# Fairvisor vs. robots.txt

URL: https://fairvisor.com/compare/robots-txt/

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 Fairvisor vs. robots.txt Deploy AI crawler protection in 5 minutes The Situation robots.txt has been the standard for crawler control since 1994. It was designed for a world where crawlers were polite and few. That world is gone.
AI training crawlers — GPTBot, ClaudeBot, Bytespider, Meta-ExternalAgent — often ignore robots.txt directives. Even when they comply, robots.txt is binary: allow or disallow. No rate limiting. No analytics. No enforcement.
Comparison Capability robots.txt Fairvisor Enforcement Honor system — crawler decides whether to comply Inline enforcement at the edge — no choice Compliance model Best-effort honor system Inline enforcement for traffic routed through Fairvisor Granularity Allow/disallow by path Per-bot/per-category/per-network limits (ua:bot_category, ip:type, ip:asn) with staged actions Rate limiting No — it’s all-or-nothing Token bucket with configurable RPS and burst Staged response No Warn → throttle → reject (gradual backpressure) Analytics Server logs (if you parse them) Real-time dashboard: volume, bandwidth, trends by bot Safe rollout No way to test Shadow mode — measure before enforcing Latency profile Static file fetch Additional decision step in edge request path Maintenance Edit a text file JSON policy, version-controlled Cost Free Free (OSS edge) or SaaS plan for analytics SEO impact Can accidentally block search engines Targets AI crawlers specifically, search engines untouched When robots.txt Is Enough Your site has low traffic and crawler cost is negligible You only need to signal intent to compliant crawlers (Google, Bing) You don’t need analytics on crawler behavior When You Need Fairvisor AI crawlers are a measurable share of your traffic (>10%) Your bandwidth bill is growing due to crawler activity You need rate limiting, not just allow/disallow You need visibility: which bots, how much, which endpoints You want to test before enforcing (shadow mode) robots.txt compliance is not enough — you need enforcement Use Them Together Fairvisor doesn’t replace robots.txt — it complements it. Keep your robots.txt for search engine guidance. Use Fairvisor for AI crawler enforcement.
robots.txt = "Please don't scrape too fast" Fairvisor = "You will not scrape faster than 10 RPS" robots.txt asks. Fairvisor enforces. Deploy AI crawler protection in 5 minutes