Everest Forms provides multiple anti-spam tools to prevent WordPress contact form spam entries. While some of the anti-spam tools are available for free, few of them are available in Everest Forms Pro.

Prerequisite:
☑️ Active Installation of Everest Forms Free or Pro Plugin

How to Prevent WordPress Contact Form Spam? #

Option 1: Form Restriction Pro #

Form restriction is a premium addon, available with Everest Forms Pro. It allows you to restrict form submission based on the multiple conditions you set.

When to use Form Restriction Addon?

It’s a first-line defense against spam, acting as a gatekeeper to minimize unnecessary exposure. By reducing the form’s exposure to untrusted sources before you enable other anti-spam tools, you can address the problem at its root using this addon.

Features available:

• Entry limitation (e.g., 100 submissions/form).
• Form scheduling to let users submit the form at a specific time
• User restriction
• Password restriction to ensure only authorized individuals submit the form.
• Form submission
• Form restriction by country to restrict specific regions

How to stop spam on WordPress contact forms using Form Restriction Addon?

To use the feature, you need to activate the Form Restriction addon (Requires Everest Forms Pro).

Here’s a complete guide on using Form Restriction.

Option 2: Using Honeypot (Free) #

Honeypot is a spam prevention technique that traps bots using a hidden field that is invisible to users. If filled, submissions are automatically rejected as spam. The form’s appearance remains unchanged for humans.

When to use Honeypot on Forms?

• When you want to block simple bots that fill out your forms automatically.

How to stop spam on WordPress contact forms using Honeypot?

Navigate to the form where you want to add anti-spam and security settings. From your Anti-Spam and Security menu, toggle Enable Anti-Spam Honeypot in your form.

Hit the Save button to activate the honeypot. Humans will see the form without the hidden field, but bots detect and fill it, causing automatic rejection.

Option 3: Add Waiting Time for Form Submission (Free) #

This option enables a minimum waiting time for the users to submit the form and hence blocks instant bot submissions (e.g., 20 seconds).

When to use Waiting time for form submission?

• When you’ve enabled honeypot or form restriction, but the bots are rapidly attacking your form, you can enable this option.

How to enable Waiting time for form submission?

On your Anti-Spam and Security interface of the form, toggle Enable Minimum Waiting Time and set the duration. Sets a minimum time (e.g., 20 seconds) before users can submit the form, blocking instant bot submissions.

Once the user fills in the form and clicks on the submit button, the waiting time message is shown:

Note: Enabling Honeypot and adding waiting time requires no user interaction, and hence, these anti-spam methods work silently in the background.

Option 4: CAPTCHA Integration (Free) #

You can also add visual/spam checks via third-party services. Everest Forms is the best captcha plugin for WordPress and supports a wide range of CAPTCHA types: reCaptcha, hCaptcha, or Turnstile. All of them are different types of bot protection mechanisms used to verify that a user is human before allowing form submission

When to use CAPTCHA for spam protection?

• If the bots are bypassing simple anti-spam techniques like honeypot and waiting time, you can enable any one of these CAPTCHA options.

How to stop spam on WordPress contact forms using CAPTCHA?

Setup: Navigate to Everest Forms > Settings > Captcha. From here, you’ll get all the available CAPTCHA options:

Select your preferred Captcha service and enter your Site and Secret Keys.

Save the changes when you’re done. Meanwhile, you can only select a single CAPTCHA type. Also, the Site Key and Secret Key are available through their respective website.

Detailed Setup Guides:

• reCaptcha Setup
• hCaptcha Setup  
• Turnstile Setup  

Option 5: Custom CAPTCHA Integration Pro #

If you want to add an extra layer of security to your form, you can add a custom Captcha to your forms. This allows you to add custom challenges (e.g., math questions) prepared by yourself that can only be solved by humans.

When to use CAPTCHA Addon?

• To add a personalized layer of security to your WordPress forms

How to use CAPTCHA Addon in Everest Forms?

Setup: You must activate Everest Forms Pro and enable the Custom CAPTCHA addon. Once you get the addon, you can add the captcha field to your form.

Simply open the form where you want to add a custom captcha, drag and drop the Captcha field, and set custom questions.

When the user fills out the form, he/she will also have to answer the math question before submitting it.

For a detailed guide, read our documentation on Custom CAPTCHA.

Option 6: Using the Spam Protection Plugin Akismet (Free) #

Akismet is an anti-spam plugin that blocks spam contact form submissions by checking them against a global spam database. While CAPTCHA-based solutions prevent bots from submitting forms, Akismet actively filters out unwanted spam, including those submitted by real humans.

When to use the Akismet plugin?

Instead of manually reviewing flagged submissions, Akismet automatically marks spam and lets you review only if needed. This is especially helpful for high-traffic sites with lots of user-generated content.

How to stop spam on WordPress contact forms using the Akismet plugin?

Setup: It requires you to install and activate the Akismet plugin to use this spam protection option. Once the plugin is installed, enable Akismet through Anti-Spam and Security settings.

You can choose the protection type between: Make the form submission as failed or Mark as spam.

When a user submits the form, the plugin analyzes the data for spam. If marked safe, the form is submitted; otherwise, it’s rejected or flagged as spam.

Option 7: Using Admin Approval Entries Pro #

The next security option you get with Everest Forms Pro is approving form entries by admin. With Admin Approval Entries, you can send an email to the admin that notifies the admin of the new form entry so that they can approve or deny the entry.

When to use Admin Approval Entries?

• Need more control over form submissions with human review (e.g., job applications)

How to stop spam on WordPress contact forms using Admin Approval Entries?

Setup: Navigate to Everest Forms > Settings > General. Now, toggle Enable admin approval entries.

Here’s a detailed guide on enabling admin approval entries.

Option 8: Blacklist Words Pro #

You can also block form submissions containing specific words (e.g., “Casino”). The users cannot submit the form if any input includes those words.

When to use Blacklist Words?

• Filter spam form submissions containing specific words or suspicious words

How to stop spam on WordPress contact forms using Blacklist Words?

Setup: On your Anti-Spam and Security interface, add comma-separated terms to the Blacklisted Words field.

Save the changes once you have completed the settings. When the user tries to submit the form by including the blacklisted words, they’ll get the error:

Option 9: Block IP and Email Pro #

Using the Everest Forms plugin, you can block specific IP addresses and emails.

IP Block: List out all the IP addresses you want to block. The user with these addresses won’t be able to submit the form.

Email Black List: Similar to the IP addresses, you can list the email addresses to restrict them from submitting the form.

When to use Block IP and Email?

• When you want to prevent spam form submission from specific IPs, email addresses, or known sources.

How to stop spam on WordPress contact forms using Block IP and Email?

Setup: Add IPs/emails to their respective fields under the Anti-Spam and Security interface.

Don’t forget to save the changes. You can always come back and add more IP addresses or email lists. Now, if the user tries to submit the form using the blacklisted email, they’ll get the error in form submission:

Summary #

You can enable multiple anti-spam options on your contact form, but too many may clutter it. Combine them for a cleaner look.

Scenario	Anti-spam options
Bots attacking your forms	Honeypot + Enable Waiting Time
Want to limit access to large mass	Form Restriction (Premium Addon)
Want quick and reliable protection	CAPTCHA (Addon)
Want to create your own challenge	Custom CAPTCHA
For smart filtering	Akismet (Plugin)
For Manual Checking	Admin approval or backlist
For Blocking Abusers	Block IP and email

Get Advanced Options with Everest Forms Pro #

• Advanced Form Analytics
• Multiple Payment Gateway Integration
• Conditional Logic Rules on Forms