Vendor, ranked 15 of 15
Netlify
In short
Netlify's bot controls are a User Agent Blocker extension and firewall traffic rules; only per-purpose policy grades partial, for 1 of 10 points, and every other question is not published. Platform plans start at USD 0 but no price is stated for the extension, and there is no verified-bot list, reverse DNS or Web Bot Auth check.
Web hosting platform whose AI bot control is a User Agent Blocker extension running as an Edge Function, alongside IP and geo firewall traffic rules and rate limiting; it has no verified-bot or signature checking.
Alternatives to Netlify ยท netlify.com
- Type
- Bot management
- Homepage
- netlify.com
- Last read
- 2026-11-05
The rubric, with evidence
| Question | Grade | What the vendor documents |
|---|---|---|
| Tells a verified agent from a spoof | Not published | support (checked 2026-11-04): blocking matches user-agent strings only |
| Per-purpose policy (train, search, answer, act) | Partial | choose AI crawlers versus SEO or search crawlers from a preset list |
| Charging for access | Not published | support (checked 2026-11-04) |
| Lets signed commerce agents through | Not published | support (checked 2026-11-04) |
| Cost | published: platform plans from USD 0; extension price not stated | |
| Reporting | Not published | no AI bot reporting found (checked 2026-11-04) |
| Where it runs | edge: Netlify Edge Function and edge firewall rules |
Cost
Free USD 0 (300 credits), Personal USD 9/month (1,000 credits), Pro USD 20/month (3,000 credits), Enterprise custom; Firewall Traffic Rules and basic rate limiting listed from Free; User Agent Blocker price not stated. Source, read 2026-11-04.
What Netlify does not do
- No verified-bot list, reverse DNS or Web Bot Auth checks; user agents can be spoofed (block AI crawlers docs).
- Preset list is incomplete by Netlify's own statement (block AI crawlers docs, 2026-09-18).
- No AI crawler monetization (docs read 2026-11-04).
- Netlify does not check that a request using a crawler's user agent comes from that crawler's operator.
- Netlify offers no paid access or licensing route for AI crawlers.
Documented facts
- Primary source Netlify's User Agent Blocker extension blocks requests from a preset list of common AI crawlers and SEO or search crawlers that the site owner picks, using a Netlify Edge Function. Source, read 2026-11-04, dated 2026-09-18.
- Primary source Netlify notes the preset list does not include all possible AI crawlers and AI bots. Source, read 2026-11-04, dated 2026-09-18.
- Primary source The User Agent Blocker extension can be activated for only one project at a time. Source, read 2026-11-04, dated 2026-09-18.
- Primary source Netlify's guide pairs robots.txt with a custom Edge Function that matches user-agent strings for bots that ignore robots rules. Source, read 2026-11-04.
- Primary source Firewall Traffic Rules restrict access by IP address and geography, per site or team, with separate rules for published and unpublished deploys. Source, read 2026-11-04.
- Primary source The general availability post said Firewall Traffic Rules were for Enterprise customers with Netlify High-Performance Edge. Source, read 2026-11-04.
- Primary source The current pricing page lists Firewall Traffic Rules and basic rate limiting from the Free plan; Free is USD 0 with 300 credits, Personal USD 9/month with 1,000 credits, Pro USD 20/month with 3,000 credits. Source, read 2026-11-04.
- Primary source Netlify evaluates Firewall Traffic Rules first, then WAF rules, then rate limiting rules. Source, read 2026-11-04.
Compared with
- Vercel vs Netlify: Vercel verifies bots by IP, reverse DNS and Web Bot Auth; Netlify's AI bot control is a User Agent Blocker extension that matches strings only and can be active on one project at a time.
- Cloudflare vs Netlify: Cloudflare classifies crawlers by behaviour and verifies them by signature or IP; Netlify blocks a preset list of user-agent strings that it says does not cover all AI crawlers.
What Netlify does for this layer
From the vendor's own pages
Netlify rate limiting rules can match by path, client IP ranges, geolocation, cookie or HTTP header, and count requests per visitor over a 60-second window by default. (docs.netlify.com) Netlify rate limiting either blocks with HTTP 429 or rewrites the request to another path such as /rate_limit_page.html. (docs.netlify.com) Netlify's basic rate limiting is on all plans, while full functionality needs an Enterprise plan with High-Performance Edge. (docs.netlify.com) Netlify's rate limiting docs list preventing excessive scraping and bot traffic as a use case, next to mitigating DDoS and shielding backend services such as AI inference calls. (docs.netlify.com)
Products and plans
| Product | What it does | Price model | From | As of |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| User Agent Blocker extension | Edge Function that blocks a preset list of AI, SEO and search crawler user agents. | |||
| Firewall Traffic Rules and rate limiting | IP, geography and header rules plus per-visitor or per-domain rate limits. | plan-based | USD 0 | 2026-11-04 |
Standards
| Standard | Status | Evidence |
|---|---|---|
| Web Bot Auth | No statement | No signature verification in the Netlify docs read 2026-11-05. |
| Published IP list | No statement | Rules match client IP ranges the customer enters; no operator IP lists are consumed. |
| Reverse DNS check | No statement | No reverse DNS verification in the Netlify docs read 2026-11-05. |
Our checks
| Check | Result | Method | Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| Homepage fetch | HTTP 200 | GET with the crawl user agent after a robots.txt check | 2026-11-05 |
Related pages on this site
Sources
- netlify.com: netlify.com
- netlify.com: pricing
- docs.netlify.com: block ai crawlers
- developers.netlify.com: blocking ai bots and controlling crawlers
- netlify.com: general availability web application firewall traffic rules
- docs.netlify.com: overview
- Block AI crawlers and bots | Netlify Docs
- Rate limiting | Netlify Docs
Last reviewed 2026-11-05