BotGuard vs DataDome
When it comes to buying a bot protection service, choosing the right provider can be daunting. While we respect our competitors, we also believe our solution is more accessible and effective for a wider range of clients and end-users. We’ve gathered some information in this blog that will hopefully help you choose the best solution for your business.
When comparing products, BotGuard and DataDome both offer quite similar bot protection services. The key differences between the two are in the software / technical aspects and the business model, which are explained in detail below.
Technical Differences
In order to process traffic, DataDome sends all request metadata to an external endpoint, while BotGuard processes the request locally within the same datacenter where it is received. In certain circumstances, allowing the metadata to leave the local network can pose a risk towards privacy and data protection policies. DataDome requires you to add their JavaScript code to your site/application, while BotGuard doesn’t need it, because it works entirely at the server level. This is a kind of advantage, with only one exception: DataDome’s approach offers more integration options, while with BotGuard you have to use either Nginx or Apache as a web server.
Business Model
The main difference here is that DataDome only offers its service to end users who need to protect their websites and applications from bots, while BotGuard’s model is better suited for hosting providers. Hosting companies can use BotGuard to protect their own servers, as well as offer the same protection to their clients. By enabling bot protection for their clients’ web sites, providers could lower traffic fees, reduce server resource consumption, and greatly improve their overall security. Affordability is also another key factor in the business model – DataDome’s rates for 10M requests start from $1,190 per month, while BotGuard charges just €74 EUR for the same amount.
Let’s take a better look at some of BotGuard and DataDome’s key features:
| Valuable Features | ||
| Web application firewall (WAF) L7 HTTP/HTTPS protection | ||
| Requires adding JS to the site | ||
| DoS/DDoS protection | Based on intellectual bot recognition algorithms. L7 protection only. Protects HTTP/HTTPS traffic. If a request wasn’t sent by a real human, it will not reach the site. | Based on intellectual bot recognition algorithms. L7 protection only. Protects HTTP/HTTPS traffic. If a request wasn’t sent by a real human, it will not reach the site. |
| Log analysis | HTTP/HTTPS log analysis for the most secure website protection | HTTP/HTTPS logs |
| Data processing / Privacy | Request metadata is processed on the local dedicated nodes in your datacenter | Sends request metadata to 25 geography endpoints around the world |
| Web servers supported | Apache, Nginx | AWS Cloudfront, Apache, Fastly, IIS/ASP.NET, Haproxy, Nginx, Envoy, Varnish, Cloudflare workers |
| Customizable CAPTCHA | Standard CAPTCHA option, can be easily toggled on or off | |
| Bot protection | ✓ (Scraping, Scalping, Account takeover, Credentials Stuffing, Spam bots, etc) |
✓ (Scraping, Scalping, Account takeover, Credentials Stuffing, Spam bots, etc) |
| Botnet protection | ||
| Scalability | ||
| Cost | Subscription plans available for all levels of enterprise. Only €74 EUR / 10M hits per month and unlimited domains. | Average cost from $1,190/month for 10M requests. Plans are not suitable for sites with low traffic. |
| Licensing model | Flexible license mode: Free traffic analysis server + stable price for BotGuard Protection Server regardless of the number of web servers integrated + ability to upsell advanced protection licenses to websites | Pricing model is based on the number of requests sent to the Protection API per month. |
| Resource usage optimization | Offloads resource-consuming threat analysis to locally installed dedicated BotGuard servers, but does not load a web server. | Offloads resource-consuming threat analysis to the remote servers. |
| Horizontal scalability | If needed (due to an increase in traffic, or additional web servers integrated) additional BotGuard servers can be deployed automatically within minutes. | |
| Customer Service | ||
| Free 24/7 support | Due to the advantage in architecture, BotGuard SOC specialists can have access to all L7 security events without direct access to hosting servers. This allows BotGuard to provide support of a much higher quality. | |
| Reselling | Works both for hosting providers and end users | The product is intended for the end user |
As you can see, BotGuard and DataDome stack up against each other pretty well, but one thing is clear: the winner in terms of overall cost and adaptability is the BotGuard Cloud Web Protection service. Our technology is easily scalable and affordable, which allows us to work with all types of companies, from hosting providers to end-users like eCommerce stores and website owners.
We hope that this helps to clarify some of the main differences between BotGuard and DataDome’s products. Visit our website to learn more about what our web protection solution can do for you.
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