Guides · Updated July 2026 · Prices from public pricing pages; verify before buying
BotAudit vs ClickCease: Which Click-Fraud Tool Do You Need?
These are different kinds of tool that happen to share a problem. ClickCease (CHEQ Essentials) blocks fraudulent clicks in real time. BotAudit detects and documents them. The right choice depends on what you want to happen after a bot clicks your ad.
The one-paragraph answer
If you're losing serious money to repeat-offender IPs right now and want them automatically excluded from seeing your ads, ClickCease's blocking model is built for that, from about $63/month per domain. If you want to know how much of your paid traffic is invalid, have court-grade evidence for Google's claim process, and pay a fraction of the price (including a real free tier), that's the model BotAudit is built on. Some advertisers run detection first to size the problem, then decide whether blocking is worth a subscription 7× the price.
Side by side
| Dimension | BotAudit | ClickCease (CHEQ Essentials) |
|---|---|---|
| Core model | Detect + evidence. Classifies every visit, quantifies wasted spend, exports claim files. | Detect + block. Auto-adds offending IPs to your Google Ads exclusion list. |
| Entry price | Free (1 site, 5k visits/mo); paid from $9/mo | ~$63–99/mo (1 domain, 5,000 visits/mo) |
| Free tier | Yes, permanent | Trial only |
| Google refund claims | One-click Click Quality Form CSV with IP-level click logs, on every plan including Free | "Apply for Google Refund" — Google-format CSV export with assisted claim filing |
| Multi-site | 3 sites at $9/mo; 15 at $29; 50 at $79 | Priced per domain; multi-domain plans climb quickly |
| White-label reports | Agency plan, $79/mo (50 sites) | Pro tier (~$78+/mo, 5 domains) |
| Platforms detected | Google, Meta, X, TikTok, Bing click IDs; organic/direct too | Google, Meta, Bing focus |
| Install | One JS tag | JS tag + Google Ads account connection (needed for blocking) |
Where ClickCease is genuinely better
- Automated IP blocking. This is the headline feature and BotAudit deliberately doesn't do it. If the same IPs hammer your ads daily, exclusion automation saves real money.
- Maturity. ClickCease has years of market presence and a large detection network behind CHEQ.
Where blocking has limits (why we chose detection)
- Google Ads IP exclusion lists cap at 500 entries. Sophisticated bot operations rotate through far more IPs than that; blocking is strongest against lazy, repetitive offenders.
- Blocking hides the evidence. A blocked click never lands, so it can't be documented — you're trusting the blocker's own report card. Detection keeps the receipts: every flagged click, with the IP-level log Google's Click Quality Form asks for.
- Price. Blocking infrastructure is expensive to run, and it shows: the cheapest credible blockers start around $49–79/month per domain. Detection can honestly be sold from $0.
A sane way to decide
- Size the problem first (free). Run detection on your paid landing pages for 2–4 weeks. If your bot rate is 2%, no tool pays for itself — fix nothing.
- If waste is real but from rotating sources, blocking won't catch much; use the evidence for claims and for excluding the placements/geos attracting bots.
- If waste is concentrated in repeat IPs, a blocker earns its subscription — and you'll know that from the detection data rather than a vendor's pitch.
Size your bot problem for free
One line of JavaScript, permanent free tier, and claim-ready evidence from day one. If it turns out you need a blocker instead, you'll know — with data.
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