Akismet vs Everest Forms
Compare WordPress plugins and tools side by side. Pick products with “Compare” in the software directory.
| Feature | Akismet v5.7.2 · checked 23 Oct 2026 Free + paid · ★ 4.7/5 Visit Details | Everest Forms v3.6.3 · checked 23 Oct 2026 Free + paid · ★ 4.9/5 Visit Details |
|---|---|---|
| At a glance | ||
| Active installs | 5M+ | 90,000+ |
| Last updated | August 18, 2026 | October 15, 2026 |
| Editions | Akismet Anti-spam: Spam Protection · Akismet paid plan ($) | Everest Forms · Everest Forms Premium ($) |
| 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 | Drag-and-drop form builder with entries stored in WordPress; hCaptcha and reCAPTCHA support in the free version; Builder modules for Divi and Beaver Builder |
| Cons | Needs an Akismet API key from akismet.com; Commercial sites must buy a paid plan; Submitted content is sent to Akismet for checking | Premium form options are sold separately; Telemetry and AI features call the vendor's servers when enabled |
| Mentioned in our posts | 2 | 1 |
| 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 | Form post type for building forms, Form entries stored in a custom table, Form selector block, hCaptcha and reCAPTCHA verification on submit, CleanTalk spam check add-on, Premium-only form selector options ($) |
| Integrations | ||
| Analytics | — | ThemeGrill tracking API (opt-in) |
| Plugins | Contact Form 7, Gravity Forms, Jetpack | Divi, Beaver Builder |
| Other | Akismet | hCaptcha, Google reCAPTCHA, CleanTalk, ThemeGrill AI service |
| Requires WordPress | 5.8 | 5.5 |
| Requires PHP | 7.2 | 7.2 |
| Tested up to | 7.1 | 7.1.3 |
| Phones home | No | Only if you agree |
| External services | rest.akismet.com | raw.githubusercontent.com, api.cleantalk.org, hcaptcha.com, www.google.com, moderate.cleantalk.org, ai.themegrill.com, api.themegrill.com |
| Blocks | — | 3 |
| Custom tables | — | 3 |