AccessNow Spam Eater quietly checks each form submission and turns away the ones sent by bots. Your visitors never have to solve a puzzle or tick a box, and nothing is sent to an outside service.
It’s careful with real people too. Express payment buttons such as Apple Pay and Google Pay keep working, a visitor whose browser fails a check can simply try again, and a blocked address can still log in, so nobody sharing an internet connection with a spammer can lock you out of your own site.
It’s built with privacy in mind. What people type into your forms is never stored. Bots that keep filling in the hidden field are blocked for a short time using a one-way hash of their IP address, and the optional spam log keeps only an anonymised address for 30 days.
The pictures below are the actual screens: choosing which forms to protect, the IP blocking and privacy settings, the blocked addresses and spam log, and a protected form as your visitors see it.
Not on WordPress? The same checks are available for any PHP site or app as Spam Eater for PHP forms, free under the MIT licence.
Features
- Honeypot, JavaScript, timing and interaction checks, with no CAPTCHA
- Protects WordPress comment, login, registration and lost password forms
- WooCommerce classic checkout (express payment buttons included), and My Account login, registration and lost password
- Contact Form 7, Gravity Forms, WPForms, Formidable, Fluent Forms, Ninja Forms, Forminator, Elementor Pro, Bricks, Beaver Builder and more
- Protect your own forms with three developer functions, including multi-step forms and forms sent with fetch()
- Temporary IP blocking for bots, with an Unblock button
- Works with page caching, and supports sites behind a proxy or CDN
- Loads its small script only on pages that show a protected form
- No cookies, no tracking and no outside services
How it compares
Most anti-spam plugins either send what your visitors type to an outside service, or make them solve a puzzle. Spam Eater does neither. Of the most-installed plugins compared here, it is the only one that is free, needs no account, shows visitors nothing and keeps every check on your own site, and it still covers the WooCommerce checkout (classic and block), blocks repeat bots, and lets you add your own words, throwaway-email and IP rules without a paid upgrade. Choose a plugin to compare it with.
Akismet
| Feature | Spam Eater | Akismet Personal | Akismet Pro |
|---|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Pay what you wantfrom $0; personal sites only | US$9.95 a month, billed yearly |
| Visitors see a challenge | No | No | No |
| What people type leaves your site | No | YesIP address, name, email and message go to Automattic | Yes, as Personal |
| Account or key | No | Yes, API key | Yes, API key |
| Forms covered | 34 pluginsplus WordPress’s own forms and yours | Commentsand form plugins that add Akismet themselves | As Personal |
| WooCommerce checkout | Yes, classic and block checkout | No (product reviews only) | No (product reviews only) |
| Blocks repeat bots | Yesshort blocks; addresses kept only as a one-way hash | No | No |
| Your own words to block | Yeswords and patterns, checked on your site, never stored | Noonly WordPress’s own Disallowed Comment Keys | No (as Personal) |
| Throwaway email addresses | Yesfrom a list inside the plugin; nothing looked up online | No | No |
| Your own IP allow and block lists | Yes, both, with ranges | No | No |
| Slows down password guessing | Yes (off until you turn it on) | No | No |
| Spam statistics | Dashboard widgetand an optional weekly email | Monthly charts | Daily charts too |
| WP-CLI | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Catches spam typed by people | Partlywith your own words and patterns | Yes | Yes |
Antispam Bee
| Feature | Spam Eater | Antispam Bee (free only) |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Visitors see a challenge | No | No |
| What people type leaves your site | No | Nounless you turn on its country or language checks, which use outside services |
| Account or key | No | No |
| Forms covered | 34 pluginsplus WordPress’s own forms and yours | Comments only |
| WooCommerce checkout | Yes, classic and block checkout | No |
| Blocks repeat bots | Yesshort blocks; addresses kept only as a one-way hash | No |
| Your own words to block | Yeswords and patterns, checked on your site, never stored | Only through codethe text stays on your site |
| Throwaway email addresses | Yesfrom a list inside the plugin; nothing looked up online | No |
| Your own IP allow and block lists | Yes, both, with ranges | Nocountry lists use an outside service |
| Slows down password guessing | Yes (off until you turn it on) | No |
| Spam statistics | Dashboard widgetand an optional weekly email | Dashboard chart |
| WP-CLI | Yes | No |
| Catches spam typed by people | Partlywith your own words and patterns | Partly, with rules you write |
WP Armour
| Feature | Spam Eater | WP Armour | WP Armour Extended |
|---|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free | From US$19.99 a year |
| Visitors see a challenge | No | No | No |
| What people type leaves your site | No | No | No |
| Account or key | No | No | Licence |
| Forms covered | 34 pluginsplus WordPress’s own forms and yours | 14 plugins | About 30 more plugins |
| WooCommerce checkout | Yes, classic and block checkout | No | Classic checkoutblock checkout not confirmed |
| Blocks repeat bots | Yesshort blocks; addresses kept only as a one-way hash | No | Yes |
| Your own words to block | Yeswords and patterns, checked on your site, never stored | No | Yes, a keyword filter |
| Throwaway email addresses | Yesfrom a list inside the plugin; nothing looked up online | No | Not confirmed |
| Your own IP allow and block lists | Yes, both, with ranges | No | Automatic block list |
| Slows down password guessing | Yes (off until you turn it on) | No | Not confirmed |
| Spam statistics | Dashboard widgetand an optional weekly email | Totals on its settings page | Dashboard widget |
| WP-CLI | Yes | No | Not confirmed |
| Catches spam typed by people | Partlywith your own words and patterns | No | Partlywith its keyword filter |
CleanTalk
| Feature | Spam Eater | CleanTalk (paid only) |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | US$12 a yearper site, after a free trial |
| Visitors see a challenge | No | No |
| What people type leaves your site | No | Yeseach submission is checked on cleantalk.org |
| Account or key | No | Yes, access key |
| Forms covered | 34 pluginsplus WordPress’s own forms and yours | About 80 pluginsthe most of any here |
| WooCommerce checkout | Yes, classic and block checkout | Yes, classic and block checkout |
| Blocks repeat bots | Yesshort blocks; addresses kept only as a one-way hash | Yesa firewall that blocks known spam addresses |
| Your own words to block | Yeswords and patterns, checked on your site, never stored | Paid add-onset up and checked on cleantalk.org |
| Throwaway email addresses | Yesfrom a list inside the plugin; nothing looked up online | Yes, checked online |
| Your own IP allow and block lists | Yes, both, with ranges | Yes, in its online dashboard |
| Slows down password guessing | Yes (off until you turn it on) | Nosold as a separate security plugin |
| Spam statistics | Dashboard widgetand an optional weekly email | Dashboard widgetand a weekly email |
| WP-CLI | Yes | Yes |
| Catches spam typed by people | Partlywith your own words and patterns | Yes |
Simple Cloudflare Turnstile
| Feature | Spam Eater | Turnstile (free only) |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Visitors see a challenge | No | Yes, a Turnstile checkoften one click, or none |
| What people type leaves your site | No | YesIP address and browser details go to Cloudflare |
| Account or key | No | Yes, a Cloudflare account |
| Forms covered | 34 pluginsplus WordPress’s own forms and yours | About 30 plugins |
| WooCommerce checkout | Yes, classic and block checkout | Yes, classic and block checkout |
| Blocks repeat bots | Yesshort blocks; addresses kept only as a one-way hash | No |
| Your own words to block | Yeswords and patterns, checked on your site, never stored | No |
| Throwaway email addresses | Yesfrom a list inside the plugin; nothing looked up online | No |
| Your own IP allow and block lists | Yes, both, with ranges | Allow list only, with ranges |
| Slows down password guessing | Yes (off until you turn it on) | Noa challenge on the login form instead |
| Spam statistics | Dashboard widgetand an optional weekly email | A count of checksin its settings |
| WP-CLI | Yes | No |
| Catches spam typed by people | Partlywith your own words and patterns | No |
Need Spam Eater to protect another plugin? Ask us to add it.
Last checked 2 October 2026. Prices as each vendor listed them on 2 October 2026, in US dollars; a sale price is marked as one. “No” means we found no such feature in the vendor’s own pages, and “not confirmed” that we couldn’t check it. Check their sites for current offers.
They have strengths of their own. Akismet and CleanTalk see spam across millions of sites, so they catch far more of the messages typed by people paid to spam than any on-site rules can. CleanTalk protects the most form plugins and checks addresses against a much larger online list, Antispam Bee has years of comment-spam rules behind it, and a CAPTCHA such as Turnstile stops a determined bot that runs JavaScript. If you want bots stopped without a puzzle, an account or your visitors’ words leaving your site, Spam Eater is built for exactly that.
Updating from Spam Eater by AccessNow
Version 2.2 renamed the plugin and moved it to an accessnow-spam-eater folder. Install it and activate it: it switches the older copy off and keeps its settings. Then delete the older copy.
