Cookie Consent Tool for Indie Hackers

## I Spent 3 Days Building Cookie Consent for My Side Project. Then I Decided to Just Build It Right. *Originally posted on r/SideProject and r/indiehackers* Last year I was 2 hours from launching a side project. Everything was ready. Domain, Stripe, landing page, the works. Then I thought: "Wait, I have Google Analytics. I'm selling to Europe. Do I need cookie consent?" I Googled it. The answer was yes. Very yes. So I spent the next 3 days: - Reading GDPR documentation - Learning about Google Consent Mode v2 - Trying to understand what "ad_user_data" signals mean - Implementing a consent banner - Debugging why my analytics broke - Questioning whether shipping software was worth it After 3 days, I had something that probably worked. Maybe. I wasn't entirely sure. Then I launched another side project. Same problem. Another 3 days. After the third time, I decided: never again. I'll build this once, properly, and use it on everything. That became GetCookies. ## Why Existing Solutions Didn't Work ### OneTrust Googled "cookie consent tool." First result was OneTrust. Clicked through. Big enterprise site. Clicked pricing. "Contact Sales." I'm one person. I don't have a sales team to contact sales. Pass. ### Cookiebot €12/month minimum. For my side project with 100 visitors. That's more than my hosting costs. Also pass. ### DIY I tried. I really tried. But cookie consent in 2024 requires: - Google Consent Mode v2 (4 different signals) - A registered CMP Developer ID with Google - Third-party pixel integration (Meta, TikTok, etc.) - Script blocking until consent - Proper consent logging for audits It's not "just show a banner." ### "Just ignore it" GDPR fines are up to €20M or 4% of annual revenue. For a side project that might make €100/month, the risk isn't worth it. ## What I Built One script tag. Works on everything. ```html ``` That's the entire implementation. Add it to your ``. Done. ### What It Actually Does 1. **Shows a cookie consent banner** - Customizable, looks decent by default 2. **Blocks tracking until consent** - Respects user choice 3. **Handles Google Consent Mode v2** - All 4 signals, set before GTM loads 4. **Notifies third-party pixels** - Meta, TikTok, Pinterest automatically 5. **Logs consent for audits** - If someone asks, you have proof ### The Free Tier Because I'm an indie hacker building for indie hackers: - 1 domain - Unlimited page views (no 100-page limit like some competitors) - All core features - No credit card required - No "upgrade or we remove your banner" pressure I'm not going to nickel and dime you on page views. That's annoying. ## Numbers (Transparency) Since I know this sub likes real numbers: - **Launched:** ~6 months ago - **Domains using it:** ~800 - **Monthly consent events:** ~3M - **Paid customers:** ~40 - **MRR:** ~$500 - **Downtime:** 0 (so far, knock on wood) Not getting rich, but it's sustainable and growing. More importantly, it solves my own problem on every new project. ## Technical Decisions (For the Nerds) ### Why 1KB? The first version was 40KB. I looked at competitors—they were all 30-150KB. This seemed wrong for showing a banner and tracking yes/no. I rewrote it as: - 1KB synchronous loader (sets consent defaults immediately) - Async widget load (banner UI, not blocking) Result: Zero impact on Core Web Vitals. ### Why Python/FastAPI? I know Python. I ship fast with Python. The backend is simple—accept consent events, store them, serve configs. Doesn't need to be rocket science. ### Why Preact for the widget? React is 42KB. Preact is 3KB with the same API. For a consent banner that needs to load fast, every KB matters. ### Why Railway for hosting? Easy deployment, fair pricing, good DX. I tried Vercel first but hit serverless cold start issues for the API. Railway just runs the container. ## Lessons Learned ### 1. Solve your own problem first I built this for myself. Every feature decision was "would I use this?" That made product decisions easy. ### 2. Bundle size is a feature Developers care about performance. When I tell them it's 1KB, they immediately trust it more than competitors. Tiny bundle = fast site = happy users. ### 3. Free tiers should be useful A free tier with 100 page views is useless for testing. Unlimited page views means people can actually try it on their side project without worrying. ### 4. The "boring" parts are the hardest The banner UI was easy. Google Consent Mode v2 compliance was hard. Third-party pixel integration was hard. Consent logging for audits was hard. The invisible work is most of the work. ### 5. Marketing is still hard I'm a developer, not a marketer. Getting the word out is the challenging part. This Reddit post is my marketing budget. ## The Stack For the curious: | Layer | Tech | |-------|------| | Backend | Python / FastAPI | | Frontend | TypeScript / Preact | | Database | PostgreSQL | | Hosting | Railway | | CDN | Cloudflare | | Payments | Stripe | Nothing fancy. Just works. ## What's Next Based on user feedback: - [ ] More banner customization - [ ] Better analytics dashboard - [ ] A/B testing for consent rates - [ ] More framework-specific guides - [ ] Whatever users actually ask for ## Try It If you have a side project that needs cookie consent: 1. Go to [getcookies.co](https://getcookies.co) 2. Sign up (Google = fastest) 3. Add your domain 4. Copy the script tag 5. Add to your site 6. Done Takes about 60 seconds. Free tier has no time limit or page limits. ## Questions? Happy to answer anything about: - Technical implementation - GDPR/compliance details - Building as a solo dev - Why I made specific decisions - Whether something is actually compliant I'm not a lawyer, but I've read more GDPR documentation than any human should. --- *Built by an indie hacker, for indie hackers. Because enterprise tools for enterprise problems shouldn't cost enterprise budgets.*