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This is not one of those “10 best Anti-Spam Plugins for WordPress” articles. We are going to talk about only one because it is the one we use and we stand by it 100%. This is – hands down – the best anti-spam plugin for WordPress, AMP, comments, contact forms, user registrations, external forms, and much more… It should never be overlooked.

Finding the best anti-spam plugin for WordPress AND AMP is hard. We have gone through many different plugins, such as Akismet and bbPress spam plugins via the bbPress plugin repository. There are some plugins that just cost way too much to do an okay job. Furthermore, WordPress spam for bbPress, BuddyPress, WordPress comments, contact forms, and user registration is easy for bots and humans to accomplish even with Akismet enabled and paid for. This was an issue for us. We kept searching for the one plugin we can use and replace the Google reCAPTCHA or any other CAPTCHA for that matter.

You may be asking, “You mean I can replace a CAPTCHA and not worry about spam?!” Yes, you absolutely can. Even with CAPTCHA enabled, spambots/spammers can get around it. We have set the WordPress comments as well as our forum comments open to the public without the need of a CAPTCHA, and we don’t ever worry about a thing because we know we are protected 24/7. You will be protected from fake emails, spamming IP addresses/emails, and standard spam words that will trigger an automatic block.

Combating spam is important from an SEO standpoint and a privacy standpoint for your users. They could receive messages from the spammers and it just does not look good. We actually ran into this issue when we were using Akismet. So we searched and searched and tried out Anti-Spam by CleanTalk’s free trial version and it was the best thing we did. BONUS: They have a 7-day free trial, so what do you have to lose? After that, it is $8 for high-quality anti-spam protection and support. I promise you, you cannot beat it.

Disclaimer: This is not a sponsored post nor are we affiliated with this company in any way besides using their plugin. We are not benefiting from posting this from the company providing this service. The only benefit we are receiving is spreading the word about this anti-spam/spam firewall plugin to help you combat spam on your WordPress site. Also, no plugin is perfect nor will it always be 100% accurate. However, there are plugins that outperform other competitors and this is one of those plugins.

The Best Anti-Spam and Spam Firewall Plugin for WordPress and AMP:

Let’s get down to business. We have been using this spam protection plugin for over a year now and we have not run into any issues with our site being spammed even WITHOUT CAPTCHA.

Anti-Spam by CleanTalk is a cost-effective plugin that provides everything you need to combat spam posts in your WordPress comments, AMP comments, forum comments, contact forms, user registrations, WooCommerce, and more. Not only do they protect your plugin forms from spam comments but they also protect your created and external contact forms. Because of this, we completely removed Google reCAPTCHA for our contact forms, WordPress comments, and forums. Let’s dive into all that it has to offer.

WordPress User Registration Forms:

Anti-Spam by CleanTalk will protect your registration forms, such as a BuddyPress registration form or one you created yourself. This was a huge issue for us with BuddyPress. We would get tons of spam registrations that were pending until the user verified their email.

With Anti-Spam by CleanTalk, we no longer worry about that. They block the registration before it ever goes through and you can see all of the transactions in your logs via Anti-Spam by CleanTalk Dashboard. If you ever happen to see a mistake, you can mark it as not spam and give feedback so they can make some improvements.

WordPress Contact Forms:

Before Anti-Spam by CleanTalk, we used to have Google reCAPTCHA for our contact forms. Somehow, we were getting spam emails stating they were from Google and that we need to take action before they shut down our site. We reported it to Google, of course, and they took care of the rest. This is one example of many, and I am sure you are well aware of what I am talking about.

Then, we got into Anti-Spam by CleanTalk. We were skeptical, as always, when it comes to an anti-spam plugin as nothing has worked very well. That is until we found Anti-Spam by CleanTalk. This and registrations are probably the most we see blocked in our logs. You can read the message they tried sending and you can find out why they were blocked. There was no need for Google reCAPTCHA anymore so we got rid of it and our contact forms are completely protected.

Whether the contact form was created by you or by another plugin, Anti-Spam by CleanTalk will protect it. The options to do so will be in the Advanced Settings of the plugin. Let me tell you, there are a lot of settings for just about every need. It’s truly amazing.

External Forms:

We had a social login/registration plugin that did not have spam protection in its free version. We did get some (newly created) spam accounts complete registration through that social login/register plugin. However, that spammer could never post anything because Anti-Spam by CleanTalk would block them. We found out about this and marked the user as spam. You can read more about why they were blocked even after being approved below in the Spam Database section of this article.

WordPress Comments:

This was also one of our big issues and it was very important to combat the spam even with CAPTCHA. The solution was to hold all comments for moderation before we found Anti-Spam by CleanTalk.

Anti-Spam by CleanTalk will block the comment from going through. Via the plugin’s settings, you can choose whether or not to have Anti-Spam by CleanTalk put it in your spam folder automatically or just delete it.

Ever since we have been using Anti-Spam by CleanTalk we have not had one spammer come through to our site.

Forums:

This is another big one. For most sites, if a user wants to comment they need an account. This can be a missed opportunity for some sites that just do not get enough registrations so your forums can get a little stale. A good way to grow your forum is by letting guests comment without the need to register to your site.

This is risky and the need for mods would be a must, otherwise, you would never sleep. If you did, you would wake up to spam comments even with a CAPTCHA attached to your topics. Well, we have an open forum where we allow guests to comment without the need for an account. Our Anti-Spam by CleanTalk logs is filled with spam comments from fake emails to spammer IPs and emails. Yes, Anti-Spam by CleanTalk will block fake emails as well. We have no CAPTCHA and have not had one spam comment come through.

Spam Database:

Anti-Spam by CleanTalk has a database where users are reported for spam. Their IP address and email will be logged into the database so Anti-Spam by CleanTalk will automatically block any of those accounts coming in. You can check out their database here – https://cleantalk.org/blacklists.

Let’s say a user is not in that database and they’re a brand new spamming account trucking their way to get in the database. Well, Anti-Spam by CleanTalk has block words that you can fill out yourself or you can use their collection of common spamming words. These are the most common things spammers say, so even though a spammer may not in the database, they’ll get blocked for triggering a blocked word. This is an extra layer of security!

Spam Firewall:

Anti-Spam by CleanTalk also has a spam firewall that comes along with the deal. You can see your daily reports on the spambots the plugin has blocked before they could even see your site. Anti-Spam by CleanTalk is the real deal and we have been using them for over a year with no issues. We cannot even remember what it is like to get spammed! Via the plugin settings, they state in their Spam Firewall:

This option allows to filter spam bots before they access website. Also reduces CPU usage on hosting server and accelerates pages load time.
If the setting is turned on, plugin will automatically add IP address for each session with administration rights to Personal list in the cloud.

Anti-Spam by CleanTalk

Support:

Last but not least by any means is Anti-Spam by CleanTalk’s support. They have phenomenal customer service and they go above and beyond to make sure you are taken care of. It is the kind of support you always want and need especially when it is something critical.

Wrapping Up:

There is nothing out there that can top Anti-Spam by CleanTalk in our opinion. Through our experience with them, we highly recommend Anti-Spam by CleanTalk. The settings within the plugin can be customized to suit your needs so you can sleep comfortably at night again.

Anti-Spam by CleanTalk has a bunch of other uses as stated in their plugin’s details:

ANTISPAM FEATURES

– Stops spam comments.
– Stops spam registrations.
– Stops spam contact emails.
– Stops spam orders.
– Stops spam bookings.
– Stops spam subscriptions.
– Stops spam surveys, polls.
– Stops spam in widgets.
– Stops spam in WooCommerce.
– Checks and removes the existing spam comments and spam users.
– Compatible with mobile users and devices.
– Compatible with General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) (EU).
– Real-time email validation. Is email real or Not.
– Blocking disposable & temporary emails.
– No Spam – No Google Penalties. Give your SEO boost.
– Mobile friendly Anti Spam & FireWall.
– Stops spam in Search Form.
– Disable comments.
– Spam FireWall: Anti-Flood
– Spam FireWall: Anti-Crawler

Anti-Spam by CleanTalk

We highly recommend that you install their plugin and take advantage of that 7-day free trial to test it out with no risks. We are thankful we did. After 7-days we are sure you will get on board. Thankfully it is not one of those it’s too good to be true moments. Let us know in the comments below how it has helped you if you decide to go with it. We would love to hear from you. Try out Anti-Spam by CleanTalk here.

T4G

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