How to prevent spam in wordpress forms

🔒 1. Enable Honeypot Fields

• Add a CAPTCHA (Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart) to your forms:
• Google reCAPTCHA v2 or v3 (widely used)
• hCaptcha (privacy-focused alternative)
• Most form plugins support these:
• Contact Form 7 – Supports reCAPTCHA
• WPForms – Supports reCAPTCHA, hCaptcha
• Gravity Forms – reCAPTCHA, hCaptcha add-ons available

🧠 2. Enable Honeypot Fields
Honeypots are hidden fields that bots tend to fill out—but humans can’t see them.

Many form plugins like WPForms, Ninja Forms, and Formidable Forms have built-in honeypot protection.

🕒 3. Limit Form Submissions
Prevent bots from bombarding your forms by rate-limiting:

• Use plugins like WP Limit Login Attempts or advanced firewall rules to throttle submissions.
• 🧹 4. Use an Anti-Spam Plugin
  Install a plugin specifically designed to prevent spam:
• Akismet (built-in with WordPress, good for comment and form spam)
• Antispam Bee
• CleanTalk – Works with many form plugins

✋ 5. Require User Registration or Login
Restrict form access to logged-in users if appropriate:

Useful for member-only websites or internal submissions.

🎛️ 6. Disable Trackbacks and Pingbacks
These are common spam vectors, especially for comment forms:

Go to:  Settings > Discussion > “Allow link notifications” – uncheck this option.

🧱 7. Use a Security Plugin with Spam Features
Consider security suites that include spam protection:

• Wordfence
• Sucuri
• iThemes Security

✅ 8. Recommended Combo for Most Sites:

• Use Google reCAPTCHA v3
• Enable honeypot in your form plugin
• Use Akismet for backend filtering