Comparison
Centinel vs robots.txt
robots.txt tells crawlers to stay away. Centinel makes sure they actually do. 32% of AI scrapes bypass robots.txt entirely — Centinel catches them at the edge before they reach your content.
Feature
Centinel
robots.txt
Enforced blocking (not voluntary)
Detects fake user agents
Per-crawler monetization
Crawler analytics dashboard
Per-crawler access control
Partial
Real-time request blocking
Cost
Free tier
Free
Setup time
5 min
1 min
Crawler bypass rate
<1%
32%
Maintenance
Automatic
Manual
Why robots.txt isn't enough
robots.txt is a request, not a wall. It has no enforcement mechanism. Crawlers that choose to ignore it face no technical barrier. Centinel provides the enforcement layer that robots.txt lacks — identifying crawlers regardless of their stated identity and blocking them in under 2ms.
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