Akismet vs Spam Master
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 | Spam Master v7.7.9 · checked 23 Oct 2026 Free + paid · ★ 4.2/5 Visit Details |
|---|---|---|
| At a glance | ||
| Active installs | 5M+ | 200+ |
| Last updated | August 18, 2026 | August 20, 2026 |
| Editions | Akismet Anti-spam: Spam Protection · Akismet paid plan ($) | Spam Master · Spam Master Pro ($) |
| 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 | No captcha and no visitor-facing puzzles; Honeypot and blocklist checks on forms and registrations; Works with WooCommerce, WPForms and BuddyPress |
| Cons | Needs an Akismet API key from akismet.com; Commercial sites must buy a paid plan; Submitted content is sent to Akismet for checking | Sends blocked-attempt details to the vendor service; Some features are only in the Pro edition; Depends on the vendor service being reachable |
| 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 | Firewall that blocks flagged requests with a 403, Honeypot checks for spam bots, Licence key requested from the vendor service, Weekly stats email to the site administrator, spam-master-validation shortcode, UPGRADE TO PRO link in the plugin row |
| Integrations | ||
| E-commerce | — | WooCommerce |
| Plugins | Contact Form 7, Gravity Forms, Jetpack | WPForms, BuddyPress |
| Other | Akismet | Spam Master vendor service (learn and licence API) |
| Requires WordPress | 5.8 | 5.0 |
| Requires PHP | 7.2 | 7.4 |
| Tested up to | 7.1 | 7.1 |
| Phones home | No | Yes |
| External services | rest.akismet.com | www.spammaster.org |
| Shortcodes | — | 2 |