Choosing a CMP changes significantly when you no longer manage one website but dozens or hundreds of client websites.
A difference of a few euros per domain can become significant. A trivial manual update on one website can represent several days of work when it needs to be repeated everywhere. Even the way the CMP is installed becomes an industrialization issue.
Web agencies therefore have slightly different criteria from publishers simply looking for a CMP for their own website.
Per-domain pricing quickly becomes an issue
Many SaaS CMPs organize their plans around the number of domains, sometimes with specific programs or pricing for agencies.
This model can be perfectly reasonable for a single website. For an agency, it adds another variable to every project.
Should the CMP be included in the maintenance contract? Should an account be created in the client’s name? Is another licence required? What happens when the client owns three domains or a staging website?
As the portfolio grows, these small commercial questions become recurring administrative tasks.
tarteaucitron Pro deliberately allows unlimited websites
I chose a different approach for tarteaucitron Pro: one licence can be used across unlimited websites with unlimited traffic.
An agency can therefore use its account for several clients without purchasing another licence for every project.
A small brochure website for one client and a WooCommerce store for another do not create two additional subscriptions.
This is probably one of the situations where the tarteaucitron Pro business model makes the most sense.
Multiple websites should not mean identical configurations
Using the same CMP across every website obviously does not mean that all clients use the same services.
One website may only have YouTube and Google Maps. Another uses GA4, Meta Pixel and reCAPTCHA. A third may have virtually no service requiring specific consent management.
Each website therefore needs a configuration matching its actual situation.
The purpose of an agency approach is not to blindly copy the same banner everywhere, but to use a common tool for managing different implementations.
Maintenance becomes more important than installation
Installing a CMP on fifty websites is a one-time task. Maintaining it for five years is another problem.
Third-party services change, browsers evolve, bugs are fixed and security issues may be discovered.
With a self-hosted CMP, the agency needs a process for distributing updates across its entire portfolio.
With tarteaucitron Pro, code distributed through the CDN can be maintained centrally. I explain this difference in my article about open-source and Pro maintenance.
WordPress makes deployment much simpler
For an agency working mainly with WordPress, installation can deliberately remain very simple.
The official tarteaucitron WordPress plugin essentially asks for the account identifier and injects the required marker as high as possible in the <head>.
I prefer the plugin to remain simple. The entire CMP logic does not need to be rebuilt inside the WordPress administration.
This approach also makes deployment easier within a standardized template or website creation process.
A JavaScript tag works just as well
An agency that does not use WordPress does not need to develop a plugin for every CMS.
The JavaScript marker can be integrated directly into the website template as long as it is positioned early enough.
This is sometimes even the simplest approach when the agency fully controls its themes or internal framework.
I compare these different methods in my article about installing a CMP using a plugin, JavaScript or GTM.
I prefer not to load the CMP through GTM
For an agency standardizing its installations, it can be tempting to place everything in Google Tag Manager, including the CMP.
I find this architecture less logical. If the CMP needs to control services loaded by GTM, it should ideally exist before the container it is supposed to control.
Loading the CMP independently, followed by GTM and other services, creates a much clearer hierarchy.
It also avoids making consent management dependent on a third-party tag manager.
Automatic detection reduces per-site work
With tarteaucitron open source, an agency can perfectly well integrate required services manually. For a few tightly controlled websites, this approach works very well.
As the number of clients grows, Pro automatic detection mainly reduces manual operations.
The marker is installed before other services and tarteaucitron can recognize supported integrations directly within the page.
This does not remove the need to understand what the website uses, but it avoids manually rewriting every existing integration.
An agency still needs to audit websites
Automation does not replace verification.
After installation, I would at least test behaviour before any choice, after rejection and after acceptance. Network requests quickly reveal whether a service is being sent too early.
This verification is particularly important when clients can install WordPress plugins themselves, modify GTM or add new marketing tools.
A CMP correctly installed today does not guarantee that the website will remain unchanged for three years.
Can the client remain independent?
This is another useful criterion for an agency.
Some clients want the agency to manage the entire technical side. Others want to change text, colors or certain settings themselves.
An online configuration console separates those tasks from website code.
The developer can remain responsible for installation while common settings remain accessible without modifying a WordPress theme or deploying a JavaScript file.
What if the client leaves the agency?
This question is worth considering from the beginning.
An agency should not create a technical dependency that is impossible to undo simply to retain a client.
If a project needs to be transferred, CMP configuration and installation should be transferable cleanly. With an open-source solution, the client can also choose to move to an independent implementation.
I prefer agencies to retain clients because of the quality of their work rather than because removing a technical account would break the website.
Customization can support the agency’s visual identity
Agencies sometimes want consent interfaces to match the websites they deliver.
tarteaucitron can be extensively customized using its options and CSS. Since the interface remains standard HTML, CSS and JavaScript, it is possible to go further when a project requires it.
This customization should nevertheless preserve banner accessibility and balance between the different choices.
A visual identity should not turn rejection into an almost invisible secondary path.
The right agency model needs to work at scale
When choosing a CMP for an agency, I would therefore look less at the advertised price for one website and more at the real operating cost of fifty or one hundred installations.
How many licences need to be tracked? How are updates distributed? How is a new installation created? How is the existing portfolio verified? What happens when a client arrives or leaves?
A CMP that seems very simple on one domain can become difficult to administer at scale.
For an agency, the best CMP is not only the one that displays a banner correctly. It is also the one that remains manageable when the fiftieth client arrives.
