Best Alternative to Akismet for Anti-Spam
for Your WordPress Website
Alternatives to Akismet for Anti-spam
No one ever wants to experience their WordPress website hacked. Do not operate a website within spam protection. Akismet is the leader, but there are sometimes that it conflicts with other plugins. We have compiled these articles to assist you in finding an alternative to Akismet. All of the reference article links are at the bottom of this page.
[1]Want an Akismet alternative to block spam on your WordPress site? If so, keep reading to discover some great Akismet alternatives that you can try today.
Akismet is the most popular anti-spam WordPress plugin. Still, many WordPress users seem to be interested in other anti-spam plugins as well; if the amount of searches for Akismet alternatives is anything to go by.
So in this article, we’ve researched and compiled some great options for spam prevention on your WordPress site besides the Akismet plugin.
Combating WordPress comment spam is an ongoing process and can be done with (a) the help of plugins or (b) with a little bit of tweaking the discussion settings in WordPress. In this tutorial, we focus on both methods. The 2 factors you should consider while deciding your next anti-spam plugin should be:
- Amount of traffic
- Number of comments
[2]Essential Features of a WordPress Antispam Plugin
There are lots you could look for in an antispam WordPress plugin, but there are a handful of key features that you really must consider. Let’s take a look!
Zero Client-Side Actions
Other than writing the comment, client-side actions should be kept as low as possible – ideally zero. Your plugin should not ask your genuine commentator to check/uncheck a checkbox or type in an unintelligible captcha image. Entering captcha for comments significantly hampers the user experience and should be avoided.
Minimal WordPress Database Impact
A good anti-spam plugin should not allow the spam comment to be entered into the WordPress database. As a result, the number of SQL transactions decreases, which means lower server load, i.e., improved performance – even during peak traffic hours. This risk here, though, is if the antispam algorithm goes wrong, a genuine comment can be lost forever (oops).
Block New User Registration Spam
The WordPress registration page allows users to register on your website. The registration process is pretty straightforward and can be easily automated by bots.
Why Do We Need To Stop It? Once registered, a user can post as many comments as he pleases without being filtered. This is the normal Discussion setting in a new installation of WordPress. Therefore, you can either change the default settings or use a plugin that blocks new user registration spam.
Trackback Validation
Trackback Validation consists of a filter that compares the client IP address of the incoming trackback against the server’s IP address. If both of them don’t match, then it is spam.
Statistics
Statistics help in the tracking and analysis of data. The plugin should provide weekly or monthly statistics of detected spam.
Cost
As with many plugins, some are free, and some are paid. Some of the plugins, such as Antispam Bee, are completely free. Other solutions, such as Akismet and CloudTalk, are paid options for commercial and business websites.
If both the numbers are on the lower end (for example, when you’re starting a blog), you can go for technique (b), i.e., tweaking WordPress settings to prevent spam manually. It’s quite interesting to see just how much WordPress has to offer.
In part (a), i.e., preventing spam using WordPress antispam plugins, we first look at the important features an antispam plugin should have. Then we dive into the plugin list.
1. CLEANTALK ANTI-SPAM
CleanTalk‘s cloud-based anti-spam solution is one of the most powerful Akismet alternatives. The tool stops spam in comments, registrations, contact emails, orders, bookings, subscriptions, surveys & polls, widgets, and WooCommerce.
It does all these without subjecting your users to annoying CAPTCHAs: no Captcha, no questions, no counting animals, no puzzles, no math.
The plugin also checks and removes any existing spam comments and spam users. Besides, you can block users by country and comments using “stop words.”
Another great feature of CleanTalk is the “SpamFireWall” that lets you block the most active spambots before they can even access your website. Besides protecting your site from spam, this also helps reduce the load on your web server since spambots won’t load your website pages.
[3]2. Titan Anti-spam & Security
Anti-spam is used to add an extra field to the comments section. This field will only be visible to the spammers and not to the regular users. As soon as the spammers fill this trap field, their comments will be blocked because it is spam.
Anti-spam is extremely easy to use. All you have to do is install it on your website, and it will work fine. It is also compatible with all popular WordPress themes. Anti-spam also includes firewalls, anti-spam malware scan security, and site accessibility checking for your WordPress website. It has several other useful features as well. No CAPTCHA is required.
[4]3. Google reCAPTCHA [ The Best ]
Google reCAPTCHA v3 is a free service that protects your website from spam and abuse. reCAPTCHA uses an advanced risk analysis engine and adaptive challenges to keep automated software from engaging in abusive activities on your site. It does this while letting your valid users pass through with ease.
reCAPTCHA v3 is the latest version and does not have a checkbox to verify if you are a human or a bot. It is invisible. reCAPTCHA v3 helps you detect abusive traffic on your website without user interaction. Instead of showing a CAPTCHA challenge, reCAPTCHA v3 returns a score so you can choose the most appropriate action for your website. To implement Google reCAPTCHA on WordPress, you’ll need a plugin.
4. WP Cerber Security, Anti-Spam & Malware Scan
As one of the best WordPress security plugins, WP Cerber Security, Antispam & Malware Scan has its own anti-spam engine that protects your forms and automatically detects spam comments and either denies their submission or moves them immediately to trash. Using invisible ReCaptcha, this plugin blocks spambots from submitting login, registration, password recovery, comment, and WooCommerce forms.
Upgrading to the premium version of this plugin will unlock even more functionality, including layered spam protection and automated website scans and file recovery.
5. Titan Anti-Spam & Security
Thanks to its algorithms and global spam database, Titan Anti-spam & Security can hide spam from your site. But as the name implies, Titan Anti-spam & Security is more than a spam blocker — it’s a comprehensive security plugin that can scan system files, themes, and plugins for malware, invalid URLs, backdoors, and SEO spam.
The free version of this plugin is actively installed on more than 100,000 sites. The premium version can do even more to help protect your site from spambots and other malicious actors — like stopping spammy form submissions.
6.Stop Spammers
Stop Spammer is a free plugin that stops spam emails, comments, registrations, and form submissions by using honeypots hidden from everyone but spambots.
This plugin offers dozens of features and settings, so you have granular control over your site’s security. You can block spam words, URL shortener links, suspicious behavior, and whole countries. You can deny IP addresses, email addresses, and usernames manually. You can enable a members-only mode so only logged-in users can view the site — and much more.
7. Antispam Bee
Antispam Bee is another top-rated free anti-spam plugin. It accepts trusted and appropriate comments only. First, it stops comments, pingbacks, and trackbacks and then creates a spam database. You can remove all data from the database after several days.
8. WordPress Zero Spam
Using AI in combination with proven spam detection techniques and databases of known malicious IPs worldwide, WordPress Zero Spam can detect and block spam bots from submitting forms on your site. Using JavaScript, WordPress Zero Spam will stop spambots from being able to complete a submission — without requiring valid site visitors to answer questions or complete CAPTCHA fields to prove they’re not spambots.
This free plugin also allows you to block IP addresses temporarily and permanently — or block entire countries, regions, and cities if you choose.
9. WP Armour
Like WordPress Zero Spam, WP Armor is a simple anti-spam solution that doesn’t disrupt your site’s user experience. Instead of adding an extra step or input field to your form that every user has to fill out, WP armor uses Javascript to hide that extra field from valid users so only spambots can see it. So if the honeypot field is filled out, then the plugin knows a spambot is trying to submit a form and blocks their submission.
Once activated, WP Armor enables this anti-spam mechanism for all comments and supported forms, including Contact Form 7, Nina Jorms, and other popular WordPress plugins.
10. Hide My WP
A best-selling security plugin in the CodeCanyon marketplace, Hide My WP is a robust security solution that includes anti-spam protection. You can automatically enable the anti-spam option to block spam in your site’s comments section on the plugin settings page.
You can also use this plugin to change the file name of yourwp_comments_post.php file, which WordPress uses to receive comments from visitors by default. Renaming this file can also help prevent spam comments on your site.
Conclusion:
Do not think that you can go it without spam protection. Protect your WordPress website today. If you need assistance, call hughesagency.ca today.
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