Termly vs Iubenda
Both are compliance platforms with a free tier, and on a features checklist they look similar. The difference that actually bites is how each one meters you as you grow, and whether the policy on your site is a file you own or a service you rent.
Facts checked August 21, 2026. Vendor pricing changes often, so verify before deciding. Sources: Termly pricing, iubenda pricing.
Who each option suits
- Choose Termly if you want cookie consent tooling and a generous free tier, and you are comfortable with policies that live inside a platform.
- Choose Iubenda if you operate in the EU and want a mature consent framework, and your traffic will stay inside a pageview band you can afford.
- Choose a downloadable kit if you want editable files you keep regardless of subscription status, and you do not need a consent banner.
The pricing models are not comparable on price alone
Termly prices by plan. As of August 2026 the free tier includes one basic legal policy and 10,000 monthly consent banner views, with Starter at $10 per month billed annually ($14 monthly) and Pro+ at $15 per month billed annually ($20 monthly). An Agency tier is quoted individually.
Iubenda prices by traffic. Essentials is €4.99 per month billed annually and covers up to 25,000 pageviews. Advanced is €19.99 per month up to 50,000 pageviews. Ultimate is €79.99 per month up to 150,000. Beyond your band, overage runs €0.05 per 1,000 pageviews.
That difference matters more than the headline numbers. Termly asks what capabilities you want. Iubenda asks how big you are, and re-asks every month. A product doing 20,000 pageviews pays Iubenda very little; the same product at 200,000 pageviews has moved up two tiers and is paying roughly twenty times more for the same document.
Neither model is wrong. But if you are comparing a $5 line item against a $10 one, you are comparing today rather than the situation you are actually building toward.
Check what happens when the subscription stops
This is the question worth asking before either feature list, and it is the one neither pricing page answers.
Compliance platforms commonly serve your policy through an embed or a script pointed at their infrastructure, which is what lets them update your document when regulations change. That is a genuine benefit and the main argument for paying monthly. The tradeoff is that the legal page on your website depends on an account staying current.
Termly does document both approaches: HTML policies that embed statically into your site, and Termly-hosted policies that update in real time, available from the Starter tier upward. If you are on the free plan and want to reduce that dependency, the static HTML route is the one to look at.
We could not verify from either vendor’s public pricing page what happens to a live policy after cancellation or downgrade. Ask their support directly and get the answer in writing before you rely on it. It is a reasonable question and a straight answer should be easy to get.
Where the consent banner fits
If you set non-essential cookies and have EU or UK visitors, consent generally has to be collected before those scripts load, and you need a record of it. That is a banner-and-logging problem, not a document problem, and it is the strongest reason to pay for a platform rather than assemble documents yourself.
Termly bundles a cookie banner and script auto-blocker even on its free tier, subject to that 10,000 monthly banner view cap. Iubenda built its reputation on consent tooling and is widely used for exactly this in the EU.
If you run no third-party analytics or advertising scripts, or only privacy-preserving first-party analytics, this may not apply to you at all, and a large part of what you would be paying for goes unused.
What a document kit does differently
A downloadable kit is not a competitor to consent tooling, and pretending otherwise would be dishonest. It has no banner, no dashboard, no consent log, and nothing that updates itself when a regulation changes.
What it does give you is a set of .docx files with your company details already in them, which you edit, publish wherever you like, and keep. There is no pageview band, no plan to outgrow, and no dependency on a third party continuing to serve your legal page.
It also covers documents the generators often do not. A Data Processing Agreement is the usual gap: consumer-focused tools frequently skip it, and it is the document B2B procurement asks for first. If you sell to businesses, check explicitly whether a DPA is included before choosing on price.
The honest split: if consent management is your problem, buy a platform. If correct documents you own are your problem, a kit solves it without a subscription.
A shortlist of questions worth asking either vendor
- Does my published policy keep working if I cancel, downgrade, or let the card expire?
- Is a Data Processing Agreement included on my plan, or is it an upgrade?
- What exactly counts as a pageview or banner view, and what happens the month I exceed my band?
- Can I export the finished documents as files I keep, or do they only exist inside the platform?
- When regulations change, is the update automatic, and does it apply to my plan?