Home Installation Guide Getting started with CookieLet: from Sign-up to a Live Cookie Banner

Getting started with CookieLet: from Sign-up to a Live Cookie Banner

Last updated on Sep 11, 2026

This guide walks you through the complete CookieLet setup — creating your account, adding your website, running your first cookie scan, designing your consent banner, and installing it on your site.

Time required: about 10 minutes
You will need: your website URL and the ability to edit your site's <head> (directly, or through Google Tag Manager)

Step 1 — Create your account

Go to cookielet.com and select Sign up.

Fill in the four fields:

  • Full name — your name

  • Business name — your company or organisation name

  • Work email — the address you want account and billing notices sent to

  • Password — at least 8 characters

Tick I agree to the Terms and Privacy Policy, then select Create account.

Note: No credit card is required to create an account. You choose a plan later, per website, and the Free plan requires no payment at all.

Step 2 — Verify your email address

As soon as your account is created, you are taken to your dashboard, with an Email Verification Required notice at the top.

Check your inbox for an email from CookieLet with the subject "Confirm your email to complete your setup."

Select Verify My Email. If the button doesn't work, copy the fallback link from the email and paste it into your browser's address bar.

Didn't get the email?

  1. Check your spam, junk and promotions folders.

  2. Select Resend Verification Email in the dashboard notice.

  3. If it still doesn't arrive, contact support@cookielet.com and we'll verify the account manually.

Step 3 — Open your dashboard

Once verified, the notice disappears and your dashboard is ready.

The left sidebar holds everything you'll use from here:

  • My Dashboard — overview of the currently selected website

  • Analytics — consent rates, opt-in/opt-out breakdowns and traffic insights

  • Cookie Banner — design and behaviour of your consent banner

  • Cookie Manager — every cookie found by the scanner, and its category

  • Consent Log — auditable record of each consent decision

  • Languages — banner translations

  • Policy Generators — cookie policy and privacy policy generators

  • Advanced — script blocking, Google Consent Mode, TCF and GPP settings

Menu items stay greyed out until you add your first website. Select Add Website to continue.

Step 4 — Add your website and choose a plan

Complete the dialog:

  1. Workspace Selection — choose the workspace this site belongs to. If this is your first site, leave the default.

  2. Website URL — enter the full URL including https://, for example https://www.example.com. Enter the domain the banner will actually run on.

  3. Website Name — a label for your own reference, such as "Acme Retail — Main Site".

  4. Pricing Plan — switch between Monthly and Annual billing, then select a plan.

The plans available are:

  • Free — 5,000 pageviews per month, cookie scanner covering 100 pages, manual scans

  • Starter — 150,000+ pageviews per month, 1,000 pages per scan, monthly auto-scans

  • Pro — 700,000+ pageviews per month, 6,000 pages per scan, weekly auto-scans

  • Premium — unlimited pageviews, 10,000 pages per scan, 30 languages with auto-translation

Select Compare Plans for the full feature matrix, then Next when you're done.

Important: Plans are assigned per website, not per account. If you manage several domains, each one carries its own plan.

If you chose the Free plan, skip ahead to Step 6 — Your first cookie scan.

Step 5 — Complete checkout (paid plans only)

Paid plans are processed by FastSpring, our authorised reseller. You'll be redirected to a secure checkout window.

Enter your email, name, payment method and billing address, then select Pay. Card, PayPal and Google Pay are supported.

About the amount shown: the checkout total is displayed in your local currency and may include VAT or sales tax, so it can differ from the USD price shown on the plan card.

After you pay, CookieLet provisions your subscription.

Don't refresh the page or use your browser's back button while this screen is showing.

Step 6 — Your first cookie scan

CookieLet now crawls your site and identifies every cookie and tracker it sets, then sorts them into categories — Necessary, Functional, Analytics, Advertisement and Personalisation.

The scan usually takes a few seconds to a few minutes, depending on the size of your site and your plan's page limit. You can review and re-categorise everything it found later, under Cookie Manager.

Step 7 — Configure your consent banner

Next, design the banner your visitors will see. The live preview on the right updates as you change each setting.

Banner Language

Select the language your banner text should appear in.

Additional languages and automatic translation can be added later from the Languages menu, subject to your plan.

Legislation Preset

Select the regulation your banner should follow. This determines whether the banner uses an opt-in or opt-out consent model, and which buttons appear.

  • GDPR — EU & UK. Use when your visitors are mainly in the EU/EEA and the UK. Opt-in: nothing non-essential loads until the visitor accepts.

  • US State Laws — United States. Use when your visitors are mainly in the US. Opt-out: visitors can decline the sale or sharing of their data.

  • GDPR & US State Laws — Worldwide. Use when you have international traffic. Geo-targeted: each visitor sees the banner required in their region.

Recommended: if you're unsure, choose GDPR & US State Laws — Worldwide. It applies the strictest rule that fits each visitor's location.

Banner Layout

  • Banner — full-width bar across the top or bottom of the page

  • Box — centred dialog with a background overlay

  • Popup — compact card in a corner of the page

Position

Choose Bottom, Center, Bottom Left or Bottom Right. Available positions depend on the layout you selected.

Banner Colors

Choose Light or Dark to match your site. Full colour customisation is available afterwards from Cookie Banner in the sidebar.

Select Next when the preview looks right.

Step 8 — Banner build

CookieLet compiles your banner and publishes it to our CDN.

This takes a moment. Stay on the page until it completes.

Step 9 — Install your CookieLet code

This is the only step that touches your website.

1. Copy the code snippet

Select Copy Code. Your snippet looks like this, with your own site ID in the URL:

<script
  src="https://cdn.cookielet.com/YOUR-WORKSPACE-ID/YOUR-SITE-ID/consent.js"
  async
></script>

Don't share this snippet publicly and don't reuse it on another domain. It's unique to this website, and every consent record it produces is attributed to it. Each additional site needs its own snippet.

2. Paste it into your head tag

Paste the snippet immediately after the opening <head> tag, before any analytics, advertising or marketing tags.

Why placement matters: CookieLet blocks tracking scripts until the visitor gives consent. If another tag loads before CookieLet, it can set cookies before consent has been recorded — which is exactly what the banner exists to prevent.

Choose the method that matches your site.

HTML or custom-built site

Open your site template and paste the snippet directly after <head>. If your site has multiple templates, add it to every one — or to the shared header include.

Google Tag Manager

  1. In GTM, go to Tags → New → Custom HTML.

  2. Paste the snippet.

  3. Tick Support document.write.

  4. Set the trigger to Consent Initialization – All Pages. This ensures CookieLet fires before every other tag.

  5. Save, then Submit to publish the container.

3. Verify and activate

Open your website in a new browser tab and confirm the banner appears. Use a private or incognito window, since your browser may already hold a consent decision.

Return to CookieLet and select Verify Installation. When verification succeeds, your banner is live, CookieLet begins recording consent, and you will be taken back to your Dashboard

What to do next

  • Review and re-categorise the cookies found by the scan — Cookie Manager

  • Go to Cookie Manager in your dashboard and initiate a full scan.

  • Customise banner text, colours and buttons — Cookie Banner

  • Add more languages — Languages

  • Generate a cookie policy or privacy policy — Policy Generators

  • Turn on Google Consent Mode v2, IAB TCF or GPC

  • Check consent rates and opt-in performance — Analytics

  • Export your auditable consent records — Consent Log

Troubleshooting

The banner doesn't appear on my site

  • Confirm the snippet is in the <head> of the page you're testing, not the <body>.

  • Test in a private or incognito window — you may have already accepted or declined.

  • Check that the domain you added in CookieLet exactly matches the domain you're testing, including www or its absence.

  • Clear your site's cache and CDN cache after adding the snippet.

Verify Installation fails

  • Allow a minute after publishing, then try again.

  • If your site is behind a firewall, password wall or "coming soon" page, our verifier can't reach it. Make the page publicly reachable and retry.

  • Confirm the snippet wasn't stripped by a security or optimisation plugin.

The scan found fewer cookies than expected

  • Cookies set only after login, or only on specific pages, may fall outside the crawl. Check your plan's page-per-scan limit.

  • Re-run the scan from Cookie Manager after making changes to your site.

I added the wrong website URL

Contact support@cookielet.com with your account email and the correct URL, and we'll update it for you.

I chose the wrong plan

You can change a website's plan anytime from Manage Plans under Organisation & Sites.
Upgrades and Downgrades take effect immediately.

Still need help?

Email support@cookielet.com or use the Support option in your dashboard sidebar. Include your account email and the website URL you're working on so we can help faster.