Forum Fortress
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Spam protection for self-hosted forums

Clean talk, without the complication.

Forum Fortress checks registrations, posts, profiles and signatures before they appear in public. It works inside your forum software, with no CAPTCHA, Q&A challenges or scripts that slow down your site. It's anti-spam, designed and built for forums - and engineered to work without complicated setup.

No regex rules, IP ranges or lists of keywords - just a hand-crafted system to make forum spam history. Our network of honeypot sites and intelligence systems gives us the leading edge on detecting emerging spam trends - knowing the signs before the bad guys know your site exists.

Get the free pluginSee the portal

No account needed to install 30-day Pro trial No card required

OverviewProtection active
Connection healthy
Checks today1,240
Checks this month12,480of 20,000
Automatic blocks18of 250
Latest decisionRegistration blockedDecision 9218-0123-0456

Hosting network, disposable email and a recently seen redirect domain.

Needs attention3moderation items
Sample portal preview
Total detected2,606,110
Detected last 24 hours42,399
Intelligence items indexed30,192,911
Accuracy99.6%

Latest figures as of

Live totals update when a newer service snapshot is available.

Works with your forum

Flarum 1.8 & 2XenForophpBBInvision CommunitySMFMyBBDiscourse

Built specifically for forums

Covers signups, posts, profiles and signatures.

No account needed to install

Add the plugin first. Log in to the portal when you want to see the details.

Reasons, not just verdicts

Open a decision and see what caused it. Simple, plain-English summaries explain the logic behind every decision.

Block forum spam without hurting your community

Designed by forum admins - specifically for communities.

It's simple to get started - grab the plugin, install it and your community is protected.

  1. 01

    Install the plugin

    Add it in the normal way for Flarum, XenForo, phpBB, Invision Community, SMF, MyBB or Discourse.

  2. 02

    Checks begin

    New registrations, posts, profiles and signatures are checked in the background.

  3. 03

    Review when you need to

    Use the portal to investigate a decision, spot a pattern or deal with an exception.

Spam blocking made easy

Stop forum spam in minutes

Install the free plugin today. You'll instantly start on our Pro plan - complimentary for 30 days while you evaluate the features you need. You can stay on Free as long as you like, or move to a larger plan if your site needs it. No credit card, email registration or API keys needed to get started - it really is as simple as 'install plugin > protection starts'.

Get the free pluginOpen the portal demo

Modern anti-spam for forums

Forum spam is getting smarter. So are the tools that stop it.

Forum Fortress is a spam blocker built around context, rather than simple databases and lists. It combines account, network, content, link and behaviour signals to decide whether activity should be allowed or blocked.

That means spam blocking can catch more than obvious bot signups. Sleeper accounts can register normally, wait, then add a profile link, signature or subtle promotional edit later. Forum Fortress keeps checking the actions that matter.

  • Network and hosting context
  • Email and domain reputation
  • Links and content
  • Activity patterns
Registration blockedHigh confidence
Spam score92 / 100

A hosting network, disposable email address and recently seen redirect domain pointed to automated promotion.

Hosting networkDisposable emailRedirect domain
Decision 9218-0123-0456Illustrative example

Privacy by design

Shared intelligence that doesn't compromise on privacy.

Forum Fortress uses personal identifiers to make spam decisions, not to build a publicly browsable database of your members. Raw IP addresses, email addresses, usernames and submitted content are retained for no more than five days, only visible to you and the Forum Fortress team, and activity from your real members leaves no long term trace on our systems.

Our public checker works only if you know the item you want to look up. We then convert it to a one-way hash, and check if that hash exists in our database.

Beyond the five-day window, we don't know an individual IP or email address unless you know it too.

We only record negative interactions, and don't build individual profiles or tie emails, IPs and usernames together and present them publicly - our system is designed to stop that being a possibility.

A DPA document is available to all customers who require it, and you can select where decision making happens right in the plugin - use our global network, or restrict decision making to the UK, EU or USA.

Read our privacy policy Try the public checker
Public checker

A lookup starts with what you already know

Exact lookup
  1. Known valuemember@demo.invalidA value you already know
  2. Protected lookup9f2c…7a41One-way protected value
  3. ResultMatchNo matchOne clear result
No browsable member directoryEvery lookup begins with a value you already have.

Resilient cloud platform

Fast, reliable checks wherever your forum is hosted.

Forum Fortress automatically routes traffic to the nearest healthy node, keeping checks responsive without any extra configuration.

Portal

Watch how spam activity changes over time.

Insights turns recent activity into a short explanation of the patterns worth your attention. When you need the detail, the decision history is still there.

Sample Insights preview

What is changing on your forum

Last 30 days
Pattern worth knowingRegistration attacks are concentrated overnight

Blocked registration activity rose between 01:00 and 05:00 UTC compared with the previous period.

Review pattern
Blocked activityIllustrative sample trend
Leading signals
Hosting network42%
Disposable email31%
Redirect domain18%

Insights is included on every plan. Pro adds advanced reports and raw graph views.

Open the portal demo

Moderate all your sites in one place

Pro tools specifically for forum networks

Run multiple communities? Our Multi Moderation tool lets you see all reported posts in one place - and deal with them from one panel. No more logging into multiple sites daily. Our spam prevention keeps your moderation queue to just the issues flagged by your community. And now - you can take care of that in one place, even across multiple software platforms.

Get the plugin

Choose your forum software.

See current support, get the plugin and open the full installation guide.

Flarum 1.8 and 2 anti-spam extension

Current release v1.3.7.1 is tested on Flarum 1.8.19 and Flarum 2.0.0 RC8.

composer require forumfortress/flarum:"^1.3"

Or search in Extension Manager for Forum Fortress. Install and enable it, then open the extension page to configure the connection.

View on PackagistFull install guide
View our plugins on GitHub

Simple annual pricing

Start free. Pay only for what you need. Or stay free if you like.

Every plan uses the same protection engine and includes Insights. Core suits most active forums. Pro is built for administrators running several communities.

Forever Free

Ongoing protection for one forum

$0
  • 2,000 checks each month
  • 50 automatic blocks each day
  • 1 forum
  • Decision history and Insights
  • 24/7 AI chat and phone support
  • Support tickets
Get the free plugin
Recommended

Core

Best for most active forums

$10 / year
  • 20,000 checks each month
  • 250 automatic blocks each day
  • Up to 2 forums
  • Decision history and Insights
  • 24/7 AI chat and phone support
  • Faster ticket replies
Choose Core

Pro

For several communities

$40 / year
  • 100,000 checks each month
  • Unlimited automatic blocks
  • Up to 5 forums
  • Advanced reports and raw graphs
  • Multi-forum moderation system
  • Priority tickets and phone access to the support team
Choose Pro

The protection engine and included Insights are the same on Forever Free, Core and Pro.

Support that fits around you

Help is available when you need it.

Everyone gets 24/7 help by live chat and phone, powered by AI. For more complex queries, everyone can contact the support team by ticket. Paid plans receive priority handling, and Pro customers can also reach our team by phone during office hours.

Available 24/7

AI live chat

Ask our AI assistant about setup, a decision or your account without leaving the site.

Start AI live chat
Available 24/7

AI phone support

Use the AI phone service at any time. Pro customers can also reach our team during office hours.

Call 03331 128 124
Every plan

Support tickets

Contact the support team on every plan. Paid plans get priority handling.

Send a support request

Contact the support team

Send us your question.

We're here to help. Whether you have a question about Forum Fortress, want advice on preventing spam, or need help setting it up, just send us a message.

Common questions

Questions you may want answered before you install.

Can I try it without creating an account?

Yes. Install the plugin and protection starts immediately with a 30 day trial of Pro.

When it ends, your site switches to the Forever Free plan so you're never left without protection.

At this point, upgrade if you wish - or stay on free for as long as you like.

Does it add a CAPTCHA or browser script?

No. There are no CAPTCHAs, Q&A challenges or Forum Fortress scripts added to your pages.

In fact the plugin is designed to not add a single line of code to any public-facing page.

Checks happen between the forum plugin and Forum Fortress in the background, so genuine visitors don’t have to prove they’re human before they can join the conversation.

How does Forum Fortress stop forum spam?

Forum Fortress looks at context rather than relying on a single blocklist or database lookup.

Registrations, posts, replies, profiles and signatures can be checked using account, network, content, link and behaviour signals. Our honeypot and intelligence network also helps us recognise emerging spam patterns as they develop.

And because checks continue after registration, Forum Fortress can catch sleeper accounts that behave normally at first and add spam later.

How does support work?

Everyone gets 24/7 help by live chat and phone, powered by AI.

For more complex queries, every plan can contact the support team by ticket. Paid plans receive priority handling, while Pro customers can also reach the team by phone during office hours.

What member data is sent?

A check may include an IP address, email address, username, submitted text, links and basic browser metadata, depending on what is being checked.

Raw personal data is retained for no more than five days, and legitimate member activity leaves no long-term abuse record. We don’t publish a browsable database of your members or publicly tie their email addresses, usernames and IP addresses together.

Read our privacy policy

Can I choose where checks are processed?

Yes - by default the plugin connects to the nearest Forum Fortress edge node to where your site is hosted, or you can choose to restrict to the UK, USA or EU nodes only in the settings.

Our support team are always happy to discuss the best option for your specific community.