Integrations

Cookie consent and privacy

Enable PageFork’s built-in cookie consent modal, gate tracking scripts, and add privacy pages.

If visitors from the EU, UK, or California can reach your site, most tracking scripts (GA4, Meta Pixel, chat widgets, session replay) need a cookie-consent banner before they run. PageFork ships a built-in consent modal on every site — off by default, and turned on when you add non-essential tracking or ask for a banner.

This page is practical guidance, not legal advice. If compliance matters for your business, consult a lawyer.

Do I need a banner?

Probably yes, if you add any of these:

  • Google Analytics, Hotjar, Clarity, PostHog (with session replay).
  • Meta Pixel, LinkedIn Insight, TikTok Pixel, Google Ads tags.
  • Chat widgets like Intercom, Drift, HubSpot Chat.
  • Embeds that load third-party cookies (YouTube default mode, many social embeds).

Probably no, if your tracking is limited to:

  • Plausible, Fathom, Simple Analytics (cookieless by design).
  • No tracking at all.

Every PageFork site includes a native cookie preference modal. It stays disabled until you need it.

Ask in chat — PageFork enables the modal, themes it to your site, gates tracking scripts until the visitor accepts, and adds /cookies and /privacy pages when needed:

Add Google Analytics 4 to the whole site. Measurement ID: G-ABC12345.
Add a cookie consent banner and privacy pages. No analytics yet.
Enable the cookie banner, match it to the site colours, and put a
"Cookie preferences" link in the footer.

When you add analytics, pixels, GTM, or cookie-setting chat widgets, PageFork enables the modal automatically and wires consent gating — you usually do not need a separate prompt.

What you get

  • Equal-weight Accept and Reject choices (no sneaky pre-ticked analytics/marketing categories).
  • Categories for necessary, functional, analytics, and marketing cookies.
  • Google Consent Mode v2 defaults (denied until the visitor accepts) when you add GA4 / gtag / GTM.
  • Tracking scripts that only run after the matching category is allowed.
  • Links from the modal to your cookie and privacy policy pages.
  • A footer control to reopen preferences later.

Localize the banner

On a non-English site, ask PageFork to match the banner language to the rest of the site:

Translate the cookie banner and the /cookies and /privacy pages into
German to match the site.

Privacy policy and terms

A banner is only half the picture. You also need:

  • A Privacy Policy page describing what you collect and why.
  • A Terms of Service page (for most commercial sites).
  • A Cookie Policy (some jurisdictions require it separately from the Privacy Policy).

PageFork creates starter /privacy and /cookies pages when the native modal is enabled. For denser legal copy, tools like Termly, iubenda, and FreePrivacyPolicy.com generate policies you can paste in:

Replace the /privacy page with this policy text:

(paste the generated policy here)

Testing

After enabling a banner:

  1. Open the published site in a private/incognito window so no existing consent is cached.
  2. Verify the banner appears on first load.
  3. Click Reject all — then check that GA4, Meta, and similar tools do not fire (or only send “default denied” consent pings).
  4. Click Accept all — the pings should now fire.
  5. Verify consent persists across pages but resets after clearing cookies.
  6. Open Cookie preferences from the footer and confirm visitors can change their mind.

Scripts the banner should never block

Some things should always run — otherwise the site breaks:

  • Your own form submission logic (PageFork forms are first-party and essential).
  • Payment-provider scripts on checkout pages (Stripe, Paddle, etc.).
  • Security / anti-abuse scripts like reCAPTCHA when used for security rather than tracking.

These stay in the “strictly necessary” category.

If you already use CookieYes, Cookiebot, Termly, Osano, Klaro!, or similar, you can still paste their snippet instead of the built-in modal. Tell PageFork which manager you use and to skip the native one:

Add Cookiebot to every page. CBID: abc-123-def. Do not enable the
built-in PageFork cookie banner.
Wire Cookiebot to automatically block GA4, Meta Pixel, and Intercom
until the visitor accepts analytics and marketing cookies.

For most sites, the built-in modal is enough.

DNT (Do Not Track) and GPC

Some regions require you to honor the Global Privacy Control signal (a browser-level header that says “I don’t want to be tracked”). If you use a third-party manager, enable GPC in their dashboard. For the built-in modal, ask PageFork if you need GPC-specific behaviour for your jurisdiction.

  • GDPR (EU/EEA, UK) — requires opt-in consent before non-essential cookies. Banners must offer an equally easy “reject” option.
  • CCPA / CPRA (California) — requires a “Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information” link if you do any targeted advertising.
  • LGPD (Brazil) — similar to GDPR.
  • ePrivacy Directive — older EU law, still relevant, focused on cookies specifically.
  • PECR (UK) — similar to ePrivacy.

When in doubt, pick the strictest applicable law and design for it.

Next

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