Ion Burdianov

mazhurin

eQualitie

<p>Baskerville is a comprehensive WordPress security plugin that protects your site from malicious bots, AI crawlers, and unwanted traffic using multiple detection methods.</p>
<p><strong>Key Features:</strong></p>
<ul>
<li><strong>AI Bot Detection</strong> – Intelligent classification of bots vs. humans with configurable score thresholds</li>
<li><strong>GeoIP Access Control</strong> – Block or allow traffic by country (whitelist/blacklist modes)</li>
<li><strong>Cloudflare Turnstile</strong> – CAPTCHA challenge for borderline bot scores with precision analytics</li>
<li><strong>Browser Fingerprinting</strong> – Advanced client-side fingerprinting (Canvas, WebGL, Audio)</li>
<li><strong>Honeypot Detection</strong> – Hidden links to catch AI crawlers</li>
<li><strong>Real-Time Analytics</strong> – Live feed, traffic statistics, and Turnstile precision metrics</li>
<li><strong>Under Attack Mode</strong> – Emergency mode to challenge all visitors during attacks</li>
<li><strong>IP Whitelist</strong> – Bypass firewall for trusted IPs</li>
<li><strong>Form Protection</strong> – Protect login, registration, and comment forms with Turnstile</li>
</ul>
<p><strong>Bot Score System:</strong></p>
<ul>
<li>0-39: Likely human (allowed)</li>
<li>40-70: Borderline (optional Turnstile challenge)</li>
<li>71-100: Likely bot (blocked)</li>
</ul>
<p><strong>Performance:</strong></p>
<ul>
<li>Minimal overhead (~1ms with page cache, ~30-50ms without)</li>
<li>APCu + file-based caching for GeoIP lookups</li>
<li>Compatible with all major caching plugins</li>
</ul>
<h3>External Services</h3>
<p>This plugin connects to the following third-party services:</p>
<h4>Cloudflare Turnstile</h4>
<p>When Turnstile is enabled, the plugin loads JavaScript from Cloudflare’s servers to display CAPTCHA challenges:</p>
<ul>
<li>Service URL: https://challenges.cloudflare.com/turnstile/v0/api.js</li>
<li>Verification API: https://challenges.cloudflare.com/turnstile/v0/siteverify</li>
<li>Data sent: Turnstile token, visitor IP address</li>
<li>Purpose: Human verification to prevent bot access</li>
<li>Privacy Policy: https://www.cloudflare.com/privacypolicy/</li>
<li>Terms of Service: https://www.cloudflare.com/website-terms/</li>
</ul>
<p>Turnstile is only loaded when you enable it in plugin settings and provide your Cloudflare API keys.</p>
<h4>MaxMind GeoIP Database</h4>
<p>When you use the one-click GeoIP database installer, the plugin downloads the GeoLite2-Country database from MaxMind:</p>
<ul>
<li>Database download URL: https://download.maxmind.com/</li>
<li>Data sent: Your MaxMind license key (required for database download)</li>
<li>Purpose: Determine visitor country for geo-blocking features</li>
<li>Privacy Policy: https://www.maxmind.com/en/privacy-policy</li>
<li>Terms of Service: https://www.maxmind.com/en/geolite2/eula</li>
</ul>
<p>The installer also downloads the MaxMind PHP libraries from GitHub:</p>
<ul>
<li>GeoIP2 PHP API: https://github.com/maxmind/GeoIP2-php/archive/refs/tags/v2.13.0.zip</li>
<li>MaxMind DB Reader: https://github.com/maxmind/MaxMind-DB-Reader-php/archive/refs/tags/v1.11.1.zip</li>
<li>These are open-source libraries used to read the local GeoIP database. No visitor data is sent to GitHub.</li>
<li>GitHub Terms of Service: https://docs.github.com/en/site-policy/github-terms/github-terms-of-service</li>
<li>GitHub Privacy Statement: https://docs.github.com/en/site-policy/privacy-policies/github-general-privacy-statement</li>
</ul>
<p>The database is stored locally on your server. No visitor data is sent to MaxMind during lookups.</p>
<h3>Privacy</h3>
<h4>Data Collected</h4>
<p>This plugin collects and stores the following visitor data locally in your WordPress database:</p>
<ul>
<li>IP addresses</li>
<li>Browser fingerprints (Canvas, WebGL, Audio hashes)</li>
<li>User agent strings</li>
<li>Country codes (derived from IP)</li>
<li>Bot scores and classifications</li>
<li>Timestamps of visits</li>
</ul>
<h4>Data Retention</h4>
<p>Statistics are automatically deleted after the retention period you configure (default: 14 days). You can adjust this in Settings > Baskerville > Settings.</p>
<h4>GDPR Compliance</h4>
<ul>
<li>All data is stored locally on your server</li>
<li>No visitor data is shared with third parties (except Cloudflare when Turnstile verification occurs)</li>
<li>Data retention is configurable</li>
<li>Consider adding disclosure to your site’s privacy policy</li>
</ul>


Baskerville AI Security

Advanced WordPress security plugin with AI bot detection, GeoIP access control, and Cloudflare Turnstile integration.

TechGasp

pedroalves

<p><strong>Spam Master</strong> delivers powerful, real-time firewall and anti-spam protection for WordPress. Instantly block spam bots, brute force logins, fake registrations, comment spam, and malicious contact form submissions. Spam Master uses live RBL (real-time block lists) with millions of updated threats to keep your site secure.</p>
<p><strong>Key Features:</strong><br />
– Real-Time Spam Firewall (RBL/Blacklist)<br />
– Anti-bot, anti-flood, anti-crawler, brute force & DDoS protection<br />
– Compatible with WooCommerce, Contact Form 7, WPForms, BuddyPress, Gravity Forms, bbPress, Jetpack, Akismet, Ninja Forms, MailChimp, S2Member, MailPoet, Formidable, ConvertKit, ActiveCampaign, and any custom plugin or theme<br />
– No CAPTCHA, No JavaScript, No AJAX — fast and SEO-friendly<br />
– GDPR compliant & privacy-focused<br />
– Modular loading for optimal speed<br />
– IPv6 & PHP 8 ready</p>
<p><strong>Why Choose Spam Master?</strong><br />
– Blocks spam before it reaches your site<br />
– No annoying CAPTCHA or quizzes<br />
– Advanced honeypot fields for registrations, logins, comments, forms<br />
– Constant learning from millions of spam sources<br />
– Professional security logging, analytics & statistics<br />
– Whitelist management (safe emails/IPs exempted)<br />
– Customizable block messages</p>
<p><em>For full features, demo, docs, and support visit <a href="https://www.spammaster.org/" rel="nofollow ugc">Spam Master website</a>.</em></p>
<h4>Plugin Integrations</h4>
<ul>
<li><strong>WooCommerce:</strong> Block spam/fraudulent registrations, custom signatures</li>
<li><strong>BuddyPress:</strong> Stops spam registrations/logins, custom signatures</li>
<li><strong>Contact Form 7 & WPForms:</strong> Real-time scanning, honeypot & antibot protection</li>
<li><strong>Gravity Forms:</strong> Scans data before submission</li>
<li><strong>Akismet Compatibility:</strong> Marks missed spam</li>
<li><strong>Custom Forms/Themes:</strong> Works with any registration, comment, or contact form</li>
</ul>
<h4>Fast, Secure, SEO-Friendly</h4>
<p>Spam Master loads only what’s needed for security, keeping your site fast and optimized for Google PageSpeed and Lighthouse.</p>
<h4>How It Works</h4>
<p>Spam Master uses updated real-time block lists (RBL), spam buffer tech (for local speed), advanced honeypots, and learning heuristics to block millions of threats instantly.</p>
<h3>Privacy & GDPR</h3>
<p>Spam Master is developed by an EU company and fully complies with GDPR. No data is shared with third parties. <a href="https://www.spammaster.org/privacy-policy/" rel="nofollow ugc">Privacy Policy</a></p>
<h3>Try Online Demo</h3>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://www.spammaster.org/" rel="nofollow ugc">Spam Master Demo</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.spammaster.org/search-threat/" rel="nofollow ugc">Search Threat Database</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.spammaster.org/rbl-servers-status/" rel="nofollow ugc">RBL Cluster Status</a></li>
</ul>


Spam Master


I've tried to use this plugin for several years, but frequently something would go wrong and the author would tell me that there was nothing wrong, until I literally gave them a patch to fix the problem. This happened several times over the years.



More recently, they added a "firewall" feature which degrades performance and increases load on a server (because apparently a firewall should send blocked users a redirect to itself, so you then get 20+ requests to WP for a blocked page, instead of 1 successful request). Furthermore, my clients kept getting many reports from users that the website was inaccessible due to this "firewall".



After contacting the author, they didn't want to add anything in the UI to disable it, but they agreed to add a DB setting that would allow me to disable it. Another release a few weeks later, and they removed that option again, and then pretended we never agreed anything and refused to allow this dumb feature to be disabled.



So, after many years, I've completely given up on this, it will cause all sorts of problems over time and I can't recommend it at all anymore. All I wanted was a simple anti-spam plugin that worked without inline JS.


Includes a mandatory firewall that will block your users

Real-time firewall and anti-spam for WordPress. Block spam bots, comments, logins & registrations. No CAPTCHA, no slowdown.

Baskerville AI Security vs Spam Master