While the internet is a vast hub for information, it could also be the roaming grounds for spyware, phishing, spam, malicious software, and other cyber problems. To keep both their visitors and their system secure, website owners employ anti-spam services to protect the information transacted through their websites. The most common anti-spam services use website protection methods that mandate a visitor to decode a captcha, answer some questions, choose pictures, and other survey type tools. Other tools include email filtering systems and the integration of anti-virus software. All of these tools, however, have the same goal, which is to protect users from spam. Here are 2020's top-performing anti-spam services:

1. CleanTalk Anti-Spam

Unlike other anti-spam services, CleanTalk can protect a website without letting the visitors see its protection methods. This means that there is no need to enter captcha, answer questions, or other survey type methods to protect the website. CleanTalk is geared towards protecting websites by blocking spam or spambots at the high-efficiency rate of 99.998%. While it is invisible to visitors for a smooth transaction, it is most reliable, simple, and convenient for website administrators and owners. In comparison to other anti-spam services, CleanTalk has surpassed many bars set by other software. CleanTalk features a high accuracy of spam detection and better analogs in the speed of plugins. Website owners and administrators can also view a report about blocked spam and spambots. Also, CleanTalk anti-spam service has an option for SpamFireWall.

Features

As far as features go, CleanTalk has a very long list of notable options, features, and plugins that makes it the number one choice when it comes to anti-spam services.

Anti-Spam. For a visitor, going through the process of answering questions, decoding captcha, or choosing corresponding pictures could be a real hassle, time-consuming, and distracting. In the worst-case scenarios, this type of website protection would even interfere with the transaction of information on the website. It is for this factor that makers of CleanTalk have eliminated this process. Visitors are then screened when they make a comment or register. A plugin would send the action parameters via cloud service. CleanTalk anti-spam analyzes these parameters and publishes the comment if it is classified as a visitor's comment, while a comment or registration is blocked if it is recognized as a spambot. These parameters are then recorded to a log that the website owners and administrators can view from their dashboard.

Extra package for 45-day logs. For customers who wish to extend their logs from the default seven days to a 45-day log, the extra package plugin offers advanced options that include this extended duration. The anti-spam log is at work screening spambots and real visitors round the clock.

Blocking visitors. Users could block visitors by using parameters such as country, stop-words, and language. When visitors are screened using the country parameter, either the anti-spam or the SpamFireWall is activated. This allows the website to entertain comments, registrations, and post requests that are from unblocked countries only. This parameter allows CleanTalk anti-spam service to check the IP address of the visitor, determining whether the country that the IP address belongs to is allowed to access the website. On the other hand, SpamFireWall allows partial access to the website. When this is activated, visitors from a blocked country will be redirected to a special page as visitors who are not from blocked countries will be able to go through the website normally.

Comparison with Akismet and Google ReCaptcha. When pinned against Akismet and Google ReCaptcha, CleanTalk yields higher efficiency spam filters with a wider range for protection which covers comments, registrations, contacts, order forms, and many others. In the matters of cost, Google ReCaptcha may not charge anything to the website owner, however, the ReCaptcha logo will appear on the website without any option to remove it. Akismet charges from $60 to $600 a year. Meanwhile, CleanTalk charges only $8 a year and it already comes with tech-support and the convenience of not having site visitors to view or go through the anti-spam activity - it will not even display the logo of the anti-spam service.

Simple Installation. CleanTalk is easy to install, with less than a minute of installation time. It is easy to use and understand as well. It has a plugin for every popular CMS and is not limited to WordPress only.

2. MailCleaner

MailCleaner is a server-side email filtering solution that can be installed on almost any virtualization system. MailCleaner filters all valid messages once the website owner sets up a domain. The software then sends the mail to its destination. It is built on several efficient freeware such as OS: Debbie 8 Jessie, and Web GUI: Apache/PHP/MySql among others.

MailCleaner provides transparency for the administrators through the unified web interface that can be configured into the settings that the client needs.

Features. MailCleaner's open-source edition uses compatible sophisticated filtering technologies ensuring that the user maintains total control over quarantine behavior. For example, a user can delete any message that is screened by the filter. Still, this software requires no modification in the existing infrastructure of the user. MailCleaner is built with features including anti-spam, protection, antivirus, newsletter detection, quarantine, and powerful management. The software can block spam, fight phishing and malware, and check incoming messages for viruses and suspicious attachments. Users of MailCleaner will be able to change preferences when it comes to reviewing quarantine items. This means that newsletters can also be screened while some of the unwanted newsletters will remain in quarantine. MailCleaner also gives the administrator control of all system settings including detailed traffic and filtered reports.

3. Trend Micro Smart Protection Complete Suite

Trend Micro Smart Protection Complete Suite is a comprehensive bundle made for website protection. It provides better, simpler, but more flexible security. The complete suite by Trend Micro keeps up with the needs of their users by turning to multiple point products that address various security issues.

Features. Trend Micro Smart Protection Complete Suite has multiple layers of protection against cyber threats, which include endpoint security, mobile security, email and collaboration security, website security, and centralized security management.

Endpoint security reassures that user activity on a physical and virtual desktop, and mobile devices are secure from various forms of threat. Mobile security keeps safe, tracks, monitors, and manages the employees' mobile devices and company data. With Trend Micro's email and collaboration security, there is protection against spam, phishing, and other targeted attacks, especially for cloud-based applications such as Office 365. Because it uses cloud-based SaaS, Trend Micro enables users to protect their web activity on any device from any location. Users will be able to manage and monitor the entire threat life cycle through Trend Micro's centralized security management. As a bonus, Trend Micro also offers 24/7 guided support to its users whenever troubleshooting or inquiries need attention.

4. SpamHero

SpamHero is a straightforward cloud-based spam filtering software. It can track more than 100 million senders, has thousands of filters added daily, and a searchable quarantine.

Features. SpamHero is easy to use and easy to set up. It takes only five minutes to install the software. The spam-filtering software also has remarkable accuracy because of its rule-based system that contains millions of rules and is constantly updated and maintained 24/7. SpamHero uses only top-performing and renowned virus scanners to help block viruses. In addition, SpamHero has added its own detection system which can detect patterns and automatically block new viruses. While some spam blockers turn up "false positives" or produce errors where good mail is blocked, SpamHero has rules engineered to ensure that only the real spam is filtered out. Users will be able to view all blocked spam which is all placed in a domain-wide quarantine. This gives the users an option to review the spam, reassuring that no good mail would be deleted. Data security is taken even further as SpamHero uses reliable and diverse cloud-based filtering that runs on hardware owned and managed only by SpamHero.

The spam filter in the software also offers automatic mail spooling which means emails are automatically stored for up to 30 days. To tie it all up in a nice bow, SpamHero has a free 30-day trial with no payment info required. Paid subscriptions start at $5 a month.

5. SpamBully

SpamBully makes the top 5 list for keeping emails spam-free. With over 50,000 satisfied customers, SpamBully works with various email platforms such as Office 365, Outlook Express, IMAP, and many more.

Features. SpamBully has features namely Bayesian spam filter, allow/block list, punish/balance/report/challenge, email details, blacklist, auto-delete, fraudulent link detection, mobile phone forwarding, and statistics.

SpamBully's Bayesian spam filter recognizes which emails are good and which emails are spam. Users downloading email will only receive good emails in their inbox. SpamBully users will also be able to decide who are the senders and what emails will make it to their inbox. The spam blocking software filters emails using a user-set allow/block list where emails are screened by their addresses, words and phrases, languages, and IP addresses. SpamBully notifies the user why a message did or did not go through. If there is an error, the software automatically learns to correct this for future filtering. Users can also choose to auto-delete spam messages instead of having them dumped in a spam folder. SpamBully also has a fraudulent link detection that can detect links that are potentially harmful including malware and phishing links. Users can monitor the performance of SpamBully by accessing the comprehensive graphing and statistics recorded and provided with the software. All this can be tried for free by downloading the installer from SpamBully's website.