Akismet vs Forminator
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 | Forminator v1.58.2 · checked 23 Oct 2026 Free + paid · ★ 4.8/5 Visit Details |
|---|---|---|
| At a glance | ||
| Active installs | 5M+ | 600,000+ |
| Last updated | August 18, 2026 | October 14, 2026 |
| Editions | Akismet Anti-spam: Spam Protection · Akismet paid plan ($) | Forminator · Forminator Pro ($) |
| 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 | Many form types, including polls and quizzes, in the free version; Stripe and PayPal payments included without Pro; Conditional logic, multi-step pages and uploads in the free version |
| Cons | Needs an Akismet API key from akismet.com; Commercial sites must buy a paid plan; Submitted content is sent to Akismet for checking | E-signatures and Stripe subscriptions need Pro; Premium integrations need a WPMU DEV membership; Pro upgrade prompts appear in the admin |
| Mentioned in our posts | 2 | — |
| Features (Form plugins checklist) | ||
| Drag-and-drop builder | — | Yes |
| Conditional logic | — | Yes |
| Multi-step forms | — | Yes |
| Payments | — | Yes |
| File upload | — | Yes |
| Calculations | — | Yes |
| Entries in admin | — | Yes |
| Spam protection | — | Yes |
| Free version | — | Yes |
| 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 | Polls with live results, Scored quizzes, Export of form entries, Abandoned form tracking, Form reports |
| Integrations | ||
| Payment | — | Stripe, PayPal |
| CRM | — | HubSpot ($) |
| Marketing | — | Mailchimp ($) |
| Plugins | Contact Form 7, Gravity Forms, Jetpack | — |
| Other | Akismet | Google reCAPTCHA, Akismet |
| Requires WordPress | 5.8 | 6.4 |
| Requires PHP | 7.2 | 7.4 |
| Tested up to | 7.1 | 7.1 |
| Phones home | No | Only if you agree |
| External services | rest.akismet.com | wpmudev.com, slack.com, mandrillapp.com, api.telegram.org, maker.ifttt.com, api.sendgrid.com, www.googleapis.com, www.gstatic.com, cloud.google.com, iamcredentials.googleapis.com, iamcredentials.universe, cloudresourcemanager.universe, app.hubspot.com, fonts.bunny.net, api.stripe.com |