Anubis
Self-hosted web AI firewall that uses proof-of-work browser challenges to block AI scrapers.
Recommended for cutting AI-scraper traffic on self-hosted sites and Forgejo servers1234, with operators reporting drops from hundreds of thousands of daily requests to around a hundred or fewer.56 The most common complaint is that it makes visitors run JavaScript challenges789, which some find annoying, slow on certain hardware, or bad for accessibility.10111213
Why people recommend it
Stops scrapers · 3
Operators say it stopped bot scraping and greatly reduced server load.
“I've also had enormous luck with Anubis.”
“I used Anubis and a cookie redirect to cut the load on my Forgejo server by around 3 orders of magnitude”
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“it's the only thing that stopped the bot problem for me, (2) it's really easy to deploy, and (3) very few human visitors are incorrectly blocked by it”
Proof-of-work design · 3
Commenters find the proof-of-work challenge interesting and say it beat a non-PoW challenge against bots.
“I think the proof-of-work approach that anubis[0] takes is pretty interesting.”
“it's the only thing that stopped the bot problem for me, (2) it's really easy to deploy, and (3) very few human visitors are incorrectly blocked by it”
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“I really have no idea why Anubis works right now”
Non-US alternative · 2
Used as a self-hosted alternative to US-based Cloudflare.
“So far we use Anubis to protect our services from scraping and it's been a decent experience.”
“If we support alternatives they can grow into an open source CDN.”
Good enough · 2
Defended as imperfect but meaningful protection compared with none.
“Evidently, it makes _enough_ of a difference for the people running it.”
“The rest probably still have to be treated with Anubis.”
Easy deployment · 1
One operator says it is easy to deploy and rarely blocks real visitors.
“it's the only thing that stopped the bot problem for me, (2) it's really easy to deploy, and (3) very few human visitors are incorrectly blocked by it”
Caveats and dissent
Requires JavaScript · 2
Visitors must run JavaScript, and one operator had to add JS to a site that used none.
“As said Anubis is trivially bypassed.”
“it's the only thing that stopped the bot problem for me, (2) it's really easy to deploy, and (3) very few human visitors are incorrectly blocked by it”
Annoyance, accessibility · 3
Some find it annoying and say it can cause accessibility problems.
“them using Anubis is annoying”
“tools like Cloudflare and Anubis can create serous accessibility issues; some more than others.”
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“As said Anubis is trivially bypassed.”
Slow challenges · 1
One user reports challenges taking minutes on some machines.
Bypassable · 1
A critic says it is trivially bypassed and works only because AI companies ignore it.
“As said Anubis is trivially bypassed.”
Mascot image · 1
Visitors may see an anime catgirl image on the challenge page.
“I've also had enormous luck with Anubis.”
Often compared with
Who recommends it in their own words
Threads where it came up
- Websites are closing their doors to AI agents 2 mentions
- 99% of My Website Traffic Is Bots 2 mentions
- Cloudflare's new AI traffic options for customers 2 mentions
- Frog and Toad and the Increasingly Capable Machines 1 mention
- Is startpage.com mining Bitcoin when you open it? 1 mention
- Stay discoverable in search while disallowing AI training 1 mention
Data: anubis.json. Quotes are verbatim; the verdict and theme labels are written by a model from these comments, and every clause links to its sources.
All comments 21
“I used anubis, safeline for benchmarks compparison”
“So far we use Anubis to protect our services from scraping and it's been a decent experience.”
“it seemed quite effective.”
“Anubis is the one I’ve seen most often, but not the only one.”
“The rest probably still have to be treated with Anubis.”
“https://anubis.techaro.lol/”
“Evidently, it makes _enough_ of a difference for the people running it.”
“a more powerful and more reasonable self-hosted alternative to Cloudflare than Anubis”
“As said Anubis is trivially bypassed.”
“tools like Cloudflare and Anubis can create serous accessibility issues; some more than others.”
“Certainly, I imagine Anubis would be interested in adopting it if it’s effective!”
“I really have no idea why Anubis works right now”
“Is there a bypass for those yet?”
“I think the proof-of-work approach that anubis[0] takes is pretty interesting.”
“I love experimental data like this.”
“I used Anubis and a cookie redirect to cut the load on my Forgejo server by around 3 orders of magnitude”
“I call it `temu` anubis.”
“I've also had enormous luck with Anubis.”
“them using Anubis is annoying”
“If we support alternatives they can grow into an open source CDN.”
“it's the only thing that stopped the bot problem for me, (2) it's really easy to deploy, and (3) very few human visitors are incorrectly blocked by it”