Consent management platforms (CMPs) make it easier for businesses to comply with data privacy regulations. However, not all CMPs are created equal.
Some platforms enable you to comply with most major consent laws, such as the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), and the Digital Markets Act (DMA). Others might enable only limited privacy compliance.
It’s crucial that you have a robust CMP to collect, process, and securely store data to enable privacy compliance, avoid penalties, and a loss of customer trust. That’s why we’re looking at the CMPs that will help you manage customer choices about their data for their benefit and yours.
8 consent management platforms to consider this year
| Software | Key feature | Recommended for | Price* |
| Usercentrics | Extensive database of legal templates: Over 2,200 templates for data processing services to save time and resources | Global enterprises | From USD 60/month |
| CookieYes | Cookie Scanner: Scan and categorize cookies automatically | Small businesses | Free version available Subscriptions from USD 10/month |
| consentmanager | Acceptance and bounce rate reports: Understand your website interactions and how people engage with the consent layer | Ecommerce companies in the EU | Free version available Paid tiers from USD 21/month |
| OneTrust | Unified trust center: Enable stakeholders to take control of their data | Large corporations | Pricing on request |
| Ketch | Custom layout and styling: Build trust by allowing your brand identity to shine | U.S.-focused businesses | Free version available Subscriptions from USD 350/month |
| Didomi | Multiple languages: Serve customers with privacy notices in 50+ languages | Multinational companies | Pricing on request |
| Osano | “No Fines, No Penalties” Pledge: Receive compensation of up to USD 200,000 if you receive a data privacy-related fine or penalty while using their product | Mid-sized businesses | Pricing on request |
| Cookie Information | Data discovery: Find and flag personal data that doesn’t comply with your policies | EU-focused businesses | From EUR 15/month |
*pricing as of June 2024
Core consent management processes
Every CMP offers various features and benefits, making it potentially challenging to understand which one will work best for your business. For example, some are better suited to simplifying compliance for an ecommerce shop, while others are optimized for healthcare data collection.
Whatever your needs, the platform you choose must at the very least enable you to create consent banners with multiple options. This is so that users can have granular control over their data. Besides facilitating the collection of this information, the ideal CMP enables you to securely store and signal this data to third-party services.
8 of the best consent management platforms
You may be wondering how to choose a CMP that suits your needs. Our guide covers eight strong product picks for 2024, focusing on each one’s features, pricing, and pros and cons to make your choice a little easier.
1. Usercentrics
Usercentrics is an all-in-one consent management platform that helps businesses protect user privacy online. It enables compliance with major data privacy regulations, including the GDPR, DMA, CCPA/CPRA, VCDPA, LGPD, and POPIA.
The platform is also a verified Google CMP partner and easily integrates with Google Tag Manager and Google Analytics. This helps simplify adherence to Google’s European user consent policy as it comes integrated with Google Consent Mode v2 and the TCF 2.2.
Usercentrics provides high quality templates and can enable privacy compliance right out of the box. Additionally, there are also advanced options for customization to enable granular control over user experience and branding.
Notable features
- Seamless integrations: Integrate consent management throughout your tech stack, with seamless third party integrations, such as the latest version of Google Consent Mode
- Geolocation: Display consent banners with relevant information and consent options based on users’ location
- EU servers: Store and process consent records in European data centers
- DPS database: Over 2,200 legal templates at your fingertips to categorize and provide information about the data processing services you’re using
- In-depth analytics: Interaction and Granular Analytics to quickly gain key insights to optimize your consent banners and user experience
Pricing
Usercentrics offers a 30-day free trial, which includes one configuration on one domain with up to 50,000 sessions. You can choose from three plans:
- Starter: USD 60/month (one configuration, one domain, 50,000 sessions)
- Advanced: USD 175–1,150/month (unlimited configurations and domains, 50,000+ sessions)
- Premium: Custom pricing
| ✅ Pros | ❌ Cons |
| One interface to configure web and app consent management | Onboarding guidance from Customer Success Manager only available in Premium Package |
| 2,200+ legal templates | |
| Extensive analytics dashboard with A/B testing 60 languages supported |
2. CookieYes
Available for all major content management systems, with a web application, WordPress plugin, and Shopify app, CookieYes provides fully customizable consent banners. Although the free tier of this CMP may be sufficient for some consent management projects, keep in mind that the cookie and policy wording is only available in English unless you pay for the platform.
Notable features
- Cookie Scanner: Scan and categorize cookies automatically
- Cookie Policy Generator: Create a custom cookie policy and link to it from your cookie banner
- Consent log: Keep a record of consent for compliance while monitoring your website’s consent ratio
- Detailed guides: Get step by step instructions for setting up your policies and banners
- CSS customization: Tailor every aspect of your cookie banner using CSS coding
Pricing
CookieYes offers month-to-month and annual subscriptions. A monthly subscription gives you more flexibility, but a yearly contract is cheaper.
- Free: USD 0/month (one domain, 25,000 page views)
- Basic: USD 10/month or USD 100/year (one domain, 100,000 page views)
- Pro: USD 20/month or USD 200/year (one domain, 300,000 page views)
- Ultimate: USD 40/month or USD 400/year (one domain, unlimited page views)
| ✅ Pros | ❌ Cons |
| Google Certified CMP Partner | Limited customization features on free plan |
| Easy to use, and intuitive dashboard | |
| Multilingual support |
3. consentmanager
consentmanager stores all the data you collect on European soil to make it easier to be GDPR-compliant. This is great for businesses whose customers are mainly in the EU.
Notable features
- Acceptance and bounce rate reports: Measure these rates to understand your website interactions and how people engage with the consent layer
- Cookie checker: Analyze your cookies to help with compliance with the GDPR and other regulations
- Regular crawls: Scan your website, classifying cookies and vendors on a weekly, daily or instant basis, depending on your plan
- Free package: Implement consentmanager at no cost on websites that receive fewer than 5,000 page views per month
- Customer support: Depending on your plan, get help via documentation, live online training, tickets (for all plans), email (from the Defualt plan up), phonecalls (from the Agency plan up) and support from a dedicated account manager (for the Enterprise plan only)
Pricing
consentmanager offers four pricing tiers, suitable for everyone from freelancers to large enterprises.
- Basic: Free (5,000 page views/month on one website or app)
- Beginner: USD 21/month (100,000 page views/month on one website or app)
- Default: USD 55/month (one million page views/month on three websites or apps)
- Agency: USD 220/month (ten million visits/month across 20 websites or apps)
- Enterprise: Pricing available on request
| ✅ Pros | ❌ Cons |
| Google Certified CMP Partner | Primary focus is GDPR compliance |
| Responsive design | |
| GDPR-compliant servers |
4. OneTrust
OneTrust advertises helping businesses build trust with their customers by simplifying privacy and data discovery; ethics, environmental and social governance (ESG); as well as governance, risk and compliance (GRC). This comprehensive offering is undoubtedly attractive, though some users report a steep learning curve and complex implementation process.
Notable features
- Responsible data collection: Centralize and organize all necessary data
- Insights and benchmarking: Discover trends and gaps in data
- Regulatory intelligence: Access analysis from 40+ in-house researchers and a network of lawyers across 300 jurisdictions
- Workflow automation: Empower teams to reduce manual tasks and save time
- Unified trust center: Enable stakeholders to take control of their data
Pricing
OneTrust claims to offer flexible plans that meet the requirements of organizations of every size. However, its website does not provide information about any plans and does not list pricing.
| ✅ Pros | ❌ Cons |
| GRC management for multiple privacy laws | Implementation process is lengthy and often difficult |
| Extensive feature set | |
| Automated compliance assessments |
5. Ketch
Organizations with strict brand requirements and limited technical resources may find Ketch useful. This design-forward CMP enables you to customize your consent banner layout and styling. Plus the tool targets nontechnical teams, aiming to make it easy to get your consent management up and running, even if you don’t have an in-house tech team.
Notable features
- Responsive compliance notices: Deliver experiences that align with the data privacy laws applicable in your customers’ locations
- Custom layout and styling: Build trust by enabling your brand identity to shine
- Smart Tag: Improve page load times while still meeting consent requirements
- Application Marketplace: Set up integrations without any coding
- AI limiter: Control what AI models can access on your website
Pricing
Ketch offers three plans:
- Free: USD 0/month
- Essentials: USD 350/month
- Pro: Pricing available on request
| ✅ Pros | ❌ Cons |
| No code solution | Depending on business needs, integrations can be complex |
| Identifies users across devices and channels | |
| Highly customizable |
6. Didomi
Didomi claims that it is designed to help you build compliant, user-friendly consent experiences across jurisdictions and online environments. It offers customer support via live chat and email, in addition to their dedicated support and tech teams, to help you make the most of the platform. Additionally, Didomi is a Google Certified CMP partner.
Notable features
- Cross-platform compatibility: Manage consent agreements across websites, mobile apps, connected TVs and game consoles
- Preference manager: Go beyond consent management and give your website visitors granular control over their cookie preferences
- Multiple languages: Serve customers with privacy notices in 50+ languages
- Versatile configuration: Create privacy notices and policies that fulfill your branding requirements
- Extensive integrations: Use Didomi with WordPress, Shopify, and other popular CMS solutions
Pricing
Didomi offers three plans. You’ll need to contact their sales team for pricing:
- Didomi’s Consent Essentials
- Core Privacy UX
- Privacy UX Plus
| ✅ Pros | ❌ Cons |
| Granular consent controls | Opaque pricing and no free trial |
| Clear, comprehensive documentation | |
| Robust integration framework |
7. Osano
Osano serves up more than a billion consent notices every month, helping more than 40,000 businesses across 11,000+ websites adhere to data privacy laws. Although the platform helps you ensure compliance with major data privacy regulations, you’ll be limited to predesigned consent management templates that you can’t fully customize.
Notable features
- “No Fines, No Penalties” Pledge: Receive compensation of up to USD 200,000 if you receive data privacy-related fines and penalties while using their product
- Data mapping: Use visualizations to identify potential risks and opportunities
- Vendor lawsuit alerts: Be notified when a new lawsuit is filed or when an existing one has significant changes
- GDPR representative: Use Osano as your GDPR representative so you maintain a physical presence in the EU
- Automated DSAR workflows: Resolve customer data subject access requests quickly with automated workflows
Pricing
Osano offers three plans, but pricing is not available online:
- Privacy & Trust Assurance
- Privacy Essentials
- Privacy Operations & Governance
You can also choose from two self-service cookie consent tiers:
- Free: One user, one domain, up to 5,000 visitors
- Plus: Two users, three domains, up to 30,000 visitors
| ✅ Pros | ❌ Cons |
| Free tier | Limited customization of templates |
| Data stored on a blockchain | |
| Excellent onboarding |
8. Cookie Information
Cookie Information advertises that it makes it easy to collect user information in line with major data privacy regulation requirements, via cookie banners and always up to date cookie policies for your website. Plus, Cookie Information provides a range of associated compliance products — such as Data Discovery and Data Subject Requests — enabling end-to-end consent management. However, it does not include a free plan or A/B testing.
Notable features
- Website and app cookie banners: Collect user consent across environments
- Data discovery: Find and flag personal data that doesn’t comply with your policies
- Whistleblowing: Set up a reporting channel where employees, partners, and clients can anonymously report incidents
- Data Subject Requests: Collate access and erasure to enable faster resolution
Pricing
Cookie Information’s plans are designed to work on a single domain. While there’s a starting price, your final monthly cost will depend on the number of subpages and monthly consents you collect.
- Essential: From EUR 15/month
- Professional: From EUR 34/month
| ✅ Pros | ❌ Cons |
| User consents stored on EU servers | No A/B testing |
| Detailed consent rate insights | |
| Daily and weekly scans |
Usercentrics: A consent management platform (CMP) you can trust
Usercentrics provides a market-leading CMP with geotargeting functionality that automatically adapts data privacy regulatory information and consent options based on your customers’ locations.
Its deep scanning technology detects all of the cookies and trackers in use on your site, enabling automated categorization and use of the information in your consent banner and cookie notice. It integrates seamlessly with popular platforms and comes with key tools like Google Consent Mode ready to go.
What’s more, Usercentrics helps you to effectively manage and analyze data from consent actions once you’ve collected it. In-depth analytics and reporting enable you to optimize your consent banners to improve performance while ensuring data is collected and handled in a way that builds trust with your customers and fulfills legal requirements.