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?
Why don't you just fork it, remove the logo, an set up a domain yourself?
Alternatively, you could set up a presentation that they are a white labeling service, and the reason they use that domain and mascot is to discourage corporations from using the free tier, since the free tier is meant for personal use, and that their reaction is exactly what Anubis aims for unless a corporation is willing to pay for customized service tailored to them.
That ship may have sailed by now depending on how you dealt with the situation, but that would have been the best case scenario. Advocating for something that you know is good, is also good for your career, because now, even if you do recommend something else, your reputation will still be marked by the fact you recommended Anubis and then folded without explaining well why you recommended Anubis despite the mascot. If you still can, I'd bring up the whole thing with the mascot anyway even if you move on to recommend a different service, to save your own reputation for the future, since you seem to be so focused on your perceived career.
Anyway, you can use Cloudflare. Ideologically I oppose it, but it works and is familiar with the non-tech people. There's also SilentShield, which is based in Europe and in my opinion works better than Cloudflare's protection in terms of load times.