Since 25th of May, due to GDPR, advertisers and publishers need to have consent tools informing about the cookie usage and asking consent for the data. This applies to all traffic coming from EEA (European Economic Area) that includes Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Cyprus, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, and United Kingdom.

Google created a page to help publishers and advertisers with consent, where at this date, is recommending 5 consent tools. Google’s own consent tool remains in beta.

The 5 CMPs recommended by Google

1 – OneTrust

• Cost: Free (with upgrade options)
• Paid version starting price: €30 / Month
• Cookie Scan: Free
• Number of subpages on the scan: Unlimited
• Multiple languages: English for free (35+ languages paid version)
• Cookie Banner & Policy: Yes
• Reporting & Dashboards: Yes
• Show only to users in EU: Yes (Available in the free version)
• Custom Branding: Yes (Available on the free version)
• Registered as CMP in IAB: Yes, registered as a consent vendor in IAB
• Data hosted: Europe – Company headquartered in the US but with offices in Europe

2 – Cookie Control (by CIVIC)

• Cost: Free (with upgrade options)
• Paid version starting price: £39 + VAT / Year
• Cookie Scan: Not available but planned
• Number of subpages on the scan: Not available but planned
• Multiple languages: Available in the paid version
• Cookie Banner & Policy: Yes
• Reporting & Dashboards: NA
• Show only to users in EU: Yes (Available in the paid version)
• Custom Branding: Yes (Available in the paid version)
• Registered as CMP in IAB: No, but CIVIC says it is planning on adding IAB support
• Data hosted: Europe, in the UK

3 – Cookie Consent (by Silktide)

• Cost: Free and Open Source
• Cookie Scan: NA
• Number of subpages on the scan: NA
• Multiple languages: Available as is customisable
• Cookie Banner & Policy: Only Cookie Banner
• Reporting & Dashboards: NA
• Show only to users in EU: Users need to select country
• Custom Branding: Yes, as is customisable
• Registered as CMP in IAB: No
• Data hosted: Hosted on each website

4 – Cookiebot (by Cybot)

• Cost: Free (with upgrade options)
• Paid version starting price: €9 / Month
• Cookie Scan: Free
• Number of subpages on the scan: Limited to 100 subpages on the free version
• Multiple languages: Supported only in the paid version
• Cookie Banner & Policy: Yes
• Reporting & Dashboards: Yes
• Show only to users in EU: Yes, but only available on the paid version
• Custom Branding: Yes, but only available on the paid version
• Registered as CMP in IAB: No
• Data hosted: NA – Company headquartered in Europe

5 – Cookie Consent Kit (by European Commission)

• Cost: Free
• Paid version starting price: NA
• Cookie Scan: NA
• Number of subpages on the scan: NA
• Multiple languages: Yes, as it is customisable
• Cookie Banner & Policy: No
• Reporting & Dashboards: NA
• Show only to users in EU: NA
• Custom Branding: Yes, as it is customisable
• Registered as CMP in IAB: No
• Data hosted: Hosted in the websites

What is the best Consent Management Platform (CMP)?

Now, OneTrust is beating the competition in terms of advantages, specially the free version. From all the 5 CMPs suggested by Google, OneTrust is the only one integrated on IAB. We contacted CIVIC, and Cookie Control  plans to have cookie scan and IAB integration. If that happens, Cookie Control can be better than OneTrust, as the price is lower. Cookiebot seems to be a suitable option, if your website has less than 100 pages.