Comment spam is one of the most frustrating problems WordPress website owners face. Akismet Anti-Spam is the most trusted spam filtering plugin for WordPress, automatically catching spam comments and contact form submissions before they ever reach you.
What Is Akismet?
Akismet is a spam filtering service developed by Automattic, the company behind WordPress.com. It analyses every comment and contact form submission on your website against a global database of known spam patterns. Spam is automatically flagged and moved to a spam queue so it never clutters your inbox or comment section.
Key Features
- Automatic Spam Detection — Filters out spam without any manual work from you.
- Global Spam Database — Uses data from millions of websites to identify spam patterns.
- Spam Statistics — See how much spam Akismet has caught over time.
- False Positive Review — Easily review flagged comments and approve legitimate ones.
- Works with Contact Forms — Integrates with WPForms, Contact Form 7, Gravity Forms, and more.
- Built Into WordPress — Comes pre-installed on every WordPress installation.
How Does It Work?
When a comment is submitted on your website, Akismet sends it to their servers for analysis. Within milliseconds, it’s checked against billions of pieces of spam data and returned with a spam or not-spam verdict. The entire process is invisible to your visitors and requires no setup beyond entering your API key.
Pricing
Akismet is free for personal, non-commercial websites. If you run a commercial website, a paid plan is required starting at $10/month. Many consider this a reasonable cost for the peace of mind it provides. If your website has comments enabled, Akismet is not optional — spam will become a serious problem without it.
Akismet comes pre-installed with WordPress for a reason. It’s been filtering spam reliably for years and remains the gold standard for WordPress spam protection.
