Akismet vs WPForms
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 | WPForms v2.0.3 · checked 23 Oct 2026 Free + paid · ★ 4.8/5 Visit Details |
|---|---|---|
| At a glance | ||
| Active installs | 5M+ | 5M+ |
| Last updated | August 18, 2026 | October 22, 2026 |
| Editions | Akismet Anti-spam: Spam Protection · Akismet paid plan ($) | WPForms Lite · WPForms Pro ($) |
| 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 | Free drag-and-drop builder with ready-made templates; Stripe and PayPal payment forms in the free version; Entries stored and viewable in the admin |
| Cons | Needs an Akismet API key from akismet.com; Commercial sites must buy a paid plan; Submitted content is sent to Akismet for checking | Conditional logic, multi-page forms and file uploads need Pro; Calculations need the paid Calculations add-on; Some fields and export options show upgrade prompts |
| Mentioned in our posts | 2 | 2 |
| Features (Form plugins checklist) | ||
| Drag-and-drop builder | — | Yes |
| Conditional logic | — | Paid |
| Multi-step forms | — | Paid |
| Payments | — | Yes |
| File upload | — | Paid |
| Calculations | — | Paid |
| 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 | Ready-made form templates, Stripe payment forms, PayPal payment forms, hCaptcha, reCAPTCHA and Turnstile spam challenges, Gutenberg block to insert a form, Entries page in the admin, AI form creation from a conversation |
| Integrations | ||
| Payment | — | Stripe, PayPal Commerce |
| Plugins | Contact Form 7, Gravity Forms, Jetpack | — |
| Other | Akismet | Google reCAPTCHA, hCaptcha, Cloudflare Turnstile |
| Requires WordPress | 5.8 | 5.5 |
| Requires PHP | 7.2 | 7.2 |
| Tested up to | 7.1 | 7.1 |
| Phones home | No | Only if you agree |
| External services | rest.akismet.com | wpformsapi.com, downloads.wordpress.org, wpformsliteconnect.com, staging.wpformsliteconnect.com, wpformsusage.com, api.wordpress.org, api.cc.email, connect.squareup.com, nominatim.openstreetmap.org, api.stripe.com, www.google.com, hcaptcha.com, challenges.cloudflare.com |
| Blocks | — | 1 |
| Shortcodes | — | 1 |