<b><img class="alignleft size-full wp-image-5170" alt="akismet-no-spam" src="https://itxdesign.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/akismet-no-spam.jpg" width="168" height="131" />Is Akismet the Best WordPress Plugin to Fight Spam?</b>

As one of the most popular plugins used by WordPress websites, Akismet is a very good choice for fighting spam comments. It comes with the official installation of WordPress and provides a reliable solution for helping keep the spam off your site.

<b>What is Akismet?</b>

Automatic Kismet or Akismet was first created to help fight trackbacks, pingbacks and spam blog comments. IT was started in October of 2005 and provides a hosted service the user is given access to through the plugin. Basically, users gain access to the advanced plugin with an API key. Once this is done, the plugin will cross-check all comments, pings and trackbacks to decide which are real and which are spam.

<b>What are the Benefits of Using Akismet?</b>

As your WordPress blog grows you will attract more spam comments. This is due to the number of automatic software programs that find WordPress blogs to post comments on with a link back to a specific site.

<img class="alignright size-full wp-image-5171" alt="spam-comments-akismet" src="https://itxdesign.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/spam-comments-akismet.jpg" width="168" height="143" />Spam comments can drag down the quality of your website and hurt your SEO. There are many ways to go about protecting your site from these spam comments from adding a CAPTCA to setting the option for every comment to be manually approved.

However, when you decide to use Akismet for your spam protection, you won't have any worries. This plugin will automatically "eat" any spam comments and keep them from begin published. For some WordPress sites, Akismet may catch thousands of spam comments over the course of just a few months.

The main benefit is the time Akismet will save you. This top WordPress plugin will save you the time of needing to read any of the spam comments. It reads them for you and marks them as spam. All you have to do is dump them for good.

Along with protecting you from spam, Akismet will help keep your website at the top of the quality rankings. Spam comments make the search engines think twice about your ranking and it can cause readers to leave your site, too. Neither of these things are beneficial to your overall website and blog. With the Akismet WordPress plugin, you won't need to worry about spam and your readers will only get the quality content you publish.

Akismet also has a feature no other plugin has been to create. It uses a filtering process that checks the comments for bare titles with no resemblance to the actual post. This feature provides an extra level of protection.

On a daily basis, Akismet blocks over 50 million spam comments from WordPress websites and blogs.

<b>Is Akismet a Free WordPress Plugin?</b>

<img class="alignleft size-full wp-image-5172" alt="akismet-low-cost" src="https://itxdesign.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/akismet-low-cost.jpg" width="232" height="125" />Akismet is not free, but it's not expensive either. You can choose form three basic plans, which are $5 per month, $50 per month and $100 per month. Those with personal WordPress sites can use the "Personal Site" option, which allows you to "pay what you want" instead of one of the payment plans. This is the way you can get it for free, which means you will put the payment slider on $0 when you check out.

However, you should be aware, if you use your site to make money, it could cause an issue if you choose the personal option and choose a $0 donation. You may be better off with one of the monthly plans. If your site receives more than 10,000 views per month, you will also not be able to use Akismet as a free plugin.

<b>Is Akismet the Best Spam Protection?</b>

Just like any other WordPress plugin, there are alternatives to Akismet. However, alternatives, such as Mollom and AntispamBee don't provide the same type of protection as Akismet. There is a reason why WordPress bundles it’s' installation with Akismet and it has to do with the level of spam protection they provide, which is outstanding.

The benefits of using Akismet outweigh the small cost they need to provide the plugin and continue to keep it at the top of the spam protection tools on the market. If you want the absolute best spam protection for your WordPress website, Akismet is one of the top WordPress plugins you must add to your arsenal.

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