Comparison

Maspik vs Akismet: which protects your forms better?

Akismet is the best-known spam filter for WordPress and a strong choice for comments. Maspik is built around forms and lets you decide, rule by rule, what counts as spam. Here is how they differ, using Akismet’s own pages.

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Last reviewed October 12, 2026 using Akismet’s own public pages. Maspik is our product.

Which one fits you?

Choose Maspik if

You protect contact forms and form builders and want control over the rules (keywords, email patterns, phone format, countries, languages).
You want to avoid an external account and API key, and keep most checks on your own server.
You run a commercial site and want a free tier without a commercial-use restriction.

Choose Akismet if

Your main problem is comment spam on a blog.
You want the scale of a very large shared spam database, backed by Automattic.
You prefer a service that works with almost no configuration.

Maspik vs Akismet, side by side

Feature comparison of Maspik and Akismet
Feature	Maspik	Akismet
Price	Free plugin. Pro from $19/year for one site, $59 for 10 sites.	Personal sites: pay what you can. Commercial sites: paid Pro and Business plans.
Commercial sites	The free plugin has no commercial-use restriction.	The free key is for personal blogs; commercial sites need a paid subscription.
Account or API key	None. Works after activation.	An Akismet.com account and API key.
Usage limits	Most checks run on your server. Cloud IP checks have monthly allowances: 100 on Free, 10,000 on Pro.	Paid plans include a monthly check allowance: 500–2,000 on the Pro tiers, 5,000 on Business.
How spam is detected	Layers you switch on: keyword, email, phone and URL rules, honeypot, IP reputation, optional InputGate cloud analysis.	Submissions are checked against Akismet’s global spam database.
Where it works	Comments, registration, WooCommerce and 19+ form builders (WPForms and Gravity Forms in Pro).	Comments and contact forms, through the form plugins that integrate with it.
Many sites	Pro includes a dashboard that manages settings across all your sites.	The Business plan covers an unlimited number of sites.
Adoption	30,000+ active installs, 4.7/5 from 87 WordPress.org reviews.	5+ million active installs, 4.7/5 from about 1,200 WordPress.org reviews.

Competitor details come from the sources listed at the bottom of this page. Where a source does not state something, it is left out.

The practical difference

Akismet answers one question: has this message been seen as spam elsewhere? That works very well for comments, where spammers reuse the same text. Contact forms attract a different kind of spam: bots posting directly to the form handler, template messages with a different name each time, and sales pitches that look like real enquiries. Maspik targets those with a honeypot, a verification key, direct-POST protection and rules you tune per field, which is why many sites run both.

Cost at different sizes

Akismet prices by monthly check allowance and number of sites on its Pro tiers, with a flat Business plan above that. Maspik prices by number of sites: $19/year for 1, $59 for 10, $129 for 100 and $299 for 1,000, and the free plugin remains usable on its own. Work out which model fits how many sites you run and how many submissions they receive.

Frequently asked questions

Can I use Maspik and Akismet together?

Yes. They look at different signals, so many sites keep Akismet for comments and use Maspik to filter forms and registrations.

Is Akismet free for a business website?

According to Akismet’s plugin listing, keys are free for personal blogs and paid subscriptions are for businesses and commercial sites.

Does Maspik need an API key?

No. The free plugin works after activation. A Pro licence key is only needed to unlock Pro features.

Sources

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