io.software Manifesto¶
The Problem¶
We noticed that many websites and webapps are either not using any form of active bot protection, or are using a bot protection that is not effective enough.
The majority of bot-protection services on the market are not transparent about their privacy policy, which is often infringing on the privacy of the users. On top of that, we find that some so called "privacy oriented" CAPTCHA / antibot services are collecting countless data about your browser, such as your screen resolution, installed fonts, plugins, CPU information, GPU information, Browser Language, TLS (network information), etc.
Additionally, for many of these services there are multiple publicly available bypasses, such as 2Captcha, Buster, AntiCaptcha, etc. effectively profiling your visit to a website.
We scanned third party Discord servers and Reddit forums to discover the less-available bypasses, and we found that over 95% anti-bot products on the market have their "bypass" on-sale by malicious third parties. These bypasses often cost much less for the attacker than for the website owner, and are often more effective than the bot protection itself.
Our mission is to provide a transparent, privacy-focused and effective bot protection service, that is free for small websites. Additionally, we strive to be free from any form of malicious third party bypasses.
Our Solution¶
We developed an in-house solution for obfuscation, encryption, hashing and other cryptographic methods, which can not be seen on any existing market product as of 2023. We heavily focus on the security and privacy aspects of our product instead of spending countless hours offering corporate SLAs and guarantees which often have to make up for the lack of security and privacy offered by other solutions.
Pricing Model¶
We offer a free tier for non-commercial websites, open-source projects or small businesses yielding less than €1000.00/month in revenue.
For larger businesses, we offer a pay-as-you-go model, where you pay per token & request, with the full pricing table below;
| Company | Price per 1000 Tokens (estimate) | Price per 1000 Bots Blocked (estimate) | Monthly Cost | Privacy Focused? |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| io.software | €0.50 | €0.02 | Free plan: €0.00 Premium plan: €19.99 |
Yes |
| hCaptcha | €1.00 | €1.00 | Free plan: $0.00 Pro plan: €99.99 |
Questionable |
| Google reCAPTCHA | €1.00 | €1.00 | €0.00 | No |