About this plugin
MAD CAT Design® Forms Protection is a privacy-conscious, standalone form protection plugin for WordPress. It protects contact forms and lead forms without forcing visitors through intrusive captcha challenges and without requiring an external verification service.
The core protection flow runs locally inside WordPress. It does not require Google reCAPTCHA, Cloudflare Turnstile or another third-party captcha provider. This makes the plugin especially useful for GDPR-conscious websites that want to reduce external dependencies and avoid sending visitor interaction data to external anti-spam services.
Instead of relying on one simple honeypot field, the plugin uses a modular, signal-based protection model. It combines server-side validation, form state checks, timing signals, honeypot fields, behavioral indicators and integration-specific context. These signals are scored together, so automated submissions can be evaluated more accurately than with a single check alone.
The plugin is lightweight and performance-conscious. The protection logic is handled locally in WordPress and does not add heavy frontend dependencies or external captcha requests to your forms.
The free core plugin includes the shared protection engine, base signal checks, honeypot checks, Contact Form 7 integration and an admin log view. Additional integrations and advanced policy controls can be added through separate extension plugins.
Key Features
- Privacy-conscious form protection for WordPress.
- Standalone local protection flow without external captcha services.
- No Google reCAPTCHA or third-party verification service required.
- Contact Form 7 integration included in the free plugin.
- Multi-signal scoring for timing, form state, behavior and submission context.
- Honeypot checks combined with behavioral and request-context analysis.
- Server-side validation inside WordPress.
- Structured logs for reviewing blocked and accepted submissions.
- Configurable log retention and maintenance actions.
- Lightweight checks without heavy frontend dependencies.
- Extension-ready architecture for additional form builders and advanced controls.
Included Modules
- Forms Protection Core: shared validation engine, signal matrix, logging and admin screens.
- Base Signals: common runtime and request checks used by the protection engine.
- Honeypots: hidden-field checks for automated bot submissions.
- Contact Form 7: integration layer for Contact Form 7 forms.
Optional Extensions
MAD CAT Design® Forms Protection is built as a modular system. Additional plugin packages can add more integrations or advanced configuration without changing the free core plugin.
Examples of optional extensions include:
- MAD CAT Design® Forms Protection for Bricks.
- MAD CAT Design® Forms Protection Pro.
These extensions are not required for the free plugin to protect supported forms.
Privacy
The plugin is designed for privacy-conscious and GDPR-conscious WordPress websites.
The core protection flow processes form protection signals locally inside WordPress. It does not require a third-party captcha provider and does not send visitor interaction data to an external verification service.
The plugin can store log entries in WordPress for administrative review. These logs help site owners understand accepted and blocked submissions. Site owners should configure log retention according to their own privacy policy and legal requirements.
Requirements
- WordPress 6.5 or higher.
- PHP 8.1 or higher.
- MCD Tools installed and activated.
Support
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