81
Akismet Anti-spam: Spam Protection
It kills the spam bots but charges a premium for the privilege.
HealthyDeclining
81/100
This reliable tool effectively silences spam bots but requires an API key and paid plans for commercial sites.
Active installs
~6.5 million
our estimate · wp.org shows 6.0M+
Rating
4.7★
1,189 ratings
Trend · vs a year ago
-46%
Declining fast
61,592 → 32,998 installs/day
What to watch out for
- MINORdownloads down 46% vs a year ago
Downloads over time
real new installs per day · release spikes shown separately from the trend2025-04-302025-08-082025-11-162026-02-232026-06-03
organicrelease spikerelease tailorganic trend · 14d rolling median
Declining fast · -46% in the last year
61,592/day a year ago→32,998/day today
Reviews
what people actually sayAkismet is well-regarded as a reliable, set-and-forget spam filter for WordPress comments, though users note it is not perfectly accurate and its pricing and free-tier limits cause some friction.
What people like
- +Dramatically reduces or eliminates spam comments with little ongoing effort×9
- +Runs quietly in the background without requiring manual intervention×4
- +Quick and straightforward setup process×6
Common complaints
- −Occasionally lets some spam comments slip through×6
- −Sometimes incorrectly flags legitimate comments as spam (false positives)×4
- −Pricing considered high for business/commercial sites
- −Free tier limits are not clearly communicated
- −API key setup process is seen as a minor annoyance
Review trustReviews look organic
- 4.38★Verified rating — drops from 4.70★ once one-shot reviewers are removed
- 24%One-shot reviewers — most reviewers are active community members
Reviews per month · 5★ vs lower
2025-02-092025-10-072026-06-04
5★ reviews1–4★ reviews
All-time ratings · 1,189 total
Latest reviews · 90 analyzed
- 2026-06-04★★★★★Spam? Gone.janina561-shot
- 2026-06-01★★★★★Does the job welleddy2s1-shot
- 2026-05-25★★★★★Spam Just StoppedJace
- 2026-05-21★★★★★Saved my inbox loljohnathon01-shot
- 2026-05-18★★★★★Spam? Wt Spam?dandre0
- 2026-05-15★★★★★Spam? Gone.Karleigh
- 2026-05-13★★★★★Works Silently Wellhomer47
- 2026-05-12★★★★★No more spamkiah58
- 2026-05-11★★★★★Finally no spam botssairasage
- 2026-05-07★★★★★No More Spamdevin984
Releases
recent versions from WordPress.org SVNAlternatives to Akismet Anti-spam
Top Anti-spam plugins, ranked by score.For developers & the curious
the raw signals behind the grade — none of this is on the friendly summary aboveDownload signals
Baselines are computed on organic days only — release spikes and their tails are excluded, so they're not inflated by the auto-update wave.
48,010
Baseline · median of last 7 organic days
51,686
Prior 7-day baseline
38,555
Floor · 25th percentile over 14 days
122,669
Mean release-day peak (30d)
48,269
Latest day · 2026-06-03(organic)
-7.1%
Week-over-week organic trend
Review signals
Concentration and drive-by metrics drive the review-burst and fake-review flags. 30–40% solo reviewers is normal; we only flag the extremes.
12%
Max month share · biggest single 30-day window
0.49
Distribution CV · <0.6 even, >1.5 bursty
70%
5★ share in analyzed sample
24%
Solo reviewers · only this one wp.org activity
+67%
Volume velocity · last 6mo vs prior 6mo
4.51 → 4.38★
Sample avg · raw → solo-filtered