The Best Bot Management Software

The growth of advanced technologies like Artificial Intelligence (AI) and the resulting automation has been both good and bad for businesses and individuals alike. Automated programs, also called bots, can be programmed to perform specific tasks – both positive and negative. The positive bots perform tasks like indexing at a fraction of the time and effort it takes for humans. On the flip side, these bots can also be used for performing malicious activities like sending a flurry of requests to overwhelm and crash a server, transmitting ransomware and other programs that can harm a device, and more.

As an organization, you must leverage the good bots while keeping the bad bots out of your network. However, this is not easy because distinguishing the good from the bad bots is not easy. Plus, mitigating them before they create havoc is another challenge. To handle these challenges, organizations are increasingly turning to advanced platforms called bot management software.

Here is our list of the best bot management software:

1. Indusface App TRANA A cloud-based platform that inspects incoming web traffic to detect and block malicious bots that match predefined patterns.
2. DataDome A bot and online fraud protection tool that runs on any cloud. It comes with simple code and lightweight SDKs for quick installation.
3. HUMAN Bot Defender A behavior-based bot management system that protects your websites, APIs, and mobile applications from malicious bots and other automated attacks.
4. F5 Distributed Cloud Bot Defense An advanced tool that identifies and mitigates malicious bots to protect your web resources from automated attacks.
5. Arkose Labs Takes a unique approach to cybersecurity by driving the costs of attack for cybercriminals, and forcing them to run out of resources.
6. Cloudflare Bot Management A global threat intelligence and machine learning platform that protects online resources from a wide range of attacks.
7. Radware Bot Manager A comprehensive bot management tool that protects your applications from automated threats.

What is Bot Management Software?

As the name suggests, a bot management server blocks malicious Internet traffic bots from entering your network, while allowing useful bots to access your resources. The software does this by detecting bot activity and the information present in their headers. Some managers can even serve alternative content to bots, especially if they are present to index or crawl the content for search engines.

That said, all bot managers are not built the same, and this is why we'll look at some of the best bot managers to choose from.

The Best Bot Management Software

Let's take a detailed look into each of these tools to help you decide the right fit for your organization.

1. Indusface App TRANA

App TRANA from Indusface is a cloud-based Web Application Firewall (WAF) that can provide comprehensive coverage against many known bot attacks. Specifically, it can protect your organization from OWASP top 10, zero-day, DDoS, and API attacks, all of which can have a devastating impact on your organization's resources.

Key Features:

• Virtual Patching: AppTrana's WAF can keep all your software updated with the latest patches and downloads. Its 24-hour SLAs are a highlight, as they can save you from critical vulnerabilities like the Log4J issue. It also offers comprehensive security against all known vulnerabilities.
• DDoS and Bot Mitigation: AppTrana has a feature called DDoS scrubber that ensures round-the-clock availability.  It mitigates DDoS and bot attacks based on customized rules that filter incoming packets based on host IP, URI, and geography. Accordingly, it sends alerts and automates first-level mitigation. In the process, it reduces false positives.
• API Security: You can secure all public-facing API endpoints with AppTrana's WAF capabilities. With this tool, you can identify vulnerabilities in your APIs through automated scanner and pen testing strategies. You can also leverage the security experts of Indusface to add another layer of security to your systems.

Overall, AppTrana is a comprehensive WAF platform that blocks malicious applications and helps to virtually patch unprotected software.

AppTrana offers three pricing editions: Advance at $99 per month, Premium at $399 per month, and Enterprise, which requires a custom quote. You can also start a free trial.

2. DataDome

DataDome is a bot and online fraud protection tool that protects websites, mobile apps, and APIs from a wide range of attacks like account takeover, scraping, denial of service, credential stuffing, fake account creation, and more. In this sense, it secures your organization's and customers' data from cybercriminals.

Key Features:

• Quick and Accurate: A highlight of DataDome is its speed, as it can analyze a query in under 2 milliseconds. What this essentially means for your business is that the performance and speed of your apps are not affected in any way.  Plus, the makers claim that the results are 99.99% accurate, which translates to high prevention rates of malicious bots.
• Automation Capabilities: DataDome comes with many automation capabilities that ease the life of network administrators while enhancing their productivity. The autopilot protection, for example, ensures that the malicious bots are tracked and blocked automatically without user interference. Similarly, the many integrations ensure quick compatibility with existing systems while its intuitive dashboard makes it easy for users to find the information they want
• Uninterrupted User Experience: DataDome offers an uninterrupted user experience. As mentioned earlier, there's no impact on app performance, and at the same time, it blocks malicious bots. Its CAPTCHA feature is also easy to use and values users' privacy.

Due to these features, DataDome is undoubtedly a good addition to your cybersecurity environment.

DataDome offers four pricing editions: Business at $3,490 per month, Corporate at $6,190 per month, Enterprise at $8,190 per month, and Enterprise Plus, which requires a custom quote. You can book a demo and try DataDome for a limited time.

3. HUMAN Bot Defender

The HUMAN Bot Defender is a behavior-based tool that checks the legitimacy of requests against a host of rules and checks before allowing them to access your websites, mobile applications, and APIs. With such a streamlined approach, it keeps malicious bots and other automated programs out of the reach of your resources.

Key Features:

• In-Depth Insights: HUMAN uses in-depth insights and rules to ensure that every request is coming from humans or a legitimate source. It compares the way humans react and interact with a web resource and checks if the request mimics these actions. To achieve this, HUMAN uses a combination of different techniques like fingerprinting, predictive analysis, and behavioral signals.
• Saves Time and Cost: Another important aspect of HUMAN is that it optimizes the efficiency of your resources. In particular, it checks requests and blocks them if needed, right at the edges. This way, you don't have to spend resources on identifying and stopping malicious programs that are in your system. Needless to say, these resources can be used more optimally to fuel innovation.
• Generates Reports: Along with safeguarding your digital resources, HUMAN also generates pertinent reports that display all activities in real time. Specifically, it provides information about attacks, blocked requests, and rate-limited good bots, so you can formulate policies accordingly.

In all, HUMAN is an advanced platform that collects information about potential malicious programs, detects them as they try to enter your network, blocks them, and generates reports about them for your further analysis.

For HUMAN Bot Defender, contact the sales team for a custom quote and request a demo.

4. F5 Distributed Cloud Bot Defense

F5 Distributed Cloud Bot Defense is an advanced platform that defends against malicious bots to provide a fast and seamless user experience. This tool uses machine learning to quickly learn the emerging attack patterns, and tunes itself accordingly, to identify and block them.

Key Features:

• Integrates with Syslog and SIEM: F5 integrates well with Syslog and SIEM systems in your infrastructure to provide the insights needed for protection. Also, it integrates data feeds to SIEM systems in real-time for advanced analysis.  Together, all these tools can safeguard your resources from malicious programs.
• Uses ML and AI: Another advantage of F5 is that it uses the power of machine learning, artificial intelligence, and advanced capabilities to understand and block emerging threats. Such a continuous learning process helps your organization to stay one step ahead of cybercriminals, so you can detect security threats with zero false positives.
• Easy Integration: F5 comes with prebuilt integrations and connects to quickly connect with your existing on-premises or cloud environments. Also, this platform can work seamlessly with existing systems to ensure maximum efficiency with little breakages.

In all, F5 can mitigate malicious bots with the highest precision and efficiency.

Contact the F5 sales team for a quote, and get started with a free account.

5. Arkose Labs

Arkose Labs takes a unique approach to cybersecurity, as it forces cybercriminals to run out of the resources needed to carry out an attack. With this unique approach, Arkose Labs saves organizations from a wide range of attacks including SMS frauds, bot attacks, and more.

Key Features:

• Multiple Attacks: Arkose Labs protects your websites and mobile applications from a wide range of attacks, like account takeover, credential stuffing, website scraping, inventory hoarding, and more. A highlight is the protection it offers against SMS toll fraud. Essentially, this kind of fraud is where the cybercriminal entices users to send SMS messages to premium rate numbers.
• Extensive Techniques: To prevent a wide range of attacks, Arkose Labs uses multiple techniques like fingerprinting, detection, and intelligence. Using these strategies, it prevents an attack before it enters the system. Furthermore, Arkose Labs uses dynamic configuration to adapt the response needed for each type of attack. Such a personalized approach to each attack ensures that they can be prevented, regardless of how they attack.
• Provides Actionable Data: Arkose Labs provides accurate and actionable data that you can rely on for further processing and analysis. Specifically, it uses 125 signals to drive precision and provide transparent decision-making. Its command portal, in particular, is extensive and offers all the insights you need to better understand the state of your cybersecurity.

In all, Arkose Labs takes a unique approach to cybersecurity to detect critical risks before they impact your organization.

Contact the Arkose Labs sales team for a quote and book a demo.

6. Cloudflare Bot Management

Cloudflare Bot Management is a platform that goes beyond CAPTCHA codes to detect and stop malicious bots from attacking your resources. At the same time, Cloudflare ensures that humans and good bots have no impact whatsoever, and they can continue to access your websites, mobile applications, and APIs.

Key Features:

• Multiple Detection Methods: Cloudflare manages bots with speed and precision using a wide range of techniques. Its behavioral analysis tool checks for anomalies in your Internet traffic. It lays down the base properties and checks how different is every request from the baseline. Accordingly, it detects whether a bot is malicious or not. Along with behavioral analysis, Cloudflare also uses machine learning and fingerprinting to accurately classify bots and emerging threats.
• Protection Against Attacks: You get protection against a wide range of attacks when you use Cloudflare. Specifically, it protects from credential stuffing, content scraping, content spam, inventory hoarding, credit card stuffing, DDoS, and more. All these attacks are caused by bots, and Cloudflare is effective in preventing them from attacking your resources.
• Simple Deployment: Cloudflare is simple to deploy, without the complexity of configurations or maintenance. Based on the bots, it will automatically recommend rules that will help manage bots straight out of the box. There's no instrumentation or coding involved at all.

Overall, Cloudflare is an advanced tool that uses multiple techniques to effectively stop many types of attacks on your resources.

Contact the Cloudflare sales team for a quote and sign up to get started.

7. Radware Bot Manager

Radware Bot Manager offers real-time bot protection for your web applications, mobile apps, and APIs. Specifically, it safeguards your online revenue, improves operational efficiency, and reduces the risk of data breaches. A highlight of this tool is that it allows users to browse without CAPTCHAs, and at the same time, it thwarts bot attacks.

Key Features:

• Real-time Detection and Mitigation: Radware's real-time detection and mitigation engine protects your web resources from online threats.  It uses an intent-based behavioral analysis tool along with embedded machine learning modules and fingerprinting to detect malicious bots and stop them from entering your network. Furthermore, it emulates, spoofs, and replays attacks to protect your mobile apps before they are hit by attacks.
• Granular Data Reporting and Analysis: The granular data reporting and analysis capability allows users to analyze website traffic and create custom alerts accordingly. It also supports the real-time reporting of malicious bot traffic, while allowing legitimate traffic to come through. You can also configure your custom alerts through the intuitive dashboard.
• Seamless Integration with Existing Infrastructure: Radware offers extensive options to integrate with your existing infrastructure. It uses web server plugins, cloud connectors, DNS redirection, virtual appliances, and JavaScript tags to integrate with any network, application, or infrastructure.

Overall, Radware is a wide-arching bot manager that can protect your resources from all kinds of automated threats.

Contact the Radware sales team for a quote and sign up to get started.

Thus, these are some of the best bot management software for you to choose from.

Final Words

To conclude, malicious bots are a form of automated threat that can create havoc on your applications, mobile apps, and APIs. In the process, it can also cause financial and reputational loss to your organization. To prevent these bots from causing damage while allowing good bots and human requests, it's an excellent idea for advanced and highly effective bot managers.

In this article, we talked about seven bot managers that come with comprehensive capabilities to identify bad bots and prevent them from entering your network. We hope this information is a good starting point to delve deeper into the world of bot management and protect your resources.