Joris Le Blansch

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.
<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>
[honeypot] – Adds the hidden honeypot field 
[timestamp] – Adds time-based validation
<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>
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>.

Apio systems – Honeypot for Contact Form 7

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

WPExperts.io

Ryan

Add extra Spam Protection functionalities to your Contact Form 7 forms with CF7 Apps.
Contact Form 7 is one of the most popular form plugins for WordPress, but it lacks many advanced features that modern websites need. CF7 Apps adds extra Spam Protection functionalities to your Contact Form 7 forms, introducing honeypot and hCaptcha options.
👉 Get Support: <a href="https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/contact-form-7-honeypot/" rel="ugc">Click Here</a> 
👉 Check out the <a href="https://cf7apps.com/docs/?utm_source=wp_org&utm_medium=readme&utm_campaign=documentation" rel="nofollow ugc">Documentation</a>
<h3>What CF7 Apps Can Do for You ?</h3>
Right out of the box, CF7 Apps includes:
✅ Honeypot App 
✅ hCaptcha App 
✅ Database Entries App 
✅ Redirection App 
💡 <a href="https://cf7apps.com/submit-idea/?utm_source=wp_org&utm_medium=readme&utm_campaign=suggest_a_feature" rel="nofollow ugc">Suggest a Feature</a>
And that’s just the beginning.
🌟 Save and Manage CF7 Form Submissions 
The Entries Database App stores all Contact Form 7 submissions directly to your WordPress database. Easily filter entries by form or date, view individual CF7 submissions, and export or delete them when needed. This ensures you never lose important leads or messages, even if emails fail to deliver.
🌟 Add a Honeypot Field to Prevent Spam
Our Honeypot Contact Form 7 extension creates a hidden field inside your Contact Form 7 forms. Real users never see it, but bots do—and that’s how the bots fall for the trap. It blocks automated spam before it even hits your inbox.
🌟 Add hCaptcha to Contact Form 7
Protect your forms from spam bots using hCaptcha, a privacy-friendly alternative to Google reCAPTCHA. This extension integrates directly with CF7 and works instantly after setup. No coding is required, and no extra plugins are needed. Just set up your site keys and you’re done.
NOTE: 
The best thing is that both features work independently. You can run them alone or together based on your site’s needs.
<h3>Real Use Cases for CF7 Apps</h3>
With the CF7 Apps, you can do the following: 
 ✔️ Trap bots using a honeypot field without affecting users 
 ✔️ Add hCaptcha to Contact Form 7 for privacy-first anti-spam 
 ✔️ Store and manage Contact Form 7 entries directly in WordPress
<h3>Why Should You Install CF7 Apps?</h3>
<ul>
<li>Works exclusively with Contact Form 7</li>
<li>Modular design — activate only the features you need</li>
<li>Lightweight — no unnecessary code or bloat</li>
<li>Built for form security, user control, and advanced customization</li>
<li>Continuously updated with new apps and requested features</li>
</ul>
We built CF7 Apps for users who want more power without abandoning the simplicity of Contact Form 7.
<h3>Contribute or Report Issues</h3>
Do you have a feature request or bug to report? Contact us via the <a href="https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/contact-form-7-honeypot" rel="ugc">official Support Channel.</a>

CF7 Apps – [Honeypot and hCAPTCHA for Contact Form 7]

Its not working. I did everything i can on the youtube every possible solution but its not working still sending.

Hi I think i found out that your plugin has a conflict to my https://wordpress.org/plugins/multiline-files-for-contact-form-7/ if this is activated.

its not working

didn't help to prevent attacker sending spam a lot.
just not sending the form when honeypot is filled is too much of information for an attacker.

Lots of Spam


It worked better before, now the attackers go past it and there is a lot of spam.


Before it was better


This used to be a simple, free, honeypot plugin for CF7It has been taken over and now it is a useless piece of bloatware.


I feel betrayed


I've been using this plugin for several years and even published a tutorial in French (Comment configurer Honeypot for Contact Form 7) on my own website to help people set it up right.



I really liked the way it was lightweight, efficient, and non-invasive. What a pity to discover in an update: yet another totally useless dashboard.



I understand the need for upsells to fund the development process, I really do. But it pisses me off to see this enshitification something that was high-quality before.



It really makes people want to fork the plugin to clean it up.



Please bring us back the quality plugin you made, and stop with the useless option pages for pity's sake.


yet another totally useless dashboard

Add hCaptcha, Honeypot and Redirection to Contact Form 7 with CF7 Apps. Improve form security, lightweight, and no unnecessary code.

Apio systems – Honeypot for Contact Form 7 vs CF7 Apps – [Honeypot and hCAPTCHA for Contact Form 7]