Axeptio or Cookiebot: Which cookie banner should you use on your website?
The cookie banner is far from being a mere formality: since the GDPR and the tightening of recommendations from…
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One might think that the GDPR, which took effect in May 2018, has now been fully embraced by businesses. The reality is more nuanced. According to the CNIL, a significant portion of the complaints received each year involve organizations with fewer than 50 employees—organizations that are often not acting maliciously, but are simply overwhelmed.
The reason is simple: when you launch a startup, you focus on the product, growth, and customer acquisition. Regulatory compliance tends to fall to the bottom of the list. Plus, GDPR is a lengthy and technical process, and the resources required to address it are costly.
Except that the risk is very real. An administrative fine can reach up to 20 million euros or 4% of global annual revenue, whichever is higher. For a startup, even a symbolic penalty can have disastrous effects on its reputation and investor confidence.
This article won’t overwhelm you with legal jargon. The goal is to clarify exactly what you need to do, depending on where your business stands, and to provide you with practical tools that will help you get compliant without spending weeks on it.
Before discussing tools, we need to establish the framework. The GDPR is based on a few fundamental requirements that every company processing personal data must comply with, even if it has only two employees.
Every instance of data collection must have a legal basis. The six bases recognized by the regulation are: consent, performance of a contract, legal obligation, protection of vital interests, public interest mission, and legitimate interest. For the vast majority of startups that collect email addresses, engage in remarketing, or track user behavior, consent is the applicable basis. And consent must be freely given, informed, specific, and not pre-checked.
Your privacy policy must be in place, easily accessible, and contain specific information: who processes the data, why, for how long, and what rights data subjects have (access, correction, erasure, portability, objection).
This is one of the most visible yet most poorly implemented requirements. Since the CNIL’s 2020 guidelines, the use of non-essential cookies requires prior consent. A banner stating “by continuing to browse, you accept cookies” is no longer valid. Opting out must be just as easy as opting in.
Any organization that processes personal data must maintain a record documenting its processing activities. This is often the requirement most overlooked by small organizations, even though it is explicitly provided for in Article 30 of the Regulation.
Appropriate technical and organizational measures must be in place. These include encryption, restricted access, security updates, and the ability to notify the CNIL within 72 hours in the event of a breach.
Every SaaS tool you use that processes your users' data is a data processor. You must ensure that it is compliant and sign a data processing agreement (DPA) with it.
There are now solutions designed specifically to help teams without in-house legal counsel manage their compliance in a structured way. Here are four available on Freelance Stack, tailored to different needs.
Founded in 2018, it has established itself as a leading player in the French-speaking market, largely thanks to its editorial approach: making consent less anxiety-inducing and more transparent for users.
Axeptio’s approach is deliberately different from traditional banners. Rather than a gray block of legal jargon, the solution offers conversational and visually appealing interfaces, with clear explanations of each cookie and its purpose. The idea is that consent obtained through education is legally more robust and better received by the user.
The platform covers the basics of cookie compliance: creating and customizing consent banners, managing granular preferences by cookie category (analytics, marketing, functional), storing proof of consent, generating privacy policies, and integrating with major CMS platforms and tag managers (WordPress, Shopify, GTM, etc.).
Axeptio also offers a cookie scanner that automatically detects trackers on your website and makes it easy to categorize them. The solution complies with the requirements of the CNIL and TCF 2.0 (IAB Europe’s Transparency and Consent Framework).
You've just launched your website and don't have a legal advisor yet. Axeptio is probably the most accessible option for quickly ensuring compliance, without any complex setup.
You use Meta pixels, Google Analytics, and retargeting tools. Granular management of cookies by category and proof of consent are essential for your legal peace of mind.
The French interface, compliance with CNIL guidelines, and local support are tangible advantages.
It is one of the most established solutions in the European consent management market, with a presence in over 150 countries and millions of client websites.
While Axeptio focuses on user experience and design, Cookiebot places greater emphasis on technical robustness and multi-jurisdictional regulatory compliance. The solution is designed for companies that need to manage compliance across multiple countries with different regulations (GDPR, California’s CCPA, Brazil’s LGPD, etc.).
The core feature of the product is its automatic cookie scanner: it crawls your site regularly (at the frequency you choose) and detects all trackers placed on it, even those introduced by your subcontractors or third-party scripts. This is a significant advantage, as cookies can appear on your site without you even realizing it.
The platform then generates a customizable consent banner, a detailed preferences widget, and a cookie statement that can be incorporated into your privacy policy. It stores consent records with a timestamp and the user’s ID, which serves as legally admissible evidence in the event of an audit.
Cookiebot integrates with WordPress (via a dedicated plugin), Squarespace, Wix, and via JavaScript snippets for custom websites.
If you operate in Europe as well as in the United States or Latin America, Cookiebot’s multi-region management is a real advantage. You don’t have to manage multiple tools depending on the region.
The automatic scanner and consent documentation are particularly useful for teams that don’t have time to manually review their cookies.
The API and advanced integrations enable fine-grained customization, which appeals to technical teams.
CookieChimp is a newer solution that targets a specific market segment: simple, fast, and affordable consent management, primarily for small businesses and entrepreneurs.
The tool stands out for how easy it is to set up. In just a few minutes, you can have a compliant consent banner up and running on your site, with no complex configuration required. That’s the solution’s main selling point: quick implementation and virtually no learning curve.
CookieChimp covers all the essentials: customizable banner creation, cookie categorization, user preference management, and consent storage. The solution also includes a privacy policy generator and a cookie notice. The admin interface is intentionally streamlined.
You don't need an enterprise solution. You want to be compliant without spending three hours on it. CookieChimp is the perfect solution for you.
Affordable multi-domain management makes it a viable option for web agencies looking for a standardized solution for their clients.
CookieHub is an Icelandic solution that has established a strong foothold in the European cookie compliance market. It strikes a balance between the simplicity of CookieChimp and the technical robustness of Cookiebot.
CookieHub emphasizes the ease with which the consent banner can be customized, without compromising regulatory compliance. The solution is valued for its visual editor, which allows users to adapt the consent interface to the website’s visual style without touching the code.
Key features include: a comprehensive visual banner editor, consent management by category, automatic cookie scanning, storage of consent records, and an analytics dashboard tracking acceptance and rejection rates. This last feature is particularly useful for optimizing the wording of your consent messages.
CookieHub integrates via a universal JavaScript snippet, a WordPress plugin, and an API for developers.
If your design is important to you and you don't want a generic banner that stands out on your site, CookieHub's visual editor is a real asset.
The consent analytics dashboard allows you to test different wording and measure its impact.
GDPR compliance is well documented, and the solution addresses the specific requirements of several European countries.
Termly is a U.S.-based solution that takes a different approach from the previous four. Rather than focusing solely on cookies, Termly offers a broader legal compliance platform, with the generation of legal documents as a central component.
The core concept behind Termly is to enable any startup to generate legally compliant documents (privacy policy, terms of service, cookie policy, refund policy) without needing to hire a lawyer for standard cases. Cookie management is an additional feature, designed as part of an integrated compliance platform.
The document generator is the solution’s standout feature. By answering a guided questionnaire about your business, your data processing practices, and your audience, Termly generates customized legal documents that are kept up to date in line with regulatory changes. This saves startups a considerable amount of time, especially those that cannot afford to hire an in-house lawyer.
When it comes to consent, Termly offers a customizable cookie banner, an automatic scanner, consent storage, and easy integration via a script or a WordPress plugin.
The platform covers the GDPR as well as the CCPA, COPPA, and other international regulations.
If you don't yet have a privacy policy, terms of service, or cookie policy, Termly lets you generate all of them in a single session, ensuring they're consistent and kept up to date.
Managing both the GDPR and the CCPA at the same time is a clear advantage for organizations that serve both markets.
Termly's guided questionnaire encourages users to reflect on their data collection practices, which is educational in itself.
Each tool covered here addresses the basics of cookie compliance, but the differences lie in the details. Here is a brief overview to help you choose the right one for your situation.
| Criterion | Axeptio | Cookiebot | CookieChimp | CookieHub | Termly |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Origin | 🇫🇷 France | 🇩🇰 Denmark | 🇬🇧 United Kingdom | 🇮🇸 Iceland | 🇺🇸 United States |
| Cookie banner | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Auto-detect cookies | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Generation of legal documents | Midterm | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ✅ |
| Analytics Consent | Midterm | ✅ | ❌ | ✅ | ❌ |
| Multiple regulations (CCPA, etc.) | Midterm | ✅ | ❌ | ✅ | ✅ |
| CNIL Compliance | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | Midterm |
| Free, usable map | ✅ | Limited | ✅ | ✅ | Limited |
| Easy to set up | ⭐⭐⭐⭐ | ⭐⭐⭐ | ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ | ⭐⭐⭐⭐ | ⭐⭐⭐⭐ |
| Ideal for | French Audience, UX | International, technical | Small businesses | Design + Analytics | Legal Documentation |
Prices and features are subject to change. Please visit the official websites for the latest information.
We need to be honest about the limitations of these solutions. While they cover a wide range of areas, GDPR compliance is not limited to a cookie banner and an automatically generated privacy policy.
This must be kept up to date manually or using a dedicated tool. None of the five tools presented here can replace this. Solutions such as Witik, Captain DPO, or specialized consultants can assist you with this aspect.
You need to sign agreements with your service providers (Stripe, HubSpot, Intercom, AWS, etc.). Many of these providers offer standard data processing agreements (DPAs) that can be signed online, but you’ll need to identify them and handle the process. In this regard, PandaDoc or DocuSign can help streamline the signing and archiving of these documents.
This involves technical measures (encryption, access management, strong authentication) that do not depend on a compliance tool but rather on your infrastructure choices and DevOps practices.
Must be operational. You must be able to respond to a request within the legal timeframe (generally one month), which requires that you have mapped out where your data is stored.
For fundamental legal matters (articles of incorporation, customized privacy policies, complex data processing agreements), platforms like Legalstart or LegalPlace can connect you with specialized legal professionals at affordable rates.
GDPR compliance isn't a black-and-white issue. Priorities vary depending on where you are in the process.
Start by setting up a consent management solution (Axeptio or CookieChimp, depending on your budget and audience), and create a privacy policy using Termly or through a lawyer. This is the minimum requirement and the area most likely to be scrutinized during an audit.
The rules have changed significantly since the CNIL’s 2020 guidelines. An “informational” banner without an explicit opt-in or opt-out option is no longer compliant. Check with Cookiebot or CookieHub to ensure you have an up-to-date solution.
Compliance is becoming a serious issue. You need to go beyond cookies: a record of processing activities, data processing agreements with all your processors, an internal data management policy, and the appointment of a data protection officer. At this stage, it is advisable to consult with an external DPO or a specialized firm.
GDPR compliance will be systematically assessed as part of the due diligence process. Having comprehensive documentation and tools in place reassures investors and speeds up the process.
The GDPR raises many questions, often the same ones across different organizations. Here are the answers to the questions most frequently asked by founders and managers of small teams.
Yes. An email address is personal data as defined by the regulation. You must have a legal basis for collecting it (generally, explicit consent), inform individuals about how their data will be used, and allow them to easily unsubscribe.
This is a complex issue. Google Analytics Universal was deemed non-compliant by several European authorities, including the CNIL in 2022, due to data transfers to the United States. Google Analytics 4, when properly configured (IP anonymization, disabling certain features, consent mode), is more acceptable, but the issue remains sensitive. European alternatives such as Matomo are available for organizations that wish to avoid any ambiguity.
Appointing a DPO is mandatory in three cases: if you are a public body, if your main activity involves the regular and systematic monitoring of individuals on a large scale, or if you process so-called "sensitive" data on a large scale. For most startups, this is not a legal requirement, but it is considered best practice once the company reaches a certain size.
Yes. Tracking pixels set cookies and transmit data to third parties. They require prior consent. Your consent management solution must be able to block these scripts until the user has given their consent.
Penalties can take several forms: a formal notice (granting a deadline to comply), an administrative fine (which can reach €20 million or 4% of global revenue), an order to cease processing, and publication of the decision. For startups, the most immediate risk is often the loss of trust among users or partners, even before any formal penalties are imposed.
No. Hosting data in Europe is a positive step, particularly to avoid transfers to third countries, but it does not guarantee compliance with the GDPR. The requirements regarding the lawfulness of processing, information, security, and the management of rights apply regardless of where the data is located.
For a standard website with a few analytics and marketing tools, one to two weeks of focused work is enough to cover the essentials: a compliant cookie banner, an up-to-date privacy policy, a basic data processing register, and data processing agreements with key processors. Compliance is then an ongoing process, not a one-time project.
