OptionWeb

<p>OW Forms is a modern WordPress form builder for sites that prioritize performance, accessibility, and GDPR compliance. Built by OptionWeb for production use on client sites, it ships with a JSON-driven schema engine, a REST-based submission pipeline, and a curated set of 16 field types — text, email, tel, URL, number, textarea, select, radio, checkbox, checkbox-group, date, time, datetime, file upload, hidden, and rating — plus auto-injected GDPR consent and anti-spam fields.</p>
<p>The anti-spam stack runs four layers in parallel: a visually-hidden honeypot input that bots fill but humans never see, a time-trap that rejects submissions completed faster than a configurable threshold, a multi-provider CAPTCHA layer (Cloudflare Turnstile, Google reCAPTCHA v3, hCaptcha, or Friendly Captcha), and optional OW Shield IP reputation scoring with a disposable-email blocklist. Every signal is logged so you can tune thresholds without flying blind. Submissions that score above 80 are silently rejected — no error message, no honeypot leak.</p>
<p>GDPR compliance is native, not bolted on. Every form gets a consent checkbox linked to your privacy policy, IP addresses can be stored pseudonymized or not at all, user agents are SHA-256 hashed by default, and a daily cron purges submissions older than your retention window (CNIL default: 1095 days). When OW Consent is active, OW Forms wires into its DSAR endpoint — erasure requests automatically delete matching submissions by email hash, with full audit trail. Submission emails are SHA-256 hashed with a plugin-owned salt (option <code>owfo_dsar_salt</code>, generated once at activation) so the database never holds plaintext PII linkable across systems, and DSAR erasure keeps working even after <code>wp config shuffle-salts</code>.</p>
<p>The one-click Contact Form 7 importer parses every CF7 form in your database, builds the equivalent OW Forms schema (preserving recipient, subject, and field types), and rewrites every <code>[contact-form-7 id="..."]</code> shortcode in your posts to <code>[owfo_form id="..."]</code>. Email notifications support HTML or plain text with <code>{{token}}</code> interpolation, optional auto-reply, signed outbound webhooks (HMAC-SHA256), and a Gutenberg block in addition to the shortcode and REST API.</p>
<h3>External services</h3>
<p>OW Forms relies on optional third-party CAPTCHA services to protect form submissions<br />
from spam. <strong>None of these services are contacted unless you explicitly enable a<br />
CAPTCHA provider in OW Forms <span aria-hidden="true" class="wp-exclude-emoji">→</span> Settings <span aria-hidden="true" class="wp-exclude-emoji">→</span> Anti-spam.</strong></p>
<p>The OW Shield integration is fully local — when the OW Shield plugin is installed<br />
and active on the same site, OW Forms reads its IP reputation score from the local<br />
database/cache. No request leaves your server for this lookup; OW Shield itself<br />
may contact its own reputation service, which is disclosed in the OW Shield readme.</p>
<p>The Friendly Captcha widget JavaScript is bundled with OW Forms under<br />
    assets/js/vendor/ (no external CDN is hit at page render). Source: the upstream<br />
MIT-licensed package at https://github.com/FriendlyCaptcha/friendly-challenge —<br />
the files shipped here are the official npm <code>friendly-challenge@0.9.18</code> build<br />
outputs (<code>widget.module.js</code> and <code>widget.module.min.js</code>, unmodified, renamed to<br />
    friendly-challenge-0.9.18.module.js / <code>friendly-challenge-0.9.18.module.min.js</code><br />
to make the version explicit in the filename). Both the minified and the<br />
human-readable non-minified source are shipped per WordPress.org Plugin Check<br />
requirements.</p>
<p>When a CAPTCHA provider is enabled, OW Forms loads the vendor’s JavaScript widget<br />
on pages that render a form, and posts the challenge solution back to the vendor’s<br />
verification API when a visitor submits the form. The data sent to the vendor is<br />
limited to: (a) the challenge token generated client-side by the vendor’s widget,<br />
(b) the visitor’s IP address (passed through to the vendor for fraud scoring), and<br />
(c) the site’s API secret key configured in the settings.</p>
<h4>Cloudflare Turnstile</h4>
<ul>
<li>What it is: a CAPTCHA / bot-mitigation service by Cloudflare, Inc.</li>
<li>When data is sent: only when <code>spam_captcha_provider</code> is set to <code>turnstile</code>, and<br />
only on form submission. The widget JS is also loaded on every page that renders<br />
a form.</li>
<li>Data sent: Turnstile challenge token, visitor IP, your Turnstile secret key.</li>
<li>Terms of service: https://www.cloudflare.com/website-terms/</li>
<li>Privacy policy: https://www.cloudflare.com/privacypolicy/</li>
</ul>
<h4>Google reCAPTCHA v3</h4>
<ul>
<li>What it is: an invisible CAPTCHA / risk-scoring service by Google LLC.</li>
<li>When data is sent: only when <code>spam_captcha_provider</code> is set to <code>recaptcha_v3</code>, and<br />
only on form submission. The widget JS is also loaded on every page that renders<br />
a form (this is how reCAPTCHA v3 builds its risk score).</li>
<li>Data sent: reCAPTCHA token, visitor IP, your reCAPTCHA secret key. Google may<br />
also collect additional telemetry as described in their privacy policy.</li>
<li>Terms of service: https://policies.google.com/terms</li>
<li>Privacy policy: https://policies.google.com/privacy</li>
</ul>
<h4>hCaptcha</h4>
<ul>
<li>What it is: a privacy-focused CAPTCHA service by Intuition Machines, Inc.</li>
<li>When data is sent: only when <code>spam_captcha_provider</code> is set to <code>hcaptcha</code>, and<br />
only on form submission. The widget JS is also loaded on every page that renders<br />
a form.</li>
<li>Data sent: hCaptcha token, visitor IP, your hCaptcha secret key.</li>
<li>Terms of service: https://www.hcaptcha.com/terms</li>
<li>Privacy policy: https://www.hcaptcha.com/privacy</li>
</ul>
<h4>Friendly Captcha</h4>
<ul>
<li>What it is: a privacy-first, proof-of-work CAPTCHA service by Friendly Captcha GmbH<br />
(Germany). No user puzzle, no tracking cookies.</li>
<li>When data is sent: only when <code>spam_captcha_provider</code> is set to <code>friendly_captcha</code>,<br />
and only on form submission. The widget JS itself is bundled with OW Forms (not<br />
loaded from an external CDN); only the verification request reaches the vendor.</li>
<li>Data sent: Friendly Captcha challenge token, visitor IP, your Friendly Captcha<br />
secret key.</li>
<li>Terms of service: https://friendlycaptcha.com/legal/terms/</li>
<li>Privacy policy: https://friendlycaptcha.com/legal/privacy-end-users/</li>
</ul>
<h4>Outgoing webhook (admin-configured)</h4>
<ul>
<li>What it is: a URL of your choosing that OW Forms POSTs to after each submission.<br />
No data leaves your site until you fill the <code>webhook_url</code> setting in OW Forms <span aria-hidden="true" class="wp-exclude-emoji">→</span><br />
Settings <span aria-hidden="true" class="wp-exclude-emoji">→</span> Notifications.</li>
<li>When data is sent: on every form submission, immediately after the admin<br />
notification email is dispatched. Non-blocking — your visitor’s submission<br />
response is not delayed by the webhook endpoint’s latency.</li>
<li>Data sent: form id, submission id, sanitized field payload (the same data<br />
stored in your <code>wp_owfo_submissions</code> table), site URL, ISO 8601 timestamp.<br />
If a webhook secret is configured, an <code>X-OWFO-Signature</code> HMAC-SHA256 header<br />
is added so the receiver can verify the payload origin.</li>
<li>Vendor: whoever owns the URL you configured. OW Forms has no built-in vendor<br />
for this — it is your responsibility to ensure the receiving endpoint complies<br />
with applicable privacy regulations for your submissions.</li>
</ul>


OW Forms

Modern, lightweight WordPress form builder with native GDPR compliance, anti-spam stack, and Contact Form 7 importer.

Erik

gardenboi

<p>Are you unsatisfied with your current antispam solution for Contact Form 7? It might be using an ineffective method to combat the specific type of bot attacks you’re facing. Fortunately, I have a solution for you!<br />
Antispam for Contact Form 7 is a simple yet highly effective plugin that protects your mailbox from bot flooding. Say goodbye to tedious configurations and captchas, which often lead to reduced conversions and inconvenience for genuine users. Our plugin utilizes a combination of on-page and off-page bot traps, along with an auto-learning mechanism powered by a statistical “Bayesian” spam filter called B8.<br />
CF7-AntiSpam seamlessly integrates with <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/flamingo/" rel="ugc">Flamingo</a> and enhances its functionality. When both plugins are installed, Flamingo gains additional controls, and an extra dashboard widget is enabled.</p>
<h3>SETUP</h3>
<p>Basic – Install and go! No configuration, keys, or registrations are required to activate the antispam protection. In this case, some protections, such as fingerprinting, language checks, and honeypots, will be enabled.<br />
Advanced – For CF7A to properly analyze the email content using its dictionary, it needs to parse the input message field of your form. To notify the antispam to check this field, you’ll need to add a “marker” to each contact form on your website. Simply add ‘flamingo_message: “[your-message]”‘ in the additional settings panel of each contact form you want to secure. This process follows the same method used with Flamingo. While this step may seem tedious, it is required for advanced text statistical analysis. Without it, the B8 filter cannot be enabled.<br />
GeoIP – (Optional) If you need to restrict which countries or languages can email you, you can enable this functionality. To enable GeoIP, you’ll need to agree to the GeoLite2 End User License Agreement and sign up for GeoLite2 Downloadable Databases. This will provide you with the required key to download the database. For detailed instructions, please refer to the dedicated section in the cf7-antispam plugin settings.</p>
<h3>Antispam Available Tests</h3>
<p>✅ Browser Fingerprinting<br />
✅ Language checks (Geo-ip, http headers and browser)<br />
✅ Honeypot<br />
️✅ Honeyform*<br />
✅ Domain Name System Blackhole List (DNSBL)<br />
✅ Blocklists (with automatic ban after N failed attempts, user defined ip exclusion list)<br />
✅ Hidden fields with encrypted unique hash<br />
✅ Time elapsed (with min/max values)<br />
✅ Prohibited words in message/email and user agent<br />
✅ B8 statistical “Bayesian” spam filter<br />
✅ High Entropy / Gibberish checks<br />
✅ Identity protection<br />
✅ Webmail protection</p>
<h3>Extends Flamingo and turns it into a spam manager!</h3>
<p>With this plugin, you can now review emails and train B8 to identify spam and legitimate messages. This feature proves useful, especially during the initial stages when some spam emails may slip through.<br />
Already using Flamingo? Even better! Just remember to add ‘flamingo_message: “[your-message]”‘ to the advanced settings (similar to other Flamingo labels) before activating the plugin. Alternatively, you can explore the advanced options and select “rebuild dictionary.”<br />
Upon activating CF7A, all previously collected emails will be parsed, and B8 will learn and develop its vocabulary. This pre-trained algorithm gives you a head start. How cool is that?<br />
Additional Notes:<br />
– A new column has been added to the right side of the Flamingo inbound page, displaying the level of spaminess for each email.<br />
– If you unban an email on the Flamingo “inbound” page, the corresponding IP will be removed from the blocklist. However, marking an email as spam will not blocklist the IP again.<br />
– Before activating this plugin, please make sure to mark all spam emails as spam in the Flamingo inbound section. This auto-training process will help the B8 algorithm.<br />
– If you receive a spam message, please avoid deleting it from the “ham” section. Instead, place it in the spam section to teach B8 how to differentiate between spam and legitimate messages.</p>
<h3>B8 statistical “Bayesian” Filter</h3>
<p>Originally created by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gary_Robinson" rel="nofollow ugc">Gary Robinson</a> <a href="https://www.linuxjournal.com/article/6467" rel="nofollow ugc">b8 is a statistical “Bayesian”</a> spam filter implemented in PHP.<br />
The B8 filter is a foundational example of <strong>Machine Learning (ML)</strong> for text classification, representing an early, yet powerful, statistical approach in Natural Language Processing (NLP). This approach precedes feature-weighting methods like <strong>TF-IDF</strong>, which in turn paved the way for modern deep learning architectures, such as <strong>Transformers</strong> and <strong>GPT</strong>.<br />
The filter tells you whether a text is spam or not, using statistical text analysis. What it does is: you give b8 a text and it returns a value between 0 and 1, saying it’s ham when it’s near 0 and saying it’s spam when it’s near 1. See <a href="https://nasauber.de/opensource/b8/readme.html#how-does-it-work" rel="nofollow ugc">How does it work?</a> for details about this.<br />
To be able to distinguish spam and ham (non-spam), b8 first has to learn some spam and some ham texts. If it makes mistakes when classifying unknown texts or the result is not distinct enough, b8 can be told what the text actually is, getting better with each learned text.<br />
This takes place on your own server without relying on third-party services.<br />
More info: <a href="https://nasauber.de/opensource/b8/" rel="nofollow ugc">nasauber.de</a></p>
<h3>Identity protection</h3>
<p>To fully protect the forms, it may be necessary to enable a couple of additional controls, because bots use the public data of the website to spam on it.<br />
– The first is user related and denies those who are not logged in the possibility of asking (sensitive) information about the user via wp-api and the protection for the xmlrpc exploit wordpress.<br />
– The second one is the WordPress protection that will obfuscate sensitive WordPress and server data, adding some headers in order to enhance security against xss and so on.<br />
Will be hidden the WordPress and WooCommerce version (wp_generator, woo_version), pingback (X-Pingback), server (nginx|apache|…) and php version (X-Powered-By), enabled xss protection headers (X-XSS-Protection), removes rest api link from header (but it will only continue to work if the link is not made public).</p>
<h3>Mailbox Protection (Multiple Send)</h3>
<p>Enhance email security by enabling the “Multiple Send” feature, which prevents consecutive email submissions to the user’s mailbox. This measure is effective in thwarting automated spam attempts and ensures a secure communication environment.</p>
<h3>Security & Privacy: A Local-First Approach</h3>
<p>AntiSpam for Contact Form 7 is built with your security and privacy as the <strong>top priority</strong>. Unlike many modern anti-spam solutions that rely on external cloud services or third-party subscriptions, our plugin is designed to run <strong>entirely on your own WordPress installation</strong>.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>100% Local Processing:</strong> All anti-spam logic, checks, and data processing are performed directly on your server. <strong>No data is ever sent to, or stored by, any external third-party service</strong> (including ours).</li>
<li><strong>Not a Software as a Service (SaaS):</strong> This plugin is a standalone, self-contained software solution, not an interface to a paid or subscription-based external service. Once installed, it works autonomously.</li>
<li><strong>Enhanced Security:</strong> Since there is <strong>no central server or external API endpoint</strong> to communicate with, your website is immune to potential risks associated with centralized services, such as Single Point of Failure or data breach risks.</li>
</ul>
<p>You retain complete control and ownership over the security of your Contact Form 7 submissions.</p>
<h3>Privacy Notices</h3>
<p>AntiSpam for Contact Form 7 only processes the IP but doesn’t store any personal data directly from the user input. However, it creates a dictionary of spam and ham (non-spam) words in the WordPress database.<br />
This dictionary is built from words found in the submitted messages, meaning it <strong>may contain words that were part of the user’s e-mail message or personal data</strong>. This data is “degenerated,” which means the words might be normalized or altered before being stored.<br />
The sole purpose of this word collecting is to build a dictionary used for local, decentralized spam detection.</p>
<h3>Support</h3>
<p>Community support: via the <a href="https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/contact-form-7-antispam/" rel="ugc">support forums</a> on wordpress.org<br />
Bug reporting (preferred): file an issue on <a href="https://github.com/erikyo/contact-form-7-antispam" rel="nofollow ugc">GitHub</a></p>
<h4>Contribute</h4>
<p>We love your input! We want to make contributing to this project as easy and transparent as possible, whether it’s:</p>
<ul>
<li>Reporting a bug</li>
<li>Testing the plugin with different user agent and report fingerprinting failures</li>
<li>Discussing the current state, features, improvements</li>
<li>Submitting a fix or a new feature</li>
</ul>
<p>We use GitHub to host code, to track issues and feature requests, as well as accept pull requests.<br />
By contributing, you agree that your contributions will be licensed under its GPLv2 License.</p>
<p>My goal is to create an antispam that protects cf7 definitively without relying on external services. And free for everyone.<br />
if you want to help me, <a href="https://github.com/erikyo/contact-form-7-antispam" rel="nofollow ugc">GitHub</a> is the right place 😉</p>
<h3>copyright</h3>
<p>AntiSpam for Contact Form 7, Copyright 2021 Codekraft Studio<br />
AntiSpam for Contact Form 7 is distributed under the terms of the GNU GPL</p>
<p>This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify<br />
it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by<br />
the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or<br />
(at your option) any later version.</p>
<p>This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,<br />
but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of<br />
MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.<br />
See the LICENSE file for more details.</p>
<h4>Resources</h4>
<ul>
<li>Contact Form 7 and Flamingo © 2021 Takayuki Miyoshi,<a href="https://it.wordpress.org/plugins/contact-form-7/" rel="nofollow ugc">LGPLv3 or later</a></li>
<li>B8 https://nasauber.de/opensource/b8/, © 2021 Tobias Leupold, <a href="https://gitlab.com/l3u/b8/-/tree/ab26daa6b293e6aa059d24ce7cf77af6c8b9b052/LICENSES" rel="nofollow ugc">LGPLv3 or later</a></li>
<li>GeoLite2 <a href="https://www.maxmind.com/en/geolite2/eula" rel="nofollow ugc">license</a></li>
<li>GeoIP2 PHP API <a href="https://github.com/maxmind/GeoIP2-php" rel="nofollow ugc">GeoIP2-php</a></li>
<li>chart.js https://www.chartjs.org/, © 2021 Chart.js <a href="https://github.com/chartjs/Chart.js/graphs/contributors" rel="nofollow ugc">contributors</a>, <a href="https://github.com/chartjs/Chart.js/blob/master/LICENSE.md" rel="nofollow ugc">MIT</a></li>
<li>Sudden Shower in the Summer, Public domain, Wikimedia Commons https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sudden_Shower_in_the_Summer_(5759500422).jpg</li>
</ul>
<h3>Contibutions</h3>
<p>Mirek Długosz – <a href="https://github.com/erikyo/cf7-antispam/pull/30" rel="nofollow ugc">#30</a> fixes a crash that occurred when analysing flamingo metadata<br />
MeliEve – <a href="https://github.com/wp-blocks/cf7-antispam/pull/42" rel="nofollow ugc">#42</a> Fix “internal_server_error” when message is empty<br />
MeliEve – <a href="https://github.com/wp-blocks/cf7-antispam/pull/61" rel="nofollow ugc">#61</a>  Handle deferrer script loading<br />
Zodiac1978 – <a href="https://github.com/wp-blocks/cf7-antispam/pull/67" rel="nofollow ugc">#67</a> Remove warning for unsafe email configuration w/o protection<br />
JohnHooks – <a href="https://github.com/wp-blocks/cf7-antispam/pull/61" rel="nofollow ugc">#66</a> Readme + plugin env<br />
sdellenb – <a href="https://github.com/wp-blocks/cf7-antispam/pull/163" rel="nofollow ugc">#66</a> Fix $reason parameter for calling cf7a_ban_by_ip</p>
<h3>Special thanks</h3>
<p>This project is tested with BrowserStack. <a href="https://www.browserstack.com/" rel="nofollow ugc">Browserstack</a></p>
<h3>MaxMind GeoIP2</h3>
<p>This plugin on demand can enable GeoLite2 created by MaxMind, available from <a href="https://www.maxmind.com" rel="nofollow ugc">https://www.maxmind.com</a><br />
While enabled you may <strong>have to mention it in the privacy policy</strong> of your site, depending on the law regulating privacy in your state!<br />
* GeoIP2 databases <a href="https://www.maxmind.com/en/accounts/current/geoip/downloads" rel="nofollow ugc">GeoLite2 Country</a></p>
<h3>DNSBL servers privacy policies</h3>
<ul>
<li>dnsbl-1.uceprotect.net <a href="http://www.uceprotect.net/en/index.php?m=13&s=0" rel="nofollow ugc">www.uceprotect.net license</a></li>
<li>dnsbl-2.uceprotect.net <a href="http://www.uceprotect.net/en/index.php?m=13&s=0" rel="nofollow ugc">www.uceprotect.net license</a></li>
<li>dnsbl-3.uceprotect.net <a href="http://www.uceprotect.net/en/index.php?m=13&s=0" rel="nofollow ugc">www.uceprotect.net license</a></li>
<li>dnsbl.sorbs.net <a href="http://www.sorbs.net/information/faq/" rel="nofollow ugc">sorbs.net license</a></li>
<li>zen.spamhaus.org <a href="https://www.spamhaus.org/organization/dnsblusage/" rel="nofollow ugc">spamhaus.org license</a></li>
<li>bl.spamcop.net <a href="https://www.spamcop.net/fom-serve/cache/297.html" rel="nofollow ugc">spamcop.net license</a></li>
<li>b.barracudacentral.org <a href="https://www.barracuda.com/company/legal/trust-center/data-privacy/privacy-policy" rel="nofollow ugc">barracudacentral.org privacy-policy</a></li>
<li>dnsbl.dronebl.org <a href="https://dronebl.org/docs/faq" rel="nofollow ugc">dronebl.org</a></li>
<li>all.spamrats.com <a href="https://spamrats.com/tos.php" rel="nofollow ugc">spamrats.com tos</a></li>
<li>bl.ipv6.spameatingmonkey.net <a href="https://spameatingmonkey.com/faq" rel="nofollow ugc">spameatingmonkey.net</a></li>
</ul>
<h3>Inspirations, links</h3>
<ul>
<li>Nikolai Tschacher <a href="https://incolumitas.com/pages/BotOrNot/" rel="nofollow ugc">incolumitas.com</a></li>
<li>Antoine Vastel <a href="https://github.com/antoinevastel/fpscanner" rel="nofollow ugc">fp-scanner</a>/<a href="https://github.com/antoinevastel/fp-collect" rel="nofollow ugc">fp-collect</a></li>
<li>Niespodd <a href="https://github.com/niespodd/browser-fingerprinting" rel="nofollow ugc">niespodd</a></li>
<li>Thomas Breuss <a href="https://gist.github.com/tbreuss/74da96ff5f976ce770e6628badbd7dfc" rel="nofollow ugc">tbreuss</a></li>
<li>Domain Name System-based blackhole list <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domain_Name_System-based_blackhole_list" rel="nofollow ugc">wiki</a></li>
<li>dnsbl list <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_DNS_blacklists" rel="nofollow ugc">wiki</a></li>
</ul>


AntiSpam for Contact Form 7

A trustworthy antispam plugin for Contact Form 7. Wave goodbye to spam and keep your inbox clean!

OW Forms vs AntiSpam for Contact Form 7