Cookies policy

What cookies are

Cookies are small text files that a website asks your browser to store on your device. They are widely used to make websites work, to keep sessions secure, and to remember your preferences as you move from page to page.

Cookies can be session cookies, which are deleted when you close your browser, or persistent cookies, which are kept for a defined period. They can be set by the site you are visiting (first-party cookies) or by another service that the page relies on (third-party cookies).

Our approach: essential cookies only

Awwwarded is built to need as few cookies as possible. We use strictly essential cookies only — those that are required for the service to function. Because of that, you will not see a cookie consent banner on this site: there is nothing non-essential to consent to.

We do not use cookies for advertising, analytics, or behavioural profiling, and we do not track your activity across other websites.

The cookies we use

Authentication and session: when you sign in, we set a first-party session cookie that keeps you signed in while you browse your dashboard, manage submissions, or complete a purchase. It is strictly necessary — without it, signing in and using your account would not be possible — and it is removed when your session ends or expires.

That is the complete list. We keep it intentionally short, and it will not grow without this policy being updated first.

Cookies from other services

When you complete a payment, our payment provider may set its own cookies for the duration of the secure checkout — for example, to protect the payment against fraud and to complete the transaction securely. Those cookies are set and controlled by the provider under its own cookie policy, and they are present only during the payment flow.

Beyond that, no other third-party cookies are set on this site — there are no advertising networks, no embedded media players, and no social plugins placing cookies on your device. When you follow an outbound link (including clearly marked Promoted or affiliate links), the destination site may set its own cookies once you arrive there; those are governed by that site's own cookie policy, not ours.

Why we do not use analytics or advertising cookies

We believe a platform for creatives should protect its visitors’ privacy by default. We do not need to follow you around the internet to run Awwwarded — so we don’t.

Managing cookies

You can review, block, or delete cookies at any time in your browser settings. Most browsers let you manage cookies per site and clear them automatically when the browser closes, and private or incognito mode limits the lifetime of a session cookie to that browsing window.

Please note that blocking essential cookies will sign you out and prevent you from signing in again until you allow them. Everything else on the site — the gallery, profiles, award pages, and public information — remains fully browsable without cookies.

Do Not Track & browser signals

Some browsers offer “Do Not Track” or similar privacy signals. Because we do not track browsing behaviour across sites in the first place, these signals do not change how the site behaves — there is nothing extra for us to disable.

Changes to this policy

If our use of cookies ever changes, this page will be updated first and the revision date below will reflect it. Continued use of the service after an update means you accept the revised policy.