Honeypot Comments

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.

1 search this plugin appeared in over the last 90 days, 0 listed. 1 left out as unrelated or noise (years, numbers, stray words). 2 of its tags aren't in the top 24 for their own search.

Directory rank

Ranked about #19,000 to #20,000, alongside the other plugins at 60+ 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 1 Nov 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 2 months ago and a band this size takes about a year or more to cross, so the real count is still just under 70.

1. ★★★★★ RoamingPro

   10.9y 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

   12.3y 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

   12.3y 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

   12.4y 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 ↗

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. 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).

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 2026-11-02. https://plugins.wpmayor.com/plugin/honeypot-comments