Overview
JavaScript leads Ecuador's secondary barriers by a clear margin
| Value | |
|---|---|
| WAF | 93.2% |
| Antibot | 20.5% |
| CAPTCHA | 20.9% |
| JavaScript | 42.5% |
| Rate Limiting | 12.3% |
| TLS | 17.6% |
WAF reaches 93.2% of sites. JavaScript is the strongest secondary barrier at 42.5%. CAPTCHA (20.9%) narrowly edges Antibot (20.5%). Rate Limiting is lowest at 12.3%.
Barrier Landscape
CAPTCHA and Antibot are in a near-dead heat among secondary barriers
| Value | |
|---|---|
| WAF | 93.2% |
| Antibot | 20.5% |
| CAPTCHA | 20.9% |
| JavaScript | 42.5% |
| Rate Limiting | 12.3% |
| TLS | 17.6% |
| Has robots.txt | 79.7% |
| Blocks AI crawlers | 13.5% |
WAF leads at 93.2%. JavaScript reaches 42.5%. CAPTCHA (20.9%) and Antibot (20.5%) are separated by 0.4 percentage points — an unusually tight pairing among the secondary barriers.
Two barriers is the most common site configuration
| % of sites | |
|---|---|
| 0 barriers | 4.8% |
| 1 barrier | 29.4% |
| 2 barriers | 36.4% |
| 3 barriers | 16.9% |
| 4 barriers | 9.1% |
| 5 barriers | 2.9% |
| 6 barriers | 0.5% |
36.4% of sites carry exactly two barriers — the most common count. 4.8% have zero. 29.4% deploy three or more barriers, with 0.5% using all six.
Most Ecuador sites are Easy to access programmatically
| Mean recommended tier | |
|---|---|
| All sites | 1.7 |
Mean recommended tier is 1.67 with a median of 2, indicating that fewer than 50% of Ecuador sites resolve at the simplest retrieval level. The distribution skews toward Tier 1 and 2.
Nearly nine in 10 Ecuador sites are Simple or Easy to access
| % of sites | |
|---|---|
| 1 - Simple | 48.9% |
| 2 - Easy | 38.2% |
| 3 - Moderate | 10.2% |
| 4 - Complex | 2.3% |
| 5 - Advanced | 0.5% |
Tier 1 accounts for 48.9% of sites and Tier 2 for 38.2% — 87.1% combined. Tier 3 reaches 10.2%, with Tier 4 at 2.3% and Tier 5 at 0.5%.
robots.txt
AI crawlers top the named-bot hierarchy in robots.txt
| % of sites | |
|---|---|
| AI crawlers | 15.7% |
| SEO / search indexing | 11.6% |
| SEO audit tools | 14% |
| Commercial scrapers | 7.9% |
| Social / content scrapers | 5.9% |
| Archive / research crawlers | 4.9% |
| Monitoring / uptime bots | 0.5% |
15.7% of all Ecuador sites name at least one AI crawler in robots.txt — the highest category. SEO audit tools follow at 14.0%, SEO/search indexing at 11.6%. Monitoring bots appear in only 0.5% of files.
Uniform per-agent rules are the most common posture
| % of sites | |
|---|---|
| Uniform per-agent rules (no path mixing) | 41.4% |
| Path-level mixed rules for same agent | 33.1% |
| Allow-only (no disallow rules) | 2.4% |
| Mixed AI posture (block some, allow others) | 2.4% |
| Blanket Disallow: / | 2.4% |
41.4% of all sites use uniform per-agent rules with no path mixing. Path-level mixed rules account for 33.1%. Allow-only, Mixed AI posture, and Blanket Disallow each sit at 2.4%.
GPTBot draws the highest block rate among named agents
| Disallowed | Allowed (whitelisted) | |
|---|---|---|
| GPTBot | 10.9% | 2.3% |
| CCBot | 8.6% | 1.2% |
| ClaudeBot | 8.2% | 1.1% |
| Google-Extended | 8.3% | 1.6% |
| Bytespider | 6.9% | 0.3% |
| meta-externalagent | 3% | 0.1% |
| ChatGPT-User | 5.6% | 2.8% |
| PerplexityBot | 5.9% | 2.2% |
| Applebot-Extended | 4.9% | 0.3% |
| OAI-SearchBot | 4.7% | 2.3% |
| anthropic-ai | 4.6% | 0.5% |
GPTBot is Disallowed by 10.9% of all sites — the top blocked agent. CCBot (8.6%) and Google-Extended (8.3%) follow. ChatGPT-User receives the highest explicit Allow rate at 2.8%.
Five sectors unanimously name at least one bot to restrict
| % of sites | |
|---|---|
| Computer & Video Games | 100% |
| Design | 100% |
| Entertainment | 100% |
| Newspapers | 100% |
| Retail | 100% |
| Adult | 90% |
| Architecture | 90% |
| Civil Engineering | 90% |
| Comics & Animation | 90% |
| Foreign Language | 90% |
| General | 90% |
| Healthcare | 90% |
| Insurance | 90% |
| Investment | 90% |
| Mass Media | 90% |
Computer & Video Games, Design, Entertainment, Newspapers, and Retail each show 100% of sites naming at least one bot in a Disallow rule. Nine further sectors sit at 90%.
Ten sectors are tied on explicit bot Allow rules in Ecuador
| % of sites | |
|---|---|
| Architecture | 70% |
| Automotive | 70% |
| Investment | 70% |
| Oil & Gas | 70% |
| Photography | 70% |
| Public Relations | 70% |
| Public Utility | 70% |
| Publishing | 70% |
| Retail | 70% |
| Science | 70% |
| Agriculture | 60% |
| Airlines | 60% |
| Graphic Design | 60% |
| Mental Health | 60% |
| Plastics & Polymers | 60% |
Architecture, Automotive, Investment, Oil & Gas, Photography, Public Relations, Public Utility, Publishing, Retail, and Science all have 70% of sites naming at least one bot in an Allow rule. Agriculture, Airlines, Graphic Design, Mental Health, and Plastics & Polymers follow at 60%.
Industry Patterns
Real Estate is the hardest sector to access programmatically in Ecuador
| WAF | Antibot | CAPTCHA | JavaScript | Rate Limit | TLS | robots.txt | Blocks AI | Tier | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Real Estate | 100% | 20% | 10% | 50% | 50% | 20% | 60% | 30% | Tier 3 |
| Jewellery & Luxury | 100% | 20% | 10% | 30% | 30% | 60% | 70% | 10% | Tier 3 |
| Equipment & Supplies | 90% | 40% | 10% | 60% | 20% | 10% | 60% | 10% | Tier 3 |
| Furniture | 100% | 30% | 20% | 30% | 10% | 60% | 70% | 10% | Tier 3 |
| Hospitality | 90% | 20% | 0% | 50% | 30% | 50% | 70% | 20% | Tier 3 |
| Retail | 100% | 10% | 0% | 70% | 10% | 10% | 100% | 50% | Tier 2 |
| Beauty & Cosmetics | 90% | 40% | 30% | 40% | 30% | 20% | 80% | 20% | Tier 2 |
| Computer Hardware | 100% | 20% | 10% | 30% | 30% | 30% | 80% | 10% | Tier 2 |
| Consumer Electronics | 80% | 10% | 10% | 50% | 20% | 40% | 80% | 20% | Tier 2 |
| Customer Services | 100% | 10% | 20% | 50% | 30% | 20% | 50% | 0% | Tier 2 |
| Human Resources | 100% | 50% | 50% | 40% | 30% | 20% | 70% | 10% | Tier 2 |
| Medical Devices | 100% | 20% | 0% | 40% | 20% | 0% | 90% | 0% | Tier 2 |
| Sporting Goods | 90% | 20% | 30% | 40% | 40% | 20% | 60% | 0% | Tier 2 |
| Apparel & Fashion | 100% | 20% | 30% | 70% | 30% | 30% | 80% | 10% | Tier 2 |
| Restaurants | 80% | 30% | 40% | 40% | 20% | 20% | 50% | 20% | Tier 2 |
Real Estate leads with a median tier 3 and mean of 2.90. Jewellery & Luxury (2.70) and Equipment & Supplies (2.60) also reach median tier 3. Furniture, Hospitality, and Retail all share a mean of 2.50. Ten further sectors cluster at median tier 2.
Nine sectors share Ecuador's most accessible floor
| WAF | Antibot | CAPTCHA | JavaScript | Rate Limit | TLS | robots.txt | Blocks AI | Tier | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Transport & Logistics | 70% | 40% | 10% | 10% | 0% | 20% | 80% | 0% | Tier 2 |
| Wholesalers | 80% | 10% | 30% | 40% | 30% | 30% | 70% | 10% | 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 |
| Maritime | 90% | 10% | 0% | 40% | 10% | 30% | 90% | 10% | Tier 2 |
| Reference | 80% | 60% | 30% | 40% | 20% | 10% | 50% | 30% | Tier 2 |
| Automotive | 90% | 10% | 0% | 30% | 30% | 20% | 80% | 30% | Tier 2 |
| Crafts | 100% | 40% | 40% | 50% | 20% | 10% | 80% | 20% | Tier 2 |
| Import & Export | 100% | 30% | 30% | 40% | 0% | 30% | 80% | 10% | Tier 2 |
| Manufacturing | 80% | 10% | 10% | 30% | 0% | 40% | 70% | 0% | Tier 2 |
| Printing | 100% | 10% | 20% | 30% | 10% | 10% | 80% | 0% | Tier 2 |
| Public Safety | 100% | 40% | 40% | 50% | 10% | 20% | 90% | 10% | Tier 2 |
| Sports | 100% | 0% | 10% | 50% | 20% | 0% | 70% | 40% | Tier 2 |
| Veterinary | 100% | 30% | 20% | 50% | 20% | 20% | 90% | 10% | Tier 2 |
| Wine & Spirits | 100% | 50% | 10% | 50% | 30% | 0% | 70% | 40% | Tier 2 |
The most accessible sectors reach a mean tier of 1.90. Automotive, Crafts, Import & Export, Manufacturing, Printing, Public Safety, Sports, Veterinary, and Wine & Spirits all share this floor value, each with a median of 2.