Joris Le Blansch

<p>I like to use Contact Form 7 on most of my WordPress sites. It’s a powerful form manager that suits all my needs. I don’t like to use external calls to protect the forms from spam submissions though (like reCaptcha or hCaptcha) and don’t want to present a manual captcha to a user (math or other puzzle). Since I couldn’t find a really basic honeypot script that works on most entries, I created one here. Hopefully it’s useful to someone else also.</p>
<h3>Setup</h3>
<ul>
<li>Install the plugin using the regular plugin setup routine or upload the entire apiosys-honeypot-cf7 folder to the /wp-content/plugins/ directory.</li>
<li>Activate the plugin through the “Plugins” menu in WordPress, you MUST have Contact Form 7 AND Flamingo installed and enabled.</li>
<li>Add the following shortcodes to your Contact Form 7 forms:</li>
</ul>
<p>[honeypot] – Adds the hidden honeypot field<br />
[timestamp] – Adds time-based validation</p>
<ul>
<li>Complete the rest of the options which you can find in Admin > Contact > Honeypot. A generally good working set of values is enabled by default there.</li>
</ul>
<h3>What tests are used?</h3>
<ul>
<li>A Honeypot Field</li>
<li>A Checkbox Trap</li>
<li>Time-Based Validation</li>
<li>Email domain Check</li>
<li>Basic Content Analysis</li>
</ul>
<h3>Does it really work?</h3>
<p>It has been tested on several high-traffic WP sites. I see a return of ~ 1 ‰ (i.e. 1 in a thousand) of spam going through. That usually corresponds to humans paid to fill forms or sophisticated bots. Please feel free to contribute to make it even better. You can contribute directly <a href="https://github.com/apio-sys/apiosys-honeypot-cf7" rel="nofollow ugc">here</a>.</p>


Apio systems – Honeypot for Contact Form 7

Basic Honeypot plugin for Contact Form 7 to drastically reduce spam on form submissions without user interaction.

Forge12 Interactive GmbH

<p>SilentShield is a <strong>unified captcha and anti-spam plugin for WordPress</strong>.<br />
It works with the most popular form builders and protects login, registration, and comment forms – without slowing your site.</p>
<p><strong>Why choose SilentShield?</strong><br />
– <strong>Invisible defense</strong> – Captcha, honeypot, and blacklists working silently.<br />
– <strong>Instant results</strong> – Install, activate, and stop spam.<br />
– <strong>Universal support</strong> – Works with Contact Form 7, WPForms, Elementor, WooCommerce, and more.<br />
– <strong>Privacy-first</strong> – No cookies, no tracking, fully GDPR / DSGVO compliant.</p>
<p>SilentShield doesn’t just protect forms.<br />
It protects your time, your customers, your business.</p>
<h3>Core Features</h3>
<ul>
<li>Invisible Captcha (Arithmetic, Honeypot, Image)</li>
<li>Smart IP Blocking & Blacklists</li>
<li>Spam filters for links, code & keywords</li>
<li>Whitelisting for admins & customers</li>
<li>GDPR-ready, no cookies, no tracking</li>
</ul>
<h3>The Promise</h3>
<p>SilentShield is not “just another plugin.”<br />
It’s an invisible wall against the background noise of the internet.</p>
<p>Activate once – and your forms are human again.</p>
<h3>Privacy & Telemetry</h3>
<ul>
<li>No cookies, no user tracking.</li>
<li>Encrypted IP storage (max. 2 months, only for spam defense).</li>
<li>Telemetry is optional and anonymized.</li>
<li>You can disable telemetry anytime in plugin settings.</li>
</ul>
<p>Collected fields:<br />
– <code>plugin_slug</code>, <code>plugin_version</code><br />
– <code>snapshot_date</code><br />
– <code>settings_json</code> (anonymized config)<br />
– <code>features_json</code> (enabled features)<br />
– <code>created_at</code>, <code>first_seen</code>, <code>last_seen</code><br />
– <code>counters_json</code> (spam events)<br />
– <code>wp_version</code>, <code>php_version</code>, <code>locale</code></p>
<p><strong>GDPR / DSGVO Compliance</strong><br />
– Basis: <em>Art. 6 Abs. 1 lit. f DSGVO</em> (legitimate interest – plugin optimization).<br />
– No personal data, no cookies, no user tracking.</p>


SilentShield – Captcha & Anti-Spam for WordPress (CF7, WPForms, Elementor, WooCommerce)

If you look for antispam plugins for the Avada theme forms there are not very many solutions available. 

Just this one if you don't want to use external services in any way (Captcha or SaaS).

So I tried it.

But it did not work for the contact template, so I opened up a support thread. First answer in under 1 hour and 24 hours later a new version which has added this missing feature.

Well done! And thanks again for the fast solution.

To note a bit more about the plugin:
-> It hast not very much options, so it should be easy to configure for everyone. 
-> Although it may be does nothing if you don't configure it, so do not forget to check those settings.
-> The config is well structured and explained.

If you want to apply a fast honeypot solution for Avada this is good solution.

I will check with my client if the outcome (blocking spam) is as good as I hope.

If yes, 5 stars are deserved! 

Fast support and great working solution

SilentShield – the invisible shield against spam. Spam is the weed of the internet. It clogs your forms, steals your time, and corrupts your data.

Apio systems – Honeypot for Contact Form 7 vs SilentShield – Captcha & Anti-Spam for WordPress (CF7, WPForms, Elementor, WooCommerce)