Overview
Lower JavaScript and antibot; WAF remains near-universal
| Value | |
|---|---|
| WAF | 93% |
| Antibot | 19.9% |
| CAPTCHA | 23.4% |
| JavaScript | 39.9% |
| Rate Limiting | 12.2% |
| TLS | 17.8% |
WAF coverage sits near-universal — delivered passively through CDN infrastructure. The gap between WAF and the active-defence layers is the defining feature of Africa's barrier profile: antibot, JavaScript challenge, and rate limiting are all substantially lower than WAF, pointing to a web that has broad passive coverage but limited deliberate bot-control configuration.
Mean recommended tier: 2.6 — between Easy and Moderate, closer to Easy
| Mean recommended tier | |
|---|---|
| All sites | 2.6 |
The regional mean sits between tier 2 (headless browser) and tier 3 (fingerprint management), driven lower by a higher share of tier 1 sites — where a plain HTTP request is sufficient — than in most other parts of the region's sample. The active-defence layers that push sites to tier 3 and above are less widely deployed across the regional web, keeping the mean closer to tier 2 than the tier distribution's midpoint.
North and southern African sites run more barriers; central and western Africa is more open
| Mean barriers per site | |
|---|---|
| Algeria | 2.08 |
| Angola | 2.02 |
| Benin | 2.03 |
| Botswana | 2.07 |
| British Indian Ocean Terr. | 2.09 |
| Burkina Faso | 2.08 |
| Burundi | 1.98 |
| Cabo Verde | 2.03 |
| Cameroon | 2.06 |
| Central African Republic | 2.02 |
| Chad | 2.05 |
| Comoros | 1.89 |
| Congo | 2.04 |
| Côte d'Ivoire | 2.07 |
| Djibouti | 2.00 |
| DR Congo | 2.03 |
| Egypt | 2.07 |
| Equatorial Guinea | 2.06 |
| Eritrea | 2.00 |
| Eswatini | 2.11 |
| Ethiopia | 2.08 |
| Gabon | 2.01 |
| Gambia | 2.05 |
| Ghana | 2.14 |
| Guinea | 2.08 |
| Guinea-Bissau | 2.07 |
| Kenya | 2.15 |
| Lesotho | 2.07 |
| Liberia | 2.02 |
| Madagascar | 2.07 |
| Malawi | 2.08 |
| Mali | 2.04 |
| Mauritania | 2.14 |
| Mauritius | 2.06 |
| Morocco | 2.11 |
| Mozambique | 2.07 |
| Niger | 2.05 |
| Nigeria | 2.11 |
| Rwanda | 2.09 |
| Saint Helena | 2.16 |
| São Tomé and Príncipe | 2.05 |
| Senegal | 2.07 |
| Seychelles | 2.05 |
| Sierra Leone | 2.00 |
| Somalia | 2.12 |
| South Africa | 2.09 |
| South Sudan | 1.95 |
| Tanzania | 2.10 |
| Togo | 1.99 |
| Tunisia | 2.11 |
| Uganda | 2.06 |
| Zambia | 2.05 |
| Zimbabwe | 2.06 |
The regional map shows a wide spread in mean barrier count per site, driven by the contrast between commercially mature markets with established e-commerce and financial sectors and smaller markets where the web has lighter commercial depth. North African markets shade darker, as do southern African markets with greater volumes of bot-targeted platforms. Central and West African markets trend lighter across the scale.
More than half of African sites are accessible at tier 2 or below
| % of sites | |
|---|---|
| 1 - Simple | 19.9% |
| 2 - Easy | 33.5% |
| 3 - Moderate | 19.4% |
| 4 - Complex | 17.5% |
| 5 - Advanced | 9.8% |
Nearly one in five surveyed African sites requires only a plain HTTP request — the tier 1 share tilts the regional distribution toward the more accessible end. More than half resolve at tier 2 or below. The region's lower active-defence penetration means fewer sites present the fingerprint management and behavioural challenges that push sites to tier 3 and beyond.
Barrier Adoption
WAF is near-universal; rate limiting and antibot trail well behind
| Value | |
|---|---|
| WAF | 93% |
| Antibot | 19.9% |
| CAPTCHA | 23.4% |
| JavaScript | 39.9% |
| Rate Limiting | 12.2% |
| TLS | 17.8% |
| robots.txt | 84.4% |
| Blocks AI | 14% |
WAF coverage and robots.txt publication are near-universal, consistent with CDN and hosting defaults. The gap between WAF and the active-defence layers is stark: rate limiting and antibot adoption are both well below WAF, confirming that deliberate active-defence configuration is less prevalent across the region. JavaScript challenge adoption at 40% tracks with lower CDN JavaScript-challenge default activation across some African hosting providers. AI crawler blocking reaches 14%.
Country Detail
North and southern African markets shade darkest; sub-Saharan markets show lighter postures
| WAF | Antibot | CAPTCHA | JavaScript | Rate Limit | TLS | robots.txt | Blocks AI | Tier | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Algeria | 92.9% | 20.8% | 20.9% | 47.7% | 12.7% | 17.1% | 83.6% | 13.5% | Tier 2 |
| Angola | 91.4% | 19.3% | 21.8% | 44.8% | 12.3% | 17.7% | 83% | 13.3% | Tier 2 |
| Benin | 93.6% | 19% | 21.4% | 44.1% | 12% | 16.4% | 84.3% | 14.2% | Tier 2 |
| Botswana | 91.9% | 21.9% | 23.4% | 44.4% | 11.9% | 17.8% | 85.6% | 14.5% | Tier 2 |
| British Indian Ocean Terr. | 85.4% | 20.5% | 26.3% | 48.6% | 13.5% | 21.6% | 81.3% | 18.1% | Tier 2 |
| Burkina Faso | 93.8% | 19.4% | 24.4% | 43.8% | 11.6% | 17.7% | 83.6% | 14.2% | Tier 2 |
| Burundi | 93.2% | 18.4% | 20.9% | 40.9% | 10.9% | 16.8% | 85.3% | 14.4% | Tier 1 |
| Cabo Verde | 93.9% | 16.7% | 24.1% | 43.7% | 10.4% | 17.4% | 85.3% | 14.7% | Tier 2 |
| Cameroon | 93% | 19.8% | 23% | 43.6% | 12.6% | 18% | 85% | 13.9% | Tier 2 |
| Central African Republic | 94.8% | 14% | 28% | 38.2% | 9.1% | 20.1% | 86.3% | 17% | Tier 1 |
| Chad | 91.8% | 18% | 24.8% | 42.2% | 13.3% | 18.6% | 84.4% | 14% | Tier 1 |
| Comoros | 90.9% | 12.3% | 19.1% | 42.7% | 10.5% | 18.2% | 86.6% | 18.2% | Tier 1 |
| Congo | 92.5% | 18.2% | 24.7% | 42.4% | 12.3% | 17.7% | 83.5% | 12.8% | Tier 2 |
| Côte d'Ivoire | 93.5% | 19.8% | 23% | 44.4% | 13% | 17.2% | 84.1% | 12.1% | Tier 2 |
| Djibouti | 91.5% | 18.8% | 21.5% | 42.5% | 11.5% | 18.5% | 82.6% | 15.2% | Tier 2 |
| DR Congo | 93.6% | 19.9% | 23.1% | 41.9% | 11.8% | 16.6% | 85.1% | 13.6% | Tier 2 |
| Egypt | 92.1% | 19.9% | 20.2% | 47% | 13.1% | 19.3% | 82.6% | 13.3% | Tier 2 |
| Equatorial Guinea | 93.6% | 18.6% | 24.9% | 43.2% | 11.6% | 17.5% | 85.1% | 13.7% | Tier 2 |
| Eritrea | 93.5% | 16.1% | 25.3% | 43% | 9.8% | 15.7% | 86.6% | 18.1% | Tier 1 |
| Eswatini | 94.5% | 21.1% | 28.5% | 39.9% | 13.3% | 17% | 85.3% | 15.1% | Tier 1 |
| Ethiopia | 92.1% | 21.1% | 22.4% | 45.5% | 13.1% | 17.9% | 82.9% | 12.8% | Tier 2 |
| Gabon | 93.3% | 18.2% | 22.2% | 42.3% | 11.4% | 17.3% | 84.9% | 14.5% | Tier 2 |
| Gambia | 93.4% | 20.1% | 24.5% | 40% | 11.9% | 18.3% | 85.9% | 14.5% | Tier 1 |
| Ghana | 92.8% | 22.7% | 23.8% | 46.6% | 13.9% | 18.4% | 83.1% | 13.8% | Tier 2 |
| Guinea | 93.3% | 19.6% | 26.8% | 41% | 12% | 18.6% | 84.4% | 13% | Tier 1 |
| Guinea-Bissau | 94.1% | 18.2% | 24.3% | 42.9% | 11.9% | 19% | 84.7% | 15.1% | Tier 1 |
| Kenya | 93.3% | 22.4% | 23.3% | 46.7% | 14.3% | 19% | 82.9% | 13.1% | Tier 2 |
| Lesotho | 93.5% | 19.3% | 25.8% | 42.9% | 12.1% | 16.6% | 86.2% | 15% | Tier 1 |
| Liberia | 92.9% | 19% | 22.9% | 41.4% | 11.9% | 17.7% | 86% | 13.5% | Tier 1 |
| Madagascar | 92.6% | 20.1% | 23.2% | 44.8% | 13.1% | 17.5% | 84.4% | 13.5% | Tier 2 |
| Malawi | 92.2% | 20.9% | 26.7% | 43.5% | 12.2% | 16.9% | 84.8% | 13.7% | Tier 1 |
| Mali | 92.8% | 20.4% | 25.1% | 39.8% | 10.4% | 18.2% | 84.5% | 13.2% | Tier 1 |
| Mauritania | 95.2% | 22.1% | 25.6% | 42.5% | 12.8% | 18.3% | 86.1% | 15.8% | Tier 2 |
| Mauritius | 92.8% | 19.9% | 22.6% | 45% | 12.9% | 17.2% | 83.2% | 13.4% | Tier 2 |
| Mayotte | 92.2% | — | — | — | — | — | 82.9% | 13% | Tier 2 |
| Morocco | 93.1% | 21.6% | 23.2% | 46.5% | 12.8% | 18.1% | 84.5% | 14.8% | Tier 2 |
| Mozambique | 92.9% | 20.4% | 24.5% | 43.2% | 11.6% | 18.4% | 84% | 13.5% | Tier 2 |
| Niger | 93.1% | 19.2% | 23.8% | 43.6% | 11.6% | 17.1% | 85.8% | 13.5% | Tier 2 |
| Nigeria | 93.7% | 20.9% | 22.8% | 45.8% | 13.3% | 18.3% | 84.9% | 14.4% | Tier 2 |
| Réunion | 94.5% | — | — | — | — | — | 86.5% | 12.9% | Tier 1 |
| Rwanda | 92.5% | 22.8% | 22.7% | 44.6% | 12.4% | 17.7% | 84% | 13.1% | Tier 2 |
| Saint Helena | 93.2% | 11.4% | 31.8% | 47.6% | 8% | 26.1% | 92% | 19.3% | Tier 2 |
| São Tomé and Príncipe | 91.3% | 18% | 25.5% | 42.7% | 13.8% | 17.7% | 82.1% | 14.6% | Tier 1 |
| Senegal | 92.5% | 19.6% | 24.5% | 45.8% | 11.9% | 17.3% | 83.1% | 12.7% | Tier 2 |
| Seychelles | 92.1% | 21.9% | 23% | 42.5% | 12.2% | 17.5% | 83.6% | 12.8% | Tier 2 |
| Sierra Leone | 93.2% | 17.5% | 22.8% | 41.5% | 11.7% | 16.8% | 85.7% | 14.9% | Tier 1 |
| Somalia | 94.3% | 21.3% | 24% | 44.1% | 11.7% | 18.8% | 84.4% | 14.2% | Tier 2 |
| South Africa | 93.2% | 20.8% | 23.1% | 44.9% | 12.6% | 18.5% | 84.4% | 14.4% | Tier 2 |
| South Sudan | 93.5% | 16.6% | 23.9% | 39% | 9.1% | 16.1% | 85.7% | 14.6% | Tier 1 |
| Tanzania | 93% | 21.4% | 22.9% | 45.5% | 13% | 17.7% | 84.9% | 15.2% | Tier 2 |
| Togo | 93% | 17.4% | 22.5% | 42.4% | 10.4% | 16.5% | 85.2% | 13% | Tier 2 |
| Tunisia | 93.8% | 21.5% | 21.7% | 45.7% | 13% | 18.6% | 84.5% | 12.9% | Tier 2 |
| Uganda | 92.4% | 20.8% | 21.3% | 45.7% | 11.9% | 17.9% | 83.6% | 14.2% | Tier 2 |
| Zambia | 92.8% | 20.6% | 24% | 41.2% | 12% | 18.6% | 84% | 15% | Tier 2 |
| Zimbabwe | 92.3% | 20% | 22.8% | 44.4% | 11.8% | 18.7% | 84.5% | 13.7% | Tier 2 |
Each row is one country; each column is one access barrier or policy metric. Colour intensity reflects adoption rate — darker means higher. The Tier column shows the median recommended Zyte tier for sites in that country: green circles indicate tier 1 (HTTP-only access typically sufficient), blue circles tier 2 (headless browser generally required).