95
Email Encoder – Protect Email Addresses and Phone Numbers
Shields your inbox from bots but watch your Elementor layouts.
HealthyGrowing
95/100
This plugin provides reliable email protection for free but might clash with Elementor.
Active installs
~95,000
our estimate · wp.org shows 90k+
Rating
4.9★
90 ratings
Trend · vs a year ago
+716%
Growing fast
86 → 702 installs/day
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
Growing fast · +716% in the last year
86/day a year ago→702/day today
Reviews
what people actually sayEmail Encoder is a well-regarded, long-standing plugin for protecting email addresses and phone numbers from spam, with users appreciating its free feature set and responsive support, though it carries a notable compatibility risk for sites using WPML and/or Elementor.
What people like
- +Reliably encodes and protects email addresses, phone numbers, and anchor tags from spam bots×5
- +Automatic mode works well with minimal configuration needed×2
- +Multiple encryption options available for free, without locking features behind a paid tier
- +Developer provides quick, attentive support and has shown willingness to fix compatibility issues×2
- +Long-term reliability — many users report using it for years without issues×2
Common complaints
- −Causes serious compatibility issues with WPML (blocks API connections, breaks dynamic field translation) and Elementor (breaks layouts)
- −Triggers a _load_textdomain_just_in_time error in WordPress 6.7.0 logs, indicating translations are loaded too early (since 6.7.0)
- −No option to selectively disable encoding by CSS class or ID, limiting fine-grained control
- −Automatic phone number recognition is not yet supported
Review trustReviews look organic
- 4.92★Verified rating — holds steady vs the raw 4.90★
- 8%One-shot reviewers — most reviewers are active community members
Reviews per month · 5★ vs lower
2023-08-192025-01-102026-06-04
5★ reviews1–4★ reviews
All-time ratings · 90 total
Latest reviews · 90 analyzed
- 2026-05-28★★★★★Greate Use!RiccLazz
- 2026-03-16★★★★★Nice Free Plugin720florian
- 2026-02-27★★★★★Been using it for years!paulr25
- 2025-12-25★★★★★Excellent plugin and supportniveksa
- 2025-11-19★★★★★Best I've Foundfletchadam
- 2025-10-28★★★★★Useful plugin, great supportsankari
- 2025-09-04★★★★★Been using it for yearsneotek9
- 2025-05-31★★★★★I used for yearsClaudiu T.
- 2024-11-29★★★★★Simple, free & workstomschulze
- 2024-06-14★★★★★sweet!camillagolden1-shot
Releases
recent versions from WordPress.org SVNFor 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.
547
Baseline · median of last 7 organic days
680
Prior 7-day baseline
375
Floor · 25th percentile over 14 days
522
Latest day · 2026-06-03(organic)
-19.6%
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.
17%
Max month share · biggest single 30-day window
1.34
Distribution CV · <0.6 even, >1.5 bursty
94%
5★ share in analyzed sample
8%
Solo reviewers · only this one wp.org activity
+33%
Volume velocity · last 6mo vs prior 6mo
4.92 → 4.92★
Sample avg · raw → solo-filtered