Use With Caution – Server load problems with free version

Serious crawler and server overload problems with the free version

I have used the free version of this plugin for approx 12–18 months and until recently it did what I needed.

The free plugin creates an almost unlimited number of filter URL combinations and due to the increase in AI and automated web crawlers, once crawlers discover the filter URLs they absolutely hammer the site causing server overload / 508 errors and generally makes the website unusable.

I have spent the last 3–4 weeks trying to control this through Cloudflare security and rate limiting rules while still allowing legitimate search engines and real customers to use the filters normally. It has not been easy as blocking the filter URL patterns also interferes with genuine customers using multiple filter options. Blocking bots also interferes with legitimate Google indexing damaging SEO. For anyone that doesnt maintain their own site it could become VERY costly to get a developer to fix the damage the free plugin seems to be causing due to the filter URLs.

The worst part is that removing the plugin does not solve the problem. Once crawlers have discovered the URLs, they just dont stop!

The plugin itself was quite good until this issue started. In its current form I would not recommend the free version unless the developer provides an effective way to prevent crawlers from discovering and repeatedly crawling these filter combinations without breaking the filters for genuine visitors.

For me, this has resulted in weeks of unnecessary work, server overload, a website that only works about 30% of the time due to 508 errors and problems with legitimate crawling of the site. This is all directly caused by the free plugin, although the developer does offer a “solution” if you pay for the pro version. Personally I think the free version should have the fix aswell as the way it is now is no good for anyone. If a fix is provided then the plugin is generally good for filtering. Without the fix it creates more problems than it solves.

There has also been some other posts in the support forum reporting the same issues.

• This topic was modified 1 day, 9 hours ago by boosted24.