Overview
JavaScript leads Malta's secondary barriers, with CAPTCHA second
| Value | |
|---|---|
| WAF | 93.9% |
| Antibot | 20.5% |
| CAPTCHA | 23.9% |
| JavaScript | 43.3% |
| Rate Limiting | 12.6% |
| TLS | 16.9% |
WAF adoption is 93.9%, above the global 93.1%. JavaScript (43.3%) leads among secondary barriers, above the global 41.3%. CAPTCHA (23.9%) is marginally above the global 23.1%. TLS (16.9%) is slightly below the global 17.7%.
Barrier Landscape
CAPTCHA and JavaScript lead Malta's active secondary barriers
| Value | |
|---|---|
| WAF | 93.9% |
| Antibot | 20.5% |
| CAPTCHA | 23.9% |
| JavaScript | 43.3% |
| Rate Limiting | 12.6% |
| TLS | 16.9% |
| Has robots.txt | 80.6% |
| Blocks AI crawlers | 14.2% |
WAF is present on 93.9% of Malta sites. JavaScript (43.3%) leads among secondary barriers, followed by CAPTCHA (23.9%). Antibot (20.5%) and Rate Limiting (12.6%) are close to global averages.
Most Malta sites carry two barriers
| % of sites | |
|---|---|
| 0 barriers | 4.2% |
| 1 barrier | 29.4% |
| 2 barriers | 35.7% |
| 3 barriers | 17.1% |
| 4 barriers | 8.9% |
| 5 barriers | 4.3% |
| 6 barriers | 0.3% |
Two barriers is the modal count at 35.7% of sites. One barrier accounts for 29.4%; zero-barrier sites are 4.2%. Sites carrying three or more barriers total 30.6%.
Most Malta sites need Easy-tier access to retrieve content
| Mean recommended tier | |
|---|---|
| All sites | 1.7 |
The median recommended tier is 2, meaning fewer than half of sites are fully accessible via plain HTTP. The mean tier is 1.66 across 1,086 sites.
Nearly nine in ten Malta sites are Simple or Easy to access
| % of sites | |
|---|---|
| 1 - Simple | 49.4% |
| 2 - Easy | 38.6% |
| 3 - Moderate | 9.4% |
| 4 - Complex | 2% |
| 5 - Advanced | 0.6% |
Tier 1 accounts for 49.4% and Tier 2 for 38.6%, combining to 88.0%. Tier 3 is 9.4%, Tier 4 is 2.0%, and Tier 5 is 0.6%.
robots.txt
AI crawlers top Malta's robots.txt bot categories
| % of sites | |
|---|---|
| AI crawlers | 16.2% |
| SEO / search indexing | 12.3% |
| SEO audit tools | 13% |
| Commercial scrapers | 8.6% |
| Social / content scrapers | 6.7% |
| Archive / research crawlers | 5.2% |
| Monitoring / uptime bots | 0.6% |
Across all 1,086 Malta sites, 16.2% name at least one AI crawler, 13.0% name an SEO audit tool, and 12.3% name an SEO/search indexing bot. Commercial scrapers appear on 8.6% of sites.
Uniform rules are Malta's most common robots.txt posture
| % of sites | |
|---|---|
| Uniform per-agent rules (no path mixing) | 41.3% |
| Path-level mixed rules for same agent | 34% |
| Allow-only (no disallow rules) | 2.6% |
| Mixed AI posture (block some, allow others) | 2.4% |
| Blanket Disallow: / | 2.6% |
Uniform per-agent rules cover 41.3% of all sites; path-level mixed rules 34.0%. 19.4% of sites have no robots.txt. Blanket Disallow: / applies to 2.6% and mixed-AI posture to 2.4%.
GPTBot faces the most Disallow rules in Malta's robots.txt
| Disallowed | Allowed (whitelisted) | |
|---|---|---|
| GPTBot | 11.7% | 2.7% |
| CCBot | 8.7% | 1.1% |
| ClaudeBot | 8.7% | 1.3% |
| Google-Extended | 8.4% | 1.5% |
| Bytespider | 7.4% | 0.4% |
| meta-externalagent | 3.3% | 0.3% |
| ChatGPT-User | 5.8% | 2.8% |
| PerplexityBot | 5.9% | 2% |
| Applebot-Extended | 5.3% | 0.4% |
| OAI-SearchBot | 3.9% | 1.8% |
| anthropic-ai | 5.2% | 0.7% |
GPTBot is named in a Disallow rule on 11.7% of all Malta sites, the highest block rate of any AI agent. ChatGPT-User is the most-allowed agent at 2.8% of all sites.
Eight Malta sectors all name at least one bot to restrict
| % of sites | |
|---|---|
| Computer & Video Games | 100% |
| Design | 100% |
| Entertainment | 100% |
| Newspapers | 100% |
| Performing Arts | 100% |
| Printing | 100% |
| Retail | 100% |
| Visual Art | 100% |
| Adult | 90% |
| Apparel & Fashion | 90% |
| Beauty & Cosmetics | 90% |
| Ceramics & Pottery | 90% |
| Civil Engineering | 90% |
| Comics & Animation | 90% |
| Crafts | 90% |
Computer & Video Games, Design, Entertainment, Newspapers, Performing Arts, Printing, Retail, and Visual Art each reach 100%: every site in those sectors names at least one bot to restrict in a Disallow rule.
Malta's Airlines sites lead in explicitly allowing crawlers
| % of sites | |
|---|---|
| Airlines | 80% |
| Architecture | 70% |
| Construction | 70% |
| Photography | 70% |
| Publishing | 70% |
| Real Estate | 70% |
| Retail | 70% |
| Science | 70% |
| Travel & Tourism | 70% |
| Chemicals | 60% |
| Education | 60% |
| Import & Export | 60% |
| Investment | 60% |
| Market Research | 60% |
| Performing Arts | 60% |
Airlines tops the allowlist chart at 80%, meaning 80% of sites name at least one bot to allow in an Allow rule. Eight further sectors — including Architecture, Construction, Retail, and Science — reach 70%.
Industry Patterns
Hospitality is Malta's hardest sector to access programmatically
| WAF | Antibot | CAPTCHA | JavaScript | Rate Limit | TLS | robots.txt | Blocks AI | Tier | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hospitality | 90% | 20% | 0% | 60% | 30% | 40% | 60% | 20% | Tier 3 |
| Computer Hardware | 90% | 30% | 10% | 30% | 30% | 30% | 80% | 10% | Tier 3 |
| Jewellery & Luxury | 100% | 30% | 20% | 30% | 30% | 50% | 60% | 0% | Tier 3 |
| Medical Devices | 100% | 10% | 10% | 50% | 20% | 0% | 90% | 0% | Tier 2 |
| Real Estate | 100% | 10% | 10% | 40% | 30% | 20% | 70% | 40% | Tier 2 |
| Automotive | 100% | 30% | 0% | 50% | 50% | 30% | 70% | 10% | Tier 2 |
| Consumer Electronics | 80% | 30% | 20% | 50% | 30% | 30% | 70% | 10% | Tier 2 |
| Human Resources | 100% | 60% | 50% | 40% | 30% | 20% | 80% | 10% | Tier 2 |
| Retail | 100% | 0% | 0% | 60% | 20% | 20% | 100% | 50% | Tier 2 |
| Apparel & Fashion | 90% | 10% | 20% | 50% | 20% | 40% | 90% | 10% | Tier 2 |
| Beauty & Cosmetics | 80% | 30% | 20% | 30% | 30% | 40% | 90% | 10% | Tier 2 |
| Furniture | 100% | 30% | 20% | 50% | 30% | 30% | 70% | 10% | Tier 2 |
| Restaurants | 90% | 30% | 30% | 60% | 50% | 20% | 70% | 10% | Tier 2 |
| Food & Beverages | 100% | 50% | 50% | 50% | 30% | 0% | 80% | 40% | Tier 2 |
| Equipment & Supplies | 90% | 40% | 20% | 60% | 40% | 0% | 50% | 0% | Tier 2 |
Hospitality has the highest mean tier at 2.70, followed by Computer Hardware and Jewellery & Luxury, both at 2.60. Medical Devices (2.50) and Real Estate (2.40) complete the top five.
Seven Malta sectors share the most accessible tier floor
| WAF | Antibot | CAPTCHA | JavaScript | Rate Limit | TLS | robots.txt | Blocks AI | Tier | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Recruitment & Staffing | 100% | 40% | 50% | 40% | 0% | 10% | 70% | 20% | Tier 2 |
| Crafts | 100% | 20% | 30% | 50% | 10% | 10% | 90% | 20% | Tier 2 |
| Design | 100% | 20% | 30% | 40% | 20% | 30% | 100% | 30% | Tier 2 |
| Education | 100% | 10% | 0% | 20% | 0% | 0% | 70% | 0% | Tier 2 |
| Import & Export | 100% | 30% | 40% | 40% | 0% | 40% | 90% | 10% | Tier 2 |
| Mail & Delivery | 70% | 40% | 10% | 10% | 0% | 20% | 80% | 0% | Tier 2 |
| Maritime | 90% | 10% | 0% | 50% | 10% | 30% | 90% | 10% | Tier 2 |
| Sporting Goods | 80% | 20% | 30% | 20% | 30% | 20% | 60% | 0% | Tier 2 |
| Reference | 90% | 60% | 30% | 50% | 30% | 10% | 60% | 30% | Tier 2 |
| Textiles & Nonwovens | 100% | 10% | 40% | 40% | 10% | 10% | 90% | 10% | Tier 2 |
| Transport & Logistics | 70% | 40% | 10% | 20% | 0% | 20% | 80% | 0% | Tier 2 |
| TV & Film | 100% | 40% | 10% | 60% | 20% | 20% | 70% | 10% | Tier 2 |
| Visual Art | 100% | 30% | 20% | 30% | 0% | 20% | 100% | 20% | Tier 2 |
| Wholesalers | 90% | 20% | 30% | 50% | 20% | 20% | 60% | 0% | Tier 2 |
| Wine & Spirits | 100% | 30% | 10% | 40% | 20% | 0% | 70% | 30% | Tier 2 |
Reference, Textiles & Nonwovens, Transport & Logistics, TV & Film, Visual Art, Wholesalers, and Wine & Spirits all record a mean tier of 1.90, the lowest in the bottom-sector group.