As of 30 Oct 2026, the panel rates Borlabs Cookie 3/5 and Real Cookie Banner 3/5 in Consent Management (CMP). Weighted by what each judge cares about, 2 of the 6 judges pick Borlabs Cookie and 2 pick Real Cookie Banner, 2 call it a tie. Borlabs Cookie scores higher on 4 of 7 criteria (Scanning & cookie classification, Pricing transparency, Prior blocking & script control, plus 1 more). Real Cookie Banner scores higher on 3 of 7 criteria (Consent records & proof, Banner & choice architecture and European sovereignty). Provenance — Borlabs Cookie: EU-Made; Real Cookie Banner: EU-Made. Ratings are the AI panel’s opinion, formed from public evidence: how scores are made.
Borlabs Cookie and Real Cookie Banner split this panel rather than settle it. The weighted totals split by persona: two benches lean Real Cookie Banner (data protection officer, 6.6 vs 5.9; in-house lawyer, 6.4 vs 5.6), two lean Borlabs Cookie (publisher-marketing lead, 6.8 vs 6.1; skeptic, 6.3 vs 6.2), and two tie (agency developer, 6.3 each; WordPress webmaster, 6.2 each). Borlabs Cookie leads pricing transparency (8.0 vs 7.3; 4 leans to 1), prior blocking (7.3 vs 6.7; 4 leans, 0 against) and scanning and classification (4.8 vs 4.0; 3 leans, 3 ties). Real Cookie Banner leads consent records (6.7 vs 4.2; 6 leans to 0) — its verdict records consent records in the customer's database, and we found no public information on Borlabs Cookie's log retention or export — and banner and choice (6.7 vs 6.2; 4 leans to 1). Sovereignty splits 3 leans apiece (6.8 vs 7.0); standards and platforms is close (6.2 vs 6.0; 5 ties, 1 lean Borlabs Cookie).
Choose Borlabs Cookie if
You need scripts, styles and content blocked before consent — prior blocking leans Borlabs Cookie 4 judges to 0, with 2 ties.
You run up to 99 websites and want published pricing — pricing transparency leans Borlabs Cookie 4 to 1, with tiers from €49 to 499 € per year for 99 websites.
You rely on scanning plus an audit check for content that loads without consent — scanning and classification leans Borlabs Cookie 3 to 0, with 3 ties.
Your team is publisher-side marketing — that bench's weighted total is 6.8 for Borlabs Cookie against 6.1.
Choose Real Cookie Banner if
You must keep consent records in your own database for audit — consent records leans Real Cookie Banner 6 judges to 0, and its verdict records consent records in the customer's database.
You weight the banner and choice criterion — it leans Real Cookie Banner 4 to 1 (mean 6.7 vs 6.2).
You are a data protection officer or in-house lawyer — those benches total 6.6 vs 5.9 and 6.4 vs 5.6 for Real Cookie Banner.
Your vendor review weighs subprocessor exposure — the recorded subprocessor exposure for Real Cookie Banner is none, against US cloud act for Borlabs Cookie.
Read this comparison as one judge. Each weighs the same scores by what they care about.
The Agency Developer
Lead developer at a web agency that maintains forty client sites on WordPress, TYPO3 and Shopify. Wants one account for every client, blocking that works without rewriting each theme, content blockers for YouTube and Maps, a Tag Manager template, a scanner that flags the tracker a client added on Friday, and a JavaScript API documented well enough that forms and plugins can ask for consent.
Borlabs Cookie
Real Cookie Banner
This judge calls it a tie.
Criterion by criterion
Banner & choice architecture
Borlabs Cookie
Consent runs at group and individual service level, visitors can reopen their settings through freely positionable icons, and the banner is stated to meet WCAG 2.1 level AA with a colour assistant, more than 150 design options and eight professionally translated languages. Consent statistics per service and group exist, and EU versus non-EU visitors are treated differently. We found no public information on whether reject sits on the first layer with the same weight as accept, on A/B testing of the banner, or on rules per country or regulation beyond the EU distinction.
Real Cookie Banner
Consent is captured per service and service group rather than only per category, geolocation decides per country which visitors are asked, and the banner and content blockers are named as WCAG 2.2 Level AA, keyboard operable and screen-reader compatible, with an accessibility score in the customizer and nineteen languages across 20-plus templates and 200-plus options. The captured pages do not state whether reject sits on the first layer with the same weight as accept, and I found no public information on A/B testing of banner variants.
Prior blocking & script control
Borlabs Cookie
This is exactly what I need for client sites: content blockers for YouTube and Google Maps with customisable design, texts and behaviour, script and style blockers, more than 370 vendor-maintained packages, a Google Tag Manager template in the official gallery plus a dedicated GTM4WP package, and a documented JavaScript API with a dedicated opt-in event per service. An audit scan checks whether the site sets cookies or loads external content without consent, which is the verification step I want before handing a site over. We found no public information on server-side tagging or on consent being passed to forms and CAPTCHAs by name.
Real Cookie Banner
Scripts, cookies and embeds stay blocked until consent, 130-plus maintained content-blocker templates cover the YouTube and Maps cases without rewriting each theme, and there are dedicated pages for Google Tag Manager and Matomo Tag Manager plus a documented JavaScript and developer API for forms and custom plugins, with guidance to verify nothing loads before consent. I found no public information on server-side tagging, and the captured pages do not describe separate automatic and manual blocking modes.
Scanning & cookie classification
Borlabs Cookie
The scanner analyses the site automatically for cookies, external resources and consent-requiring functions and proposes matching packages, can be pointed at custom URLs, works behind HTTP authentication, and its scope is stated honestly: homepage, one older and one newer page per post type, plus archive, legal-notice and contact pages. Packages come from a maintained library with purposes, providers and cookie lifetimes. We found no public information on scheduled rescans, alerts when a new tracker appears on the site, or a cookie declaration generated and updated from the scan result.
Real Cookie Banner
It is a service scanner, not a cookie scanner: it crawls the sitemap, matches found services against 160-plus manually researched templates, and the vendor states plainly what it does not find, such as cookies from unknown plugins or AJAX-loaded embeds, while recommending manual checks. For my Friday-tracker problem the captured pages show no scheduled rescans and no alerts when a new tracker appears, so coverage depends on me re-running the scan myself.
Consent records & proof
Borlabs Cookie
Consents are documented including their changes over time, evaluated per service and group, re-requested when services change, expire on configurable cookie lifetimes, and are shareable across domains and multisite installations — with all data stored on the customer's own server. We found no public information on a retention period for the consent log, export of the log, a consent ID the visitor can look up, or records tied to the exact banner version shown.
Real Cookie Banner
Each consent lands in the client's own WordPress database with a pseudonymous UUID and a revision hash tying the record to the exact banner texts, colours, services and content blockers shown, re-consent is triggered automatically when that configuration changes, and the list is viewable and exportable from the backend with automatic deletion after the retention period. I found no public information on a visitor-facing consent-ID lookup or on withdrawal being recorded as its own event.
Frameworks, signals & platforms
Borlabs Cookie
Signal depth is strong: certified IAB TCF 2.4 with vendor configuration and TC-string forwarding, Google Consent Mode v2 in basic and advanced mode with all seven consent types documented, Microsoft UET consent mode included in every plan, agency tiers for 25 or 99 websites, and configuration via WP-CLI. The captured pages show WordPress only, however, and a FAQ question about Shopify and Webflow whose answer was not shown; we found no public information on TYPO3 or Shopify plugins, iOS or Android SDKs, GPP or Global Privacy Control, or a registered CMP ID number.
Real Cookie Banner
TCF 2.2 with weekly automatic Global Vendor List updates and Google Consent Mode v2, including additional consent types passed to the tag manager and per-country signals, are documented to a depth I can build against, alongside a JavaScript and REST API. But the product is documented for WordPress only, and I found no public information on TYPO3 or Shopify plugins, app SDKs, GPP or Microsoft signals; the captured pages also give different statements on Google CMP certification, the homepage naming it certified and a knowledge base page saying it is not part of the Partner Program. Services must additionally be configured separately on each website, which I would feel across forty client installs.
European sovereignty
Borlabs Cookie
The product runs as a WordPress plugin on the customer's own server, keeps all data there and, in the vendor's words, transmits no visitor information to Borlabs — with a data processing agreement available through the customer portal — which makes the consent chain about as sovereign as it gets. Borlabs GmbH is seated in Hamburg with a German VAT number, EU development is stated, and named processors (Paddle for orders, HelpSpace for support, Google Ireland for spam protection, FirstPromoter in Romania) appear in the privacy policy with a current list available on request. Ownership is unknown, no ISO 27001 or SOC 2 certification is stated, the order process runs through Paddle.com as merchant of record, and we found no public information on where the scanner and package-update infrastructure is hosted.
Real Cookie Banner
The banner is served from the client's own webspace and every consent log lives in their WordPress database, with the German GmbH, registered at Amtsgericht Deggendorf, stating it has no access to settings or documented consents except on an explicit support request — the strongest model I can offer a client short of building it myself. The remaining chain is disclosed honestly: licence activation, updates and telemetry such as monthly consent counts run through the vendor's own servers with an opt-out, and no processing agreement is offered for operation because the vendor takes the position it is not a processor. I found no public information on security certifications or on where the licence and download servers are hosted.
Pricing transparency
Borlabs Cookie
The ladder is public and lets me compute a portfolio's cost without a sales call: from €49, then €179 per year for 10 websites, €229 for 25 and €499 for 99, with unlimited pageviews and subpages, all functions including TCF and Consent Mode in every plan, a 30-day money-back guarantee on the first purchase, cancellation at any time, and prices stated in euros excluding VAT. The one gap is that the FAQ answer on licence upgrades was not shown in the captures.
Real Cookie Banner
Five public tiers scale cleanly by website count — 59 €, 89 €, 129 €, 229 € and 299 € gross per year for 1, 3, 5, 10 and 25 websites — each including all features, updates and premium support, with staging environments matching the site count, VAT included, and cancellation at any time without notice. For a 40-site shop like mine the Enterprise tier above 25 websites and the expert setup service are the unpriced pieces I would have to ask about.
Sovereignty, side by side
Dimension
Borlabs Cookie
Real Cookie Banner
Legal entity
Not determined
Not determined
Hosting location
Not determined
Not determined
Hosting options
Not determined
Not determined
Open source
Not determined
Not determined
Data processing agreement
Not determined
Not determined
Transfer impact assessment
Not determined
Not determined
Facts, side by side
Only facts both products carry under the same definition — anything else would not be a fair row.
Legal · Disclaimer
Borlabs GmbH provides no legal advice or representation1
Questions about Borlabs Cookie and Real Cookie Banner
Which is better, Borlabs Cookie or Real Cookie Banner?
As of 30 Oct 2026, the panel rates both 3/5. Weighted by what each judge cares about, 2 of the 6 judges pick Borlabs Cookie and 2 pick Real Cookie Banner, 2 call it a tie. Which one fits depends on the criteria that matter to you; the table on this page shows both side by side, and each judge’s reading has its own page. Both were scored by the same AI bench under the same rubric, from public evidence only, as the methodology describes.
Is Borlabs Cookie or Real Cookie Banner European?
Borlabs Cookie is European (EU-Made). Real Cookie Banner is European (EU-Made). Provenance is read from each company’s own legal pages: who builds it and who owns it.
Do Borlabs Cookie and Real Cookie Banner have a free plan?
As of 30 Oct 2026, Real Cookie Banner’s own pages state a free plan; Borlabs Cookie’s pages as captured do not. Each product page links the pricing page it was read from.