> Even when you do all your analytics inhouse with self-hosted matomo, if you want to use a cookie, you need consent is what the lawyers say unanimously

If you use a cookie for Matomo tracking than yes, you need consent. You are using a cookie for a non essential service (analytics), so you need to ask consent.

But you can use Matomo as cookieless: https://matomo.org/cookie-consent-banners/

If matomo gathers data without a cookie, you can still use technical / essential cookies without consent.

As an example Github.com, owned by Microsoft, does not have a cookie consent popup and sets at least 5 cookies as soon as you open it:

- color mode (dark / light)

- user timezone

- whether the user is logged or guest

- a session cookie

- _octo, that I don't understand.