Akismet is the most popular spam protection WordPress plugin. But it’s only free for non-business and personal sites. If you’re running a business site, you need to pay for it.
The good news is that Akismet is not the only spam protection plugin. There are some Akismet alternative plugins. These plugins will help you eliminate spam comments, spam emails, spam registrations, and more.
Let’s learn why you should choose Akismet Alternative WordPress plugins.
Why Choose Akismet Alternatives for Your Website?
Choosing Akismet alternatives for spam protection in WordPress can be driven by several reasons, depending on your specific needs and preferences. Below are some key reasons for considering alternatives to Akismet.
- Cost Considerations: While Akismet offers a free personal-use plan, its premium plans for commercial sites can be costly. Alternatives often provide free or more affordable pricing tiers that fit your budget better.
- Different Algorithms: Some alternatives use different spam detection algorithms that are more effective for your specific site or type of content.
- GDPR and Other Regulations: Alternatives might offer better compliance with GDPR or other data protection regulations, which is crucial for websites operating in certain regions.
Best Akismet Alternatives
To help you get the best, we have listed the 5 best Akismet alternatives for WordPress.Let’s check the list below.
Plugin | Active Installs | Rating | Download |
Antispam Bee | 700,000+ | ||
WP Cerber | 200,000+ | ||
CleanTalk | 200,000+ | ||
Titan Anti-spam | 100,000+ | ||
Stop Spammers | 50,000+ |
Now, let’s dive into the details of these plugins.
Antispam Bee
AntiSpam Bee is one of the most effective Akismet alternatives, downloaded over 700,000+ times. You can say goodbye to spam comments by using AntiSpam Bee. This plugin can block trackback spam as well.
This plugin has great features and does not require registration as Akismet requires. This plugin is also GDPR compliant and does not charge any money to be free from spam comments. It works by checking the local spam database for commenters who are previously identified as spammers.
If you want, you can make this plugin with approved commenters and comments with Gravatar. You can also set specific languages and countries to allow comments. This unique plugin notifies you via email about incoming spam and can even delete spam after certain days.
Key Features
- Email Notifications of Incoming Spam.
- Trust Approved Comments and Comments With Gravatar.
- Block Commenters from Certain Countries and Languages.
- Existing Spam Detection.
- Spam Statistics.
Who is it for?
Antispam Bee can be used by bloggers, beginner users, small business owners, web developers, educational institutions, non-profits, small-sized websites, privacy-focused sites, and community forums.
It is not ideal for big business owners.
Price: This great Akismet alternative is open-source software; download the plugin directly from the WordPress repository for free.
WP Cerber
From spamming to hacking, you can defend your site against anything malicious using the WP Cerber Security, Anti-Spam, & Malware Scan plugin.
To prevent spamming, this plugin uses a particular antispam engine and Google reCAPTCHA to secure your registration, contact, and comment forms. This plugin enables you to track user and bad actors’ activity and notifies you on email, mobile, and desktop. Furthermore, this plugin monitors logins generated by login forms, XML-RPC requests, or auth cookies.
This plugin thoroughly scans every folder and file to find malware, trojans, backdoors, etc. Like the Antispam Bee, this plugin is GDPR compliant and integrates with Cloudflare to keep and sync the list of blocked IP addresses with Cloudflare ID access rules.
Key Features
- Prevents both Rest API and Ordinary User Enumerations
- Automatic File Recovery
- Two-factor Authentication
- Limit Login Attempts
- Spam Comments Detection
- Cerber Security Cloud Protection (Pro)
- Restricts Access with GEO Country Rules
- reCAPTCHA
- Malicious Virus Protection
Who is it for?
WP Cerber is an ideal security plugin for a diverse range of users, including small to medium-sized businesses, advanced users, e-commerce websites, bloggers, developers, educational institutions, non-profits, corporate websites, and community forums.
Price: Get the plugin for free. The pro version costs $29 quarterly for a single website.
Spam protection, Anti-Spam, FireWall by CleanTalk
It’s a robust yet straightforward cloud-based WordPress Spam defender. Along with blocking spam comments, registration, contact forms, and email spam, this plugin defends your WordPress site from spammy bookings, orders, widgets, subscriptions, and newsletter plugins.
As this plugin is cloud-based, it can analyze multiple aspects of your site without slowing down. It also blacklists spammer’s email addresses, domains, and IP addresses. This plugin’s unique feature also provides you with Spam firewall features to prevent spam bots from accessing your website.
You can integrate this plugin with your favorite plugins like Contact Form 7, Ninja Forms, WPForms, MailChimp, BuddyPress, MailPoet, and many more. As this plugin is user-friendly, you can use the plugin without any hassle. This plugin includes no CAPTCHA, puzzles, questions, or math riddles.
Key Features
- Antispam Protection for Comments, Forms, Registration, Orders, etc.
- WooCommerce Spam Filter
- Spam Bots Registration Filter
- Blocking Users by Countries
- Spam Firewall
- XML-RPC Brute Force Protection
- Real-time Email Validation
- Disables Comments
Who is it for?
It is suitable for both beginner and advanced users. People who care about spam protection seriously should try the plugin.
Price: Unfortunately, you can use the plugin for free for quite some days, and after that, it will charge you $12/year.
Stop Spammers
As the name suggests, this plugin is excellent at stopping spammers from spamming on your website. Like Titan Antispam & Security, this plugin annihilates spammers autonomously right after the setup.
This plugin features 50 configuration options and uses 20 different markups to detect malicious events and spam. Prevent spam comments, spam emails, spam registrations, spambots, and spammers with their new, improved UI. You can run diagnostic tests and see the spam activity whenever you like it.
This anti-spam Akismet alternative plugin also offers you Firewall protection. You can even set the number of login attempts. When a user’s account is locked, he or she cannot log in to your site. You can export and import personalized settings and use them on your websites.
Key Features
- Block Suspicious Behavior
- Block spam words, disposable emails, URL shortener links, all URLs TLDs and more
- Block/allow IPs, emails, and usernames manually
- Members-only mode
- Mass lookup and disable registered users and pending comments
- Allow users to request access and send email when allow list request is approved
- Disable WordPress automated emails
Who is it for?
People who want better spam protection for free should try the plugin. Though a free solution, it provides smart and advanced spam protection.
Price: Enjoy the plugin for free from the WordPress repository.
Titan Anti-spam & Security
Titan Anti-Spam & Security is another Akisment alternative. Like the previous plugins on the list, this plugin also eliminates the need for captchas.
This plugin autonomously deletes spam comments without the intervention of the admin. This plugin identifies spam comments using codes to trap and eliminate spambots. It is a straightforward plugin and is easy to set up and use.
Moreover, this plugin includes an additional hidden field to the comments form. This hidden field remains invisible to a user but visible to the spammer. If a spammer fills this field, it will be identified as spam and blocked.
Key Features
- Antispam
- Malware Scanner
- Real-time IP Blacklist
- Set Scan Schedules (Pro)
- Firewall
- Security Audit
- Site Checker (Pro)
Who is it for?
Anyone can use the plugin to protect their website from spammers.
It is unsuitable for people who want to develop and implement custom DIY website protection, monitoring, and remediation techniques.
Price: Enjoy this great Akismet alternative for WordPress for free. But if you want to unlock advanced features, consider buying this plugin, which starts at $55/year for 1 site.
Conclusion
If you open a website and want to keep your website free of spam, a spam-preventing plugin is necessary. If you do not use an antispam plugin, your website will be taken over by hackers or malicious attacks, which can damage your website’s ranking on SERPs.
Akismet is undoubtedly one of the best for blocking spam comments. But if you wish to use other anti-spam WordPress plugins, I recommend choosing one of the 5 best Akismet Alternatives for WordPress.
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