Akismet vs Blacklist Manager
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 | Blacklist Manager v2.4.0 · checked 23 Oct 2026 Free + paid · ★ 3.6/5 Visit Details |
|---|---|---|
| At a glance | ||
| Active installs | 5M+ | 2,000+ |
| Last updated | August 18, 2026 | October 22, 2026 |
| Editions | Akismet Anti-spam: Spam Protection · Akismet paid plan ($) | Blacklist Manager · Blacklist Manager Premium ($) |
| 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 | Blocklists for phone, email, IP and email domain; Checkout, registration and comment checks; Activity log of blocked attempts |
| Cons | Needs an Akismet API key from akismet.com; Commercial sites must buy a paid plan; Submitted content is sent to Akismet for checking | Global network and Premium add-on need a separate subscription; Upgrade prompts appear in the free admin; Customer identity data is sent to the Global Blacklist network once it is activated |
| 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 | Blocklist rules for phone, email, IP and email domain, Block blocklisted customers at classic and block checkout, Block blocklisted registrations and comments, Checkout verification step, Activity log of blocked attempts, WPForms submission checks, Global Blacklist network reports and checks ($), Tier sync webhook from the vendor ($) |
| Integrations | ||
| E-commerce | — | WooCommerce |
| Plugins | Contact Form 7, Gravity Forms, Jetpack | WPForms |
| Other | Akismet | Global Blacklist network ($), ip-api.com |
| Requires WordPress | 5.8 | 6.3 |
| 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 | globalblacklist.org, ip-api.com |