Cookie banner setup compared: steps and configuration for seven tools

Going live with a cookie banner takes between four and nine documented steps with the common tools, but the steps differ in waiting time and manual configuration more than in number. Cookiequiet's How it works page lists six steps and about five minutes from sign-up to a live banner: add the website, review the cookie table the scan fills, design the banner, paste one tag before your other scripts, publish the prefilled policies, keep the consent log. Cookiebot's documentation says the first scan finishes "within 24 hours", OneTrust's that a scan "typically" takes 6 to 24 hours and production changes may take up to 24 hours to cache, and Cookiebot, OneTrust and Complianz describe Google Consent Mode v2 as a setting you configure.

How do the setups compare?

From each vendor's own setup documentation, read on 21 October 2026. Where a document did not say, the cell says so.

What does each setup ask of you?

Cookiequiet

The six steps on the How it works page: create an account and add the website, after which the first scan starts at once; review the cookie table, which the scan fills with provider, category and purpose; design the banner; paste one tag in the head of every page before your other scripts; check the prefilled policy questionnaire and publish; then keep the proof in the consent log. No plugin or tag-manager configuration is needed. Reject all sits next to Accept all and cannot be removed in the configuration, and Consent Mode v2 is switched on in the snippet the dashboard gives you.

CookieYes

The setup guide's order: choose layout, language and theme (or skip with defaults), optionally customise the consent template, geo-targeting and expiry, choose manual installation or Tag Manager, then copy the code "between the head tags" before other scripts. Scanning is a separate Cookie Manager action. Scripts it does not recognise need a data-cookieyes attribute or a URL pattern.

Cookiebot

Add the domain and choose the legislations, wait for the scan, configure the banner, install through the plugin, Tag Manager or embed code as the first script on the page, then classify unclassified cookies from the monthly reports. Its install-time article says installation "usually only takes a few minutes", but the inventory depends on the first scan. New banners default to "Reject all / Selection / Allow all" in the Swift configuration article.

Termly

Run a scan and classify cookies, customise the banner, paste the snippet in the head, verify, and choose one of three blocking methods. Termly warns that skipping blocking "could mean you are not in compliance".

iubenda

The most guided: enter the URL, language and site category, run the scan, review its report, follow the assisted configuration for laws, consent and policies, choose a plan, generate the banner and paste it first in the head. One setting to check: its advanced configuration guide documents the Reject button as hidden by default, while noting that the configurator's output may differ. See the Reject all guide.

Complianz

Install and activate the plugin after your other plugins, run the wizard when the site is ready, clear cookies and disable ad blockers before its scan, customise the banner, empty the cache. On WordPress there is no script to paste, which is a real advantage for WordPress-only sites; see the WordPress guide for both approaches.

OneTrust

Scan the site, categorise cookies, create banner and preference-centre templates, create a geolocation rules group, publish a test script, then a production script, and republish after every change. Consent Mode v2 is enabled per geolocation rule, with defaults set through a Tag Manager template or hand-written gtag code placed before Google's tags.

Do fewer steps mean a better setup?

Not by themselves. Cookiebot's and OneTrust's waits come from crawling every URL, which finds more on large sites with varied third parties; Cookiequiet's Free scan reads 10 pages, Starter and Pro 50, and names cookies from a database of about 80 providers. Cookiequiet also has an honest limit: a tracker hard-coded in the HTML before its script, without marking, runs before it can stop it, so the install guides say to load the tag first and to mark or move such tags (see blocking scripts until consent).

What matters after setup is the same everywhere: nothing non-essential before the click, Reject all on the first screen, and Consent Mode v2 defaults set to denied before Google's tags run. The free cookie scanner checks the first of these on up to five pages, whichever tool you install.