In short
You need a cookie banner if your website uses services or cookies that are not strictly necessary, for example Google Analytics, the Meta Pixel, embedded YouTube videos or Google Maps. If the site only uses strictly necessary cookies or none at all, you do not need one. The check above looks at your home page like a new visitor who has not clicked anything yet and tells you what it finds. It follows German and EU rules. Not legal advice.
When a cookie banner is required
In Germany the rule is § 25 TDDDG (called TTDSG until May 2024), based on the EU ePrivacy Directive. Storing information on a visitor's device or reading it from there requires consent. The exception is what is strictly necessary to provide the service the visitor explicitly asked for, such as a shopping cart, a login or the chosen language.
On top of that comes the GDPR. If you embed content from third-party servers, your visitors' IP address goes to that provider, even without any cookie. In 2022 the Regional Court Munich I awarded damages to a visitor because a website loaded Google Fonts directly from Google (judgment of 20 January 2022, 3 O 17493/20).
More in the article When do you need a cookie banner?.
What the check looks for
| Check | How it is found |
|---|---|
| Analytics and advertising | Scripts from Google Analytics, Tag Manager, Google Ads, Meta Pixel, Hotjar, Clarity, TikTok, LinkedIn and others |
| Embedded content | YouTube, Vimeo, Google Maps, Instagram, Facebook, booking and chat widgets |
| Spam protection | Google reCAPTCHA, hCaptcha, Cloudflare Turnstile |
| Third-party servers | Google Fonts, Adobe Fonts, Font Awesome and public CDNs |
| Banner tool | Cookiebot, Usercentrics, Borlabs Cookie, Complianz, Real Cookie Banner, CookieYes, OneTrust, consentmanager and more |
| Do services wait? | Whether a script is embedded so that it only starts after consent, for example with type="text/plain" |
| Cookies from the server | Which cookies the server sets on the very first visit |
What the results mean
| Result | What you can do |
|---|---|
| No banner needed | Nothing. But check subpages with a map, video or form. |
| Banner present, services wait | Fine. Also check that rejecting is as easy as accepting. |
| Banner, but no services | Look at the banner settings. If nothing is listed there, you can probably drop the banner. |
| Services load before consent | Change the embedding so services only load after the click. Usually this is a setting in the banner tool. |
| Consent probably missing | Remove the services, replace them with solutions without third parties or set up a banner. |
Getting by without a banner
Many small websites need no banner at all if they solve a few things differently:
- Host fonts on your own server instead of loading them from Google: Host Google Fonts locally.
- Load Google Maps only after a click, or show an image of the map with a link to Google.
- Load YouTube videos only after a click, or host them yourself.
- Count visitors without cookies instead of using Google Analytics: Count website visitors without cookies.
That is how I build my own sites. devosweb.de has no cookie banner because nothing is loaded here that would need consent.
Limits of the check
The check only reads the HTML of your home page on the first visit. It clicks nothing and runs no JavaScript. Services loaded later, for example through Google Tag Manager, are not visible to it. With banner tools that block automatically it tells you openly that it cannot check this reliably. It does not check subpages, enter them one by one if needed.
Frequently asked questions
Is a cookie banner mandatory?
Only if your site uses cookies or similar techniques that are not strictly necessary, or sends data to third parties without another legal basis. A site without tracking, without embedded content and with self-hosted fonts usually needs none.
Do I need a banner for strictly necessary cookies?
No. Cookies that are strictly necessary for the site to work are allowed without consent (§ 25 (2) no. 2 TDDDG). They still belong in the privacy policy.
Why does the check not detect my banner?
The check knows the common banner tools and typical names such as "cookie-banner" in the HTML. Self-built banners with other names or banners inserted later by JavaScript can slip through.
Is my data stored?
No. I store neither the address nor the result. The checked website sees a request from my server, not from your device.
Sources
- § 25 TDDDG (German), protection of privacy in terminal equipment: www.gesetze-im-internet.de/ttdsg/__25.html
- Regional Court Munich I, judgment of 20 January 2022, 3 O 17493/20 (Google Fonts)
As of 4 November 2026. Not legal advice.