Cookiequiet vs Klaro: open-source config file or hosted banner
Pick Klaro's open-source version if you want to self-host a consent manager you can read and modify, and you are comfortable writing its JavaScript config and editing every third-party tag. Pick Cookiequiet if you want a hosted banner with a scanner, a consent log, geo-targeting and policies without writing a config: one site costs €0 on Free or €29 a year on Starter, against 228 € a year for the hosted Klaro Startup plan, and five sites cost €145 a year against the same 228 €.| Cookiequiet | Klaro | |
|---|---|---|
| Price for one website | Free for 1 website; Starter €3 a month or €29 a year per website; Pro €9 a month or €99 a year per website | Open source: free, self-hosted; hosted Startup 19 € a month billed yearly (228 €) or 25 € billed monthly |
| Five websites for a year | €145 a year on Starter (5 × €29), or €116 with one site on Free; Pro on all five: €190 a year on Agency (a bundle of 10 Pro websites) | 0 € self-hosted; 228 € on hosted Startup (5 privacy managers, 20,000 consent records a month) |
| Traffic limits | None on any plan | None self-hosted; hosted plans count managed consent records (20,000 a month on Startup), enforced on fair use |
| Reject all on the first screen | Yes, by default: Accept all and Reject all at the same size and weight on the first screen | A Decline button in the notice by default (the hideDeclineAll option removes it) |
| Google Consent Mode v2 | Every plan, Free included, plus Microsoft UET | Through its Google Tag Manager integration: you configure the consent signals and GTM triggers |
| Geo-targeting | Every plan, Free included: regulated countries, a custom list, or a US opt-out notice | Not documented |
| Consent log | 30 days on Free, 1 year on Starter, 5 years on Pro; CSV export on Starter and Pro | Open source: choice stored in a cookie or localStorage in the browser only; hosted plans store consent records server-side |
| Cookie scanner | 10 pages per scan on Free, 50 on Starter and Pro; monthly on Free, weekly on Starter and Pro; about 80 providers | Hosted plans only (500 URL scans a month on Startup); none in the open-source version |
| Policy generators | Privacy policy, cookie policy and terms written from the scan, in English and French, on every plan | None |
| Languages | 24, picked from the visitor's browser, every string editable | About 25 translation files in the repository; new ones added in code |
| Setup | One script tag before your other scripts, on any site; no plugin to configure; the scan fills the cookie table and prefills the policies; Reject all on by default; Consent Mode v2 switched on in the snippet the dashboard gives you; about five minutes to a live banner | Open source: write a config.js listing every service, change each third-party tag (type, data-src, data-name), load the config and klaro.js; hosted: a setup wizard |
| Google-certified CMP / IAB TCF | No: not a Google-certified CMP, no IAB TCF | No: not on Google's certified CMP list, no TCF |
| Open source | Hosted: the script is served from cookiequiet.com; not open source | Yes, BSD 3-Clause; self-host the script and the config |
Pricing
Klaro is made by KIProtect GmbH and comes in two forms. The open-source version is free forever for commercial and non-commercial use, with every client-side feature of the paid editions; its pricing page says it suits sites that need no server-side functionality and that it requires basic JavaScript knowledge to install. The hosted Klaro adds server-side features. On 2026-10-21 its pricing page listed Startup at 19 € a month billed yearly or 25 € billed monthly (5 privacy managers, 500 URL scans and 20,000 managed consent records a month), Company at 79 € or 99 € (20 privacy managers), and Group at 239 € or 299 € (100 privacy managers, white-label client login). A privacy manager can serve several domains, quotas are enforced on fair use, and there is a 7-day trial.
Cookiequiet is free for one website, then €3 per website per month or €29 a year on Starter, €9 per website per month or €99 a year on Pro, with the AI design agent, and €190 a year on Agency for a bundle of ten Pro websites and five team seats. A year costs:
| Websites | Klaro open source | Klaro hosted Startup | Cookiequiet Starter |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 0 € (self-hosted) | 228 € | €29 (or €0 on Free) |
| 5 | 0 € (self-hosted) | 228 € | €145 |
Self-hosted Klaro costs nothing in fees; the cost is your time to write and maintain the config. Compared with the hosted Klaro, Cookiequiet is 199 € a year cheaper for one site and 83 € cheaper for five, with no consent-record quota. The cost calculator covers other site counts; for another open-source script, see tarteaucitron.js.
Setup
Klaro's getting-started guide for the open-source version has three steps. First, write a JavaScript config that lists every third-party service on your site, with its name, purposes and default state; the project ships an annotated config to copy from. Second, modify each third-party script: change its type to text/plain, add a data-type with the original type, rename src to data-src for external files, and add a data-name matching the service in your config. Third, load the config and klaro.js. The guide says this usually takes less than 10 minutes, for someone who already knows which services the site loads. Klaro does not find them for you in the open-source version, and each new tag means a config change. The hosted version has a setup wizard.
Cookiequiet takes one script tag placed before your other scripts, on any platform, with no plugin settings or config file. The first scan fills the cookie table and prefills the privacy and cookie policies, Reject all is on by default, Consent Mode v2 is switched on in the snippet the dashboard gives you, and a banner is live in about five minutes. Tags that must wait are marked with type="text/plain" data-cq-category="analytics", by category rather than by service name.
Compliance features
Reject: Klaro's notice shows a Decline button by default, removable with the hideDeclineAll option. Cookiequiet shows Accept all and Reject all at the same size and weight on the first screen.
Consent Mode v2: Klaro supports it through a Google Tag Manager tutorial, where you send ad_storage, analytics_storage, ad_user_data and ad_personalization and create event triggers in GTM yourself. Cookiequiet sets the defaults to denied and updates the six signals on every choice, with a cq_consent dataLayer event; see Consent Mode v2.
Consent records: the open-source Klaro stores the choice in a cookie (or localStorage) in the visitor's browser, with nothing kept on a server. Hosted plans store managed consent records. Cookiequiet keeps records 30 days on Free, 1 year on Starter and 5 years on Pro, with CSV export on Starter and Pro.
Geo-targeting: not described in Klaro's documentation. Cookiequiet's is on every plan, with a US opt-out notice and Global Privacy Control.
Maintenance: Klaro's releases page lists 0.7.22, published on 2024-03-26, as the latest release, and its GitHub repository was last updated in March 2025. Cookiequiet is a hosted service updated on its side.
Where Klaro is better
- Open source under the BSD 3-Clause License: you can audit, fork and self-host every line, and pin a version.
- Free with no account and no third-party host when self-hosted.
- Contextual consent for embeds and per-service consent defined in code.
- One hosted Startup plan covers up to five privacy managers across domains.
Where Cookiequiet is better
- No config file or per-service tag edits: one tag, a scan, a banner.
- A scanner, a consent log, geo-targeting and generated policies on the free plan.
- Consent Mode v2 without building GTM triggers.
- Lower than the hosted Klaro for one to five sites, with no consent-record quota.
Switching
Remove klaro.js and your Klaro config, and replace Klaro's tag markup (data-name, data-src) with Cookiequiet's (type="text/plain" data-cq-category="...", and data-cq-src on iframes). Add the Cookiequiet tag before other scripts, run a scan and compare it with your Klaro service list. Visitors will be asked again, since Klaro's choice lived in a cookie on their browser.