Zero Budget Bot Shield
Zero Budget Bot Shield is a WordPress security plugin that provides country blocking and 404 abuse protection without using external APIs or services
Country Blocking Without External APIs
Most geo-blocking plugins depend on third-party IP lookup services. Zero Budget Bot Shield does not.
Instead, it reads country codes directly from:
- Cloudflare IP country headers
- Hosting provider GeoIP headers
- Standard server-level GeoIP integrations
This means:
- No API keys
- No outbound IP lookups
- No visitor data sent to external services
- No privacy policy complexity
Features
All features are available out of the box, with nothing locked behind a paywall.
- Country blocking using server-level GeoIP headers
- No external APIs, IP databases, or paid services
- Automatic detection and blocking of 404 abuse
- Configurable rate limits and time windows
- Admin dashboard with statistics and event logs
- Exportable logs for auditing and analysis
- Native WordPress admin interface
- No front-end scripts or styles
- Fully self-contained and privacy-friendly
How It Works
Zero Budget Bot Shield uses country codes provided by your server environment, such as:
- Cloudflare IP country headers
- Hosting provider GeoIP integrations
- Standard server-level GeoIP modules
No outbound IP lookups are performed, and no visitor data is sent outside your WordPress installation.
For 404 protection, the plugin monitors repeated not-found responses per IP address and automatically applies temporary blocks when thresholds are exceeded.
Privacy and Performance
- No user tracking
- No storage of personally identifiable information
- No external API calls or SaaS dependencies
- No background cron jobs
- No performance impact on normal visitors
All processing happens locally using infrastructure you already control.
Recommended For
- Small businesses and personal websites
- Non-profits and educational institutions
- Shared hosting environments
- Developers who want simple, dependency-free protection
- Sites that require country blocking without paid services