CookieYes vs Termly: which fits a small team, and how each connects to Tag Manager and consent mode
Both are common on small business sites, and both sell more than a cookie banner. Here's how each connects to Google Tag Manager and consent mode, what each lets you change, and how to tell which one your team needs.
The short answer
CookieYes and Termly both give a small team a cookie banner that connects to Tag Manager and Google's consent mode. I used to recommend Termly, and I now recommend CookieYes to many clients, because its features are packaged in a way that fits them better. In my setups CookieYes also gave me more to configure. Whichever you choose, test the Tag Manager connection after setup.
On this page
What you're buying
Termly sells a consent management platform that combines a cookie banner, visitor preferences, regional controls and consent logs. It sits alongside generators for a privacy policy, terms and conditions and a cookie policy, which is why many small businesses meet Termly through its legal documents.
CookieYes is a consent platform first. Its plans also list a privacy policy generator and a cookie policy generator.
For all nine platforms side by side, see the full comparison. How Termly compares with iubenda, the other platform built around legal documents, is in Termly's row.
How each connects to Google Tag Manager
Termly
Termly recommends installing its script directly on the page, before the Tag Manager snippet. Its template can also add the script for you if Tag Manager is the only way you put code on the site.
The template, Termly Consent Management Platform in the Community Template Gallery, fires on two triggers. One is Consent Initialization, which fires before every other trigger, so the defaults are in place before any tag runs. The other is a custom event trigger on userPrefUpdate, which Termly sends each time a visitor's preferences change. In the template's Consent Defaults table you add one row per region, listing which consent types start granted and which start denied. Termly can also turn consent mode on region by region from its dashboard, and if you use both, it says to set the same defaults in each.
Termly maps its categories to Google's consent types. Advertising sets ad_storage, analytics sets analytics_storage, and performance sets functionality_storage and personalization_storage. In the template's code, ad_user_data and ad_personalization follow the advertising category too.
After each change, the template pushes a Termly.consentSaveDone event to the data layer. Google's tags check consent themselves. For other tags, such as the Meta pixel, Termly says to fire them on a trigger for that event and set the consent each one needs in Tag Manager's Additional Consent Checks.
Termly's Auto Blocker can also hold back scripts outside Tag Manager. Termly says to keep it on if your site platform adds its own scripts, because Tag Manager can't control those. With advanced consent mode on, Google's tags are exempt from Auto Blocker and send cookieless pings before a choice.
CookieYes
CookieYes has a CookieYes CMP template in the gallery that sets defaults by category and region and fires on Consent Initialization. For other tags, CookieYes recommends a custom event trigger on its cookie_consent_update event. The full setup is in OneTrust vs CookieYes.
Consent mode v2 signals
Consent mode v2 has four signals: ad_storage, analytics_storage, ad_user_data and ad_personalization. Both platforms can send all four.
- Termly supports basic and advanced consent mode v2, and its template sets all four, with the three advertising signals following the advertising category.
- CookieYes maps all four to its categories. A site set up with the older consent mode v1 template needs the template updated to send ad_user_data and ad_personalization.
| Platform | On Google's certified CMP list (TCF) | Consent Mode partner tier |
|---|---|---|
| CookieYes | Yes, as "CookieYes CMP" | Gold |
| Termly | Yes, as "Termly CMP" | Gold |
Copied from the table of Google's lists, which says when each list was checked.
Configuration and day to day
In my setups CookieYes gave me more to configure than Termly. I used to recommend Termly, and I now recommend CookieYes to many clients, because its features were packaged better for them and it was a better product fit. Termly can be too basic at times, and the way it packages its plans wasn't quite what my clients needed.
| Setting | CookieYes | Termly |
|---|---|---|
| Rules by region | Separate banners by region on the Pro and Ultimate plans | Regional and multilingual consent on the Pro+ and Agency plans |
| Languages | 41 languages, on paid plans | More than 10 languages |
| Cookie scanning | Scheduled scans, monthly on Pro and weekly on Ultimate | Scheduled scans on every plan |
| Blocking outside Tag Manager | Automatic blocking of many common scripts, plus scripts you add by URL | Auto Blocker, with Google's tags exempt under advanced consent mode |
| Consent records | A consent log in the dashboard | Consent records and exports on the Pro+ and Agency plans |
Where each fits
BuiltWith counted CookieYes on about 150,000 US websites and Termly on about 88,000. Among the top 100,000 sites, CookieYes had 1,233 and Termly 374. Both are mostly on smaller sites, and CookieYes is on about three times as many of the large ones.
BuiltWith counts as of November 5, 2026, from its US websites and top 100,000 sites reports. The full table is in CMP market share in the US.
CookieYes fits a small team that wants a banner, consent mode and region settings, with room to configure more as the site grows. Termly fits a small business that wants its banner and its legal documents from one vendor and doesn't need much custom setup.
Both publish their plans. See the CookieYes pricing page and the Termly pricing page.
Test it after setup
Whichever you choose, run the banner test in a browser before and after a choice, and again with Global Privacy Control on. The Measurement & Consent Audit runs that test for every key action, and I can set up or fix either platform.
Questions about CookieYes and Termly
Is CookieYes a good Termly alternative?
For many of my clients, yes. I used to recommend Termly and now recommend CookieYes to many of them, because its features fit them better. If you rely on Termly's policy and terms generators, check what you'd replace before you switch. What the law requires of your site is a question for your counsel.
Can both send consent mode v2 signals?
Yes. Both can send all four consent mode signals, and both are partners in Google's Consent Mode CMP Partner Program. Whether the signals come through correctly depends on how the platform is connected to your tags, so test it after setup.
