Antispam Bee as an alternative to Akismet

Akismet is the plugin anti-spam included by default in WordPress installation. Undoubtedly this benefit to a large extent made it a leader when it comes to filtering “robot” comments on our blog. That, and that without it we would have twenty spam comments per day, or more. But is it that good or are there better alternatives? Yes, they exist: Antispam Bee. In this note we want to tell you why we prefer it.

Akismet: Chosen by Necessity

The moment our blog is launched, it begins to be target of robots that are responsible for leaving comments on our posts to promote products and services varied. Many times even the messages are from a language other than Spanish, such as English, Chinese or Russian. In addition to the hassle of having to clean up these comments all the time, when we're neglected our site looks unprofessional. For this same reason, admins install WordPress and then activate Askimet. And yes, it does a great job and we didn't have to decide anything other than to register.

But Akismet has its drawbacks.. Customizing it isn't the easiest thing in the world, it has privacy issues, and it's not even free for commercial sites.

As to Antispam Bee, 100% is free, and setting it up is easier than yawning. We can compare Antispam Bee with Akismet, but what we cannot do is leave our site at the mercy of Spam.

How does spam get on my site?

Spam messages enter through our comment forms and/or contact forms. The more possibilities we give users to enter text with any type of form, the more spam will appear.

Although many times spam is entered manually by a human being, "tuned" in some way according to the content of an Entry to go more unnoticed, the bulk of spam is created by brute force: through programs running on servers.

Defenses within reach

Install a Captcha plugin, for instance reCaptcha of Google, manages to stop this last type of Spam generation (the one triggered by robots), but the same will not happen with the human spam. Sure, we can always tell our WordPress that don't post comments automatically. Thus, we must enter the comments section of the Escritio and read the messages that crowded together, one by one, deciding in each case whether to publish or delete it. But eventually, the queue of comments pending moderation becomes endless, and our site slows down from all the undeleted spam. We need a more practical, automated alternative, such as Akismet and Antispam Bee.. Above all, if we do not want to resort to alternatives such as the comments of Facebook either Disqus, where the entire content of the comments on our site belongs to third parties.

Basic operation of Akismet and Antispam Bee

Filters that detect “spam” messages work, in a nutshell, like this: an artificial intelligence reads the text sent by commenters (or robots) and subjects it to a series of checks. For example, if there are links in the text with typical keywords, if that message is literally repeated on other sites, or if the comment comes from an IP address already labeled as infectious.

Any comment that does not pass these tests will be marked as spam for eventual review, or will be automatically deleted depending on how rigorously we have configured the plugin in question.

If both Akismet and Antispam Bee plugins work the same way, why would one be better than the other? And there's the point: that, under the hood, they do NOT work the same way.

Akismet does not do the work locally, within our site; instead, it sends the comments that come to us to its own servers. This implies the use of extra resources, and brings connection speed problems if our site receives comments all the time. But also, It is illegal in several regions. Akismet is basically transporting to its own servers content that does not belong to it, which violates privacy, especially when we assure our visitors that their personal information will not be shared with third parties.

On your side, Antispam Bee does work locally, which in the long run results in a more agile operation, but mainly does not violate any privacy policy (read agreement GDPR).

Akismet vs. Antispam Bee: The Good and the Bad

It is worth saying in advance that both plugins do a good job. Be careful, there will always be a spam comment that can be filtered. Spam systems change, or comments are made by human beings, well tailored to the content of the entry in question. The master's eye has to appear at some point to check that all is well. But it is also true that Akismet and Antispam Bee are improving over time, learning, and their artificial intelligences are becoming more and more detective and effective.

The bad

Akismet It is NOT free for commercial sites. The updated prices, here.

Antispam Bee Filter only the native comments of our WordPress; we will not be able, for example, to use it together with jet pack.

Akismet it is complicated to configure. In order to use it, we must first register at wordpress.com and link our blog. It's not "rocket science," but it's actually extra steps and times versus a couple of clicks to get you up and running Antispam Bee.

Antispam Bee It is not compatible with many contact form plugins.

Akismet it works remotely, sending the comments we receive via its own API to its servers to be tested. In addition to complicating the transparency of privacy policies, if your servers go down for some reason, SPAM is no longer filtered on our site.

The good

Antispam Bee is 100% free for both personal and commercial sites (developer accepts donations).

Akismet supports Jetpack's enhanced comments.

Antispam Bee it works locally, which goes hand in hand with data protection on our site and healthy privacy standards.

Akismet It has great compatibility with various forms of data entry on our site; For example, it supports Contact Form 7.

Antispam Bee It installs in seconds without the need for registrations.

Conclusions

It remains to our criteria and specific needs Decide which of the two plugins to use. If we use the native WordPress comment management, antispam bee is an excellent and free alternative, plus it activates in seconds.

If we use the rich comment system of jet pack, then it is better to use Akismet Given the Antispam Bee it is not compatible.

if the privacy of our users and visits is important to us, the choice is Antispam Bee.

if we have a commercial site but we don't want to invest money in antispam components, the option is also Antispam Bee.

We hope that the note has helped you make a decision. And, as always, we invite you to leave us your experiences in the comments section.

Good luck and thanks for reading.