A Usercentrics alternative that doesn't charge by traffic
Usercentrics prices its consent platform by monthly sessions, so a busy month moves you up a plan. Its logo and font controls start on the €30 Pro plan. Shortbread charges €9 a domain whatever your traffic, and every design control is on the free plan.
Feature by feature
Prices are for the plan that removes the vendor's branding, so both columns buy the same thing. The rest are yes-or-no questions answered from Usercentrics's own pricing page and help centre. A dash means its docs don't say.
| Feature | Usercentrics | Shortbread |
|---|---|---|
Price for 1 domain, no vendor branding Per month, on the cheapest plan with no vendor logo or "Powered by" line. | On request Corporate plan | €9 Pro |
Price for 20 domains, no vendor branding Per month for an agency with 20 client sites, on the same terms. | On request Corporate plan | €46.50 Agency |
Banner size, gzipped Everything the banner downloads on a visitor's first page view. | 251.3 KB Measured on bilka.dk | 9.5 KB Script, settings, and region check |
Install by asking a coding agent Claude Code, Cursor, and similar tools can add the banner through an MCP server or documented agent instructions. | No. No MCP server or agent docs found | Yes. MCP server, no account needed first |
Edits go live without touching your site Change the banner in the dashboard and every page shows the new version, with no code to re-paste or redeploy. | Yes. Settings load from its servers | Yes. Settings load on each page view |
Custom colours on the free plan Change the banner's colours without paying. | No. From Essential, €7 | Yes. Every plan |
Your logo on the free plan Put your own logo on the banner without paying. | No. From Pro, €30 | Yes. Every plan |
Gradient, frosted-glass, and pattern backgrounds Set them in the editor, without writing CSS. | No. Custom CSS from Business, €50 | Yes. All three, every plan |
Matches your site's colours for you The editor reads your site and suggests a matching banner. | No. Not in its editor docs | Yes. Reads your site's CSS |
Font choice without code Pick the banner's font in the editor, on any plan. | Yes. From Pro, €30 | Yes. Headline font and weight |
Branding removed for under €10 a month The cheapest plan with no vendor logo or "Powered by" line costs less than €10 a month. | No. Corporate plan only | Yes. Pro, €9 a month |
No traffic cap on the first paid plan A busy month doesn't push you onto a bigger plan or switch the banner off. | No. Priced by sessions | Yes. No traffic caps on any plan |
Consent log on the free plan Each visitor's decision is recorded with a timestamp, without paying. | Yes. 12 months, all plans | Yes. 30 days free, 5 years on Pro |
Monthly billing Pay month to month instead of a year up front. | Yes. Monthly up to Business | Yes. Monthly or yearly |
Google Consent Mode v2 Sends consent signals to Google tags before they run. | Yes. All plans | Yes. Every plan |
IAB TCF Needed to sell programmatic ads in Europe through AdSense or Ad Manager. | Yes. Pro and above | No. Not supported |
In detail
| Attribute | Usercentrics | Shortbread |
|---|---|---|
| What you pay for | Monthly sessions, with a domain limit per plan. Plans upgrade automatically. | The domain. Pages and visitors are unlimited. |
| First paid plan | Essential, €7 a month for 1,500 sessions on one domain | Pro, €9 a month or €79 a year per domain |
| Free plan | 1,000 sessions a month, 1 domain, default layout only, no banner customization | 1 domain, unlimited pages, every design control |
| Banner design | Colours, buttons, and layout from Essential. Corner shapes and shadow from Plus. Logo and custom fonts from Pro at €30. Custom CSS from Business at €50. | 12 starter looks, 7 shapes, patterns, gradients, frosted glass, motion, your logo and fonts, and an auto-match to your site's colours |
| Their branding on your banner | "No branding" is listed on Corporate. The Business plan card lists it as an add-on. | A small "Consent by Shortbread" link on the free plan only |
| Banner script (gzipped) | 251 KB across 11 files, measured on bilka.dk | 9.5 KB across 3 files: the script, its settings, and a region check |
| Google Consent Mode v2 | Yes, on all plans | Yes, defaults sent before any tag runs |
| IAB TCF | Yes, on Pro and above | No. Sites that sell programmatic ads need a TCF-registered tool. |
| Install | Paste the loader script, or use the Cookiebot WordPress plugin with a Usercentrics settings ID. No Shopify or Webflow app. | One script tag, or one prompt to a coding agent. No account needed to start. |
Usercentrics details read from its public pages on 2026-10-26. Prices excl. VAT. Sources are listed at the bottom of this page.
Price
Essential, up to 1,500 sessions a month. 15,000 sessions a month needs Pro at €30.
Pro, any number of pages
Business covers 10 domains for €50. More domains need a larger Business step, priced by sessions.
Agency plan, any number of pages per site
Banner design
The banner is the first thing a visitor sees on your site. It should look like your site made it.
What Usercentrics lets you change
- A bottom bar or a centred dialog for the first layer, and a centre, left, or right panel for the second.
- Essential adds colours, buttons, toggles, layout type, placement, and custom text.
- Plus adds corner shapes, a background shadow, and an overlay.
- Pro, at €30 a month, adds your logo and custom fonts. Business, at €50, adds custom CSS.
- The free plan uses the default layout template with no banner customization.
What Shortbread lets you change
- 12 starter looks
- Paper, Playful, Night, Editorial, Rounded, Mono, Sticker, Ticket, Bubble, Torn, Brutal, and Pill. Start from one and change anything.
- 7 shapes
- Card, bubble, ticket, sticker, torn paper, pill, and brutalist. Tilt the box up to 6 degrees either way.
- Surfaces
- Solid colour, a two-colour gradient at any angle, or frosted glass that blurs the page behind. Add dots, grid, stripes, or grain on top.
- Type and logo
- Your logo beside or above the title, a separate headline font and weight, and an illustration that hangs off the corner.
- Buttons and borders
- Contrast, filled, or outline buttons in square, rounded, or pill shapes. Six border styles and four shadow styles, including hard and glow.
- Matches your site
- Paste your URL and Shortbread reads your CSS for brand colour, background, font, and icon, and checks the contrast.
- Saved looks
- Design a banner once and apply it to every site you run. Agencies keep one look per client.
- On the free plan
- Every control above works on the free plan. Paying removes the byline and adds history, not design features.
The real Shortbread script, cycling through starter looks. Nothing you click here is recorded.
Weight
The banner script loads on every page view, before most of your page. Smaller files show the banner sooner on slow phones.
Gzipped size of every file the banner loads on first view, measured on one customer site per vendor. The source list names each site.
Install
Paste the loader script, or use the Cookiebot WordPress plugin with a Usercentrics settings ID. No Shopify or Webflow app.
<script src="https://tryshortbread.com/shortbread.js" async></script>
Paste it before the closing head tag. The site exists on first load and you claim it by email. Guides cover WordPress, Webflow, Shopify, and coding agents.
When Usercentrics is the better choice
- You sell programmatic ads in Europe. That needs an IAB TCF-registered tool, and Usercentrics is one.
- You need consent for mobile apps or connected TVs as well as websites.
- Your site has under 1,500 sessions a month and the €7 Essential plan covers it.
Questions about switching from Usercentrics
- Do my visitors have to choose again after I leave Usercentrics?
- Yes, once. Shortbread can't read Usercentrics's stored choices, so returning visitors see the new banner on their next visit. Shortbread carries over stored choices only from Cookiebot today.
- Will Google Tag Manager keep working?
- Yes. Shortbread sends Google Consent Mode v2 defaults before any tag runs and updates them when the visitor decides. It also pushes consent events to the dataLayer, so triggers built on consent keep firing.
- Is Shortbread enough for GDPR?
- For sites that don't sell programmatic ads, yes. Accept and Reject carry equal weight, non-essential scripts stay blocked until consent, every decision is recorded with a timestamp, and the banner renders a cookie declaration. Your privacy policy is still yours to write.
Try it on your site
The free plan covers one domain with every design control. No card.
Set up Shortbread freeSources
- Usercentrics pricing
- Usercentrics: default banner settings
- Usercentrics: custom fonts
- Usercentrics: removing the Usercentrics logo
- Google certified CMP list
- Usercentrics measured on www.bilka.dk on 2026-10-26: the loader, SDK, settings, and view chunks, 257,375 bytes gzipped across 11 files. Size varies with each site's settings.
- Shortbread measured on 2026-10-26: shortbread.js, its settings file, and the region check, 9,732 bytes gzipped in total.
Usercentrics is a trademark of its owner. This page compares public information and is not endorsed by Usercentrics. If something here is out of date, email hello@tryshortbread.com and we correct it.