iubenda vs. Zest
iubenda is the old guard of EU privacy compliance: lawyer-maintained policies, granular script blocking, and audit-grade consent records, priced per site. Zest is an open-source consent toolkit: one 16KB script, no account, no metering.
Head to head
| iubenda | Zest | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free plan (5,000 pageviews/month), paid plans per site, roughly €5 to €99+/month, overage ~€0.05 per extra 1,000 views | Free forever |
| Open source | No | Yes, MIT |
| Pageview metering | Yes, with overage billing | None, ever |
| Compliance coverage | GDPR-first with an EU legal team, CCPA, TCF options | GDPR, UK GDPR, 19 US state laws, LGPD, PIPL and more via geo-targeting, Consent Mode v2, GPC |
| Setup | Account, dashboard, script paste | Paste one script in your <head> |
| Weight | External script from iubenda | 16KB, self-hostable |
| Policies | Lawyer-maintained generators, updated as laws change | Free policy generator drafts a starting point you own |
| Script blocking | Per-script granular control with automatic scan | Category-based script blocking |
| Consent records | Server-side on iubenda infrastructure, exportable | On the visitor’s device, nothing leaves your site |
Where iubenda wins
- Lawyer-maintained policies, which matter when the question is “who wrote this?”
- Per-script blocking with automatic discovery of third-party tags.
- Audit-grade consent records stored on their infrastructure.
- A full EU compliance suite around the banner.
Where Zest wins
- No per-site subscription and no pageview metering.
- No platform dependency: the banner cannot be repriced under you.
- Open source, self-hostable, no account.
Pick iubenda if
You are an EU business with real legal exposure, a compliance function, or clients who ask for lawyer-reviewed documents. iubenda sells certainty, and it is good at it.
Pick Zest if
You need consent infrastructure for any jurisdiction, not a legal department. Zest covers the banner completely, and the policy generator covers the first draft of the policy, all free. Pick based on which you are missing: certainty or ownership.
FAQ
Can I use iubenda policies with the Zest banner? Yes. Policies and the consent banner are separate jobs. Many sites mix vendors.
Does Zest store consent records server-side? No. Consent state lives on the visitor’s device and nothing leaves your site. If you need server-side audit logs, iubenda provides them.
Is iubenda’s free plan enough for a small site? Up to 5,000 pageviews a month, yes, with watermarked policies. Past that you are on paid tiers with overage charges.
* Pricing and plan details for third-party products change often. This page reflects what we could verify on October 14, 2026 — check the vendor's current pricing before you decide.