Got bots? Here are the 5 best Shopify apps for bot protection in 2025

What are Shopify bots?

“Bot” is actually quite a broad term that can refer to a number of things. Essentially, bots are just little bits of code that can be programmed to carry out small tasks, like scanning website content, submitting forms, or making purchases online. There are tons of different types of bots out there, and more are added every day.

Some bots are very sophisticated, and some are extremely simple. Many bots are run by scammers or resellers looking to profit in some way off of their activity, such as creating fake customers, but some are operated by fans with pure motivations who just want to accomplish a task more quickly or improve their chances of making a high-demand purchase (because if you can’t beat em’, you might have to join em’). One of the most common bots to affect Shopify merchants are called ‘monitors’, created by resell groups, cook groups, or even just passionate collector groups.

Bot protection solutions are typically tailored to detect specific types of the more malicious or annoying bot activity, the stuff that Shopify store owners loathe most.

Why are bots a problem?

Bot traffic has become part of the landscape of the internet — for example, search engines like Google function using a type of bots that scan the content of web pages to find accurate results. Seeing signs of bot activity on your Shopify store isn’t necessarily cause for alarm. But it’s important to be aware of the malicious actions that bots could carry out.

For example, some bots are built to scrape intellectual property in order for someone else to rip off your ideas. Others carry out ecommerce fraud, such as chargeback fraud — purchases are made, then the charges are disputed with the credit card company, and a chargeback is issued, meaning that the seller loses the income after the product has already been shipped (and often has to pay fees too).

When demand for a product is very high, such as a limited-edition item with low available inventory, bots are often used to buy up as much product as possible. The operators of these bots then turn around and resell the products on the secondary market at massively marked-up prices. This is deeply frustrating for real fans who miss out on the chance to buy, and it means more money going into these shady actors’ pockets rather than to the original seller.

Whatever their intent, these bots simply aren't fair.

It's a leg up, no matter if you're using it for a good reason (you love sneakers), or bad (you're trying to exploit loop holes to get as many as you can for resell). bots throw site analytics out of whack because they are designed to mimic real human traffic. If your pageviews are suddenly spiking, your bounce rate shoots up, or you’re suddenly noticing a ton of visitors from a specific, random location, those are surefire signs that bots are in your shop. This skewed data can be enough of a problem on its own, as high bounce rates and lower engagement can negatively affect SEO ranking.

Got bots? Here are the apps that can help.

Cloudflare

Cloudflare is a leading name when it comes to ecommerce security for your online store. Bot protection is a key element of Cloudflare’s capabilities. The software analyzes signals and can detect many different signs of potentially fraudulent activity. The request may then be blocked, or the user could be required to verify that they are a human.

The good news for Shopify sellers interested in Cloudflare is that it is likely already integrated with their store. Shopify and Cloudflare have partnered up, and levels of Cloudflare’s protection is automatically applied to Shopify stores. This allows Shopify’s team to identify and classify bots to protect all sellers.

That means Cloudflare comes at no additional cost for Shopify sellers. However, many Shopify stores still do experience the effects of bots, meaning that further protection may be needed for sellers that are being targeted. In addition, humans can also sometimes get caught in Cloudflare’s filters too if they're refreshing a page often or clicking too fast. The software will use some device to have them prove they’re human, and that can waste precious seconds and mean they miss out if the item they’re shopping for is in high demand. 

Negate

Negate is an app that can be installed and added to a Shopify account to provide additional protection against bots. According to Negate’s developers, the software works by using AI to identify and block bots.

Negate’s functionality is focused on helping sellers protect their marketing budget by ensuring that they’re not paying for fraudulent traffic on marketing platforms, as well as blocking attempts to scrape intellectual property. Negate also delivers more accurate data for sellers who are struggling to make sense of their analytics after being targeted by bots.

Negate is available for a monthly subscription cost. It offers tiered pricing options that range from $19 to $299 per month, so the levels of protection vary significantly depending on which tier, including Facebook integration, the seller selects.

Shop Protector

Shop Protector is another solution that is available from the Shopify App Store. The Shop Protector app was designed for Shopify sellers who want to monitor for fake accounts and prevent form spam at checkout. When Shop Protector is installed, it also scans your store for any vulnerabilities, offering helpful intel for sellers who are not sure what their weaknesses are against bots.

We like that Shop Protector adds security without relying on reCAPTCHA, which creates a frustrating user experience. Everyone is tired of hunting for all the squares that contain traffic lights, and thankfully, technology has evolved to offer more sophisticated methods. Shop Protector also includes an analytics dashboard that users find helpful.

Shop Protector is available for a monthly subscription cost. Tiered pricing ranges $6.99 to 99.99 per month.

Blockify

Blockify is an app built for Shopify that specializes in blocking bots that carry out eCommerce fraud, such as chargeback fraud or triangulation fraud, thanks to its bot block feature. Blockify is available from the Shopify App Store.

Blockify is a helpful solution for sellers who are being negatively impacted by fraudulent purchases, or those who want to ensure that fraud doesn’t cut into their bottom line as they grow. As one of the more affordable solutions for bot protection, Blockify is a great choice for small businesses who can’t take the risk of costly bot attacks but also don’t have a big budget yet for a more comprehensive solution.

There is a version of Blockify that is available for free; other options that provide greater protection are available at tiered monthly subscription costs, ranging up to $20.

(Coming Soon) EQL

EQL is a little bit different from the other bot protection apps we’ve discussed so far. It’s also available as a Shopify app, but EQL functions as an end-to-end ecommerce solution for sellers who launch products with high levels of demand. The app offers shop owners the option to run their rare or limited edition product drops on EQL’s infrastructure, which implements a launch window during which interested buyers can enter. The system then verifies entries on the back end and chooses winners from the entries confirmed to be legitimate.

EQL is ideal for sellers who are dealing with bots programmed to buy up merchandise and wipe out inventory faster than real human customers can process a transaction. These can be some of the most sophisticated and difficult to detect bots — because their work is so lucrative to the resellers that use them, they are constantly being updated to evade existing bot protection tools.

To stay one step ahead of the botters, EQL doesn’t just block bots, which would allow their users to recognize that they’ve been caught. EQL's tech accepts all entries and then simply doesn’t select the suspicious ones as winners. To dive a bit deeper into how EQL's bot protection is different than the competition, check out this breakdown.

The EQL app can be implemented for a Run Fair fee that is charged as a small percentage of each transaction cost. Sellers can either pay this fee themselves or add it to the purchase price to pass the cost to the customer.