BotBlocker

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.

Not enough tracked days yet to call a direction. Momentum needs at least three keywords measured a week or more apart.

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.

0 searches this plugin appeared in over the last 90 days. 5 of its tags aren't in the top 24 for their own search.

Directory rank

Ranked about #11,300 to #12,900, alongside the other plugins at 200+ installs. Plugins with the same install count swap places between wp.org requests, so this is where most of them sit. Checked monthly, last on 21 Oct 2026.

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 11 months ago; the previous band took 14 months to cross, which places it about 50% of the way through.

1. ★★★★★ BVBAccelerate

   9.5y ago

   Obfuscation of name and e-mail ensures all spam comments don’t come through and all good comments do.

   Read on wp.org ↗
2. ★★★★★ jmaines

   13.1y ago

   The plug-in needs an update badly. It does not seem to always work. I get some errors every now and then about there being duplicate methods and the file either not existing or being loaded twice (depending on what page of my site I visit). It also seems to only happen when my site gets lots of traffic. That said, when it works, it works very, very well, and it saves me a lot of comment moderation work. This plug-in is the only one I tried that did not require an external component or API key. It was just designed to be dropped right into WordPress as a spam bot trap, and for that, it works well. If the plug-in was updated to remove the errors, I would give it 5 stars.

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

   13.2y ago

   Thank God I tested this comment after activating it. It doesnt work. All comments are blocked as spam, even the human ones.

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

   13.2y ago

   The plugin just plain doesn’t work. It incorrectly identifies all comments as spam. This plugin should really be removed from the WordPress repository.

   Read on wp.org ↗
5. ★★★★★ DingelDangel

   13.4y ago

   … that shouldn’t happen at all! And: – the “silent” mode is not very silent – does not queue presumed spam into the moderation loop

   Read on wp.org ↗
6. ★★★★★ killergege

   13.5y ago

   This is a really nice idea, but I tried all settings combined in all ways possible and it seems to always block ALL comments. Useless then.

   Read on wp.org ↗
7. ★★★★★ Anamon

   13.5y ago

   Do not install this plug-in if you don’t want to scare away your readers forever. As a reader, I have made the same experience as everyone else with this plug-in: it seems to flag absolutely every human-written comment as spam. Considering how often my comments get rejected by it, I don’t think I’ve ever gotten one past it, wherever it was installed. I doubt it’s just a configuration problem either, considering how wide-spread these criticisms are. I agree that the seemingly only way to get a comment past BotBlocker is to be the admin of the site in question. Not very helpful. I have since learned that whenever I get a comment blocked by BotBlocker, it’s futile to keep trying. People who like commenting on stuff will probably stop reading your blog as well. I don’t know what criteria it employs to decide whether a comment is spam, but I do know that it would do a better job at detecting spam if its verdicts were reversed. I can only repeat my warning: do not install this plug-in unless you want to completely alienate your userbase.

   Read on wp.org ↗
8. ★★★★★ margaux

   13.6y ago

   Whatever it’s doing, it’s blocking 99.999% of comments.

   Read on wp.org ↗

Automated install-time checks, tested on PHP 7.2.16 · WP 5.2.4

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. 2025-11-29 300+ → 200+ down after 434 days in tier
2. 2024-09-21 400+ → 300+ down after 2 days in tier
3. 2024-09-19 300+ → 400+ up after 1 days in tier
4. 2024-09-18 400+ → 300+ down after 2 days in tier
5. 2024-09-16 300+ → 400+ up after 1 days in tier
6. 2024-09-15 400+ → 300+ down after 4 days in tier
7. 2024-09-11 300+ → 400+ up after 1 days in tier
8. 2024-09-10 400+ → 300+ down after 9 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 BotBlocker into a readme, a review or a deck. It updates itself.

BotBlocker: 200+ active installs, 1.6★ (10 reviews). Plugin Pulse (WP Mayor), as of 2026-10-31. https://plugins.wpmayor.com/plugin/botblocker