Termly vs. Zest
Termly is a compliance platform popular for its policy generators, with a cookie banner that is free up to 10,000 monthly visitors. Zest is an open-source consent toolkit: one 16KB script, no account, no caps.
Head to head
| Termly | Zest | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free plan, then per-site subscriptions | Free forever |
| Open source | No | Yes, MIT |
| Free plan limits | 10,000 monthly visitors, 1 policy, watermarked | None, ever |
| What happens at the limit | The banner deactivates until next month | There is no limit to hit |
| Compliance coverage | GDPR, CCPA, PECR via banner templates and geo rules | GDPR, UK GDPR, US state laws, LGPD and more via geo rules, Google Consent Mode v2, GPC |
| Setup | Account, dashboard, script paste | Paste one script in your <head> |
| Weight | External script from Termly | 16KB, self-hostable |
| Policy generators | Built in, questionnaire-driven, hosted on Termly | Separate free policy generator, you own the output |
| Cookie scanning | Automatic, quarterly on free | Manual: you list your trackers |
| Consent records | Stored on Termly’s platform | On the visitor’s device, nothing leaves your site |
Where Termly wins
- You want policies and a banner from one vendor with a guided questionnaire.
- You want automatic cookie scans feeding the banner categories.
- You prefer dashboard-managed compliance over touching code.
Where Zest wins
- No quota can switch your banner off, on your best traffic day of all days.
- Free forever, unlimited sites and traffic, no watermark.
- You own the implementation: open source, self-hostable, no account.
Pick Termly if
Your traffic is small and stable and you want one guided product for policies plus banner.
Pick Zest if
You want the banner to be boring infrastructure with no off switch owned by someone else. A consent banner that deactivates itself past a visitor count is a strange product decision: it fails exactly when you have the most visitors to protect. Try the playground.
FAQ
What happens when Termly’s free limit is reached? Per Termly’s own documentation, the banner is deactivated until the following month. Zest has no counter, so it has no such failure mode.
Does Zest generate policies too? Our free policy generator drafts a cookie or privacy policy from six questions. You own the output, and it is free.
Can I use Termly policies with the Zest banner? Yes. The two jobs are separate: policies live on your site, the banner gates your trackers. Mix vendors freely.
* 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.