Overview
JavaScript is Saudi Arabia's most common secondary barrier
| Value | |
|---|---|
| WAF | 92.8% |
| Antibot | 20.6% |
| CAPTCHA | 21.4% |
| JavaScript | 39.4% |
| Rate Limiting | 11.9% |
| TLS | 19.3% |
WAF reaches 92.8% across Saudi Arabia's 1,104 surveyed sites. Among secondary barriers, JavaScript leads at 39.4%. TLS (19.3%) outpaces Rate Limiting (11.9%), the least-deployed barrier in the set.
Barrier Landscape
JavaScript tops Saudi Arabia's active secondary defences
| Value | |
|---|---|
| WAF | 92.8% |
| Antibot | 20.6% |
| CAPTCHA | 21.4% |
| JavaScript | 39.4% |
| Rate Limiting | 11.9% |
| TLS | 19.3% |
| Has robots.txt | 79.8% |
| Blocks AI crawlers | 13.9% |
WAF is deployed by 92.8% of Saudi Arabia's sites. JavaScript (39.4%) is the strongest secondary barrier, followed by CAPTCHA at 21.4%, Antibot at 20.6%, and TLS at 19.3%. Rate Limiting stands at 11.9%.
Two barriers is the single most common site configuration
| % of sites | |
|---|---|
| 0 barriers | 4.9% |
| 1 barrier | 31.5% |
| 2 barriers | 34.6% |
| 3 barriers | 16.1% |
| 4 barriers | 8.5% |
| 5 barriers | 3.9% |
| 6 barriers | 0.5% |
4.9% of Saudi Arabia's sites present no barriers. Two barriers is the modal count, covering 34.6% of sites. Sites stacking three or more barriers account for 29.0% of the sample.
Most Saudi Arabia sites are Easy to access
| Mean recommended tier | |
|---|---|
| All sites | 1.7 |
Saudi Arabia's mean recommended browser tier is 1.70; the median sits at Tier 2. The gap between mean and median reflects a tail of harder sites pulling the mean below 2.
More than eight in ten sites are Simple or Easy to access
| % of sites | |
|---|---|
| 1 - Simple | 46.8% |
| 2 - Easy | 39.7% |
| 3 - Moderate | 10.6% |
| 4 - Complex | 2.2% |
| 5 - Advanced | 0.7% |
Tier 1 covers 46.8% of Saudi Arabia's sites; Tier 2 a further 39.7%. Tier 3 accounts for 10.6% of sites. Tier 4 and Tier 5 together make up the remaining 2.9%.
robots.txt
AI crawlers are the most-cited bot category in robots.txt
| % of sites | |
|---|---|
| AI crawlers | 15.7% |
| SEO / search indexing | 12.9% |
| SEO audit tools | 13.8% |
| Commercial scrapers | 8.4% |
| Social / content scrapers | 6.2% |
| Archive / research crawlers | 4.5% |
| Monitoring / uptime bots | 0.5% |
AI crawlers are named by 15.7% of Saudi Arabia's 1,104 sites — the highest of the seven bot categories measured. SEO audit tools follow at 13.8%, ahead of SEO / search indexing at 12.9%.
Uniform per-agent rules are the most common robots.txt posture
| % of sites | |
|---|---|
| Uniform per-agent rules (no path mixing) | 40.9% |
| Path-level mixed rules for same agent | 33.5% |
| Allow-only (no disallow rules) | 2.6% |
| Mixed AI posture (block some, allow others) | 2.6% |
| Blanket Disallow: / | 2.6% |
40.9% of Saudi Arabia's 1,104 sites use uniform per-agent rules. Path-level mixed rules account for 33.5%. The 20.2% of sites with no robots.txt are the implicit complement of the 79.8% that have one.
GPTBot leads both Disallow and explicit Allow rates
| Disallowed | Allowed (whitelisted) | |
|---|---|---|
| GPTBot | 11.2% | 2.8% |
| CCBot | 8.8% | 1.1% |
| ClaudeBot | 8.4% | 1.4% |
| Google-Extended | 8.1% | 1.4% |
| Bytespider | 7% | 0.4% |
| meta-externalagent | 3% | 0.2% |
| ChatGPT-User | 6.2% | 2.6% |
| PerplexityBot | 5.6% | 2.1% |
| Applebot-Extended | 4.9% | 0.5% |
| OAI-SearchBot | 4.3% | 1.9% |
| anthropic-ai | 5.1% | 0.7% |
GPTBot is named in a Disallow rule by 11.2% of Saudi Arabia's sites and in an Allow rule by 2.8% — the highest rates for any AI agent on both measures. CCBot is blocked by 8.8% of sites.
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% |
| Agriculture | 90% |
| Automotive | 90% |
| Civil Engineering | 90% |
| Comics & Animation | 90% |
| General | 90% |
| Healthcare | 90% |
| Insurance | 90% |
Computer & Video Games, Consumer Electronics, Design, Entertainment, Retail, Telecom, and Visual Art each show 100% of their sites naming at least one bot to restrict. The next tier of sectors stands at 90%.
Airlines and Retail lead explicit bot Allow rules
| % of sites | |
|---|---|
| Airlines | 80% |
| Retail | 80% |
| Photography | 70% |
| Publishing | 70% |
| Telecom | 70% |
| Travel & Tourism | 70% |
| Architecture | 60% |
| Automotive | 60% |
| Graphic Design | 60% |
| Non-Profit | 60% |
| Public Policy | 60% |
| Science | 60% |
| Software & Dev | 60% |
| Sporting Goods | 60% |
| Sports | 60% |
Airlines and Retail both record 80% of their sites naming at least one bot in an explicit Allow rule — the highest Allow rates in Saudi Arabia. Photography, Publishing, Telecom, and Travel & Tourism follow at 70%.
Industry Patterns
Hospitality and Jewellery & Luxury share the highest mean scraping difficulty
| WAF | Antibot | CAPTCHA | JavaScript | Rate Limit | TLS | robots.txt | Blocks AI | Tier | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hospitality | 90% | 20% | 0% | 60% | 30% | 40% | 50% | 10% | Tier 3 |
| Jewellery & Luxury | 100% | 20% | 10% | 30% | 30% | 50% | 70% | 10% | Tier 3 |
| Furniture | 100% | 50% | 30% | 30% | 20% | 70% | 70% | 10% | Tier 3 |
| Real Estate | 100% | 30% | 30% | 50% | 30% | 30% | 60% | 30% | Tier 3 |
| Equipment & Supplies | 90% | 30% | 20% | 50% | 20% | 10% | 70% | 20% | Tier 3 |
| Retail | 100% | 10% | 0% | 70% | 10% | 10% | 100% | 50% | Tier 2 |
| Apparel & Fashion | 100% | 20% | 30% | 60% | 20% | 30% | 80% | 10% | Tier 2 |
| Computer Hardware | 90% | 20% | 0% | 30% | 20% | 20% | 70% | 10% | Tier 2 |
| Medical Devices | 100% | 0% | 10% | 30% | 10% | 0% | 100% | 0% | Tier 2 |
| Beauty & Cosmetics | 90% | 20% | 10% | 40% | 30% | 20% | 80% | 10% | Tier 2 |
| Human Resources | 100% | 70% | 60% | 50% | 40% | 20% | 80% | 10% | Tier 2 |
| Wholesalers | 90% | 20% | 40% | 60% | 40% | 30% | 70% | 10% | Tier 2 |
| Banking | 100% | 20% | 20% | 30% | 10% | 10% | 70% | 0% | Tier 2 |
| Crafts | 100% | 30% | 30% | 50% | 20% | 10% | 80% | 20% | Tier 2 |
| Maritime | 90% | 10% | 10% | 30% | 10% | 30% | 90% | 10% | Tier 2 |
Hospitality and Jewellery & Luxury both record a mean recommended browser tier of 2.90 — the highest of any Saudi Arabia industry. Furniture follows at 2.70, with Real Estate at 2.60.
Five sectors share the most accessible floor
| WAF | Antibot | CAPTCHA | JavaScript | Rate Limit | TLS | robots.txt | Blocks AI | Tier | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Restaurants | 80% | 30% | 20% | 50% | 30% | 10% | 60% | 10% | Tier 2 |
| TV & Film | 100% | 40% | 20% | 50% | 20% | 10% | 70% | 10% | Tier 2 |
| Food & Beverages | 100% | 40% | 40% | 60% | 40% | 0% | 70% | 20% | Tier 2 |
| Consumer Electronics | 80% | 20% | 10% | 30% | 10% | 50% | 100% | 10% | Tier 2 |
| Design | 100% | 20% | 30% | 40% | 20% | 30% | 100% | 30% | Tier 2 |
| Insurance | 80% | 30% | 0% | 10% | 0% | 10% | 100% | 0% | Tier 2 |
| Mail & Delivery | 70% | 40% | 10% | 10% | 0% | 20% | 80% | 0% | Tier 2 |
| Public Safety | 100% | 40% | 40% | 60% | 20% | 40% | 90% | 10% | Tier 2 |
| Sporting Goods | 90% | 10% | 20% | 40% | 30% | 30% | 70% | 0% | Tier 2 |
| Transport & Logistics | 70% | 40% | 10% | 10% | 0% | 20% | 80% | 0% | Tier 2 |
| Adult | 100% | 40% | 30% | 80% | 10% | 20% | 90% | 10% | Tier 2 |
| Automotive | 80% | 10% | 10% | 30% | 20% | 50% | 90% | 10% | Tier 2 |
| Customer Services | 100% | 10% | 30% | 30% | 10% | 30% | 70% | 0% | Tier 2 |
| Manufacturing | 90% | 10% | 20% | 40% | 0% | 40% | 80% | 0% | Tier 2 |
| Recruitment & Staffing | 100% | 40% | 50% | 40% | 0% | 20% | 70% | 20% | Tier 2 |
Adult, Automotive, Customer Services, Manufacturing, and Recruitment & Staffing all record mean tier 1.90 — the lowest in Saudi Arabia's industry ranking. All five sit at a Tier 2 median.