Paywall Bypass Prevention
Paywall bypass prevention.
Grow subscriptions.
Cleared cookies can make a returning reader look new and reset free article allowances. ShieldLabs recognizes return visits so your content meter retains earlier reads while paid access stays smooth.
Start FreeYour daily briefing
Read what matters today.
Incognito modeReturning visit
Keep free access metered
Help prevent fresh sessions from restarting introductory reading allowances.
Protect subscription value
Detect account sharing around paid content access.
Welcome paid readers
Help subscribers reach the content their plan includes.
Stop automated content abuse
Detect bots at content requests to help protect your publishing resources.
Metered content access
Keep free reading limits.
Across new sessions.
A reading meter needs continuity across visits. Associate each recognized return with the read history stored by your publisher, so cleared cookies or a fresh session do not create another introductory allowance.
Subscriber experience
Welcome paying readers.
Keep subscriber access smooth.
A recognized visit can belong to a paid subscriber. Associate the identification with the registered account, check its content permissions in your publishing system and keep the current risk evidence available around access.
Detect shared subscriber access
Detect account sharing around signed-in subscription use.
Stop automated content access
Detect browser bots scraping content, and recognize legitimate search crawlers.
The ShieldLabs platform
More than a session counter.
The history behind content access.
Connect visitor identification with device and network intelligence, bot detection, risk signals and assessments. Account abuse detections and traffic analytics add context around reading and subscription activity.
Enterprise-level functionality. Without enterprise pricing.
Accurate identification
Recognize returning visitors even when they clear cookies, use incognito mode or change their IP address. Detect linked users with different email addresses.
Identification accuracy
High-Risk Event detection
Detect account abuse out of the box by automatically identifying linked users. No fraud model training is required.
Risk signals
Get ready-made detections of automation, masking and spoofing, with named risk signals behind each result.
Bot & AI traffic detection
Detect bot activity from browser automation signals. Recognize useful crawler and AI traffic alongside abuse detections.
Risk scoring
Score every visit from 0 to 100 and classify it as trusted, suspicious or dangerous. See the signals behind each score.
Device fingerprinting
Recognize devices by their fingerprints. Identify the browser, operating system and device type. Detect headless browsers and tampering.
IP & Network Intelligence
Reveal the real IP address and geolocation behind masking. Detect VPNs, proxies and private relays.
203.0.113.42198.51.100.23Traffic quality scoring and risk analytics
Get one score for all your traffic and ready-made quality results by source, channel, referrer and UTM campaign.
Analytics dashboard
Understand returning readers.
Follow the activity around content.
See recognized return visits, account sharing, bots and ready-made risk assessments around content access. Find the sources bringing risky readers and automated traffic.
How it works
Start protecting your product.
Connect once and start receiving ready-made fraud and abuse detections.
- 01
Add the snippet or SDK
Connect your product and start identifying visitors and users.
- 02
Receive ready-made detections
Get detected fraud and account abuse in the dashboard or through API integrations.
- 03
Prevent fraud and abuse
Protect customer accounts, paid access and signup incentives in your product.
Developers
Integrate in
5 minutes.
A single API to identify, detect and score. Receive risk data through API responses and webhooks. Integrate selected data points into your business logic to prevent fraud and abuse.
Protect your users and product
Make abuse visible.
Keep genuine users moving.
Start Free FAQ
Understand the evidence.
Put it to work.
What is paywall bypass?
Paywall bypass is gaining access to subscription or metered content without the access permitted by the publisher.
How does ShieldLabs help prevent paywall bypass?
ShieldLabs recognizes returning visitors and detects account sharing and bots around content access. A metered paywall in your publishing system can preserve its reading allowance for a recognized visitor and protect paid subscriber access.
Can this help after cookies are cleared or in incognito?
ShieldLabs recognizes returning visitors across cleared cookies, incognito browsing and changed IPs. Use recognized identity with your stored read count rather than starting a new allowance for each browser session.
Does ShieldLabs operate the paywall?
The reading allowance, premium-content delivery and subscription entitlements belong to your product. ShieldLabs supplies identification and risk context for the access workflow.
Can it protect content already sent to the browser?
Apply authorization before delivering premium content through your publishing system. Visitor recognition provides context for that check; it does not remove content already delivered.
How does this relate to account sharing?
Meter bypass concerns repeated anonymous free access. Account sharing concerns several devices using one registered account. Both can matter to a publisher, but they require different access and history context.
Does this support both metered and subscription paywalls?
Yes. Visitor recognition helps your publisher keep free-reading allowances consistent. Account sharing, bot and risk detections help protect signed-in subscriber access and content requests.