In September 2014, I published the first version of tarteaucitron.js on GitHub. At the time, I mainly wanted a simple way to manage consent for cookies and third-party services on my own websites.
Twelve years later, the project is used by websites of all sizes: blogs, nonprofit organizations, local authorities, public institutions, agencies, small businesses and major companies.
Measuring the adoption of an open source JavaScript library precisely is difficult. Unlike a SaaS product, tarteaucitron.js does not require registration. I therefore have no exhaustive list of its users.
However, independent services such as BuiltWith can provide an overview of its adoption. And the numbers have become quite interesting.
Over 136,000 live websites detected by BuiltWith
As of November 2026, BuiltWith reports detecting tarteaucitron.js on 136,270 live websites.
Its historical dataset includes 273,821 websites that have used the library, including 137,551 that are no longer counted among its detected live sites. BuiltWith also identifies 103,000 additional redirects, which it separates from its live-site total.
These figures are estimates based on web technology detection. They are not counts of licenses, paying customers or verified installations. A technology may also be present without being detected, or remain listed after its integration has changed.
Nevertheless, they provide a useful indication of scale. tarteaucitron.js is no longer a small library used by a handful of developers. It has become a component found across a substantial number of French-language websites.
BuiltWith identifies 89,491 live websites in France and 17,769 in the United States. Adoption therefore extends well beyond the project’s original market, although France remains its main area of use.
Public institutions and local authorities
One of the aspects I appreciate most is the adoption of tarteaucitron.js in the public sector. These environments often place particular importance on maintenance, accessibility, control over dependencies and technical transparency.
BuiltWith publicly identifies interieur.gouv.fr, bretagne.bzh and cnes.fr among the websites or subdomains using tarteaucitron.js.
Its geographic reports also mention domains such as savoie.fr and valence.fr.
These references are not a list of commercial customers. They show that the library has been detected on websites associated with government bodies, local authorities and public institutions, without necessarily identifying which version is used.
There are also direct references to tarteaucitron.js in institutional documentation. For example, the French Elysée explicitly mentions the library on its cookie information page.
This type of adoption matters to me. tarteaucitron.js is developed in plain JavaScript, its source code is public and its behavior can be audited and adapted. These characteristics meet real needs in organizations that want to retain control over their technical tools.
Major companies use tarteaucitron.js too
Open source is not limited to small websites. BuiltWith also detects tarteaucitron.js on domains and subdomains associated with major French and international companies.
Examples visible in the public BuiltWith list include:
- Vinci, with vinci.com.
- Lacoste, with corporate.lacoste.com.
- Michelin, with fondation.michelin.com.
- Crédit Agricole CIB, with activity-report.ca-cib.com.
- Dassault Systèmes, with together.3ds.com.
These examples need to be interpreted carefully. When a subdomain is listed, it does not mean that every website belonging to the company uses tarteaucitron.js. It is a detection within a specific scope, which may change over time.
Nor is this a list of official endorsements or partnerships. The presence of a library on a website does not imply a direct commercial relationship between its developer and the organization.
But these examples demonstrate that an open source library maintained by an independent developer and a community of contributors can be adopted in very different technical environments.
Adoption among high-traffic websites
BuiltWith also publishes traffic-ranking statistics for websites where it detects tarteaucitron.js.
In the figures consulted in November 2026, 2,714 detected websites appear in its ranking of the top one million websites by traffic. Among them, 281 are in the top 100,000 and 34 in the top 10,000.
These are BuiltWith rankings. They should not be confused with actual audience measurements or with the number of visitors who interact with tarteaucitron.js.
However, they show that adoption is not limited to a large number of small, low-traffic websites. The library also appears in environments with significant audiences.
Popularity also observed by WMTips
BuiltWith is not the only service tracking the use of tarteaucitron.js.
In statistics calculated on October 17, 2026, WMTips ranks tarteaucitron.js first in France in its Consent Management category.
Its dataset includes 8,953 websites using the library. That is considerably fewer than BuiltWith, illustrating the differences in coverage and methodology between technology detection services.
WMTips also reports that 80.6% of the websites in its sample are located in France, and that the project appears in categories including public information, education, government, business and online shopping.
I do not consider these rankings an absolute measurement of the CMP market. Technologies are not all detected in the same way, and the categories used by different observers are not necessarily equivalent.
But finding tarteaucitron.js in several independent studies helps provide a clearer picture of its adoption.
Open source and Pro: two forms of adoption
One particular characteristic of tarteaucitron.js is that it exists both as an open source library on GitHub and as the technical foundation of tarteaucitron.io, my commercial service.
The free version can be installed and configured without creating an account. It can also be integrated by agencies, public institutions or software vendors into their own projects.
The Pro version provides additional services and simplifies certain operations, including automatic detection of third-party services and maintenance of their integration.
Tools such as BuiltWith detect technical signatures on websites. Their figures cannot reliably distinguish every open source installation from every Pro installation.
I therefore cannot present the 136,270 detected websites as customers of tarteaucitron.io. That would be inaccurate.
However, both versions contribute to the adoption of the same project. And that is exactly the model I want to preserve: a freely available library, complemented by commercial services for those who need them.
Why widespread adoption matters
The popularity of software does not, by itself, demonstrate its quality, security or regulatory compliance. A website using a CMP can still load trackers too early, display a poorly configured interface or implement incorrect consent rules.
I have explained in another article why a CMP does not automatically make a website compliant.
But widespread adoption has other positive consequences. It exposes the code to more technical environments, browsers, third-party services and usage scenarios.
It encourages bug reports, improvement proposals and contributions from specialized developers. The accessibility work carried out by contributors is a good example.
This adoption also creates responsibilities. The more widely a project is used, the more important it becomes to maintain integrations, address security issues and publish fixes regularly.
I discussed this other reality in Open source doesn’t pay, an article about funding and recognizing maintenance work.
Twelve years later, the project continues
When I started tarteaucitron.js in 2014, I did not expect it to be detected on tens of thousands of websites, including government institutions and major companies.
I find it particularly interesting that the same project can serve a small nonprofit website, a local authority and a website belonging to an international group.
BuiltWith and WMTips figures are not perfect, and I prefer to present their limitations rather than draw exaggerated conclusions from them.
But they confirm one thing: tarteaucitron.js has found its place on the Web, far beyond its original use case.
And twelve years after its first release, I continue developing it with the same objective: providing a free, maintained and accessible tool for as many websites as possible.
