Honeypot

The Honeypot app helps protect your Contact Form 7 forms from spam by adding one or more hidden fields that are invisible to real visitors. These hidden fields are only detected by automated bots. If a bot fills in a honeypot field, the submission is automatically identified as spam and blocked before it reaches your website.

The Honeypot app supports both Global Settings and Individual Form Settings.

• Global Settings apply to all Contact Form 7 forms by default.
• Individual Form Settings allow you to customize the Honeypot field for a specific form.

When both are configured, the individual form settings take priority.

Global Settings

Navigation

Contact → CF7 Apps → Dashboard → Honeypot

Configuration

To configure Honeypot for all Contact Form 7 forms:

• Navigate to Contact → CF7 Apps → Dashboard.
• Locate the Honeypot app under Spam Protection enabled.
• Click the Settings (gear) icon.
• Configure the available settings.
• Click Save Changes.

Available Settings

Setting	Description
Enable Honeypot	Enable or disable Honeypot protection for all forms.
Honeypot Field Name	Set a custom name for the hidden field. Leave it empty to use the automatically generated value.
Honeypot Field ID	Set a custom ID for the hidden field. Leave it empty to use the automatically generated value.
Move Honeypot Inline CSS to Footer	Moves the CSS used to hide the Honeypot field to the page footer for better compatibility with some themes and optimization plugins.
Error Message	Customize the message shown when a spam submission is blocked.
Number of Honeypot Fields	Choose how many hidden Honeypot fields to add to each form.
Time-Based Protection	Prevent bots from submitting forms too quickly by requiring a minimum time before submission.
Minimum Time (Seconds)	Set the minimum number of seconds a visitor must spend on the page before the form can be submitted.
Silent Success for Blocked Bots	Recommended for high-spam sites. Real users incorrectly blocked will also see a success message.

Enable Move Honeypot Inline CSS to Footer to ensure the hidden field remains invisible.If Time-Based Protection is enabled, users who submit the form before the minimum time has passed will receive the configured error message.

Individual Form Settings

Navigation

Contact → Contact Forms → Add New

Configuration

You can also add a Honeypot field to an individual Contact Form 7 form.

• Open an existing Contact Form 7 form or create a new one.
• Click the Honeypot button in the Contact Form 7 tag generator toolbar.

• In the modal that appears, you’ll see several configuration options:
  • Field Type: This will be pre-selected as Honeypot.
  • Field Name: A default name (e.g., honeypot-38) is auto-generated. You can customize this to keep it unique within the form.
  • ID Attribute: Optionally assign a custom ID to the Honeypot field.
  • Class Attribute: Add custom classes for styling or JavaScript targeting.
  • Wrapper ID: Define a wrapper ID if you want to target the entire field container.
  • Placeholder: Set a placeholder to make the field appear legitimate to bots.
  • Use Standard Autocomplete Value: Check this to prevent browsers from auto-filling the honeypot field.
  • Move Inline CSS: Enable this to move the default inline styles to your theme or external CSS.
  • Disable Accessibility Label: Check this only if you want to remove the ARIA label (not recommended for accessibility).
  • Enable Time Check: Adds a submission delay check to catch bots.
  • Time Check (Seconds): Set the minimum submission time. The default is 4 seconds.

• Insert the generated tag into your form.
• Save the form.

Individual Honeypot settings override the global settings for that specific form.

Output Flow

Once Honeypot is enabled:

• A hidden Honeypot field is added to your Contact Form 7 form.
• Real visitors never see or interact with the hidden field.
• Spam bots often detect and fill the hidden field automatically.
• When the form is submitted:
  • If the Honeypot field is empty, the submission is processed normally.
  • If the Honeypot field contains any value, the submission is identified as spam and blocked.
• If Time-Based Protection is enabled, submissions made before the configured minimum time are also rejected.

Adding multiple Honeypot fields can improve spam protection but may slightly increase the amount of HTML generated on the page.

Forms Tab

The Forms tab gives you a quick overview of all your Contact Form 7 forms and shows whether Honeypot protection is enabled for each form navigate to Contact → CF7 Apps → Dashboard → Honeypot → Forms

Column	Description
Title	The name of the Contact Form 7 form.
Shortcode	The shortcode used to display the form on your website.
Honeypot	Shows whether Honeypot protection is enabled or disabled for the form.
Date & Time	The date and time the form was created or last updated.
Action	Click Edit to open the form directly in the Contact Form 7 editor.

Additional features include:

• The table displays 10 forms per page with pagination for easy navigation.
• A form counter at the bottom shows the number of displayed forms and the total number of available forms.
• A Spam Counter displays the total number of spam submissions blocked by Honeypot along with the date since tracking started.

Clicking Edit takes you directly to the selected Contact Form 7 form, where you can modify its Honeypot settings and other form configurations.

Need Help?

Please reach out to us on our Support Thread with any queries or concerns. We’re here to help!