Overview
JavaScript heads a tightly bunched secondary barrier set
| Value | |
|---|---|
| WAF | 92.8% |
| Antibot | 22.4% |
| CAPTCHA | 21.5% |
| JavaScript | 43.1% |
| Rate Limiting | 14.3% |
| TLS | 18.6% |
WAF is deployed by 92.8% of Philippines sites. Among secondary barriers, JavaScript leads at 43.1%, followed by Antibot (22.4%), CAPTCHA (21.5%), TLS (18.6%), and Rate Limiting (14.3%) — a span of under 29 points across all five.
Barrier Landscape
Antibot edges past CAPTCHA among secondary barriers
| Value | |
|---|---|
| WAF | 92.8% |
| Antibot | 22.4% |
| CAPTCHA | 21.5% |
| JavaScript | 43.1% |
| Rate Limiting | 14.3% |
| TLS | 18.6% |
| Has robots.txt | 79.6% |
| Blocks AI crawlers | 14.1% |
WAF dominates at 92.8%. JavaScript is the clear secondary leader at 43.1%. Antibot (22.4%) narrowly exceeds CAPTCHA (21.5%). TLS stands at 18.6% and Rate Limiting at 14.3%, the least-deployed secondary.
Two-barrier sites are Philippines's most common configuration
| % of sites | |
|---|---|
| 0 barriers | 4.9% |
| 1 barrier | 28.7% |
| 2 barriers | 33.7% |
| 3 barriers | 18.7% |
| 4 barriers | 10% |
| 5 barriers | 3.7% |
| 6 barriers | 0.4% |
33.7% of sites carry exactly two barriers — the most frequent count. Sites with three or more barriers account for 32.8% in total. Only 4.9% of sites have no barriers at all.
Most Philippines sites are Easy to access
| Mean recommended tier | |
|---|---|
| All sites | 1.7 |
The browser-based median recommended tier is 2 and the mean is 1.73. Tier 1 and Tier 2 together cover 86.3% of sites. Fewer than one in seven sites requires more than standard browser-based retrieval.
Easy sites account for more than four in ten sites
| % of sites | |
|---|---|
| 1 - Simple | 44.2% |
| 2 - Easy | 42.1% |
| 3 - Moderate | 10.9% |
| 4 - Complex | 2.3% |
| 5 - Advanced | 0.5% |
44.2% of sites are Tier 1 (Simple). Tier 2 (Easy) is unusually large at 42.1%. Tier 3 covers 10.9%, with Tier 4 at 2.3% and Tier 5 at just 0.5% of sites.
robots.txt
AI crawlers are the most-cited bot category in robots.txt
| % of sites | |
|---|---|
| AI crawlers | 15.8% |
| SEO / search indexing | 11.9% |
| SEO audit tools | 13.5% |
| Commercial scrapers | 7.8% |
| Social / content scrapers | 5.9% |
| Archive / research crawlers | 4.5% |
| Monitoring / uptime bots | 0.5% |
15.8% of all 1,111 Philippines domains name an AI crawler in their robots.txt — the highest of any bot category. SEO audit tools follow at 13.5% and SEO/search indexing bots at 11.9%. Monitoring bots are named by only 0.5%.
Uniform per-agent rules are the dominant robots.txt pattern
| % of sites | |
|---|---|
| Uniform per-agent rules (no path mixing) | 42.4% |
| Path-level mixed rules for same agent | 32.2% |
| Allow-only (no disallow rules) | 2.2% |
| Mixed AI posture (block some, allow others) | 2.7% |
| Blanket Disallow: / | 2.6% |
42.4% of all sites use uniform per-agent rules with no path mixing. A further 32.2% apply path-level mixed rules. 20.4% publish no robots.txt. Blanket Disallow: / and mixed AI posture each apply to around 2.6–2.7%.
GPTBot is blocked by more sites than any other AI agent
| Disallowed | Allowed (whitelisted) | |
|---|---|---|
| GPTBot | 11.4% | 2.6% |
| CCBot | 8.7% | 1.3% |
| ClaudeBot | 8.3% | 1.2% |
| Google-Extended | 8.2% | 1.9% |
| Bytespider | 7.3% | 0.4% |
| meta-externalagent | 3.1% | 0.1% |
| ChatGPT-User | 5.9% | 2.7% |
| PerplexityBot | 6.1% | 2.4% |
| Applebot-Extended | 4.8% | 0.4% |
| OAI-SearchBot | 4.6% | 2.1% |
| anthropic-ai | 5.3% | 1% |
11.4% of all Philippines sites name GPTBot in a Disallow rule — the highest rate of any agent. CCBot follows at 8.7% and ClaudeBot at 8.3%. ChatGPT-User is the most explicitly allowed at 2.7%.
Seven sectors have every site naming at least one bot to restrict
| % of sites | |
|---|---|
| Computer & Video Games | 100% |
| Consumer Electronics | 100% |
| Design | 100% |
| Entertainment | 100% |
| Retail | 100% |
| Telecom | 100% |
| Visual Art | 100% |
| Adult | 90% |
| Airlines | 90% |
| Civil Engineering | 90% |
| Comics & Animation | 90% |
| General | 90% |
| Healthcare | 90% |
| Insurance | 90% |
| Machinery | 90% |
Computer & Video Games, Consumer Electronics, Design, Entertainment, Retail, Telecom, and Visual Art all reach 100% — every site in each sector names at least one bot in a Disallow rule. Eight further sectors reach 90%.
Eight sectors reach the top explicit bot Allow rate
| % of sites | |
|---|---|
| Airlines | 70% |
| Architecture | 70% |
| Automotive | 70% |
| Photography | 70% |
| Publishing | 70% |
| Retail | 70% |
| Science | 70% |
| Wholesalers | 70% |
| Agriculture | 60% |
| Graphic Design | 60% |
| Outsourcing | 60% |
| Real Estate | 60% |
| Renewable Energy | 60% |
| Software & Dev | 60% |
| Telecom | 60% |
Airlines, Architecture, Automotive, Photography, Publishing, Retail, Science, and Wholesalers each see 70% of their sites name at least one bot in an explicit Allow rule. A further seven sectors reach 60%.
Industry Patterns
Hospitality and Jewellery & Luxury share the hardest access profile
| WAF | Antibot | CAPTCHA | JavaScript | Rate Limit | TLS | robots.txt | Blocks AI | Tier | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hospitality | 90% | 30% | 0% | 60% | 30% | 40% | 60% | 10% | Tier 3 |
| Jewellery & Luxury | 100% | 20% | 10% | 30% | 30% | 50% | 60% | 0% | Tier 3 |
| Furniture | 100% | 50% | 20% | 20% | 20% | 40% | 70% | 10% | Tier 3 |
| Equipment & Supplies | 90% | 30% | 10% | 50% | 20% | 10% | 70% | 20% | Tier 3 |
| Beauty & Cosmetics | 90% | 40% | 20% | 30% | 40% | 20% | 80% | 20% | Tier 3 |
| Medical Devices | 90% | 20% | 0% | 50% | 20% | 0% | 80% | 0% | Tier 3 |
| Real Estate | 100% | 20% | 20% | 60% | 50% | 20% | 60% | 20% | Tier 2 |
| Retail | 100% | 10% | 0% | 70% | 10% | 10% | 100% | 50% | Tier 2 |
| Human Resources | 100% | 70% | 60% | 40% | 50% | 30% | 80% | 10% | Tier 2 |
| Computer Hardware | 90% | 20% | 0% | 30% | 20% | 20% | 70% | 10% | Tier 2 |
| Insurance | 80% | 20% | 0% | 30% | 0% | 20% | 90% | 0% | Tier 2 |
| Restaurants | 90% | 40% | 30% | 60% | 40% | 10% | 60% | 20% | Tier 2 |
| Apparel & Fashion | 100% | 20% | 30% | 70% | 30% | 30% | 80% | 10% | Tier 2 |
| Consumer Electronics | 80% | 10% | 20% | 50% | 10% | 40% | 100% | 20% | Tier 2 |
| Customer Services | 100% | 20% | 30% | 60% | 30% | 10% | 60% | 0% | Tier 2 |
Hospitality and Jewellery & Luxury both record a mean recommended tier of 2.80 — the highest in the Philippines. Furniture follows at 2.70. Equipment & Supplies sits at 2.60. Beauty & Cosmetics, Medical Devices, Real Estate, and Retail all share a mean of 2.50.
Recruitment & Staffing anchors the most accessible sector group
| WAF | Antibot | CAPTCHA | JavaScript | Rate Limit | TLS | robots.txt | Blocks AI | Tier | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sporting Goods | 90% | 10% | 20% | 50% | 30% | 30% | 60% | 0% | Tier 2 |
| Textiles & Nonwovens | 100% | 0% | 30% | 60% | 0% | 10% | 100% | 10% | Tier 2 |
| Transport & Logistics | 70% | 40% | 10% | 10% | 0% | 20% | 80% | 0% | Tier 2 |
| Wine & Spirits | 100% | 50% | 20% | 70% | 30% | 10% | 80% | 40% | Tier 2 |
| Food & Beverages | 100% | 30% | 20% | 60% | 30% | 0% | 70% | 30% | Tier 2 |
| Crafts | 100% | 30% | 30% | 60% | 20% | 10% | 70% | 20% | Tier 2 |
| Design | 100% | 20% | 30% | 40% | 20% | 30% | 100% | 30% | Tier 2 |
| Mail & Delivery | 70% | 40% | 10% | 10% | 0% | 20% | 80% | 0% | Tier 2 |
| Telecom | 90% | 10% | 20% | 60% | 0% | 30% | 100% | 20% | Tier 2 |
| Adult | 100% | 40% | 40% | 80% | 20% | 20% | 90% | 10% | Tier 2 |
| Healthcare | 100% | 10% | 10% | 30% | 0% | 10% | 100% | 40% | Tier 2 |
| Manufacturing | 80% | 10% | 10% | 30% | 0% | 40% | 70% | 0% | Tier 2 |
| Maritime | 100% | 10% | 10% | 40% | 10% | 30% | 100% | 10% | Tier 2 |
| Plastics & Polymers | 90% | 10% | 20% | 40% | 0% | 10% | 80% | 0% | Tier 2 |
| Recruitment & Staffing | 100% | 50% | 70% | 20% | 10% | 30% | 80% | 30% | Tier 2 |
Recruitment & Staffing has the lowest mean tier at 1.90, alongside Adult, Healthcare, Manufacturing, Maritime, and Plastics & Polymers. Despite high CAPTCHA (70%) deployment, Recruitment & Staffing remains among the easiest sectors to access.