8 Best Free Anti-Spam WordPress Plugins In 2024
WordPress sites are often the target of spam attacks, which can be a significant concern for site owners. Fortunately, several tools can help protect your site from spam, such as popular CAPTCHA services like Google reCAPTCHA or Captcha. Besides, there are two methods you can use to fight WordPress comment spam- either installing Free Anti-Spam WordPress Plugins or adjusting the comments settings in WP.
An anti-spam plugin offers more reliable and better spam protection than default options. Thus, using an anti-spam WordPress plugin will be a more suitable and recommended option today. Therefore, in this post, we will introduce you to the 8 Best free anti-spam WordPress plugins you can use for your site.
List Of Best Free Anti-Spam WordPress Plugins
1. Akismet Anti-spam
2. Disable Comments
3. СleanTalk Anti-Spam Protection
4. WP Armour
5. Titan Anti-spam & Security
6. CAPTCHA 4WP
7. Stop Spammers Security
8. Anti Spam by Fullworks
1. Akismet Anti-spam
The Akismet Anti-spam plugin is a top-rated, free, reliable anti-spam protection plugin that lets you block spam in a contact form or comments section. This plugin scans and checks comments and contact form submissions against its global spam database to stop your site from posting adversarial content. Furthermore, Akismet Anti-spam lets you review the spam comments posted on your blog’s “Comments” admin screen. Besides this, the plugin shows a status history of each comment to check which are flagged or cleared by Akismet and which were spammed or unspammed by a moderator. Also, Akismet Anti-spam can automatically review all the comments and filter out possible spam comments. Also, it shows URLs in the comment body to expose concealed or misleading links.
2. Disable Comments
Disable Comments helps prevent spammers by enabling or disabling comments on any WordPress material, including pages, posts, and media. It supports XML-RPC, REST-API, and WP-CLI to prevent spam comments.
Claim Global Control for Your WordPress Site You’ll have complete control over all the comments on your site and can manage them in any fashion you desire. There are also some options for disabling comments to specific content. Disable Allow Comments on articles, pages, or other content to indicate what site’s sections allow users to comment.
3. СleanTalk Anti-Spam Protection
It is another popular anti-spam plugin for WordPress and WooCommerce sites. СleanTalk Anti-Spam Protection prevents spam in comments, registration forms, search forms, contact emails, orders, bookings, subscriptions, surveys, polls, widgets, etc. Besides this, the plugin provides real-time email validation and lets you block messages by language, region, network, stop word, etc. It also reviews and filters the existing spam comments and users. Furthermore, СleanTalk Anti-Spam Protection is compatible with the General Data Protection Regulation(EU). You can also block disposable and temporary emails with the СleanTalk Anti-Spam Protection plugin. It is a mobile-friendly anti-spam WP plugin that helps you boost your SEO performance.
4. WP Armour
You can use the WP Armour plugin to automatically stop spam in WordPress Comments, Contact Forms, Gravity Forms, WPForms, Formidable Forms, Toolset Forms, Elementor Forms, WP Registration, BBPress Forum, etc. The WP Armour plugin is also GDPR compliant and does not store cookies. Furthermore, the plugin uses the honeypot anti-spam Technic to block spam submissions. Also, the WP Armour plugin does not require a captcha or additional verification field. Unlike the Akismet or CleanTalk anti-spam plugins, WP Armour does not require external API calls for spam filtering. Besides this, this splendid plugin is compatible with most forms, making it all in one anti-spam solution.
5. Titan Anti-spam & Security
Titan is a multipurpose, free WordPress theme for site security, anti-spamming, firewall, malware scanning, accessibility checking, threats auditing, and more. It has a simple, responsive UI with precise algorithms to guarantee reliability and accuracy against spambots. Furthermore, Titan gives you logs of all the processed requests that let you review the spam filter results and perform regular parameter analyses to discover new spam behavior patterns. Besides this, the plugin lets you overwrite modified files with the original version to recover them. You can also scan your site for vulnerabilities, and it reports to you in case any problems or discrepancies occur.
6. CAPTCHA 4WP
CAPTCHA 4WP lets you successfully defend your WP forms and login pages against spam and automated attacks by adding CAPTCHA checks. This plugin offers various ReCAPTCHA versions, so you can easily find the balance between site security and user experience. It bypasses false positives falling via the crack with V3 failover. This way, you can confirm humans can always pass the test even if the outcome falls below the pass mark. Furthermore, the CAPTCHA 4WP plugin lets you add CAPTCHA to all WP native forms, including login pages, user registration, comments section, etc. Also, it supports multiple ReCAPTCHA and has user-friendly wizards for easy, hassle-free setup. You can also configure ReCAPTCHA failover.
7. Stop Spammers Security
It is another fantastic anti-spam plugin on our list. Stop Spammers protects you against spam emails, comments, registration, spam bots, and more. It runs diagnostic tests and views activity to kill off your spam worries. Also, this plugin comes with 50+ configuration options to simplify plugin personalization. Besides this, the Stop Spammers plugin has extremely granular control so that you can create a unique custom cocktail for individual spam issues. Furthermore, its highlighted features are Block suspicious behavior, Block spam words, disposable emails, URL shortener links, all URL TLDs, Connecting third-party spam defense services, Block countries, Block/allowing IPs, emails, and usernames manually, Hide admin notices permanently, Members-only mode, Core forms CAPTCHA, and much more.
8. Anti-Spam by Fullworks
The Anti Spam by Fullworks plugin lets you find automated comment spam to save you the persistent spam nuisance. This anti-spam plugin does not require an API key or ask visitors to complete irritating reCAPTCHA, Questions, or Quizzes. Furthermore, the plugin stops automated WP comment spam generated by spam bots and stores the spam comments for review in the spam tab. Also, it deals with comments using the wpDiscuz plugin and removes the spam comments from WP after a specified number of days. Anti Spam by Fullworks plugin also gives you the option not to remove spam comments automatically if you want.
Conclusion:
It is no wonder it is highly recommended to install anti-spam WordPress plugins to ensure your WP site protection, as they are reliable and offer advanced security features. However, with so many alternatives available, it can take time to settle on one solution. When choosing an anti-spam plugin, there are two main factors: efficacy and ease of use. By taking the steps above, you can safeguard your WP site from spam and maintain the integrity of your content.