iubenda vs Osano: how each handles Tag Manager, consent mode and legal documents
One sells a cookie banner with the legal documents around it. The other sells consent management as part of a privacy program platform. Here's how each connects to Google Tag Manager and consent mode, and which teams each fits.
The short answer
Both can pass all four consent mode signals to Google's tags. iubenda bundles its banner with privacy and cookie policies and terms. Osano pairs consent management with tools for privacy requests, data mapping and vendor reviews. The two connect to Tag Manager in very different ways, so test the connection after setup.
On this page
What you're buying
iubenda sells a set of compliance tools. Its banner and consent product, Privacy Controls and Cookie Solution, sits alongside generators for privacy and cookie policies and terms and conditions.
Osano's platform covers consent, data subject requests, data mapping, vendor risk and assessments. Data subject requests are the requests people send to see or delete the data a company holds about them. Its cookie consent product scans your site for cookies and scripts, stores a record of each consent and translates its banner into more than 45 languages.
I've administered Osano, but I haven't set it up, so what follows about Osano comes from its documentation. For all nine platforms side by side, see the full comparison.
How each connects to Google Tag Manager
Osano
Osano recommends installing its script directly, as the first script in the page head, so it loads before Tag Manager. Installed that way, Osano holds back scripts that load from a URL until they've been approved and categorized, with no extra setup in Tag Manager.
Osano also supports loading through Tag Manager, though it recommends the direct install. If you go that way, you add the Osano Consent Manager template from the Community Template Gallery on the Consent Initialization trigger, which fires before every other trigger. Then you move every other tag onto a custom event trigger for Osano's load event, osano__cm--load-success, so nothing fires before Osano is ready. Osano warns that anything loaded outside Tag Manager can run before Osano can stop it.
Consent defaults depend on the install. For the direct install, Osano says to add a consent default before its script, with ad_storage, analytics_storage, ad_user_data and ad_personalization denied, and to make sure the data layer loads first. The template has a regional defaults table instead, by country or state code. After a visitor chooses, Osano sends the update to consent mode.
Osano describes two setups. In the one it recommends, it blocks Google's tags until consent, which matches basic consent mode. For advanced mode, you classify Google's scripts as essential so they load and send cookieless pings before a choice.
iubenda
iubenda's template in the Community Template Gallery adds the banner, starts every consent type as denied and fires on Consent Initialization. For other tags, its emitGtmEvents option sends an iubenda_gtm_consent_event to Tag Manager when preferences change. The full setup is in iubenda vs Usercentrics.
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.
- Osano maps Marketing to ad_storage, ad_user_data and ad_personalization, Analytics to analytics_storage, Personalization to personalization_storage, and Essential to functionality_storage and security_storage. Consent mode is on by default for configurations created after March 2024.
- iubenda supports the two newer signals, ad_user_data and ad_personalization, and its template sets a default for each consent type.
| Platform | On Google's certified CMP list (TCF) | Consent Mode partner tier |
|---|---|---|
| iubenda | Yes, as "Iubenda CMP" | Gold |
| Osano | Yes, as "Osano CMP" | Silver |
Copied from the table of Google's lists, which says when each list was checked.
Configuration and day to day
iubenda is configurable, but less so than Usercentrics in my setups, and I found its interface more dated. I haven't set up Osano, so I don't have a setup comparison to give you.
Where each fits
BuiltWith counted iubenda on about 82,000 US websites and on 597 of the top 100,000 sites. I haven't given a count for Osano, because BuiltWith's Osano entry can't separate the Osano platform from Osano's free, open-source banner code, as How BuiltWith counts explains.
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.
iubenda fits a small business, or an agency's client, that wants the banner and its legal documents from one vendor. Osano fits a company with privacy or legal staff that wants consent and other privacy work, such as data subject requests and vendor reviews, in one system.
See the iubenda pricing page and the Osano plans 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 on either platform, and I can set up or fix iubenda.
Questions about iubenda and Osano
Does Osano work with Google Tag Manager?
Yes. Osano recommends installing its script directly in the page head, before Tag Manager, and it also publishes a Tag Manager template. If you load it through Tag Manager, every other tag has to wait for Osano's load event, and anything outside Tag Manager can load before Osano can block it.
Which one comes with legal documents?
iubenda sells privacy policy, cookie policy and terms generators alongside its banner. Osano's platform covers privacy program work such as data subject requests, data mapping and vendor risk. Whether either covers what the law requires of your site is a question for your counsel.
