Akismet vs Content Upgrades by Audience Ops
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| Feature | Akismet v5.7.2 · checked 23 Oct 2026 Free + paid · ★ 4.7/5 Visit Details | Content Upgrades by Audience Ops v1.5.6 · checked 23 Oct 2026 Paid Visit Details |
|---|---|---|
| At a glance | ||
| Active installs | 5M+ | — |
| Last updated | August 18, 2026 | — |
| Editions | Akismet Anti-spam: Spam Protection · Akismet paid plan ($) | Content Upgrades by Audience Ops ($) |
| Pros | Checks comments and contact form submissions against a shared spam database; Works with Contact Form 7 and Gravity Forms; Stats through a dashboard widget and REST endpoints | Opt-in box on any post or page through shortcodes; Entries screen with CSV export; Connections to Mailchimp, Drip and Zapier |
| Cons | Needs an Akismet API key from akismet.com; Commercial sites must buy a paid plan; Submitted content is sent to Akismet for checking | Licence key needed for updates; Subscriber sync needs an account with a supported email tool; Facebook conversion event only useful with the pixel installed |
| Mentioned in our posts | 2 | — |
| More features | ||
| Other features | Checks comments before they are saved, Spam checks for Gravity Forms and Contact Form 7 submissions, Scheduled deletion of old spam and orphaned comment meta, Block statistics dashboard widget, REST endpoints for key, settings and stats, Webhook endpoint for Akismet account updates, Stats ability for the WordPress Abilities API | Content upgrade opt-in box through shortcodes ($), Content upgrade records stored as a custom post type ($), Entry capture by AJAX for logged-in and anonymous visitors ($), Entries admin screen ($), CSV export of entries ($), Optional Facebook conversion event on form submit ($) |
| Integrations | ||
| — | Mailchimp ($), Drip ($) | |
| Analytics | — | Meta Pixel ($) |
| Plugins | Contact Form 7, Gravity Forms, Jetpack | Audience Ops store ($) |
| Other | Akismet | Zapier ($) |
| Requires WordPress | 5.8 | 4.0 |
| Requires PHP | 7.2 | — |
| Tested up to | 7.1 | 4.2.2 |
| Phones home | No | No |
| External services | rest.akismet.com | shop.audienceops.com, tag.getdrip.com |
| Shortcodes | — | 2 |