Silktide: a real open-source cookie banner, with real gaps
Silktide's main business is enterprise accessibility and compliance testing — WCAG/ADA scanning for government, healthcare and Fortune-scale websites. The Consent Manager is a free side project: MIT-licensed, open source on GitHub, no account or signup required, and it genuinely does support Google Consent Mode v2 at no cost. That part is true and worth crediting. Where its marketing overreaches is the implication that other CMPs charge for Consent Mode v2 — plenty don't, Conzent included, on every plan whether you self-host or run the cloud version. And where the free banner actually falls short is IAB TCF: it isn't mentioned anywhere in Silktide's site, docs or source code, which matters a lot more than it sounds for any site running ads.
Conzent vs Silktide at a glance
| Conzent | Silktide | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Per-site pricing, drops as you add sites, from a few euros/site/month — or self-host the whole platform for free via OCI. See current tiers | Free forever, no account, no subscription, unlimited sites and pageviews — genuinely no catch here |
| GDPR / IAB TCF / Consent Mode v2 | ✓ GDPR, CCPA & 25+ regional laws ✓ IAB TCF v2.4 ✓ Consent Mode v2 (Basic & Advanced) — all included, every plan | Google Consent Mode v2 included, free · ✗ IAB TCF not offered — not mentioned anywhere on their site, in their docs, or in their GitHub repo (checked August 2026) |
| Google Tag Manager setup | ✓ Automatic GTM wizard creates tags, triggers and consent variables for you — plus a native Matomo Tag Manager plugin | ✗ No listed template in the GTM Community Template Gallery — set up by hand-pasting a custom HTML tag and building the trigger yourself |
| CMS & platform integrations | 7 native integrations: WordPress, Wix, Joomla, Drupal, TYPO3, Umbraco, Shopify — plus a universal script tag for anything else | Copy-paste script tag works on any platform; no dedicated CMS plugins published |
| Self-hosted / open source | ✓ Yes — OCI, Apache 2.0, one-line installer, unlimited sites & pageviews | ✓ Yes — MIT licensed, static JS/CSS on GitHub, genuinely self-hostable |
| Consent record-keeping | ✓ Every consent event logged with a timestamp — self-hosted or cloud, ready to produce as proof of consent | No hosted consent log — runs entirely client-side with no account or dashboard, so there's nothing centralized to show if you're ever asked to prove someone consented |
| Support | Priority email (cloud) · community & GitHub (self-hosted) | GitHub issues / community only — the banner isn't Silktide's core product, so there's no dedicated support plan or SLA behind it |
Silktide figures are drawn from its own consent-manager page and public GitHub repository (github.com/silktide/consent-manager) as of August 2026. If they add IAB TCF or a GTM gallery template, tell us and we'll update this page. See Conzent's current plans.
Switching from Silktide? Here's what to expect
Moving off Silktide is simpler than most CMP switches, because there's no account or hosted dashboard to migrate away from. Install Conzent's script or plugin, run a fresh cookie scan to rebuild your category list, configure and preview the banner, then swap the script tag over and remove Silktide's. Since Silktide's banner doesn't keep a hosted consent log, there's no historical consent record to carry across either way — you're not losing anything by switching, and it's a clean point to start logging consent events properly on the new platform.
Why teams switch from Silktide to Conzent
IAB TCF is the actual point of a CMP for ad-funded sites
Consent Mode v2 covers Google's own measurement and ad tags. It doesn't grant the IAB TCF handshake that Google Ad Manager, AdSense and most programmatic demand check for — Google's own setup documentation lists TCF as required for personalised Google Ads in the EEA. Silktide's banner doesn't send that signal at all. Conzent ships IAB TCF v2.4 (2.3 + 2.2) on every plan.
A GTM wizard instead of a manual build
There's no Silktide template in the Google Tag Manager Community Template Gallery, so every tag, trigger and variable gets hand-built from their docs. Conzent's GTM wizard creates all of it for you in a few clicks.
A consent log you can actually produce
Silktide's banner runs entirely client-side, with no account and no dashboard — nothing centralized to point to if a regulator or a client ever asks you to prove consent was given. Conzent logs every consent event, self-hosted or cloud.
Frequently asked questions
Is Silktide's cookie banner actually free?
Yes — genuinely, not a bait-and-switch. It's MIT-licensed, open source on GitHub, needs no account or subscription, and includes Google Consent Mode v2 at no cost. The claim that doesn't hold up is that other CMPs charge for Consent Mode v2 — several don't, Conzent included, on every plan.
Does Silktide support IAB TCF?
Not that's published anywhere — not on their site, in their docs, or in their open-source repository. If your site runs any programmatic or display advertising, or you want personalised Google Ads in the EEA, you need the IAB TCF signal that Silktide's banner doesn't send.
Can I use Silktide's banner with Google Tag Manager?
Yes, by hand — their docs walk you through a custom HTML tag and a manually built trigger. There's no listed entry in the GTM Community Template Gallery, so there's no guided setup or auto-generated consent variables the way Conzent's GTM wizard provides.
What's the best alternative to Silktide?
Depends what your site actually needs. If a free, open-source, self-hosted banner with no ad-tech consent signalling is genuinely enough, Silktide is a legitimate option — it's real open source, not vaporware. If you run advertising that needs IAB TCF, or want a consent log you can produce as proof, that's what Conzent adds on top, including a free self-hosted OCI tier of its own.