Botless Core
Protect your embedded HTML videos from unwanted bot traffic. Save bandwidth by blocking bots from downloading video content.
Plugin info
Maintenance & Compatibility
Maintenance score
Stale • Last updated 216 days ago
Is Botless Core abandoned?
Likely maintained (last update 216 days ago).
Compatibility
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Description
Are bots and spam views skewing your video analytics or consuming unnecessary bandwidth? Botless Video is here to help!
This plugin provides a lightweight and user-friendly solution to protect your embedded videos (YouTube, Vimeo, self-hosted HTML5) from automated bot interactions. By implementing various configurable techniques, Botless Video aims to ensure that your video views are from genuine human users, providing more accurate engagement metrics and reducing resource waste.
Installation
Minimum Requirements:
- WordPress 6.0 or greater
- PHP version 8.0 or greater
Automatic installation:
Automatic installation is the easiest option as WordPress handles the file transfers itself and you don’t need to leave your web browser. To do an automatic install of Botless Core:
- Log in to your WordPress dashboard.
- Navigate to the Plugins menu and click “Add New.”
- In the search field type “Botless Core” and click Search Plugins.
- Once you’ve found the plugin, you can view details about it such as the point release, rating, and description.
- Most importantly, of course, you can install it by simply clicking “Install Now.”
- After clicking that link, you will be asked if you’re sure you want to install the plugin.
- Click “Yes” and WordPress will automatically complete the installation.
- Activate the plugin through the ‘Plugins’ menu in WordPress.
- Go to Settings > Botless Video to configure the plugin.
Manual installation:
The manual installation method involves downloading our plugin and uploading it to your web server via your favorite FTP application. The WordPress codex contains instructions on how to do this here.
- Download the plugin file to your computer and unzip it.
- Using an FTP program, or your hosting control panel, upload the unzipped plugin folder to your WordPress installation’s
wp-content/plugins/directory. - Activate the plugin through the ‘Plugins’ menu in WordPress.
- Go to Settings > Botless Video to configure the plugin.
Frequently Asked Questions
No plugin can guarantee 100% protection against all bots, especially sophisticated ones. Botless Video aims to deter common and less advanced bots, significantly reducing unwanted bot traffic.
Botless Video is designed to be as unobtrusive as possible for real users. Most protection methods are invisible or require minimal interaction (like having JavaScript enabled, which most browsers do).
Botless Video supports YouTube, Vimeo, and self-hosted HTML5 videos embedded through standard WordPress methods or shortcodes provided by the plugin.
Yes, the plugin settings page will allow you to enable or disable different protection techniques based on your needs and preferences.
The video (or a placeholder) is often loaded via JavaScript. Many simple bots do not process JavaScript, so they won’t trigger the video load or be counted as a view.
The plugin is designed to be lightweight. Some methods, like delayed loading, might introduce a very slight delay in video appearance, but this is generally configurable and aimed at improving overall site health by reducing bot load.
Review feed
Screenshots
Changelog
1.0.0 – 2025-05-15
- Initial release of Botless Core.
- Features include: block bots to all html videos or only videos with a specific css class. block specific bots and modify block list.
(Add new versions at the top)