Honeypot Comments

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

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.

Modeled within the band wp.org reports; tightens as we track daily.

No paid tier is visible, so we don't put a figure on revenue or sale value: that would be guessing. The install base is a real asset to an acquirer, just not one public data lets us price. A small install base leaves thin data to model from. The recent download trend is too spiky to read.

1. ★★★★★ RoamingPro

   10.7y ago

   I’ve been interested in the Honey Pot concept for eliminating SPAM comments. I didn’t really delve into the code of this plugin to see what it was trying to do, all I know is that it is totally ineffective on several of my sites.

   Read on wp.org ↗
2. ★★★★★ jimbtek

   12.1y ago

   I am optimistic this plugin can get better, but right now it fails to block spambots for me on 3.9.1 with the Divi 2.0 theme. It does technically work and injects this code: <!-- the following input field has been added by the Honeypot Comments plugin to thwart spambots --> <input type="hidden" id="N1KaIulBlvp509a2NJsytPMGf" name="0r65HysCNM1H7w5xP5nXTUjhF" /> </form> </div> But i still get multiples spam comments a day in WP that are selling purses and all sorts of stuff. I am happy to try it again if there is a update that takes taekvideo’s comments into consideration and really makes it less obvious. Perhaps make it all called ’email-address’ or something and hide it.

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

   12.1y ago

   Just a few things… #1 if ( ! empty( $_POST['honeypot-comments'] ) ) How would this ever execute if the id and name of your honeypot are 25 character random strings? #2 <input type="hidden" id="'. RandomString(25) .'" name="'. RandomString(25) .'" />'; Bots aren’t really going to fill out a type=”hidden” field… that’s more of a vinegarpot than a honeypot. You should make it a textarea to entice them, and hide it from real users with css (or javascript is even better) #3 Even if both of those are done right, some spambots will still get through because they ignore the form you send them and just POST a standard WordPress form. To block those, you’d need to change the “name” attribute of the comment textarea to something else… which is a bit of a pain to do without breaking anything but it’s possible.

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

   12.2y ago

   I have been using Askimet but finding it increasingly falling behind and needing me to invest a lot of work to keep up to it. Unfortunately, sometimes I just can’t. I started playing with different options, including looking at blocking a huge number of IPs from visiting my site (which didn’t actually cut down the number of comments I was receiving as much as I hoped and did seem to affect traffic disproportionately to the decrease in spam comments) and deleting comments direct from the database (which may have cost me some legitimate comments.) This, so far, is working like a charm. As near as I can tell there isn’t any real server overhead for the plug in and my spam comments have fallen to zero. Of course, as soon as bots get wise to it I am in real trouble . . .

   Read on wp.org ↗

Automated install-time checks, tested on PHP 7.2.16 · WP 5.3

Growth timeline

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

1. 2026-08-31 70+ → 60+ down after 195 days in tier
2. 2026-02-17 80+ → 70+ down after 94 days in tier
3. 2025-11-15 90+ → 80+ down after 137 days in tier
4. 2025-07-01 100+ → 90+ down after 17 days in tier
5. 2025-06-14 90+ → 100+ up after 32 days in tier
6. 2025-05-13 100+ → 90+ down after 35 days in tier
7. 2025-04-08 90+ → 100+ up after 16 days in tier
8. 2025-03-23 100+ → 90+ down after 10 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).

• Akismet Anti-spam: Spam Protection 5M+ installs · 4.7★ · 2 shared tags A
• C Cookies for Comments 10K+ installs · 4.5★ · 2 shared tags D
• T Throws SPAM Away 10K+ installs · 4.3★ · 2 shared tags A
• D Delete Pending Comments 10K+ installs · 4.6★ · 2 shared tags C
• Simply Disable Comments 7K+ installs · 4.2★ · 2 shared tags A
• Spam Destroyer 5K+ installs · 4.5★ · 2 shared tags A

Embed this report card

Drop a live Pulse card for Honeypot Comments into a readme, a review or a deck. It updates itself.

Honeypot Comments: 60+ active installs, 2.3★ (4 reviews). Plugin Pulse (WP Mayor), as of 2026-08-31. https://plugins.wpmayor.com/plugin/honeypot-comments