's simple to use. There are no confusing features small businesses won't need.

Cons

• It is mostly focused on EU audiences and only covers a few regions outside the EU
• The cost can be expensive when compared to more affordable alternatives like TermsFeed
• Support can sometimes be unresponsive
• The backend interface can be a bit clunky
• Businesses with more complex needs may find CookieBot limiting in functionality

CookieHub

CookieHub is a streamlined consent management platform. It offers a WordPress plugin and integration with other website building software, such as Shopify and Wix.

The CMP software scans your website for cookies. It ensures visitors are informed of their presence and can accept or reject them.

When enabled, it will also keep a consent log detailing each user's anonymized IP address, URL, date, time, and more. IP addresses are kept anonymous by hiding the last part of the address, replacing it with a 0.

CookieHub CMP supports multiple privacy regulations.

Pricing

CookieHub offers a free plan aimed at websites in development and small business owners. It includes 50 pages and 5,000 monthly sessions. It doesn't include premium features like consent logs.

Pricing starts at €8/month, but that only includes 100 pages and 25,000 monthly sessions.

Most mid-sized business owners will need the Business plan: €25/month for 1,000 pages and 100,000 monthly sessions.

There is also the Enterprise plan, which costs €100/month for 10,000 pages and 1 million monthly sessions. If you need more pages or sessions than that, you can request a custom quote.

If a user visits your website multiple times a day, it is usually counted as a single session.

Pros

• Registered nonprofits get a 50% lifetime discount on all plans
• It is extremely easy to set up
• CookieHub runs smoothly with minimal bugs and lags
• You can scan your website for cookies for free

Cons

• There are limited features beyond cookie consent management
• Ecommerce site owners with many product pages and blog posts may find it expensive
• It can be hard to calculate in advance which plan you'll need, as CookieHub may calculate sessions differently from Google Analytics

Summary

A consent management platform is critical to your business, regardless of which industry it operates in. It is a small price to pay to avoid legal complications. Fortunately, there are many CMPs with affordable plans for small businesses, such as TermsFeed.

Make sure to compare key aspects of a CMP to make sure you choose the best one for your business needs. Things to consider include pricing, scalability, features and functionality, and compliance.