Whether your blog is for personal or business use, you likely know what a pain and inconvenience it can be to get a lot of spam. Akismet is one of the most popular WordPress spam-blockers on the net but it has recently been rumored that the tool is no longer free to users. So what is a passionate blogger to do? These 5 alternatives to Akismet are 100% free and are known to be very useful anti-spam tools for WordPress and other popular blogging frameworks.5. Bad Behavior
Bad Behavior stops that “bad behavior” that spam bots attempt by masking your site from these types of hackers so that spam isn’t even possible in the first place. It’s even made to detect new types of spam that haven’t been recognized by many other plug ins yet. It can be used alone or as a complement to any other WordPress anti-spam plug in.4. Defensio
Defensio is on the defense not only against spam on your blog or website but also is triggered by other potentially malicious threats to your WordPress site. Spammers are stopped right in their tracks and their attempts are bounced right back to them with this useful plug in.3. WP-Spam-Hitman
The definition of a hit man basically sums up this great anti-spam tool. Choose from one of the three modes of Delete, Moderation and Spam to select exactly the strength of monitoring and prevention you’re after. It’s pretty easy to use but has been proven to be a very strong weapon against threats and annoyances. You can even decide where to send that unwanted spam because you can customize everything.2. Simple Captcha
Simple Captcha uses Java scripts that you’re able to customize to suit the types of spam that you’re specifically targeted by. It’s also easy to use and provides easy to read defaults so that your actual human users and fellow bloggers are able to read the security codes it provides and submit their comments and messages freely. Simple Captcha is one of the most commonly used anti-spam plug ins to prevent unwanted intruders.1. AVH First Defense Against Spam
This is one of the most popular anti-spam WordPress plug ins in use, not to mention possibly the best alternative to Akismet. AVH First Defense Against Spam uses a local IP cache labeled “Project Honey Pot” where known threats are all recorded. You can stop spam if they’re on the list before they can even post anything to your blog or site. It’s almost like a free background check on the IP address the request is being sent from.If spammers are able to get through because they’re not on the list yet, don’t worry, because they’ll be picked up quickly by this plug in and added to the “honey pot.” This is one of the best ways to quickly weed out the “good” and “evil” comments and other attention on your site.
If you’re bumming because you can’t use Akismet anymore, check one or more of these other great WordPress plug ins out and you’re sure to find one that’s right for you.