Hi C,
Thank you for your interest in WP-SpamShield! I’ll be happy to answer your questions. 🙂
WP-SpamShield will protect every type of WordPress form from spam. It’s designed to do something no other plugin can do: protect every type of third party form plugin out there, without requiring specific code for that plugin. This is part of the Miscellaneous Form Protection feature.
It does have specific support for Contact Form 7 and Gravity Forms, but it goes much further.
It actually does mention in the docs that it covers more than comment, trackback, and contact form spam (for example MailChimp is an email opt-in):
Supports: Contact Form 7, Gravity Forms, Ninja Forms, JetPack Contact Forms & Comments, BuddyPress, bbPress, WooCommerce, s2Member, WP-Members, Mailchimp, Fast Secure Contact Form, Formidable Forms, almost all WordPress forms, and almost all WordPress registration forms. Automatically!
and:
Includes a Spam-Free Contact Form, and Anti-Spam for Contact Form 7, Gravity Forms, Ninja Forms, JetPack Contact Forms, and Most Other Forms
Includes drop-in spam-free contact form, with easy one-click installation. Easy to use – no configuration necessary, but you can configure it if you like. (See Installation for info.) WP-SpamShield also includes automatic anti-spam protection for Contact Form 7, Gravity Forms, Ninja Forms, JetPack Contact Forms, Fast Secure Contact Forms, Formidable Forms, and more. (You don’t have to do a thing…just add your Contact Form 7, Gravity Forms, Ninja Forms, JetPack Contact Forms, or other forms to your site, and they will automatically be protected.) It will automatically protect most forms on your WordPress site from automated spam, even if they are not listed here.
We say “most” in order to not overstate things, but it basically means “all”. Every once in a while a user may report a compatibility issue with a certain plugin (which we promptly address), but even that is extremely rare, on the order of 1 out of 1000 (or even less). After using it, the question you’re more likely to ask is, “what is it NOT compatible with?” 🙂 It’s a short list. If you ever do have a compatibility issue, just let us know via our Tech Support Form, and we’ll take care of it in short order.
You can disable Trackbacks and Pingbacks in the WP-SpamShield settings or WordPress settings. If you don’t use commenting at all, you can disable this in your WordPress settings. ( Settings -> Discussion -> Default article settings -> Allow people to post comments on new articles )
What I’d recommend is that you install it and try it, and test it out. I’m confident you’ll be pleased.
If you have any issues, we provide thorough documentation, a helpful Troubleshooting Guide, FAQs and Tech Support.
If you end up deciding not to use it, it’s no problem. The plugin is a good WordPress citizen and will clean up after itself, removing all traces of itself from your site and WordPress database.
I hope this info helps! 🙂
– Scott
