Last updated: February 2026
fraud0 Review 2026: The Privacy-First Tool That Solves a Problem Most Click Fraud Tools Ignore
fraud0 reframes the problem: your whole marketing ecosystem is contaminated by bots, not just your ad clicks. We tested the privacy-first platform and compared it to 21 other tools. Here is what we found.
Score Breakdown
Strengths
- Privacy-first architecture — GDPR Art. 6(f), no PII, no consent required
- 4,000+ data points per visitor; onsite + in-ad protection
- Partnership with Dr. Augustine Fou; €6M venture funding
- CRM enrichment, analytics cleansing, conversion fraud detection
- Google-approved API; Usercentrics bot-free consent analytics
- 7-day free trial, no credit card; 4.9/5 on G2
Weaknesses
- No public pricing; cost reportedly premium for smaller businesses
- Thin review base (2 Trustpilot); detection-only mode at first
- No session recordings, call tracking, or competitive intelligence
- Limited CRM/marketing automation integrations documented
- No mobile app SDK; EU-centric customer base and community
About fraud0
Most click fraud tools start from the same premise: someone is clicking your ads fraudulently, and you need to block them. They focus on the click. fraud0 starts from a different premise entirely: your entire digital marketing ecosystem is contaminated by bots, and the click fraud is just one symptom of a much larger data quality problem.
That reframing changes everything about what this tool does and who should use it.
Founded in 2020 in Munich, Germany by Tilman Pfeiffer and Daniel Distler, fraud0 is a bot detection and marketing intelligence platform backed by €6 million in venture funding and a formal partnership with Dr. Augustine Fou, widely regarded as the world's leading ad fraud researcher. Where most tools in this comparison protect your Google Ads budget by blocking fraudulent IPs, fraud0 attempts something more ambitious: it identifies every non-human visitor across your entire website, cleans your analytics data, protects your remarketing audiences, flags bot-generated leads in your CRM, and prevents fraudulent impressions in your programmatic campaigns.
The privacy angle is not a marketing gimmick. fraud0 was built from the ground up to detect bots without using personally identifiable information, operating under GDPR Article 6(f) — legitimate interest — which means it can run without user consent. In an era where cookie consent banners reduce analytics visibility by 30–40%, fraud0 sees 100% of your traffic. That's not a feature. It's a fundamentally different data foundation.
The question for buyers in the click fraud prevention market: is this broader, more sophisticated, privacy-first approach to invalid traffic worth the premium over tools that focus specifically on blocking click fraud?
Who Is fraud0 Built For?
fraud0 targets marketing managers, web analysts, and digital advertising teams at mid-market and enterprise companies who care about data quality as much as budget protection. Its customer base includes brands like AboutYou, Apollo Optik, and Ulla Popken — German and European companies with significant digital advertising spend and serious GDPR compliance obligations.
The ideal fraud0 customer runs substantial paid campaigns across multiple platforms — Google Ads, Meta, programmatic display — and has begun to suspect that their analytics data doesn't tell the whole story. They've noticed conversion rates that don't match revenue. They've found leads in their CRM that go nowhere. They've seen campaign performance metrics that improve on paper but don't move business outcomes. What they're experiencing, without knowing it, is the downstream effect of bot contamination throughout their marketing stack.
For EU-based companies with strict privacy requirements, fraud0 solves a problem that most US-based click fraud tools create: the compliance question. Many click fraud tools rely on cookie tracking, device fingerprinting with PII, and data collection methods that require explicit consent under GDPR. fraud0's privacy-safe fingerprinting avoids PII entirely, meaning no consent banner required, no data gaps, and no DPA scrutiny over your fraud detection tooling.
The tool is not primarily built for small businesses running a single Google Ads campaign and looking for simple IP-blocking automation. If you need a $39/month tool that blocks fraudulent IPs from your Google search ads, fraud0 is likely overkill. Its value scales with complexity — the more channels, campaigns, data systems, and compliance requirements you manage, the more fraud0 justifies its cost.
How fraud0 Detects Invalid Traffic: The Technical Engine
fraud0's detection engine represents a generational leap beyond the IP-blocking heuristics that most click fraud tools rely on. The platform analyzes over 4,000 data points per visitor, combining connection speed, mouse movements, user behavior patterns, JavaScript challenges, honeypots, browser testing, and behavioral analysis to determine whether a human is behind the screen.
The detection approach operates in two distinct modes:
Onsite Intelligence monitors all traffic arriving at your website via a single JavaScript tag. Every visitor — regardless of source — is analyzed in real-time and classified as human or bot. This isn't just paid traffic. fraud0 sees organic, direct, referral, social, and email traffic, providing a complete picture of bot activity across your entire digital presence. The research backing this is compelling: fraud0's own "Unmasking the Shadows 2025" report found that 21.3% of all onsite traffic is invalid, rising to 32% when analyzed at the individual user level. Owned media and direct traffic showed the highest contamination at 37%, challenging the assumption that bot problems are limited to paid channels.
In-Ad Measurement uses a separate tag placed within your ad creative to monitor programmatic ad placements. This reveals the actual domains and apps where your ads are displayed, measures whether ads were truly viewable (in the viewport with a real chance of being seen by a human), and detects fraud techniques like ad stacking, pixel stuffing, and Made-for-Advertising (MFA) sites. This capability addresses a category of ad fraud — impression fraud in programmatic display — that most click fraud tools in this comparison don't attempt to cover at all.
The AI-powered classification engine distinguishes between beneficial bots (like Google's crawler), neutral automation, and malicious actors. This nuance matters because blindly blocking all bots would damage your SEO, break legitimate integrations, and create false positives. fraud0's system identifies specific bot types — scrapers, scalper bots, click bots, form-filling bots — and applies appropriate responses to each.
The privacy-safe detection is technically impressive. fraud0 operates without cookies or PII, using only standard JavaScript parameters to classify traffic. In partnership with Usercentrics (a major consent management platform whose co-founder Daniel Johannsen is also a fraud0 investor), the company provides bot-free consent analytics — meaning your opt-in rates reflect actual human decisions rather than bot-inflated numbers. This addresses a measurement problem that most companies don't even know they have.
Google has approved fraud0 for API usage, enabling automated IP blocking directly in Google Ads accounts. The system continuously updates and replaces blocked IPs as new threats are detected.
Features and Platform Coverage
Onsite Protection (Bot Detection)
- Real-time AI bot detection analyzing 4,000+ data points per visitor. Privacy-safe fingerprinting without PII or cookies — no consent required under GDPR Art. 6(f).
- Classification of bot types (scrapers, scalper bots, click bots, form fillers, beneficial crawlers).
- Google Ads IP blocking via approved API with automatic rotation.
- Negative audience list generation for Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and LinkedIn.
- Cross-platform exclusion — detect invalid traffic on one platform, automatically exclude across all.
- CRM enrichment — flag bot-generated form submissions and purchases. Lead quality scoring to separate human leads from bot submissions.
- Prevention of tool firing for invalid sessions — stops bots from triggering your paid analytics, chat, and marketing tools.
- Google Analytics integration via data layer push for clean analytics. ISP-level blacklisting, scraper and content theft detection, server-level blocking recommendations.
In-Ad Protection (CPM/Impression Fraud)
- Ad placement verification — see actual domains and apps where ads appear.
- Viewability measurement — determine if ads were in viewport and visible to humans.
- Ad stacking and pixel stuffing detection. MFA (Made-for-Advertising) site flagging.
- Placement exclusion list generation. Inclusion list creation for high-quality inventory.
- Audience Network performance analysis with IVT rates per domain/app.
Analytics and Data Quality
- Campaign-level IVT scoring to compare fraud rates across campaigns.
- Channel-level analysis (organic, paid search, paid social, programmatic, direct).
- Bot-free consent opt-in analytics via Usercentrics partnership.
- Traffic source quality reporting. Conversion fraud detection — fraud0's research flagged nearly 10% of all conversions as invalid.
- Repeat bot tracking — 5.2% of bot users returned within a quarter, generating 18% of all bot sessions.
What's Not Included
No session recordings or visitor replay. No call tracking. No AdSpy or competitive intelligence. No dedicated affiliate fraud module (though bot detection applies to affiliate traffic). No mobile app SDK for in-app protection (despite some sources claiming mobile focus).
Platform Coverage
Google Ads — automated IP blocking via API. Meta (Facebook/Instagram) — negative audience list exclusion. TikTok — negative audience list exclusion. LinkedIn — negative audience list exclusion. Programmatic display — in-ad measurement and placement optimization. All website traffic sources — onsite bot detection regardless of channel.
This is significantly broader coverage than most tools in this comparison, with the notable caveat that the protection mechanism varies by platform. Google Ads gets direct IP blocking via API. Social platforms get negative audience exclusion. Programmatic gets placement-level analysis and exclusion lists. The approach is pragmatic rather than uniform — fraud0 uses whatever lever each platform provides.
Setup, Dashboard, and Daily Operations
Setup is remarkably simple for such a sophisticated tool. Implementation requires a single line of JavaScript code on your website — the company describes a 5-minute setup process, and user reviews confirm this is accurate. The recommendation is to implement the script directly in the website code rather than through a tag manager, because direct implementation catches bots that bounce before the tag manager fully loads.
Once the script is live, data begins flowing immediately. But — and this is an important distinction — automatic blocking does not begin immediately. The initial mode is detection-only: fraud0 shows you what it's finding in the dashboard, but you need to manually connect your Google Ads account for IP blocking and set up negative audience lists for social platforms. This two-step approach (detect first, protect second) is more cautious than tools like ClickCease or Fraud Blocker that begin blocking from day one, but it reduces the risk of false positives disrupting your campaigns.
The dashboard provides campaign-level analysis, channel-level fraud rates, bot type breakdowns, and real-time monitoring of excluded traffic. Users describe it as clean and functional, with the ability to filter and explore data at granular levels. The Google Analytics integration pushes bot classification data directly into your existing analytics setup, meaning you can build segments, reports, and audiences in GA that automatically exclude invalid traffic.
For day-to-day operations, fraud0 runs continuously in the background. IP exclusion lists update automatically. Negative audience lists refresh in real-time. The primary ongoing value comes from the analytics layer — regularly reviewing which campaigns, channels, and traffic sources have the highest IVT rates, then reallocating budget toward clean traffic.
Support includes email, a self-service help center, and phone support. Enterprise plans include dedicated account managers. The company also benefits from Dr. Augustine Fou's involvement — his research and expertise directly inform the detection algorithms and industry analysis that fraud0 publishes.
Pricing: What fraud0 Costs in 2026
fraud0 does not publish specific pricing on its website. The pricing model is tiered by monthly traffic volume, with plans scaling as your protected traffic grows. The structure offers a 7-day free trial with full access and no credit card required.
From available research and user feedback, pricing is described as "mid-market" with tiered plans based on sessions or visits. The most consistent criticism on G2 is cost — multiple reviewers note that pricing may not be affordable for smaller businesses, though larger operations find the ROI compelling.
The lack of public pricing is a legitimate criticism in a market where most competitors list prices clearly. Fraud Blocker, ClickCease, Clixtell, Click Guardian, and PPC Shield all publish their rates. fraud0's approach forces prospects into a sales conversation before understanding whether the tool fits their budget — a friction point that disadvantages smaller buyers and benefits the company's qualification process for mid-market and enterprise clients.
No contracts are mentioned, and annual billing options are likely available. Payment methods include credit/debit card and PayPal, with options varying by country.
What Users Actually Say: Verified Review Analysis
fraud0 maintains a 4.9/5 rating on G2 — among the highest in this comparison — but has only 2 reviews on Trustpilot and insufficient reviews on OMR Reviews for a summary. The company's review presence is concentrated on G2 and its own testimonials rather than distributed across multiple platforms.
What users love
- The revelation factor. Multiple users describe a consistent pattern: they implement fraud0 and discover that bot contamination was far worse than they expected. One user noted that 19% of their paid campaign traffic was fake. Another described being surprised by the volume of automated traffic on their site. This discovery moment — learning the actual scale of the problem — is fraud0's most powerful sales tool, because it proves the value proposition before any blocking even begins.
- Data quality improvements are praised alongside budget savings. Users value fraud0 not just for preventing wasted clicks but for providing cleaner analytics data and more trustworthy consent metrics. One testimonial describes fraud0 as giving "cleansed analytics data on key metrics such as our consent opt-in or invalid traffic rate" — a benefit that goes beyond what any pure click fraud tool delivers.
- Integration simplicity is consistently highlighted. Multiple users describe the implementation as a single line of code that starts working immediately. The Google Tag Manager, Google Ads, and Facebook Business Manager integrations are noted as more complex, but the core detection activates within minutes.
- CRM enrichment receives specific praise. By flagging bot-generated leads, fraud0 prevents sales teams from chasing fake prospects — a downstream benefit that has direct productivity and revenue implications beyond marketing spend optimization.
What users criticize
- Cost is the primary concern. G2 reviewers consistently note that fraud0's pricing may be prohibitive for smaller businesses. In a category where effective tools exist for $39–69/month, fraud0 appears to price at a premium that requires larger budgets to justify.
- The integration complexity with advertising platforms is noted. While the core script is simple, connecting Google Ads for automated IP blocking and setting up Facebook negative audiences requires additional configuration that some users find challenging.
- Review volume is extremely thin. Two Trustpilot reviews and limited G2 presence means prospective buyers have very little independent validation to rely on. For a tool handling substantial advertising budgets, this information gap represents real due diligence risk.
- The detection-only initial mode can frustrate users expecting immediate protection. Unlike ClickCease or Fraud Blocker, which start blocking from installation, fraud0's detect-first approach requires additional setup steps before protection is active.
How fraud0 Compares to the Competition
fraud0 doesn't compete in the same category as most tools in this comparison. It competes on a different level. Here's how the positioning works:
Against ClickCease — ClickCease is the market leader for straightforward Google, Microsoft, and Meta click fraud blocking, with session recordings, AdSpy, and the largest review base in the category. fraud0 offers deeper bot detection, broader platform coverage, in-ad programmatic protection, CRM enrichment, and analytics cleansing that ClickCease doesn't attempt. ClickCease is the better choice for businesses wanting proven, simple PPC protection. fraud0 is for organizations that need to understand and address invalid traffic across their entire digital ecosystem.
Against CHEQ — CHEQ Essentials is the closest competitor to fraud0 in terms of sophistication and scope. Both offer enterprise-grade detection, multi-platform coverage, and bot management beyond simple IP blocking. CHEQ has deeper go-to-market expertise, Fortune 500 clients, and broader programmatic protection. fraud0 has the privacy-first architecture, Dr. Fou's research partnership, and stronger GDPR positioning for European companies. CHEQ for US/global enterprises; fraud0 for EU-based companies with strict privacy requirements.
Against TrafficGuard — TrafficGuard covers Google, Performance Max, Meta, and affiliate campaigns with pre-bid prevention and transparent verification. fraud0 adds onsite bot detection, CRM enrichment, and in-ad measurement for programmatic. Both tools offer more sophisticated detection than the IP-blocking tools lower in this comparison. TrafficGuard has stronger affiliate protection; fraud0 has stronger analytics cleansing and privacy architecture.
Against Lunio — Lunio offers cross-platform protection for Google, Meta, LinkedIn, and TikTok with exclusion-list optimization. fraud0 provides similar platform breadth plus onsite intelligence, CRM enrichment, and programmatic ad verification. Both companies publish industry research. fraud0's privacy-first approach gives it an edge for GDPR-sensitive organizations, while Lunio's transparent pricing and simpler positioning may appeal to less complex buyers.
Against Fraud Blocker / ClickCease / Clixtell — These tools solve a specific problem (block fraudulent clicks on PPC campaigns) at accessible price points ($39–69/month). fraud0 solves a broader problem (clean your entire marketing data stack from bot contamination) at a higher price point. There's no feature-for-feature comparison that makes sense because they're addressing different layers of the same issue. If you just need click blocking, fraud0 is overengineered for your needs. If you need comprehensive bot intelligence, the PPC-focused tools are underequipped.
Privacy, Compliance, and Integrations
This is where fraud0 genuinely differentiates.
GDPR compliance is native to the architecture, not a feature bolted on. fraud0 operates under Article 6(f) of the GDPR — legitimate interest — because its detection doesn't process PII. This means website operators can deploy fraud0 without adding it to consent banners, without waiting for opt-in, and without losing visibility on the 30–40% of visitors who decline consent. GDPR Recital 47 explicitly supports fraud prevention as a legitimate interest, providing the legal foundation.
No PII processing. The detection engine uses standard JavaScript parameters — connection characteristics, browser behavior, interaction patterns, timing signals — without identifying individual users. This is a meaningful architectural choice, not just a privacy policy statement.
Usercentrics partnership integrates bot-free consent analytics, meaning companies using both platforms get consent opt-in rates that reflect actual human decisions rather than bot-inflated metrics.
CCPA compliance is supported through the same privacy-safe architecture.
Data location: fraud0 is a German company with Munich headquarters. Crunchbase notes US server locations are available, suggesting flexibility in data residency for customers with specific requirements.
Integrations: Google Ads (API for automated IP blocking), Meta Business Manager (negative audience lists), TikTok (negative audience lists), LinkedIn (negative audience lists), Google Analytics (data layer push), Google Tag Manager (script deployment option). No mention of CRM-native integrations (HubSpot, Salesforce), marketing automation platforms, or general-purpose API access for custom integrations.
The Strengths
fraud0's strongest attributes, distilled:
- Privacy-first architecture — genuine GDPR compliance without consent, built on Art. 6(f) legitimate interest and no PII processing.
- 4,000+ data point analysis per visitor — dramatically deeper than IP-address-only tools, using behavioral analysis, JavaScript challenges, honeypots, and browser testing.
- Dual protection (onsite + in-ad) — covers both website traffic and programmatic ad placements, a combination unique in this comparison.
- Cross-platform blocking — detect on any channel, exclude across Google, Meta, TikTok, and LinkedIn simultaneously.
- Dr. Augustine Fou partnership — partnership with the world's leading ad fraud researcher, directly informing detection algorithms and industry analysis.
- €6M venture funding — from sophisticated investors including Signals VC, Usercentrics co-founder, and OMR X, demonstrating market validation.
- CRM enrichment — flags bot-generated leads and purchases, protecting sales team productivity beyond just ad spend.
- Analytics cleansing — removes bot contamination from your data, providing trustworthy metrics for decision-making.
- Conversion fraud detection — identifies the nearly 10% of conversions that are invalid, exposing phantom ROI.
- Google-approved API integration — legitimate, compliant automated blocking.
- Usercentrics partnership — bot-free consent analytics for accurate opt-in measurement.
- Industry research — "Unmasking the Shadows" report providing actionable market intelligence beyond the tool itself.
- Simple single-line setup — sophisticated detection behind a minimal implementation footprint.
- 7-day free trial, no credit card — zero-friction evaluation.
- 4.9/5 G2 rating — highest user satisfaction score in this comparison.
The Weaknesses
fraud0 has limitations buyers should evaluate:
- No public pricing — forces sales conversations before budget evaluation, disadvantaging smaller buyers and reducing comparison transparency.
- Cost reportedly premium — G2 reviewers flag affordability concerns for smaller businesses, and pricing appears to target mid-market and above.
- Extremely thin review base — 2 Trustpilot reviews and limited G2 volume make independent validation difficult despite high ratings.
- Young company (founded 2020) — shorter track record than established competitors like ClickCease (2015) or Click Guardian (2014).
- Detection-only initial mode — requires manual setup for blocking, unlike competitors that start protecting immediately.
- No session recordings, call tracking, or competitive intelligence — narrower feature set than bundled tools like ClickCease.
- Limited CRM and marketing automation integrations — no native HubSpot, Salesforce, or Zapier connections documented.
- No dedicated affiliate fraud module — despite broad bot detection, affiliate-specific features are not purpose-built.
- No mobile app SDK — despite some third-party descriptions suggesting mobile focus, in-app protection is not a documented capability.
- German/EU-centric customer base — while the tool works globally, the ecosystem, investor network, and case studies skew European.
- Opaque pricing model makes ROI comparison with competitors difficult — hard to evaluate value when you can't compare cost directly.
- In-ad protection requires separate tag implementation — additional setup beyond the core onsite script.
- Limited English-language community presence — company events, partnerships, and media coverage skew German-language (d3con, ADZINE, OMR).
The Verdict: Should You Use fraud0?
fraud0 is not really a click fraud tool. It's a bot detection and marketing intelligence platform that happens to solve click fraud as one component of a broader invalid traffic problem. That distinction matters because it determines who should buy it and who should look elsewhere.
If you are a European company spending significant budgets across Google, Meta, and programmatic channels, if you have GDPR compliance obligations that complicate your current fraud detection approach, if you've begun to suspect that your analytics data is contaminated, your leads include fakes, and your campaign metrics don't match business outcomes — fraud0 addresses the root cause rather than just the symptoms. The partnership with Dr. Augustine Fou, the 4,000+ data point analysis, the privacy-safe architecture, and the cross-platform intelligence represent a genuinely sophisticated approach to a problem that most tools in this category only partially solve.
If you're a small business running Google Ads and looking for affordable, simple click blocking, fraud0 is the wrong tool. It's overengineered for simple PPC protection, likely overpriced for small budgets, and the detection-only initial mode means you'll need to configure blocking manually rather than getting instant protection from installation.
The biggest concern is validation. A 4.9 rating on G2 is impressive, but the overall review volume is too thin to draw conclusions. The company is young (2020), the customer list is primarily German/European, and the lack of public pricing makes it impossible to recommend without a prospect actually going through the evaluation process. The quality of the technology and the credibility of the research partnership suggest this is a serious platform, but the market evidence is still accumulating.
It is the right choice for EU-based companies with strict GDPR compliance requirements who need fraud detection without consent dependencies. For mid-market and enterprise advertisers spending across multiple platforms who need comprehensive invalid traffic intelligence. For marketing teams that care about data quality — clean analytics, trustworthy consent rates, real leads in the CRM — not just click blocking. For organizations running programmatic display who need ad placement verification and MFA site detection. For companies that have outgrown simple PPC fraud tools and need a platform-level solution.
It is not the right choice for small businesses with limited budgets seeking affordable Google Ads click protection. If you want immediate, automatic blocking from day one without configuration steps. If you need transparent public pricing to compare costs before engaging with sales. If session recordings, call tracking, or competitive intelligence are important to your workflow. If your advertising is Google Ads only and you don't need multi-platform, multi-layer bot detection.
Start with the 7-day free trial to see what percentage of your traffic is actually human. The revelation alone may justify the investment.
| Category | Score |
|---|---|
| Detection Accuracy | 8.5 / 10 |
| Ease of Setup | 8.0 / 10 |
| Dashboard & UX | 7.5 / 10 |
| Value for Money | 6.5 / 10 |
| Support Quality | 7.5 / 10 |
| Reporting & Exports | 8.5 / 10 |
| Platform Coverage | 8.0 / 10 |
Start a free 7-day trial at fraud0.com — no credit card required.
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This review was independently researched and written for ClickFraudTool.com. fraud0 did not sponsor, review, or approve this content prior to publication. All feature, pricing, review, and company data is current as of February 2026.