Block Comment Spam Bots

How well this listing is tuned to rank in WordPress.org search, on the factors an owner controls. Not popularity, optimization.

Directory searches this plugin turns up in, and which way each one is moving. WordPress.org publishes no history of search positions, so this starts the day we first tracked a keyword and never backfills.

wp.org is where the directory puts the plugin for that search. On merit is where it would sit if results were ranked on rating, support and updates, without the install boost. The last column is how far the wp.org position moved, from our first reading in the last 90 days to the latest.

6 searches this plugin appeared in over the last 90 days, 0 listed. 6 left out as unrelated or noise (years, numbers, stray words). 5 of its tags aren't in the top 24 for their own search.

Directory rank vs rivals

wp.org popularity rank over time · higher is better · when a rival's line climbs above yours, they've overtaken you

How often this plugin actually ships. A steady rhythm is the maintenance signal a single "last updated" date can't show.

Share of active installs on each version of this plugin · 100% run the current release. Green is the current release; a big slice on older versions is a user base that has stopped updating.

Crossed into this band 10 months ago; a band this size takes about a year or more to cross, which places it about 50% of the way through.

1. ★★★★★ mikemacd

   1.4y ago

   What a brilliant plugin! I’m surprised it is so undiscovered and doesn’t have tens of thousands of installations. It’s June 2025 and we are running WordPress 6.8.1 with the Divi Theme. Even though it hasn’t been updated for a while, it’s working perfectly. I hope the author keeps it going. Our busy site was being plagued by robot spam on a near daily basis – then I discovered ‘Block Comment Spam Bots’. It’s been installed for over 2 months and we have not had a single spam entry since then. Regular visitor comments arrive without any problems.When I came across it in April, I was impressed with author’s practical approach and detailed description of how it works, so I thought I would give it a try. It’s simply super and so logically conceived. Five stars from me. Thank you Rick!

   Read on wp.org ↗
2. ★★★★★ vaszeit

   2.6y ago

   I’ve been running this plugin for a couple of weeks now and I haven’t seen a single spam comment and I used to get dozens per day. This plugin is very unique in how it tackles comments from spam bots and I it works very well. I got tired from constantly analyzing spam comments and blocking offending IPs, which worked only partially well and was very time consuming. Now, I don’t worry about reviewing dozens of junk entries in my comment queue and only see comments from real users. I don’t see any junk any more. It feels good! Thank you for this plugin. I wish I had discovered it sooner but I am happy that going forward I won’t have to waste my time on spammers and their damn spam comments.

   Read on wp.org ↗
3. ★★★★★ raywjohnson

   2.9y ago

   Thank you for the excellent plugin. Simple and direct. No complex setup or configuration. Install and enjoy. After install, comment spam went from around 100 a day to nothing. And still nothing. Installed 3 months ago. Well done!

   Read on wp.org ↗
4. ★★★★★ Anonymous

   4.8y ago

   It does the job of killing automated spambots that use the cURL command. Spammers use cURL to bypass your website’s post/ page and contact your server directly to access WordPress. It seems that cURL is how the ‘big boys’ of spam can flood the internet with their trash. So far this plugin has been flawless in its killing ability. I always moderated all my comments (because spam is out of control) along with Akismet. The annoyance I had was seeing all that spam in the queue! None of it was ever real. Akismet dumps all that dross in my spam queue for me to look at and fill up my database with trash. A complete waste of time, and there is no way to automatically delete this type of spam before it gets into the database. Which irks me. I looked at every type of plugin, but this is the only one that actually works in the way I want it to: nips spam in the bud. Never touches my database, and that makes me happy. Hence my over-enthusiastic 5 stars for this plugin… Nonetheless, it has a couple of issues on the admin side; Issue 1 If you reply to a comment from the admin home page it will come up with an error (well it did for me, it thought I was a spammer in my own Admin LOL, you have to see the funny side), the workaround is to go client-side and post a reply on the post/ page. I can live with that for the time being. Issue 2 The other issue I noticed it a reported change in IDs for comments. I use a plugin to show the IDs of pages, posts and comments, and after installing this plugin the ID came up as a long string of numbers and letters instead of the usual neat number. I checked my WordPress install’s database, and it seems to have not altered anything (a nice neat number in the database as always despite being processed by this plugin), and the ID of the comment is correct on the actual post/ page (viewed source in browser). Both issues seem to be a bug. As there is no damage in the database I suspect it’s a display issue. I posted the first in the support and I’ll add that second. Rick answered and suspects it’s a filter issue. 5 stars Still, for me 5 stars. That’s how much I hate seeing all that spam. No real person is going to use a cURL command to post to your website so I can sleep at night knowing that no legitimate user is getting binned. I hope Rick continues to support this plugin as it’s the best for blitzing the hell out of automated spam. Philip This topic was modified 4 years, 6 months ago by philip-s. Reason: added '5 stars' in bold as a header on last paragraph

   Read on wp.org ↗

Automated install-time checks, tested on PHP 7.4.8 · WP 5.9.2

Whether ChatGPT and Claude name this plugin when asked the category question, and whether the readme gives them something to quote.

Not measured yet for this plugin’s topics. Its tracked searches are not among the measured topics. See the topics measured so far.

Growth timeline

Install-tier crossings we have observed, and how long each tier took to outgrow

1. 2025-12-30 900+ → 800+ down after 1 days in tier
2. 2025-12-29 800+ → 900+ up after 2 days in tier
3. 2025-12-27 900+ → 800+ down after 20 days in tier
4. 2025-12-07 800+ → 900+ up after 7 days in tier
5. 2025-11-30 900+ → 800+ down after 83 days in tier
6. 2025-09-08 800+ → 900+ up after 1 days in tier
7. 2025-09-07 900+ → 800+ down after 17 days in tier
8. 2025-08-21 800+ → 900+ up after 1 days in tier

Competes with

The plugins that solve the same job, ranked by shared tags then reach, closest match first. The letter on the right is each plugin's health grade (A best, F worst).

Embed this report card

Drop a live Pulse card for Block Comment Spam Bots into a readme, a review or a deck. It updates itself.

Block Comment Spam Bots: 800+ active installs, 5.0★ (4 reviews). Plugin Pulse (WP Mayor), as of 2026-10-31. https://plugins.wpmayor.com/plugin/block-comment-spam-bots