The 9 Dollar Plugins

The 9 Dollar Comment Spam Mute is your silent, Zero-Touch spam-fighting sidekick. It catches spam comments before they even think about touching your database. No moderation queue. No spam folder. No admin drama. 
Set it up once. Let it work. Never think about spam again.
Why you’ll like it 
Most anti-spam plugins ship your comment data off to who-knows-where, demand an API key, or just shuffle spam into a folder that slowly turns into a digital landfill. This one does things differently: everything runs on your own server, zero external requests, and spam comments are gone before they ever arrive. 
No spam folder to clean. No pending queue. No cloud. No key. No fuss.
How it kicks spam to the curb 
The plugin hooks into WordPress at the earliest possible moment — right before a comment would be saved. If something looks like spam, it’s silently discarded. You get to choose what happens next: with Silent Mode on, bots see a fake success message and never realize they’ve been blocked (so they won’t change tactics). With Silent Mode off, the comment is rejected with a normal error message. Either way: zero database clutter.
Heads-up (important!) 
Discarded spam comments are gone for good. That’s why there’s a mandatory opt-in step — so you’re fully aware before spam protection goes live. You keep full control over all detection settings, and comments only get discarded once you explicitly arm the plugin.
Why this plugin exists 
Most anti-spam plugins: 
– send your data to external APIs 
– require API keys and accounts 
– store spam in folders nobody cleans 
This plugin does none of that. Everything runs locally on your server. No external calls. No cloud dependency. No unnecessary complexity. 
Spam is not stored. It’s gone.
Features (LITE — free) 
– No external API calls — fully GDPR-compliant by design 
– No API key, no account, zero setup fuss — just install, configure once, arm it, and you’re done 
– No external API calls — all spam detection runs locally on your server 
– GDPR-compliant by design — no data leaves your site; IP addresses stored for spam detection only, auto-deleted after 90 days 
– Universal coverage — protects comments on posts, pages, custom post types, WooCommerce product reviews, and all native WordPress comment types 
– Comments get intercepted and discarded before they ever hit the database — no spam folder to clean, ever 
– Silent Mode — bots get a fake success message and never realize they’ve been blocked (keeps them from adapting) 
– Set once, runs automatically — after you arm it, you’re done 
– Works with all native WordPress comment types — posts, pages, custom post types, attachments, WooCommerce reviews 
– Mandatory opt-in — you’re always in control 
– Arm / Disarm control — activate or pause spam protection instantly without losing settings 
– Rate limiting — automatically blocks IPs that submit comments too frequently 
– Discarded comments log — last 50 entries with date, IP, author and reason, auto-pruned after 90 days 
– Sleek & slim — one PHP file, one CSS file, one JS file. No classes, no autoloader, no framework baggage 
– Honeypot trap — invisible field silently catches automated spam bots 
– Speed check — discards submissions faster than any human could type 
– Time token validation — rejects replayed or forged submission tokens older than one hour 
– Link limit — discards comments containing too many links, a classic spam signal 
– Keyword blacklist — case-insensitive spam keyword list, fully customisable, one word per line 
– Whitelist: Email / IP / User-Agent — never block your trusted commenters 
– Daily report email — optional morning summary of discarded spam, sent straight to your inbox
PRO version extras 
Upgrade to PRO and level up your spam defense: 
– Self-learning IP Blocklist — automatically flags repeat offenders (PRO only) 
– Custom Regex Patterns — build your own advanced spam rules (PRO only) 
– Smart Learning Spam Filter — trains itself on your site’s own comment history (PRO only) 
– Adjustable log size — keep as many or as few entries as you like (PRO only) 
– CSV log export — download your discarded comments log anytime (PRO only) 
– WooCommerce Verified Buyer Whitelist — verified customers get a free pass (PRO only) 
– Statistics Dashboard Widget — see your spam stats at a glance (PRO only) 
– Priority support — fast help when you need it (PRO only)
How it all works 
1. Install and activate the plugin. 
2. Go to Spam Mute in your WordPress admin sidebar. 
3. Read the opt-in notice and confirm you’re cool with the fact that spam comments will be permanently discarded. 
4. Tweak your detection settings — honeypot, speed check, link limit, keyword blacklist. 
5. Set Spam Protection to Active and let the silence begin.
That’s it. The 9 Dollar Comment Spam Mute works in the background, quietly doing its thing. Zero-Touch.
<h3>Important notice</h3>
Spam comments are permanently deleted. 
There is no recovery, no trash, no undo. 
A mandatory opt-in ensures you understand this before activation. Nothing happens unless you explicitly enable it.

The 9 Dollar Comment Spam Mute

Auto-discard comment spam before it ever hits your database. Zero-Touch protection — no API keys, no external calls,

EdHynan

Spam BLIP stops comment and ping spam from being posted, primarily by 
checking the IP address attempting to post a comment in one or more 
of the public DNS blacklists. A number of options are available 
to refine the check, and with the option defaults, a DNS lookup 
is only performed the first time an address attempts to post a 
comment; thereafter, the address might quickly ‘pass’ because it 
was not listed, or quickly be rejected because it was listed. 
Spam BLIP creates, and maintains, a database table for this purpose, 
and database lookups are quite fast. Therefore, concerns about 
DNS lookup time can be limited to an initial comment attempt.
Here are some features of Spam BLIP to consider if you are 
not yet falling over yourself to get it installed:
<ul>
<li>
When WordPress is producing a page for a visitor, it checks 
whether comments are open for each post, and it allows plugins 
to “filter” the check. Spam BLIP uses that filter, but does not 
do DNS lookups at this stage, because DNS lookups can take 
perceptible time. Spam BLIP does check optional user-set 
black and white lists, and optionally existing comments that 
are marked as spam, and of course Spam BLIP’s own database records. 
Those checks are fast, so they should not have a perceptible 
effect on page loading. Furthermore, on pages with multiple 
posts, WordPress runs the filter for each, but Spam BLIP 
stores the first result, so even the fast checks are not 
repeated.
</li>
<li>
When a comment is actually submitted, Spam BLIP does the above 
checks, then the DNS lookup only if necessary. At this stage, 
if the DNS lookup causes a perceptible delay, a real human 
(or very clever pet) making the comment should perceive it 
as mere server-side processing. As for spammer robots . . . 
let them wait.
</li>
<li>
Spam BLIP comes configured with blacklist domains that have 
worked well during development, so a user should not need to 
be concerned with the blacklists, but there is an advanced 
option to add or delete, activate or disable (yet save) 
list domains, and configure the interpretation of a return 
from a successful lookup.
</li>
<li>
Spam BLIP provides user-set whitelist and blacklist options.
</li>
<li>
Spam BLIP provides options to check for pings/trackbacks, and 
for user registrations. (The option to blacklist-check user 
registration is off by default. See “Tips” under the help 
tab on the Spam BLIP settings page.)
</li>
<li>
Spam BLIP provides options to configure a ‘Time To Live’ (TTL) 
for its database records, and a maximum number of records. 
The TTL is important because, generally, an IP address should 
not be marked permanently. Consider an ISP that quickly 
disables any account that is found to be spamming. An honest 
ISP is also a victim of spammer abuse, and will need to reuse 
addresses. DNS blacklist operators provide means for IP 
address owners to get records removed — Spam BLIP provides 
a configurable TTL for its records. (Database table maintenance 
is triggered approximately hourly by a WordPress cron event.)
</li>
<li>
Spam BLIP will optionally check if a commenter address is a 
TOR exit node. TOR (The Onion Router) is an important protection 
for people who need or wish for anonymity. You may want to 
accept comments from TOR users (you should), but unfortunately 
spammers have exploited and abused TOR, which has led some 
DNS blacklist operators to include TOR exit node addresses 
whether or not it is known that the address is spamming. If you 
enable this option (you should), it might let some spam get 
through. In this case, mark the comment as spam, and use the 
Spam BLIP option to check existing comments marked as spam; or 
use Spam BLIP in concert with another sort of spam filter, such 
as one that analyzes comment content. (Please report any 
conflict with other, non-DNS blacklist type spam plugins. 
Note that Spam BLIP is not expected to work in concert with 
other DNS-type anti-spam plugins.)
</li>
<li>
Spam BLIP includes a widget that will show options and records 
information. The widget might or might not be an enhancement 
to your page, but in any case it should provide feedback 
while you evaluate Spam BLIP, so it might be used temporarily.
</li>
</ul>

Spam_BLIP

Spam BLIP stops comment spam before it is posted, using DNS blacklists, existing comments marked as spam, and user defined lists.

The 9 Dollar Comment Spam Mute vs Spam_BLIP