How it works
What Consentful does on your site — the banner, consent categories, script blocking, Google Consent Mode v2 and licensing — explained without jargon.
On your website
When a visitor opens a page, a small script (about 20 KB gzipped) loads and does four things:
- Sets privacy-safe defaults. Before anything else runs, Google tags are told consent is denied (Google Consent Mode v2), and tracking scripts you've marked are held back.
- Shows the banner — if the visitor hasn't chosen yet and your behavior settings say they should see it.
- Remembers the choice. The decision is stored in the visitor's own browser, on your domain. It is never sent to us.
- Applies the choice. Scripts in allowed categories start; Google tags are updated to granted for the categories the visitor accepted. Everything else stays blocked.
Categories
A category is a group of cookies or scripts the visitor can allow or refuse — for example Analytics or Marketing. Strictly necessary is always on. Each category is linked to the Google Consent Mode signals it controls, so you never have to map them by hand. See Categories.
Script blocking
A consent banner only matters if trackers actually wait for consent. Consentful keeps each tracking script inert until its category is allowed. You can add scripts in the editor or mark them in your site's code. See Blocking scripts.
Licensing and sites
- A site is one root domain and all its subdomains —
acme.com,shop.acme.comandblog.acme.comcount as one, on any platform. - When a page loads, the banner checks whether its domain is activated on a license. Activated sites get their full design; paid plans unlock Pro features.
- Your license key never appears in your page source — the site verifies a signed, domain-locked token instead.
- If our servers can't be reached, consent and script blocking keep working. Visitors are never less protected.
A domain that is not activated on any license (free or paid) shows no banner but still keeps trackers blocked. Activate your key to make the banner appear.