Top 5 WordPress anti-spam plugins

It's 02:30.

You've been slaving away for days to get that first new blog post finished because you know it's going to help your visitors. One last check ... finally you hit publish.

You lie in bed satisfied and content, sleep a short night and wake up early. You flip open your laptop again and see responses (3).

Yes!

Three new comments on my blog post! Nice. I'm curious to see what they have to say.

You hit the reply button only to discover that...

3 Russians with dubious email addresses offered viagra to your visitors in English with links to a website... Disappointed, you remove the three comments. Only to have to remove another two a day later.

This is where an anti-spam plugin comes in.

Spam comments are one of the most irritating things to manage as a WordPress blog owner. Fortunately, there are several plugins on the market to filter and automatically remove these spam comments. In this blog post, I walk through the top 5 anti-spam plugin on the market:

• Akismet
• Antispam Bee
• WordPress Zero Spam
• WP-SpamShield
• Cleantalk

What is an anti-spam plugin?

Malicious computer programs scan the Internet for places to post their information. These spam bots come out on the input fields of your articles and post text with links to their websites. The goal is to generate backlinks and websites clicks to their websites through the posted external links. Many times these are viagra, porn or other shady sites that you don't want among your comments.

It is tedious to manually delete every comment, and you cannot automatically allow your normal visitor's comments.

An anti-spam plugin ensures that your website blocks spam or even preemptively removes spam so that it does not enter the system again. Some of the plugins mentioned provide up to a full 100% reduction in spam.

1. Akismet

Akismet is a free WordPress plugin that allows you to block spam responses on your WordPress website. The plugin is installed with the initial WordPress installation by default.

The plugin originated in 2005 and captures approximately 7.5 million spam responses in one hour. That's about 9 times the population of Amsterdam in a single hour.

At the time of writing, Akismet has already blocked over 406 billion spam responses.

The beauty of Akismet is that when a new comment is posted on your blog, the comment goes to the cloud server first. There, a smart algorithm checks the comment and determines if the comment is spam or not.

Is the comment deemed clean and safe? Then it will be posted directly to the blog. Is it spam? Then the plugin puts the comment in the spam folder so you can decide what to do with it.

Popularity

Akismet is wildly popular among WordPress users. The plugin is completely free for non-commercial WordPress websites. Which does generate some criticisms within the community.

If you choose to monetize your Web site you pay $5 per month. For larger companies, that amount comes to $50 per month.

Advantages and disadvantages of Akismet

1. WP-SpamShield

WP-SpamShield is another great WordPress antispam plugin. WP-SpamShield is immensely useful when you have huge problems with bot-generated spam, but you don't want to bother your visitors with a reCaptcha because users often find them annoying.

How WP-SpamShield works.

The plugin has two layers of spam protection that work together to block both bot and human spam:

1. The JavaScript/Cookies Anti-Spam layer
2. The Algorithmic anti-spam layer

The first spam layer is a dynamic combination of JavaScript and cookies to weed out those among the spambots. This provides a 100% prevention on spambots. Even if bot authors find a way to break it the second layer jumps in to block the spam.

Another nice feature of WP-SpamShield is the automatic protection for:

Contact Form 7 forms, Gravity Forms, Ninja Forms, JetPack Contact Forms; BuddyPress, bbPress and WooCommerce registration forms; Mailchimp signup forms; Virtually all other WordPress forms and registration forms.

#2 most downloaded antispam plugin and its disappearance from the standard WordPress store

Not for nothing is WP-SpamShield the number 2 most downloaded antiSpam plugin after akismet. However, it has disappeared from WordPress since November 2017. According to its creators by the elite top of WordPress To keep Akismet's competition in check.

WP spam shield has made its move to CodeCanyon.

Advantages and disadvantages of WP-SpamShield

3. Antispam Bee

If you suffer a lot from comment spam and want something that is not too complex, try the WordPress plugin Antispam Bee. It is a free plugin without ads.

This anti-spam Bee plugin doesn't come with all sorts of bells and whistles, but it has exactly the features you need to make your blog spam free. it checks spam against a public anti-spam database and uses regular expressions to detect and fight spam.

Advantages and disadvantages of Antispam Bee

4. WordPress Zero Spam

The fun part of the WordPress Zero Spam plugin is that you don't need an API key or complex configuration to get it up and running on your WordPress website or blog.

It is a plugin that is great for reaction and registration spam stopping. it has the ability to log spammers and block IPs. It may not have the power of the frontrunners of this list but like AntiSpam Bee, this is a fine quick solution to stop spam on your WordPress blog.

The plugin works with forms such as:

• Contact Form 7
• Gravity Forms
• Ninja Forms
• BuddyPress

Advantages and disadvantages of WordPress Zero Spam

5. Anti-Spam by CleanTalk

Last in the list of the best WordPress anti-spam plugins is the Spam Protection by Cleantalk plugin. This plugin is increasing tremendously in popularity and the reviews speak for themselves.

The plugin works with an API to a cloud server where like the more advanced plugins in this list; the plugin checks via various methods to see if the posted comment is spam.

Below is a brief overview of the plugin's functionalities:

1. Stops spam comments/responses.
2. Stops spam registrations.
3. Stops spam contact emails.
4. Stops spam orders/orders.
5. Stops spam bookings.
6. Stops spam subscriptions.
7. Stops spam surveys, polls.
8. Stops spam in widgets.
9. Stops spam in WooCommerce.
10. Checks and removes existing spam on your website
11. Compatible with mobile and tablet users.

In my opinion, the cost of this plugin is not too bad: First you get a free trial / trial period and then it costs $8 per year.

Advantages and disadvantages of Anti-Spam by Cleantalk