Overview
JavaScript is slightly elevated on Croatian sites
| Value | |
|---|---|
| WAF | 93.2% |
| Antibot | 20.7% |
| CAPTCHA | 21.7% |
| JavaScript | 43% |
| Rate Limiting | 13.1% |
| TLS | 17.9% |
WAF sits at 93.2%, in line with the global 93.1%. JavaScript (43.0%) is the leading secondary barrier and edges above the global 41.3%. Antibot (20.7%), CAPTCHA (21.7%), TLS (17.9%), and rate limiting (13.1%) all track the global benchmark closely.
Barrier Landscape
JavaScript tops Croatia's active secondary defences
| Value | |
|---|---|
| WAF | 93.2% |
| Antibot | 20.7% |
| CAPTCHA | 21.7% |
| JavaScript | 43% |
| Rate Limiting | 13.1% |
| TLS | 17.9% |
| Has robots.txt | 82.5% |
| Blocks AI crawlers | 14.5% |
WAF is present on 93.2% of Croatian sites. JavaScript (43.0%) and CAPTCHA (21.7%) rank first and second among secondary barriers, both close to global averages.
Most Croatian sites carry at least two barriers
| % of sites | |
|---|---|
| 0 barriers | 4.3% |
| 1 barrier | 29.2% |
| 2 barriers | 36.1% |
| 3 barriers | 18.8% |
| 4 barriers | 7.1% |
| 5 barriers | 4.3% |
| 6 barriers | 0.5% |
36.1% of sites carry exactly two barriers — the modal count. Single-barrier sites account for 29.2%; 4.3% have none. 30.7% deploy three or more barriers.
Most Croatian sites are Easy to access
| Mean recommended tier | |
|---|---|
| All sites | 1.7 |
The browser-based median tier is 2, indicating fewer than half of sites resolve at Tier 1. The mean tier is 1.66.
Most Croatian sites are Simple or Easy to access
| % of sites | |
|---|---|
| 1 - Simple | 49.1% |
| 2 - Easy | 38.5% |
| 3 - Moderate | 10.4% |
| 4 - Complex | 1.4% |
| 5 - Advanced | 0.6% |
Tier 1 accounts for 49.1% and Tier 2 for 38.5%, giving a combined 87.6%. Tier 3 holds 10.4%, Tier 4 1.4%, and Tier 5 0.6%.
robots.txt
AI crawlers top Croatia's robots.txt bot categories
| % of sites | |
|---|---|
| AI crawlers | 15.9% |
| SEO / search indexing | 13.3% |
| SEO audit tools | 14.5% |
| Commercial scrapers | 8.9% |
| Social / content scrapers | 5.5% |
| Archive / research crawlers | 4.8% |
| Monitoring / uptime bots | 0.5% |
Across all 1,104 Croatian sites, 15.9% name at least one AI crawler, 14.5% name an SEO audit tool, and 13.3% name an SEO or search-indexing bot. Commercial scrapers appear on 8.9% of sites.
Uniform rules are Croatia's most common robots.txt posture
| % of sites | |
|---|---|
| Uniform per-agent rules (no path mixing) | 43.3% |
| Path-level mixed rules for same agent | 34.5% |
| Allow-only (no disallow rules) | 2% |
| Mixed AI posture (block some, allow others) | 2.4% |
| Blanket Disallow: / | 2.5% |
17.5% of sites have no robots.txt. Among those with one, the leading posture is uniform per-agent rules (43.3%), followed by path-level mixed rules (34.5%). Blanket Disallow: / covers 2.5% and mixed-AI posture 2.4%.
GPTBot faces the most Disallow rules in Croatia's robots.txt
| Disallowed | Allowed (whitelisted) | |
|---|---|---|
| GPTBot | 11.8% | 2.2% |
| CCBot | 9.1% | 0.9% |
| ClaudeBot | 8.8% | 1% |
| Google-Extended | 8.3% | 1.2% |
| Bytespider | 7.4% | 0.3% |
| meta-externalagent | 3.2% | — |
| ChatGPT-User | 6% | 2.4% |
| PerplexityBot | 5.9% | 1.5% |
| Applebot-Extended | 5.5% | 0.5% |
| OAI-SearchBot | 4.3% | 2.1% |
| anthropic-ai | 5.5% | 0.6% |
GPTBot is named in a Disallow rule on 11.8% of all Croatian sites — the highest block rate of any AI agent. ChatGPT-User receives an explicit Allow on 2.4% of sites.
Six Croatian sectors all name at least one bot to restrict
| % of sites | |
|---|---|
| Computer & Video Games | 100% |
| Design | 100% |
| Entertainment | 100% |
| Outsourcing | 100% |
| Retail | 100% |
| Visual Art | 100% |
| Adult | 90% |
| Apparel & Fashion | 90% |
| Beauty & Cosmetics | 90% |
| Consulting | 90% |
| Crafts | 90% |
| Customer Services | 90% |
| Foreign Language | 90% |
| General | 90% |
| Healthcare | 90% |
Computer & Video Games, Design, Entertainment, Outsourcing, Retail, and Visual Art each reach 100%: every site in those sectors names at least one bot to restrict in a Disallow rule.
Croatia's Warehousing sector leads in explicitly allowing crawlers
| % of sites | |
|---|---|
| Warehousing | 90% |
| Architecture | 80% |
| Airlines | 70% |
| Investment | 70% |
| Non-Profit | 70% |
| Pharmaceuticals | 70% |
| Photography | 70% |
| Plastics & Polymers | 70% |
| Publishing | 70% |
| Real Estate | 70% |
| Retail | 70% |
| Science | 70% |
| Travel & Tourism | 70% |
| Automotive | 60% |
| Customer Services | 60% |
Warehousing has the highest explicit allow rate at 90%: every surveyed site in that sector names at least one bot to allow. Architecture follows at 80%; eleven further sectors reach 70%.
Industry Patterns
Jewellery & Luxury and Real Estate are Croatia's hardest sectors to access
| WAF | Antibot | CAPTCHA | JavaScript | Rate Limit | TLS | robots.txt | Blocks AI | Tier | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jewellery & Luxury | 100% | 10% | 10% | 30% | 60% | 60% | 60% | 0% | Tier 3 |
| Real Estate | 100% | 10% | 10% | 30% | 30% | 20% | 70% | 30% | Tier 3 |
| Apparel & Fashion | 90% | 10% | 20% | 60% | 20% | 30% | 90% | 10% | Tier 2 |
| Hospitality | 90% | 20% | 0% | 70% | 30% | 30% | 60% | 10% | Tier 2 |
| Retail | 100% | 0% | 0% | 60% | 30% | 20% | 100% | 40% | Tier 2 |
| Beauty & Cosmetics | 100% | 20% | 10% | 60% | 30% | 20% | 90% | 10% | Tier 2 |
| Food & Beverages | 100% | 60% | 30% | 60% | 40% | 0% | 80% | 40% | Tier 2 |
| Computer Hardware | 90% | 20% | 0% | 40% | 20% | 40% | 90% | 10% | Tier 2 |
| Consumer Electronics | 70% | 20% | 10% | 40% | 10% | 40% | 80% | 10% | Tier 2 |
| Human Resources | 100% | 60% | 50% | 40% | 30% | 20% | 80% | 10% | Tier 2 |
| Medical Devices | 100% | 0% | 0% | 40% | 10% | 10% | 100% | 10% | Tier 2 |
| Crafts | 100% | 20% | 30% | 40% | 10% | 10% | 90% | 20% | Tier 2 |
| Textiles & Nonwovens | 100% | 0% | 20% | 30% | 0% | 20% | 100% | 10% | Tier 2 |
| Automotive | 90% | 20% | 10% | 10% | 20% | 30% | 80% | 0% | Tier 2 |
| Design | 100% | 20% | 30% | 40% | 20% | 30% | 100% | 30% | Tier 2 |
Jewellery & Luxury records the highest mean tier at 2.90, with Real Estate at 2.80. Apparel & Fashion, Hospitality, and Retail form a cluster at 2.50 immediately below.
Five Croatian sectors share the most accessible floor
| WAF | Antibot | CAPTCHA | JavaScript | Rate Limit | TLS | robots.txt | Blocks AI | Tier | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Equipment & Supplies | 90% | 40% | 10% | 40% | 10% | 0% | 80% | 10% | Tier 2 |
| Mail & Delivery | 70% | 40% | 10% | 10% | 0% | 20% | 80% | 0% | Tier 2 |
| Manufacturing | 80% | 10% | 20% | 40% | 0% | 40% | 80% | 0% | Tier 2 |
| Oil & Gas | 80% | 0% | 0% | 50% | 0% | 30% | 80% | 10% | Tier 2 |
| Pharmaceuticals | 100% | 30% | 10% | 60% | 20% | 10% | 90% | 10% | Tier 2 |
| Recruitment & Staffing | 100% | 40% | 50% | 40% | 0% | 10% | 90% | 20% | Tier 2 |
| Restaurants | 90% | 50% | 30% | 70% | 50% | 30% | 70% | 10% | Tier 2 |
| Transport & Logistics | 70% | 50% | 10% | 20% | 0% | 20% | 80% | 0% | Tier 2 |
| Veterinary | 100% | 20% | 10% | 60% | 30% | 0% | 90% | 10% | Tier 2 |
| Wholesalers | 80% | 30% | 40% | 40% | 30% | 30% | 70% | 10% | Tier 2 |
| Customer Services | 100% | 20% | 20% | 50% | 20% | 10% | 90% | 20% | Tier 2 |
| Education | 100% | 20% | 10% | 20% | 10% | 10% | 70% | 10% | Tier 2 |
| Import & Export | 100% | 30% | 40% | 40% | 0% | 40% | 80% | 10% | Tier 2 |
| Music | 100% | 40% | 30% | 70% | 30% | 20% | 80% | 10% | Tier 2 |
| Visual Art | 100% | 30% | 20% | 30% | 0% | 20% | 100% | 20% | Tier 2 |
Customer Services, Education, Import & Export, Music, and Visual Art all record a mean tier of 1.90 — the lowest in the bottom-industry group — indicating near-Tier-1 accessibility on average.