If you have a WordPress website, you must be aware of spam bots which post spam comments, add spam users, etc. to your blog. It is very common if you get bombarded with spam comments and get hundreds of spam comments in a day. If you have user registration enabled in your website, spam user registrations may horrify you. Spam comments and users not only pile on junk in your database but also make it difficult to manage genuine comments and users on your website. Thanks to many WordPress plugin you can get rid of these spam things in your WordPress.
Here we have listed some of the best ways to protect your WP website from spammers
New to WordPress? Read How to install a WordPress plugin
WP-SpamShield Anti-Spam (comments and registrations)
The most effective way to give spammers a drubbing. WP-SpamShield Anti-Spam is a comprehensive solution not only to block spam comments but also spam registrations. This plugin comes with lots of configurable options and you can disable any of its offered function easily. For instance, if you don’t want to use its spam-registration-blocking system, you can disable it, or if you don’t want its anti-spam feature for Gravity Forms, Contact Form 7 or any other form builder, you can disable it.
WP-SpamShield uses a smart algorithm to fight against spam-bots and human spammers as well. Instead of submitting and marking a comment as spam, it entirely blocks spammer and this way it makes the database free from the heavy load caused by spam comments and user registrations. Optionally, you can also disable comment posting via a proxy server, as many human spammers use proxy servers to post spams.
Akismet (comments only)
Akismet is a free WordPress plugin that comes with JetPack WordPress plugin. Install JetPack and activate Akismet. You need to obtain a free API key to use Akismet anti-spam service. You can get this API key simply registering with your email address.
Akismet detects spam comments comprehensively and it is able to detect over 95% spams. However, it doesn’t fight against spam user registrations.
WangGuard (comments and registrations)
WangGuard is a free plugin that protects your WordPress from spam-bot user registrations. To prevent spam user registrations, WangGuard uses its cloud system to detect a user registration, whether a spam or not. When someone registers on your website, WanGuard sends user registration email to its cloud database and checks, whether that email belongs to a spam email or not. It is something like Akismet. Akismet also checks submitted comments via their cloud database. WangGuard does the same and their online database not much less than that of Akismet.
If a spam user successfully registers, you can report that user to WangGuard and it will get added to their database. User will also be deleted on you reporting it to the WangGuard. Hundreds of spam user registrations may triggered automatically daily and you can save yourself from them thanks to WangGuard
Cleantalk (comments and registrations)
Cleantalk is an all in one solution to prevent spam comments, spam registrations, spam form submissions, etc. There is no need to configure options and thhis plugin comes out of the box. All you need to do is providing your email and website address, and you will get an API key to activate the plugin.
Just like above given plugins it also uses a cloud database to detect malicious IP and spam-bots. Cleantalk blocks users based on different criteria as; information is submitted too quickly (spam-bots submits forms unusually faster than human), blacklisted email, blacklisted IP address, etc….
In addition to comments and user registration form, Cleantalk can also protect forms created with different form builders such as Gravity Forms, Ninja Forms, Contact Form 7, Fast Secure Contact Form, etc…. It also supports BuddyPress, bbPress, S2 Member, WooCommerce and Profile Builder plugins.
Stop Spammers Spam Prevention (comments and registrations)
Formerly Stop Spammers Registrations, Stop Spammers Spam Prevention plugin is a well-known and widely used plugin to stop spam registrations. It is capable of block most of the spam-bots, which submit login forms and comment forms on your website. More likely they have their own database to detect spam-bots via blacklisted IP, email and any other measure.
This plugin offers CAPTCHA filling if a user is unable to submit correct information in the form, too. Besides all this, it can check form submissions of Gravity Forms and bbPress.
Which one you should choose?
Download Stop Spammers Spam Prevention for free
If you have user registrations disabled, simply try starting with Akismet. If Akismet doesn’t live up to, then try SpamShield or WangGuard and so on. If you are allowing visitors to register on your website, you can try all others except Akismet (as it doesn’t offers protection against spam registrations).
