What is Netcraft?
Direct Answer: Netcraft bot analyzes web server technology stacks for their Web Server Survey.
The Netcraft Survey Agent is a bot operated by Netcraft that analyzes web server technology stacks for their Web Server Survey. It does this by crawling the web and gathering data on web server configurations.
User-Agent Identification
The following user-agent strings identify Netcraft in your live traffic data:
Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; NetcraftSurveyAgent/1.0; +info@netcraft.com)Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; Netcraft Web Server Survey)
robots.txt Rules for Netcraft
Respects robots.txt: No
This bot does not commit to following robots.txt
Netcraft does not officially follow robots.txt directives. The only reliable way to control access is through server-side blocking (IP filtering, user-agent rules in your web server config) combined with log monitoring to verify effectiveness.
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Crawl Behavior
Frequency:Not Documented
Request Pattern:Not Documented
Crawl Activity Index
Relative crawl activity for Netcraft over the past 28 days. Higher values indicate increased crawling intensity compared to the period baseline.
View recent activity data (last 7 days)
| Date | Activity Index |
|---|---|
| Mar 26, 2026 | 0.0 |
| Mar 27, 2026 | 0.0 |
| Mar 28, 2026 | 0.0 |
| Mar 29, 2026 | 0.0 |
| Mar 30, 2026 | 0.0 |
| Mar 31, 2026 | 0.0 |
| Apr 1, 2026 | 0.0 |
Source: Cloudflare Radar
Why track Netcraft traffic?
Identify and classify unknown crawler activity. Netcraft may appear in your live traffic data with varying frequency. Tracking its behavior helps you decide whether to allow, throttle, or block it based on actual data.
Protect your crawl budget. Every bot request consumes server resources. Understanding what Netcraft crawls helps you prioritize the crawlers that matter.
Log Verification
To verify Netcraft traffic in your live traffic data:
- Search access logs for the user-agent strings listed above
- Check if the IP addresses match documented ranges (if provided by Netcraft)
- Verify the crawl pattern matches documented behavior
- Use reverse DNS lookup for additional verification if available
Note: Observed behavior in production environments may differ from official documentation. Live traffic monitoring provides the only reliable verification of actual bot behavior.
Undocumented Information
The following information is not officially documented for Netcraft:
- crawl frequency
- request pattern
- IP verification method
- JavaScript rendering
Official Documentation
View Official Netcraft Documentation →
Information sourced from official documentation. Content generated with AI assistance.