WebDecoy is a free, fully-functional bot detection and protection plugin that works 100% locally. Unlike CAPTCHA solutions that frustrate visitors, WebDecoy uses invisible multi-layer detection — legitimate users never see challenges or interruptions.

Works immediately on activation. No account needed. No API key required. No external connections at all until you optionally connect a WebDecoy Cloud account.

Why WebDecoy?

Zero friction — Humans never see CAPTCHAs or challenges
Zero configuration — Install, activate, done
Zero dependencies — Everything runs locally on your server
Multi-layer detection — Server-side + client-side + proof-of-work challenges
Free forever — Full protection at no cost. Premium cloud features are optional.

Free Features (No API Key Needed)

Server-Side Detection
* User-Agent analysis and HTTP header inspection
* Good bot verification (reverse DNS for Googlebot, Bingbot, etc.)
* MITRE ATT&CK path analysis (admin probing, config file access)
* Rate limiting with automatic blocking
* IP blocking (individual + CIDR, IPv4/IPv6, expiration)

Client-Side Detection
* WebDriver detection (Selenium, Puppeteer, Playwright)
* Headless browser detection (Chrome headless, PhantomJS)
* Automation framework detection
* Behavioral analysis (mouse movement, click patterns, scroll behavior)
* Canvas/WebGL fingerprinting
* AI crawler detection (GPTBot, ClaudeBot, PerplexityBot)

Invisible Proof-of-Work Challenges
* SHA-256 challenges solved in background (no user interaction)
* Challenge mode for suspicious requests (checkbox widget, auto-solves)
* Difficulty scales based on threat signals
* No external CAPTCHA service needed

Form Protection
* Comment spam protection
* Login brute force protection
* Registration spam prevention
* Invisible honeypot fields on comment, login, and registration forms

WooCommerce Protection
* Checkout carding attack prevention
* Velocity limiting (configurable attempts per time window)
* Card testing pattern detection
* WooCommerce Blocks compatible

Local Dashboard & Analytics
* Detection log with threat scores and MITRE tactic mapping
* Statistics page with 30-day trend charts
* Blocked IPs management
* Dashboard widget with threat overview
* CSV export
* Automatic data cleanup (30 days)

Smart Bot Recognition
* 60+ known good bots automatically allowed
* Search engines, social media, monitoring services, SEO tools
* Optional AI crawler blocking
* Custom allowlist support

Premium Features (Optional WebDecoy Cloud)

Connect an API key to unlock cloud-powered intelligence:

WAF Integrations — Arm your existing edge: push confirmed attackers to Cloudflare or AWS WAF so they’re blocked before a request ever reaches WordPress, plus webhooks for any other firewall
IP Reputation — AbuseIPDB integration, threat scoring
VPN/Proxy Detection — Identify visitors hiding behind VPNs, proxies, and Tor
GeoIP Enrichment — Geographic data from MaxMind
Cloud Sync — Forward detections to centralized dashboard
Cross-Site Intelligence — Aggregate threat data from all WebDecoy customers
Advanced Analytics — Cloud dashboard at app.webdecoy.com with indefinite history
Webhooks & Alerts — Automated response chains, email notifications

Explore Plans | Start Free Trial

Threat Scoring

WebDecoy uses an intelligent scoring system (0-100):

0-19: MINIMAL — Allow (likely human)
20-39: LOW — Log only
40-59: MEDIUM — Optional challenge
60-74: HIGH — Challenge or block
75-100: CRITICAL — Automatic block

The threshold is fully configurable to match your site’s needs.

External Services

This plugin can optionally connect to the following external services when you connect a WebDecoy Cloud account — either with the one-click Connect button or by entering an API key manually:

WebDecoy Cloud — app.webdecoy.com, api.webdecoy.com and ingest.webdecoy.com

This plugin only contacts WebDecoy Cloud after you explicitly start a connection on the WebDecoy Cloud settings tab. With no connection made and no API key configured, no data is ever sent to these services.

What is sent, and when:
* When you click “Connect to WebDecoy Cloud”: your browser is redirected to app.webdecoy.com to approve the connection (carrying your site URL, site name, a one-time nonce, and your monthly-report preference). After you approve, the plugin exchanges a one-time token with api.webdecoy.com (sending the token, your site URL and the nonce) to receive the site’s API keys. Cancelling sends nothing further.
* After connecting: the plugin fetches your plan entitlements from ingest.webdecoy.com (authenticated with your API key) twice daily.
* When a detection or rule violation occurs: the visitor’s IP address, user agent, request path, threat score and detection flags are sent to ingest.webdecoy.com so the event appears in your cloud dashboard.
* When you use an IP-reputation filter rule (e.g. ip.abuse_score, ip.tor): the visitor’s IP address is sent to ingest.webdecoy.com to look up reputation/geo data.
* When validating your key or forwarding a WooCommerce checkout detection: your API key, organization ID and the detection data above are sent to api.webdecoy.com / ingest.webdecoy.com.

All requests are made server-side over HTTPS. This is an optional cloud service provided by WebDecoy.
Terms of Service: https://webdecoy.com/terms
Privacy Policy: https://webdecoy.com/privacy

Without an API key, the plugin operates 100% locally — no external connections on the front end or back end. Chart.js (used for the admin Statistics charts) is bundled with the plugin, not loaded from a CDN.

Bundled third-party libraries

Chart.js v4.5.1 (MIT license) is included at admin/js/vendor/chart.umd.min.js for the admin Statistics charts. It is the official distribution build; the human-readable source is available at https://github.com/chartjs/Chart.js/releases/tag/v4.5.1 . No other third-party libraries are bundled.

Reference URLs in the good-bot database

The bundled good-bot list (sdk/src/GoodBotList.php) stores a documentation URL for each known bot (e.g. developer.amazon.com/amazonbot, api.slack.com/robots) purely as reference metadata shown alongside detections. These URLs are never requested by the plugin — no connection of any kind is made to them.

Privacy Policy

WebDecoy collects the following data locally for bot detection purposes:

IP addresses
User agent strings
HTTP headers
Browser fingerprint signals
Request patterns

This data is stored in your WordPress database and automatically cleaned up after 30 days. No data is sent externally unless you configure a WebDecoy Cloud API key.

For more information, see our Privacy Policy.

WebDecoy Bot Detection