Bot detection that sees intent, not just signatures
Signature lists and CAPTCHAs miss modern bots. cside reads 100+ browser, device, and behavioral signals — including mouse-movement patterns, scroll behavior, and typing cadence — from your own first-party JavaScript to catch automation, anti-detect browsers, and malicious AI agents in real visitor sessions, on the live page. It can even flag AI-generated text submitted through your forms. For agent-specific controls, see our AI Agent Detection solution.
The bots got smarter
- 01
Bots run in real browsers now
Modern attacks use automation frameworks inside real Chrome instances and anti-detect browsers. They pass CAPTCHAs, render JavaScript, and look human to network-layer defenses.
- 02
Signatures and IP lists are always a step behind
Static bot signatures and IP blocklists catch yesterday's bots. Attackers rotate residential proxies and spoof fingerprints faster than any list can update.
- 03
Not every bot is bad
Search crawlers, monitoring tools, and trusted AI shopping agents are good traffic. Blunt blocking hurts SEO and conversions — you need to read intent, not just detect automation.
- Catch bots that pass CAPTCHA and rotate IPs, using 100+ first-party browser and behavioral signals — including mouse movement, scroll behavior, and typing cadence
- Tell malicious automation apart from good bots and trusted AI agents with intent-based scoring
- Detect anti-detect browsers, headless frameworks, and residential-proxy traffic
- Flag AI-generated text submitted through your forms — pass a review, bio, or support message and cside tells you whether a human or an AI wrote it
- Feed real-time bot risk into your existing fraud, login, and checkout stack
How cside detects bots
First-party signal collection
cside runs from your own JavaScript, so there is no third-party collector for bots to detect and feed — and nothing for ad blockers to strip.
Behavioral & device analysis
100+ browser, device, and behavioral signals — mouse-movement patterns, scroll behavior, typing cadence, and more — expose automation, anti-detect browsers, and headless frameworks that sail past CAPTCHA.
Intent scoring
Separate malicious automation from good bots and trusted AI agents, so you block abuse without hurting SEO or real shoppers.
Real-time response
Feed bot risk into your login, checkout, and fraud stack in real time — challenge, block, or allow with conditions.
More than a signature list
Traditional bot tools match known signatures and IP lists. cside reads what the browser actually does.
| Approach | cside Bot Detection | Signature & IP Tools |
|---|---|---|
| Detection method | First-party browser, device & behavioral signals (mouse, scroll, typing cadence) | Known bot signatures and IP reputation |
| Signal collection | Your own first-party JavaScript — nothing to block or feed | Third-party collector bots can detect and evade |
| Bots in real browsers | Detects automation & anti-detect browsers that pass CAPTCHA | Often fooled by real-browser automation |
| Good vs bad bots | Intent scoring keeps crawlers and trusted AI agents | Binary block or allow |
| AI agents | Detects and classifies agentic traffic | No agent-specific signal |
| AI-generated text | Flags AI-written text in form fields — reviews, sign-ups, support messages | No text-origin signal |
| Response options | Challenge, block, or allow with conditions via SDK | Hard block creates friction and false positives |
Beyond block-or-allow
Blocking every bot the moment it's flagged invites a cat-and-mouse game and blocks good traffic too.
With cside's signals and SDK you decide the response per request: block abuse, step up verification, or allow trusted automation.
Keep search crawlers and trusted AI shopping agents while stopping scraping, credential stuffing, and fake-account creation.
Bot signals share the same first-party layer as fingerprinting, account-takeover, and AI-agent detection — one script, one source of truth.
Start free, scale when ready
No credit card required. Free plan stays free.
Free
Up to 1,000 API calls/month. Device fingerprint ID, cross-session recognition, and basic intelligence signals.
- Up to 1,000 API calls per month
- Device Fingerprint ID
- Cross session recognition
- Basic intelligence signals
- 7-day data retention
Business
Browser fingerprinting with 99.7% accuracy across sessions, VPNs, and incognito mode. All intelligence signals including AI agent detection and VPN detection.
- All intelligence signals
- AI agent detection
- VPN and proxy detection
- 30-day data retention
- IP enrichment and threat intelligence
Enterprise
For high-volume traffic and organisations that need chargeback fingerprinting, custom data retention, SSO, and dedicated support.
- Chargeback Evidence (CB911)
- Custom data retention
- 99.9% uptime SLA
- SSO and organisation layer
- Dedicated account manager
- Source data fields
Need more? See the full pricing breakdown.
View all plansQuestions, answered
01 How is cside's bot detection different from a WAF or CAPTCHA?
A WAF works at the network layer and a CAPTCHA tests for human interaction — both are routinely bypassed by automation running inside real browsers and by anti-detect browsers built to defeat them. cside works in the browser itself, reading 100+ device and behavioral signals from your own first-party JavaScript, so it catches bots that already passed the WAF and solved the CAPTCHA.
02 Will cside block good bots like Googlebot or AI shopping agents?
No — that's the point of intent scoring. cside distinguishes malicious automation from legitimate crawlers, monitoring tools, and trusted AI agents, so you can stop scraping, credential stuffing, and fake-account abuse without hurting SEO or turning away agentic shoppers. You define the response per signal using our SDK.
03 Can cside detect anti-detect browsers and headless frameworks?
Yes. Anti-detect browsers and headless frameworks (such as automated Chrome) are designed to look like ordinary visitors, but they leave device and behavioral inconsistencies that show up in first-party signals. cside reads those signals on the live page rather than relying on a static signature list, so it flags automation even when the underlying IPs and fingerprints rotate.
04 What behavioral signals does cside read to catch bots?
cside reads in-session behavioral signals from your own first-party JavaScript — mouse-movement patterns, scroll behavior, and typing cadence — alongside device and browser signals. Automation and AI agents struggle to reproduce natural human movement: scripted typing has near-zero variance, mouse paths are absent or unnaturally linear, and scrolling is mechanical. Reading these on the live page catches bots that pass CAPTCHA and rotate IPs.
05 Can cside detect AI-generated text in form submissions?
Yes. cside includes an AI-generated-text detection engine: pass the contents of a form field — a product review, a signup bio, a support message — and cside returns whether the text was written by a human or generated by AI. It's a useful signal against fake reviews, spam sign-ups, and AI-driven abuse that looks legitimate at the network layer.
06 How does bot detection relate to cside's other products?
Bot detection shares the same first-party signal layer as cside's device intelligence, account-takeover, and AI agent detection. One script deployment feeds all of them, so bot signals, fraud signals, and agent classification come from a single source of truth on your live pages.
07 How is cside deployed?
cside deploys via a single first-party script tag — no proxy, no reverse proxy, no CDN dependency, and no DNS changes. Bot signals start flowing from real visitor sessions as soon as the script is live, and you can route them into your existing login, checkout, and fraud stack.
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Talk to our teamCatch bots by intent, not signature
First-party browser signals across real visitor sessions. Deploys via a single script tag.