What is Cxense?

Cxense is a bot in the SEO crawlers category, operated by Cxense.

Bot name
Cxense
Operator
Cxense
Category
SEO Crawlers
Type
Bot
Respects robots.txt
Not confirmed
robots.txt user agent
cXensebot
Signs requests (Web Bot Auth)
No

About Cxense

The Cxensebot performs SEO monitoring and analysis of customer webpages.

SEO crawlers map links, keywords and technical issues for SEO tools and backlink databases. They help the tool's customers, often your competitors, rather than you. Rate limit or block the ones you do not use.

Cxense user agent

Cxense identifies itself with this user agent string:

  • Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; Intel Mac OS X; en-US) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) cXensebot/2.0; +http://www.cxense.com/bot.html Safari/533.3 3615 155430223 0.03793830424547195 clarin.com 5.9.190.107 bot-5-9-190-107.cxensebot.com

Anyone can copy a user agent string. Transfon Security also checks where each request comes from, so a request that claims to be a known crawler but comes from the wrong network is treated as a fake, not as the real crawler.

How to block Cxense in robots.txt

We have not confirmed whether Cxense follows robots.txt. Add a rule, then check your logs to see that it stopped. robots.txt is a plain text file at the root of your domain, such as https://example.com/robots.txt.

Block Cxense from the whole site

User-agent: cXensebot
Disallow: /

Block Cxense from some folders

User-agent: cXensebot
Disallow: /private/
Disallow: /search

Allow Cxense only on some folders

User-agent: cXensebot
Allow: /blog/
Disallow: /

Allow Cxense and block other crawlers

User-agent: cXensebot
Allow: /

User-agent: *
Disallow: /

Things to know

  • Each host needs its own file. Rules on www.example.com do not apply to shop.example.com.
  • A crawler obeys only the most specific group that names it. Once you add a User-agent: cXensebot group, Cxense ignores your User-agent: * rules, so repeat any that should still apply.
  • The user agent name is not case sensitive. We take cXensebot from Cxense's user agent; check Cxense's own documentation if it publishes a different robots.txt name.
  • Crawlers cache robots.txt, so changes can take up to a day to apply. Disallow stops crawling but does not remove pages already collected or indexed.

Limits of robots.txt

  1. Cxense may not follow the rule. robots.txt is a request that nothing enforces, and we have not confirmed that Cxense follows it. Check your logs after adding a rule.
  2. The user agent could be fake. robots.txt matches the name a request claims. Anyone can send Cxense's user agent, and a scraper using it is not bound by Cxense's robots.txt policy. Only checking the source network tells a real Cxense from a fake one.

Treat robots.txt as a statement of your policy, and enforce it where requests arrive.

Who should care about Cxense

Publishers

Cxense works for an SEO tool's customers, often your competitors. It adds server load without readers, so rate limit or block it unless you use the tool.

Transfon Security for publishers

Media buyers and advertisers

SEO crawlers map landing pages and links for competitor research. Keep Cxense's visits out of campaign data.

Transfon Security for advertisers

E-commerce

Cxense can map your catalogue, prices and site structure for competitors. Block it unless you use the tool yourself.

Transfon Security for e-commerce

SaaS and APIs

Allow Cxense only if your team uses the tool; otherwise rate limit it on docs and marketing pages.

Transfon Security for SaaS and APIs

Block Cxense with Transfon Security

robots.txt is a request, not an enforcement. Transfon Security shows Cxense by name in the Top Bots report, so you can see how often it visits and which pages it reads. Block or allow it with a User Agent rule, or slow it down with a rate limit decision rule.

Transfon Security

Control Cxense on your site

  • See every Cxense visit and the pages it reads
  • Spot bots that fake trusted crawler names
  • Block, allow or rate limit Cxense with one rule
  • Works with or without robots.txt support

Frequently asked questions

What is Cxense?

Cxense is a bot in the SEO crawlers category, operated by Cxense. The Cxensebot performs SEO monitoring and analysis of customer webpages.

Does Cxense respect robots.txt?

We have not confirmed whether Cxense follows robots.txt. Add a robots.txt rule, then check your logs to see that it stopped, and block it by user agent if it did not.

How do I block Cxense?

Add "User-agent: cXensebot" followed by "Disallow: /" to the robots.txt file at the root of your site. To enforce it, block requests whose user agent contains "cXensebot/" at your WAF. In Transfon Security that is one User Agent block rule.

Is robots.txt enough to block Cxense?

No. robots.txt is voluntary, so Cxense may not follow it, and anyone can send Cxense's user agent, so a fake Cxense ignores your rule. Enforce the rule where requests arrive, at your WAF, and check the source network.

Should I block Cxense?

SEO crawlers map links, keywords and technical issues for SEO tools and backlink databases. They help the tool's customers, often your competitors, rather than you. Rate limit or block the ones you do not use.

Related bots

All SEO crawlers · Full bot directory

See Which Bots Visit Your Site

Transfon Security identifies every bot in this directory in your traffic reports, flags fake search crawlers, and lets you allow, block or rate limit each bot.

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