Alternative to Cloudflare Bot Management: osec Bot Gate and Fingerprint Lite for small sites

Cloudflare's bot protection comes in tiers. Bot Fight Mode is free but can't be tuned. Super Bot Fight Mode is on the Pro plan and up. Bot Management with per-request scores is an Enterprise quote. A small site that wants to slow down AI scrapers and bad bots, without moving its DNS or sending its traffic through a proxy, has a different set of options. This article covers ours, what they cost, and when Cloudflare is the better buy.

What we offer instead

• osec Bot Gate: a small middleware for your own server (Node, Python or PHP). Visitors solve one invisible check, then browse freely for a week.
• osec Fingerprint Lite: a visitor ID from browser signals, with bot hints (headless browsers, automation flags, missing canvas). For free-trial limits and fraud checks.
• osec Captcha: the form check, for the pages the bots actually submit.

Five reasons to use osec instead

1. Runs on your server. Bot Gate is middleware in your own app. No traffic is routed through osec.one, and no proxy sits in front of your site.
2. No DNS move. Your domain stays where it is. Nothing to change at your registrar or your host.
3. One invisible check a week. A visitor solves a proof-of-work check once, then browses for seven days. Real readers barely notice it.
4. Search engines pass by default. Crawlers for the big search engines are allowed, so Bot Gate doesn't cut your SEO.
5. Fingerprint Lite for the rest. Visitor IDs and automation hints for sign-up limits and fraud checks, on the same account as Bot Gate.

Pricing

• Cloudflare Bot Fight Mode (Free plan): $0. Challenges simple bots and headless browsers. You can't tune it.
• Cloudflare Pro: $20 a month billed yearly, $25 monthly. Super Bot Fight Mode with allow, block or challenge.
• Cloudflare Business: $200 a month billed yearly, $250 monthly. Bot analytics.
• Cloudflare Enterprise: Bot Management with per-request scores and custom rules. Sales quote.
• osec Bot Gate and Fingerprint Lite: $0 for 500 checks a day on each account. $5 for 10 credits, $10 for 20, $50 for 100. Each credit adds 500 a day for 30 days.

Cloudflare's plan prices are from its plan pages, checked 5 October 2026. Check the current price before you buy. Our allowance is shared across the tools on one account, so Bot Gate checks and Fingerprint Lite identifications come from the same daily quota.

Where Cloudflare is the better choice

• Analytics and tuning: Business and Enterprise show bot traffic in detail. Bot Gate doesn't have that view.
• Attacks: a large site under a real attack needs Cloudflare's network and its per-request bot scores. A small site under a light scraping load does not.
• Infrastructure: Cloudflare is a global network. We run on one shared server, so we don't claim its uptime or its reach.

Set it up

1. Create a site key at osec.one → Console → Site keys. List your hostnames.
2. Copy the Bot Gate snippet for your language (Node, Python or PHP) from the same page.
3. Add the middleware to your app. Visitors get one check, then browse for a week.
4. Add Fingerprint Lite with the public site key: <script src="https://osec.one/assets/osec-fp/osec-fp.js" data-sitekey="osk_your_public_key" async></script>
5. Watch the usage on the console's usage page. Buy credits before the daily limit if you need them.

Sources

• Cloudflare Bots plans, Free and Pro: https://developers.cloudflare.com/bots/plans/free and https://developers.cloudflare.com/bots/plans/pro
• Prices checked 5 October 2026. Check Cloudflare's plan pages before you buy.