At work I was asked by a different team how we can deal with bots, because someone in my team remembered that I knew how to do it.
I reluctantly suggested Anubis because I got shit for it last time, This is the URL https://anubis.techaro.lol/
This is the 2nd and last time I will ever recommend Anubis anywhere at work to deal with bots because of how unprofessional, un-serious and weird others perceive it.
The mascot being a ~10 year old "cutsie" anime cat girl is weird in a work setting.
I will never put myself in a situation again where I have to explain that it's not weird to anyone again, same for that URL.
What is a professional looking open-source alternative to Anubis?
Edit: No I can't just send my colleges here https://anubis.techaro.lol/docs/admin/botstopper The issue is they find the Mascot and domain weird, they will still run into both.
My Goal: Recommend a Open-Source bot protection tool
The Issue: When I send my coworkers to https://anubis.techaro.lol/docs/admin/botstopper they find the mascot and URL weird.
Result: They don't see Anubis as a serious tool and turn away from it
What is a professional looking open-source alternative to Anubis?
Look buddy I understand that URL has the same issue you mention in your post but it is the official Anubis URL.
Thus if you really want to be professional you load up the URL past the anime girl, organize a meeting and share your screen.
Tell them what it is and what it is for.
Explain what is opensource and the fact that this is free only if they accept that anime girl. Otherwise it'll be 50 bucks and they can put their own ai designed logo instead.
If they are still acting like childs treat them like childs. Recenter the meeting on what it is for. Do a proof of concept. I don't know, do something instead of stating that the official website is not how you would like it to be ?
That is not always possible, or worth the fight.
Even if I was willing to go through all of that, not everyone is, so what happens is more people turn to cloudflare instead of something Foss
Sounds like you work with a bunch of short-sighted, judgemental simpletons who cannot look past initial aesthetics for a product that has nothing to do with aesthetics.
Tbh I would run far the fuck away from that company if they can't be bothered to sit down for a meeting where you explain that it's an open-source project run by an extremely small team of nerds and that there is a commercial product available without the branding issues.
Everything you're describing about your employer/coworkers gives me giant red-flag warnings regarding their decision making process.
Time to start looking for a new employer, or accept that they're idiots and next time they ask about bots tell them "I've tried explaining this already but you dismissed me for silly reasons, so go pay for CloudFlare and stop bothering me".