Overview
Antibot and CAPTCHA are virtually tied as Rwanda's secondary barriers
| Value | |
|---|---|
| WAF | 92.5% |
| Antibot | 22.8% |
| CAPTCHA | 22.7% |
| JavaScript | 40.5% |
| Rate Limiting | 12.4% |
| TLS | 17.7% |
WAF covers 92.5% of Rwanda's 1,060 surveyed sites. Antibot (22.8%) and CAPTCHA (22.7%) are statistically identical as secondary barriers — an unusually close pairing — followed by JavaScript at 40.5%.
Barrier Landscape
JavaScript tops Rwanda's active secondary defences
| Value | |
|---|---|
| WAF | 92.5% |
| Antibot | 22.8% |
| CAPTCHA | 22.7% |
| JavaScript | 40.5% |
| Rate Limiting | 12.4% |
| TLS | 17.7% |
| Has robots.txt | 80.8% |
| Blocks AI crawlers | 13.1% |
After WAF at 92.5%, JavaScript stands at 40.5%. Antibot (22.8%) and CAPTCHA (22.7%) are separated by just 0.1 percentage points, placing them in a near-tie for third. TLS (17.7%) and Rate Limiting (12.4%) follow.
Two-barrier sites are Rwanda's most common configuration
| % of sites | |
|---|---|
| 0 barriers | 4.4% |
| 1 barrier | 31.1% |
| 2 barriers | 34.1% |
| 3 barriers | 17.3% |
| 4 barriers | 8.2% |
| 5 barriers | 4.6% |
| 6 barriers | 0.3% |
4.4% of Rwanda's 1,060 sites carry no detectable barrier. Two barriers is the most common configuration at 34.1%. Sites carrying three or more barriers account for 30.4% of the sample.
Most Rwanda sites are Simple to access
| Mean recommended tier | |
|---|---|
| All sites | 1.6 |
With a median of 1 and mean of 1.62, Rwanda's sites lean toward Simple access. Tier 1 accounts for 52.0% of sites — a slim majority. The 11.0% at Tiers 3–5 pull the mean above 1.
Nine in ten Rwanda sites are Simple or Easy to access
| % of sites | |
|---|---|
| 1 - Simple | 52% |
| 2 - Easy | 37% |
| 3 - Moderate | 8.5% |
| 4 - Complex | 1.6% |
| 5 - Advanced | 0.9% |
Tier 1 accounts for 52.0% of Rwanda's sites and Tier 2 for 37.0%, giving a combined Tier 1+2 share of 89.0%. Tier 3 covers 8.5%, Tier 4 covers 1.6%, and Tier 5 covers 0.9%.
robots.txt
AI crawlers lead Rwanda's robots.txt bot category mentions
| % of sites | |
|---|---|
| AI crawlers | 15.1% |
| SEO / search indexing | 13.2% |
| SEO audit tools | 12.2% |
| Commercial scrapers | 6.9% |
| Social / content scrapers | 6.1% |
| Archive / research crawlers | 3.7% |
| Monitoring / uptime bots | 0.3% |
AI crawlers are named in 15.1% of Rwanda's 1,060 sites — the top category. SEO / search indexing follows at 13.2% and SEO audit tools at 12.2%. Figures cover all sites including those without robots.txt.
Uniform rules are Rwanda's most common robots.txt posture
| % of sites | |
|---|---|
| Uniform per-agent rules (no path mixing) | 39% |
| Path-level mixed rules for same agent | 35.8% |
| Allow-only (no disallow rules) | 3% |
| Mixed AI posture (block some, allow others) | 2.3% |
| Blanket Disallow: / | 2.7% |
19.2% of Rwanda's sites have no robots.txt. Among those that do, uniform per-agent rules account for 39.0% of all sites and path-level mixed rules for 35.8%. Blanket Disallow: / covers 2.7%.
GPTBot faces the most Disallow rules in Rwanda's robots.txt
| Disallowed | Allowed (whitelisted) | |
|---|---|---|
| GPTBot | 10.7% | 2% |
| CCBot | 7.8% | 0.8% |
| ClaudeBot | 7.8% | 1.1% |
| Google-Extended | 7.7% | 1.3% |
| Bytespider | 6.6% | 0.4% |
| meta-externalagent | 3% | 0.3% |
| ChatGPT-User | 5.9% | 2.6% |
| PerplexityBot | 5.8% | 2.4% |
| Applebot-Extended | 4.7% | 0.3% |
| OAI-SearchBot | 3.4% | 1.9% |
| anthropic-ai | 4.6% | 0.8% |
GPTBot is Disallowed by 10.7% of Rwanda's 1,060 sites and explicitly Allowed by 2.0%. ChatGPT-User has the highest explicit Allow rate at 2.6%. All figures include sites without robots.txt.
Multiple Rwanda sectors all name at least one bot to restrict
| % of sites | |
|---|---|
| Design | 100% |
| Newspapers | 100% |
| Adult | 90% |
| Agriculture | 90% |
| Beauty & Cosmetics | 90% |
| Biotech | 90% |
| Computer & Video Games | 90% |
| Entertainment | 90% |
| Furniture | 90% |
| General | 90% |
| Investment | 90% |
| Mass Media | 90% |
| Online Services | 90% |
| Publishing | 90% |
| Retail | 90% |
Design and Newspapers are the only two sectors in which every surveyed Rwanda site names at least one bot to restrict in robots.txt. Thirteen additional sectors follow at 90%.
Ceramics & Pottery leads Rwanda's explicit bot Allow rate
| % of sites | |
|---|---|
| Ceramics & Pottery | 85.7% |
| Recreational Facilities | 75% |
| Airlines | 70% |
| Architecture | 70% |
| Customer Services | 70% |
| Investment | 70% |
| Photography | 70% |
| Publishing | 70% |
| Renewable Energy | 70% |
| Restaurants | 70% |
| Retail | 70% |
| Science | 70% |
| Travel & Tourism | 70% |
| Veterinary | 70% |
| Aerospace & Defence | 60% |
Ceramics & Pottery has the highest named-bot Allow rate in Rwanda at 85.7%. Recreational Facilities follows at 75.0%. Airlines, Architecture, Customer Services, Investment, Photography, Publishing, Renewable Energy, Restaurants, Retail, Science, Travel & Tourism, and Veterinary all stand at 70%.
Industry Patterns
Computer Hardware is Rwanda's hardest sector to access programmatically
| WAF | Antibot | CAPTCHA | JavaScript | Rate Limit | TLS | robots.txt | Blocks AI | Tier | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Computer Hardware | 80% | 10% | 0% | 20% | 20% | 30% | 70% | 0% | Tier 3 |
| Real Estate | 100% | 30% | 20% | 60% | 30% | 20% | 60% | 40% | Tier 3 |
| Retail | 100% | 10% | 0% | 70% | 20% | 10% | 90% | 50% | Tier 3 |
| Jewellery & Luxury | 90% | 30% | 0% | 50% | 30% | 40% | 80% | 10% | Tier 3 |
| Sporting Goods | 100% | 10% | 10% | 30% | 50% | 50% | 80% | 0% | Tier 3 |
| Hospitality | 100% | 20% | 0% | 70% | 20% | 30% | 60% | 10% | Tier 3 |
| Apparel & Fashion | 100% | 10% | 20% | 60% | 20% | 20% | 70% | 10% | Tier 2 |
| Automotive | 100% | 20% | 10% | 40% | 30% | 20% | 80% | 0% | Tier 2 |
| Furniture | 100% | 40% | 30% | 40% | 30% | 30% | 90% | 20% | Tier 2 |
| Equipment & Supplies | 100% | 40% | 10% | 60% | 20% | 10% | 70% | 10% | Tier 2 |
| Human Resources | 100% | 60% | 50% | 30% | 30% | 20% | 70% | 10% | Tier 2 |
| Beauty & Cosmetics | 80% | 30% | 20% | 30% | 30% | 40% | 90% | 10% | Tier 2 |
| Consumer Electronics | 70% | 30% | 10% | 30% | 10% | 40% | 80% | 0% | Tier 2 |
| Recruitment & Staffing | 100% | 30% | 50% | 40% | 0% | 10% | 80% | 10% | Tier 2 |
| Food & Beverages | 100% | 30% | 10% | 60% | 20% | 0% | 90% | 40% | Tier 2 |
Computer Hardware posts a mean browser tier of 2.85 and a median of 3 — the highest difficulty ranking of any Rwanda industry. Real Estate and Retail follow at mean 2.60, both also with a median of 3.
Rwanda's most accessible sectors share a floor mean tier of 1.80
| WAF | Antibot | CAPTCHA | JavaScript | Rate Limit | TLS | robots.txt | Blocks AI | Tier | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pharmaceuticals | 100% | 20% | 20% | 50% | 20% | 10% | 60% | 20% | Tier 2 |
| Design | 100% | 20% | 30% | 40% | 20% | 30% | 100% | 30% | Tier 2 |
| Mail & Delivery | 80% | 30% | 20% | 30% | 0% | 20% | 90% | 0% | Tier 2 |
| Manufacturing | 80% | 10% | 20% | 40% | 0% | 40% | 80% | 0% | Tier 2 |
| Banking | 100% | 20% | 10% | 30% | 20% | 0% | 70% | 10% | Tier 2 |
| Finance | 80% | 20% | 0% | 10% | 10% | 10% | 70% | 20% | Tier 2 |
| Import & Export | 100% | 20% | 20% | 50% | 0% | 20% | 80% | 10% | Tier 2 |
| Reference | 80% | 60% | 30% | 30% | 10% | 20% | 60% | 30% | Tier 2 |
| Sports | 100% | 10% | 30% | 60% | 10% | 10% | 90% | 40% | Tier 2 |
| Transport & Logistics | 80% | 40% | 10% | 20% | 0% | 30% | 90% | 0% | Tier 2 |
| Visual Art | 100% | 30% | 20% | 20% | 0% | 20% | 100% | 10% | Tier 2 |
| Adult | 100% | 40% | 30% | 70% | 10% | 20% | 90% | 10% | Tier 2 |
| Insurance | 90% | 50% | 20% | 30% | 20% | 20% | 80% | 0% | Tier 2 |
| Maritime | 80% | 30% | 0% | 40% | 10% | 20% | 80% | 10% | Tier 2 |
| Music | 100% | 30% | 20% | 60% | 20% | 10% | 100% | 20% | Tier 2 |
The lowest mean browser tier in Rwanda's bottom group is 1.80, reached by Adult, Insurance, Maritime, and Music. Design, Mail & Delivery, Manufacturing, Banking, Finance, Import & Export, Reference, Sports, Transport & Logistics, and Visual Art cluster between 1.90 and 2.00.