Contrary to popular belief, not all bots are bad. At their core, bots are just automated programs designed to carry out automated tasks, which can save businesses a ton of time and money. But while some bots are useful, others are harmful — they’re programmed to steal company data, overload your servers, or take over your users’ accounts. 

Without proper "bad bot” detection, your company’s online systems are vulnerable to malicious actors. This is why detecting dangerous bots using bot detection tools is essential for safeguarding your business and customers. 

These tools help identify and block bad bots, ensuring your online security remains intact, protecting your business from data breaches, downtime, financial loss, and reputational damage.

Below, we’ll cover six leading bot detection tools, their key features, and pricing, so you can make an informed decision about which tool is best for you.

Features to look for in a bot detection tool

Here’s what to be on the lookout for when choosing a bot detection tool for your business:

Device fingerprinting

Device fingerprinting gathers data from user browsers, apps, and devices to create unique identifiers without cookies. This helps identify users across different sessions and prevents bots from mimicking legitimate users.

It enhances security solutions by detecting fraudulent activities, so it’s a core feature in bot detection software. By analyzing device attributes like browser type and hardware settings, device fingerprinting streamlines good bot vs. bad bot detection.

Real-time detection

Real-time detection is crucial for stopping dangerous bots before they cause harm. This feature uses algorithms to monitor and analyze traffic instantly, helping identify and block bad bots quickly.

Additionally, integration with web application firewalls helps provide instant protection against automated threats and supports the scalability of security systems by managing large volumes of data efficiently. 

Machine learning and AI   

Machine learning and AI technologies enable tools to learn from traffic patterns and normal user behavior, when fed high-quality data, can constantly adapt to new threats based on behavioral analysis. (Behavioral analysis involves studying user actions to spot anomalies, such as enabling AI to detect when bots are imitating humans.)

ML and AI use behavior analysis and dynamic learning to continuously improve over time and can when bots are imitating humans. For example, bots might have unusually fast click patterns or consistent interaction intervals. While this may go unnoticed with manual detection, ML algorithms that have been refined using system or user feedback can quickly flag this as anomalous behavior.

Because ML models evolve based on the data they’re trained on over time, these algorithms become more flexible and advanced at recognizing unusual patterns — even as bot tactics evolve.

Mobile app protection

Due to the increasing use of mobile devices (among legitimate users and fraudsters), make sure your chosen tool supports comprehensive protection across web and mobile platforms. Bot detection tools for mobile apps need to account for unique, app-specific vulnerabilities like broken authentication or injection flaws.

Mobile app protection features typically include analyzing mobile traffic patterns, detecting whether a device is rooted or jailbroken, and integrating with mobile security protocols. This ensures effective identification and mitigation of bots targeting mobile apps, safeguarding user data and app functionality.

The top 6 bot detection tools

To help you zero in on the ideal bot detection tool for your organization, let’s break down six of the top tools known for their reliability, advanced features, and user-friendly interfaces.

Fingerprint

Fingerprint offers browser and device intelligence for web and mobile applications. With Fingerprint, each app or website visitor gets a permanent identifier, so they’re identifiable across different browsers, operating systems, locations, and devices with 99.5% accuracy — even if they’re browsing anonymously. Fingerprint also provides VPN detection and identifies rooted and jailbroken devices, application tampering, and cloned apps.

Key features

• Device and browser fingerprinting: Fingerprint creates a unique visitor ID for all visitors, identifying them with 99.5% accuracy, ensuring reliable user recognition and robust security.
• Bot detection and fraud prevention: Fingerprint excels in detecting bots and fraudulent activities. By analyzing device and browser fingerprints, it distinguishes between fraudulent and legitimate users, safeguarding your systems.
• Seamless integration: The platform seamlessly integrates into your existing fraud prevention stack, making implementation straightforward. Whether your business is in web development, marketing, security, or beyond, Fingerprint adapts to your needs.
• Comprehensive visitor insights: Gain valuable insights into user behavior with detailed information about devices, browsers, and geolocation, and more, empowering data-driven decisions.
• Customizable policies: Tailor detection rules and policies to suit your specific use case. Whether you’re combating account takeover attempts or preventing bot attacks, Fingerprint lets you fine-tune your settings for optimal protection.
• Real-time alerts: Fingerprint keeps you informed with real-time alerts when suspicious activity occurs, enabling you to quickly respond to potential threats.
• CAPTCHA-free mitigation: Enhances user experience and reduces frustration and friction.

Pricing

• Pro Plus: $99/month for up to 20K API calls
• Enterprise: Custom quotes on request

Sign up for a 14-day free trial.

DataDome

DataDome was founded in 2015 and its mission is to proactively defend businesses against bot-driven fraud and protect their online assets.

Key features

• Online fraud and bot detection: DataDome uses machine learning to analyze every incoming request. It blocks bad bots, account takeover attempts, credential stuffing, skewed analytics, and more.
• Real-time analysis: DataDome adapts to usage patterns and ensures high protection.

Pricing

• Business: $3,690 per month
• Corporate: $6,490 per month
• Enterprise: $8,590 per month
• Enterprise Plus: Custom quotes on request

Cloudflare

Cloudflare Bot Management is a cloud-based solution designed to identify and mitigate malicious bot activity on websites and applications. It leverages data from millions of Internet properties to manage both good bots and bad bots in real time.

By analyzing behavior and detecting anomalies in network traffic, Cloudflare Bot Management automatically blocks bad bots without disrupting legitimate user experiences.

Key features

• Bot attack prevention: Cloudflare blocks various malicious bot activities, including credential stuffing, content scraping, inventory hoarding, and DDoS attacks.
• Multiple detection methods: The system employs machine learning, behavioral analysis, and device fingerprinting to accurately classify bots.
• CAPTCHA support: Cloudflare identifies bots using CAPTCHA alternatives, minimizing legitimate user frustration.
• Simple deployment: No complex configuration or maintenance required — Cloudflare Bot Management recommends rules right out of the box.

Pricing

• Free: $0/month
• Pro: $20/month
• Business: $200/month
• Enterprise: Custom quotes on request

Arkose Labs

Arkose Labs aims to undermine fraud by empowering digital businesses to waste attackers’ time and resources. Arkose Labs offers a bot management solution that detects and prevents malicious bot activities while allowing authorized bots (e.g., search engine crawlers) to access websites and applications.

Key features

• Proactive defense: Detect and mitigate attacks before they make an impact.
• Adaptive response: Dynamic interception traps bad bots without sacrificing customer experience.
• Actionable data: A multitude of signals drives precise, transparent decision-making.

Pricing

Interested businesses have to book a demo for pricing information. 

Radware Bot Manager

Radware Bot Manager provides specialized enterprise-grade defense against bots by using a three-layer approach:

1. Preemptive protection: Blocks unwanted IPs and identities before they cause damage.
2. Behavioral-based detection: Uses AI to catch threats. 
3. Advanced mitigation: Offers a range of granular mitigation options.

Key features

• Intent-based behavioral analysis: Learns and evolves from feedback received.
• Device and browser fingerprinting: Identifies anomalies to distinguish between fraudsters and real users.

Pricing

Radware offers a 30-day free trial. For pricing information, you’ll need to contact their sales team. 

Reblaze

Reblaze uses machine learning to construct and maintain behavioral profiles of legitimate human visitors.

Key features

• Real-time traffic visibility: The Reblaze dashboard gives you a detailed overview of your traffic.
• API for programmatic operation: You can operate Reblaze completely programmatically.
• DNS and SSL management: The platform is maintained remotely by Reblaze experts so your security is always up-to-date and effective.

Pricing

Pricing isn’t immediately available on their site — interested parties will need to contact their team directly for a price quote. 

Accelerate your bot management efforts with Fingerprint

Fingerprint offers a comprehensive bot detection solution that identifies all online visitors with industry-leading accuracy. Our browser Bot Detection Smart Signal detects automation tools, search bots, and other sophisticated threats in real time, and makes it simple to distinguish between legitimate users and bots. 

For sophisticated and effective bot detection and prevention, get started with a 14-day free trial of Fingerprint today.