Cookies for Comments vs Akismet Anti-spam: Spam Protection

Head-to-head on the signals that matter, from the public WordPress.org data.

Cookies for Comments

by Donncha O Caoimh (a11n)

Health D50

Akismet Anti-spam: Spam Protection

by Automattic

Health A90

Active-install trajectory

Cookies for Comments Akismet Anti-spam: Spam Protection

Active installs, each indexed to 100 at the start of the window. A line above 100 is growing its install base, below 100 is shrinking.

Metric	Cookies for Comments	Akismet Anti-spam: Spam Protection
Active installs Modeled from the public "N+" band and recent downloads.	10K–20K	5M–6M ✓
Install trend Change in active installs across the charted window.	-50%	-17% ✓
Overall health	D · 50	A · 90 ✓
Maintenance How recently the plugin was updated.	3/100	100/100 ✓
Rating quality Volume-adjusted review quality.	89/100	93/100 ✓
Support Share of forum threads marked resolved.	70/100	70/100
Rating (adjusted)	4.53★	4.68★ ✓
Reviews	18	1,186 ✓
Ranking optimization How well the listing is tuned to rank on wp.org.	42/100	99/100 ✓
Removal risk Maintenance signals that precede a wp.org closure. Not an official status.	High	Low ✓
Last updated	7.2y ago	11d ago ✓
Downloads · 30d	407	8.5M ✓
Category	Security	Security

✓ marks the stronger plugin on each row. Rows where they're level show no marker.

Release activity

Cookies for Comments Akismet Anti-spam: Spam Protection

7-day average daily downloads. Downloads spike for about a week after each release as the install base re-downloads, so read this as release cadence, not growth.