ClearCrumb is a free Borlabs Cookie alternative for WordPress with script blocking, content placeholders, Consent Mode v2 and a consent log, plus a German banner and cookie policy out of the box. Pick it if you want to start free or need a lower price across many client sites. Stay with Borlabs if you rely on its large content-blocker library, German-language support or IAB TCF.
In this article
Borlabs Cookie alternative: the short answer
Borlabs Cookie is a respected, paid WordPress plugin and a long-time favourite in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. This page is a plain Borlabs Cookie alternative comparison from the makers of ClearCrumb, so read it with that in mind. Facts about Borlabs come from its public product pages; the official pricing page was not reachable for a full check in October 2026, so treat the figures below as approximate and confirm them with the vendor.
The biggest practical difference is the starting point. Borlabs has no free version: you buy a licence first. ClearCrumb is free and includes the core consent features, so you can test it on a live site before spending anything.
If you are weighing a Borlabs Cookie alternative, the table below answers the questions people ask most often.
| Question | ClearCrumb (free) | Borlabs Cookie |
|---|---|---|
| Free version | Yes | No |
| Script blocking before consent | Yes, 155 services | Yes |
| Content placeholders (YouTube, Maps) | Yes | Yes |
| Google Consent Mode v2 | Yes, basic and advanced | Yes |
| Consent log | Yes, free, as long as you choose | Yes |
| German banner and cookie policy | Yes | Yes |
| Leak Test and Compliance Score | Yes | No |
| IAB TCF | Not yet | Yes |
| Paid plan, 1 / 5 sites per year | $39 / $89 (Pro, launch prices) | About €49 / €109 |
What Borlabs Cookie does well, and when a Borlabs Cookie alternative is not needed
Any honest Borlabs Cookie alternative page has to start with its strengths. Borlabs is built by a German company for the German-speaking market, and it shows: the documentation, the support and the default texts are written with local law in mind. Its content-blocker library is large, with ready-made blockers for many embeds, and it supports IAB TCF, which publishers who sell ads need.
It runs entirely inside WordPress with no external cloud account, which is the same model as ClearCrumb, and its consent log and Consent Mode support are mature. If your agency already knows it, has templates built around it and your clients trust the name, switching has a cost that a price difference may not repay.
The trade-offs are the missing free version, a smaller set of automatic checks and no equivalent of a leak test in the product itself. If those do not matter to you, Borlabs remains a sound choice.
What you get before you pay
Because Borlabs has no free plan, the comparison on cost is simple: ClearCrumb free costs nothing and includes blocking for 155 known services, content placeholders for embedded video and maps, Consent Mode v2, Microsoft UET consent, EU opt-in and US opt-out rules, Global Privacy Control, a consent log kept as long as you choose, the scanner (up to 50 pages), the Leak Test, the Compliance Score and 16 languages, German included.
That is what a Borlabs Cookie alternative should mean: the free plugin is the real product, not a time-limited trial.
That means you can build and test your full setup, run a leak test on the live site and only then decide whether you need Pro for long-term records, scheduled scans or agency tools. With Borlabs you decide first and test afterwards, although its licence terms may offer a refund window you should check.
German, Austrian and Swiss sites
If your visitors are in Germany, Austria or Switzerland, the wording of the banner and the cookie policy matter as much as the code. ClearCrumb ships a German banner and a German cookie policy, written to match the way the German-speaking market expects Accept and Reject to be presented, with Reject as easy as Accept.
ClearCrumb Pro adds a privacy policy generator and an imprint generator covering the German (§ 5 DDG) and Austrian rules. These are starting texts, not legal advice, so have a lawyer check them for your own situation.
Borlabs Cookie alternative: script blocking and Google Consent Mode v2
Both products hold back scripts until consent, replace blocked embeds with a placeholder and send the four Consent Mode v2 signals. The Consent Mode guide explains the basic and advanced modes in ClearCrumb. Borlabs’ large content-blocker library is a genuine advantage if you use unusual embeds; ClearCrumb’s library covers 155 services and the scanner suggests what it did not match.
A Borlabs Cookie alternative that cannot show you its own blocking leaves you guessing, which is why ClearCrumb includes the Leak Test in the free plugin.
Whichever you use, verify the result. ClearCrumb’s Leak Test loads up to 15 of your pages twice, as a new EU visitor and again after “Accept all”, and lists what loaded early. The cookie banner leak test guide shows a manual check that works for any plugin.
Speed and caching
ClearCrumb’s banner and blocker are under 10 KB gzipped, use no jQuery and are drawn in the browser, so full-page caching keeps working. We have not benchmarked Borlabs on your site and will not pretend to. The fair test is to install both on a staging copy and run Lighthouse and a leak test on the same pages. The cache plugin guide lists what to exclude for common cache plugins.
Borlabs Cookie alternative: three typical sites and what suits them
The Borlabs Cookie alternative question looks different depending on who you build for.
A German small business site. A handful of pages, an embedded map, a contact form and an analytics tool. Borlabs handles this well and so does ClearCrumb. The difference is starting cost: ClearCrumb is free and ships a German banner and cookie policy, so you can have a working, tested setup before you decide whether any paid add-on is needed.
An online shop. Several marketing tags, payment providers and embedded content. Here Borlabs’ content-blocker library is a real asset if you use unusual embeds. ClearCrumb covers 155 services and its scanner flags the ones it cannot match, and the WooCommerce cookie consent guide shows what to keep running at checkout.
An agency in the DACH region. Many client sites, mostly WordPress, with the same compliance needs. Because Borlabs is bought per site count, the cost grows with your portfolio; ClearCrumb Pro’s ladder is cheaper at five sites and above, and the dashboard shows every site’s Compliance Score. If your team has years of Borlabs templates, weigh the cost of switching honestly.
The banner your visitors see with a Borlabs Cookie alternative
ClearCrumb’s banner has four layouts (bar, box, centred modal and corner card), a live preview and a colour picker that checks contrast. Accept and Reject carry equal weight by default, which is what German and Austrian regulators expect to see, and the texts exist in 16 languages including German.
Borlabs Cookie offers its own set of dialog layouts and a detailed customisation panel, and its wording is written with the German-speaking market in mind. Neither product replaces a legal review of your texts, but both give you a sound starting point.
Check accessibility on whichever you choose. ClearCrumb is built to WCAG 2.2 AA with keyboard operation, focus management and 200 percent zoom support. A short keyboard-only test on your own theme will show whether anything overlaps or hides the banner.
What ClearCrumb Pro adds, and who needs it
Most people who search for a Borlabs Cookie alternative want to know whether the free plugin is enough. For a single site it usually is. ClearCrumb Pro, which is not on sale yet, is an optional add-on for people who have specific needs the free plugin does not cover:
- Long-term consent records kept for as long as you choose, with signed PDF proof for audits.
- Scheduled scans and leak alerts that email you when a new plugin or tag starts loading before consent.
- Generated documents: a privacy policy and an imprint, written as starting points for you to review.
- Agency tools: one dashboard for every client site, white-label banners and a Compliance Score per site.
- Priority support from the people who build the plugin.
If none of those apply, the free plugin is the whole product. We would rather you stay free and happy than buy something you do not need.
Pricing: how the two compare
Borlabs sells yearly licences by number of sites, at roughly €49 for one site and €109 for five, in euros without VAT. ClearCrumb Pro, which is not on sale yet, has launch prices of $39, $89, $179 and $349 a year for 1, 5, 25 and 100 sites, with 30 percent off the first year for waitlist members. Staging sites never count.
| Sites | ClearCrumb Pro per year | Borlabs Cookie per year (without VAT) |
|---|---|---|
| 1 site | $39 | About €49 |
| 5 sites | $89 | About €109 |
| 25 sites and more | $179 for 25, $349 for 100 | Check the vendor |
Choosing a Borlabs Cookie alternative on price alone is a mistake, though. Weigh the features you will actually use, and let the free plugin prove itself on your own site first.
The real saving is that the free ClearCrumb plugin covers what many sites need, so you pay only if you want Pro. Confirm the Borlabs figures on its product page, since prices and currencies change.
Who should pick a Borlabs Cookie alternative, and who should stay
| If this is you | Pick | Why |
|---|---|---|
| You sell ads to EU visitors through Google | Borlabs (or another TCF tool) | You need IAB TCF; ClearCrumb does not support it yet. |
| You rely on its large content-blocker library | Borlabs | Ready-made blockers for many embeds. |
| You want to test before you pay | ClearCrumb | A full free version. |
| You run many client sites on a budget | ClearCrumb | Flat price per site count. |
| You want a leak test built in | ClearCrumb | Included in the free plugin. |
A Borlabs Cookie alternative is a good fit when most of the left column describes you. If the right column does, staying where you are is a perfectly sensible choice.
How to switch from Borlabs Cookie to ClearCrumb
- Install and activate ClearCrumb and leave Borlabs Cookie active for now.
- Run the ClearCrumb scanner and the setup wizard; it picks up your services in a few minutes.
- Choose banner text and colours, and check the German texts if your audience needs them.
- Deactivate Borlabs Cookie so only one banner shows, and clear your page cache.
- Run the Leak Test and confirm nothing optional loads before consent.
That is the whole move to a Borlabs Cookie alternative: install, import, check, switch the old banner off and test.
Consent records are not moved between plugins; export them from Borlabs first if you need them for audits, and expect visitors to answer once more.
Mistakes to avoid when you move to a Borlabs Cookie alternative
These are the problems we see most after a switch from a paid plugin.
- Two banners at once. Leaving Borlabs active next to the new plugin shows two banners. Deactivate the old one as soon as the new setup is checked.
- Content blockers and shortcodes. Borlabs’ blocker markup and shortcodes stay in your posts. Replace or remove them so embedded video and maps are handled by the new plugin.
- Cached pages. Clear the page cache and the CDN, then test in a private window.
- No verification. A visible banner does not prove blocking. Run the Leak Test or follow the leak test guide.
- Missing imprint and policy updates. Make sure the cookie policy, privacy policy and imprint match the services you now run.
Avoid these five and your move to a Borlabs Cookie alternative should be uneventful.
With that checklist a migration is typically an afternoon’s work.
Questions to ask before you choose a Borlabs Cookie alternative
A comparison page can only go so far. Five questions will settle the decision for your own site faster than any feature table:
- Do I need IAB TCF? If you sell ads to EU visitors through Google, yes, and Borlabs Cookie or another certified tool is the answer today.
- How many sites do I manage? One site rarely justifies a paid plan; twenty sites almost always make the price difference matter.
- Where must the consent records live? If the answer is “on my own server”, pick a plugin that stores them locally.
- Who maintains the setup? If your team prefers a managed cloud dashboard, weigh that against local control honestly.
- Can I test before I pay? Install the free plugin on a staging copy and run the Leak Test. Ten minutes of testing beats an hour of reading.
If you answer those five and still cannot decide, run both plugins on a staging site and compare. That is the only comparison that counts.
Frequently asked questions
How long does it take to move to a Borlabs Cookie alternative?
About fifteen minutes for a typical site: install, import or scan, check the preview, switch the old banner off and run the Leak Test.
Does a Borlabs Cookie alternative make my site GDPR compliant?
A consent plugin helps you meet the consent requirements, but compliance depends on your whole setup: your policies, your processors and what you actually load. Run the Leak Test and ask a lawyer about your own situation.
Is there a free Borlabs Cookie alternative?
Yes. ClearCrumb is free and includes blocking, content placeholders, Consent Mode v2, a consent log and a German banner and cookie policy.
Does ClearCrumb have an imprint generator?
Yes, in Pro, together with a privacy policy generator. German (§ 5 DDG) and Austrian imprint rules are covered. They are starting texts, not legal advice.
Does ClearCrumb support IAB TCF like Borlabs Cookie?
Not yet. If you sell ads to EU visitors through Google, a TCF-certified tool is the right choice today.
Can I import my Borlabs Cookie settings?
Not directly. Run the ClearCrumb scanner and wizard, which match your services to the built-in library in a few minutes.
Is ClearCrumb as good for German sites?
It ships a German banner and cookie policy and 16 languages in total. If you depend on German-language support from the vendor, Borlabs has the longer track record there.
Will visitors have to give consent again after I switch?
Yes, once. Consent is stored per banner, so visitors answer the new banner on their next visit.
Summary
The right Borlabs Cookie alternative depends on what you value. ClearCrumb fits sites that want to start free, run a leak test and pay less across many sites. Borlabs fits teams that rely on its blocker library, German-language support or IAB TCF. Facts about Borlabs were checked in October 2026 from its public pages; see all plugin comparisons for the others.