Use Honeypot as antispam in GravityForms

A guide for Dekodes clients .

In this article, we'll go through how Honeypot works, why it's useful, and give you a simple guide on how to enable and use Honeypot in your GravityForms forms.

Spam can be a big challenge for many websites that use forms. GravityForms, a popular solution for building forms in WordPress, and Dekode 's preferred form extension, offers a range of tools to combat spam, including the powerful Honeypot technique.  

What is Honeypot? 

Honeypot is an anti-spam technique that uses hidden fields in your forms. These fields are invisible to real users, but spam bots, which automatically fill in forms, will often try to fill in all fields. When a bot fills in the hidden Honeypot field, the form will be rejected as spam. 

The advantage of Honeypot is that it is invisible to real users and doesn't require them to perform any extra actions (like solving a CAPTCHA aka. "I'm not a robot"). This provides a better user experience while effectively reducing the amount of spam. 

Why use Honeypot? 

GravityForms has built-in support for Honeypot, which means it's a simple and effective way to reduce spam. While there are other methods such as reCAPTCHA and Akismet, Honeypot is a low-threshold solution that requires minimal effort from both you as an administrator and your users. 

The benefits of using Honeypot include: 

Ease of use: No need for users to prove that they are not robots. 

Hidden functionality: No visible fields or extra steps for those filling out. Form. 

Reduces automated spam: Simple and effective way to filter out spam bots. 

How to enable Honeypot in GravityForms 

Setting up Honeypot in GravityForms is very easy and only requires a few steps. Follow this guide to enable Honeypot for a GravityForms form on your website: 

Step 1: Go to the Forms overview 

  1. Log in to your WordPress dashboard. 
  1. Navigate to "Forms" in the menu to the left and click on the form you want to protect with Honeypot. 

Step 2: Activate Honeypot for the selected form 

  1. Once inside the form, click on "Settings" at the top of the screen. 
  1. Select "Form Settings" from the submenu. 
  1. Scroll down until you find a setting labeled "Anti-spam Honeypot" or "Enable anti-spam Honeypot". 
  1. Check the box to enable this feature. 

Once you have activated Honeypot, remember to click "Save Settings" to save your changes. The Honeypot feature is now active for this form and you are protected from spam bots. 

Extra tips for anti-spam protection on forms 

While Honeypot is an effective way to reduce spam, in some cases additional measures may be needed, especially if you experience a lot of manual spam. Here are some additional tools you can combine with Honeypot for optimal protection: 

  • reCAPTCHA: Google reCAPTCHA can be added to forms for extra security. There are two types of reCAPTCHA: version 2 (with boxes that users must click) and the invisible version. 
  • Akismet: This is a spam filter specifically designed for WordPress and works well with GravityForms and especially if you have the option to add comments to articles. 
  • Blocking of IP addresses: If you see that spam is coming from certain IP addresses, you can block these using an IP blocking service. 

Honeypot is a simple and effective way to protect your forms from spam. It gives users a seamless experience and reduces automated spam without the need for complex solutions like CAPTCHA. With just a few clicks, you can enable Honeypot in your forms and improve the security of your website. 

Before clients who already have GravityForms installed, we recommend activating Honeypot as soon as possible to get better spam protection. If you have any questions or need help setting up Honeypot or other antispam tools, don't hesitate to contact us at support@ dekode .no. We are happy to help! 

Need a refresher on how to use WordPress?

I'll walk you through what you need to know about pages, posts, hierarchies and the incredibly smart Gutenberg Block Editor.

Portrait photo by Morten Mouritzen
Morten Mouritzen
Customer Success Manager
+47 484 01 456‬