Posts Tagged ‘Akismet’

Long recognised as an essential plugin for WordPress blogs and websites, and something we’ve encouraged you to activate, Akismet does a good job of halting spam comments. Indeed each time we install a new WordPress blog, we’ve include the activation of the Akismet spam filter as standard- it’s always seemed sensible, being pretty good at what it does, and already sitting there ready for it’s API key (which makes it work, basically).

But last weekend, for the first time, on popping to the Akismet site for said key, I found that they’ve started charging for any but personal blogs. Now this is fair enough, in the grand scheme of things – a good service is provided and they’re not running a charity, after all.

Now we need to know if it is still the best option for those of us running business or even non-profit WordPress websites or blogs (though they do offer the latter a discount). Is Akismet worth the $5 per month? Should we pay it anyway out of loyalty for a service well provided?

I did ask the fine folk at Akismet what will happen to existing accounts but have yet to receive a reply – it may be that we’ll simply find out in due course, perhaps when their next update is due, or they may just let it go – there are a lot of us! In the meantime we’re reviewing the alternatives and considering the best service to halt the waves of comment spam. It’s unlikely that any free service will remain so if the mighty, omnipresent Akismet is now charging, so that needs to be taken into account before changing providers.

We’ll update you further as we are able. And if you have thoughts, suggestions, ideas for this, please share them…

Babs