---

Breakdance Forms Spam Protection: A Step-by-Step Guide

Breakdance is a new and popular site builder for WordPress. Like other page builders, it comes with a form builder. Breakdance Form is included in the free version, but there are some limitations in the free version, like no third party actions can be used. So you are left with the Email and Store Submission actions. To use other built-in and third-party actions, you need a Pro version.

In this article we will focus on the spam filtering options for Breakdance Forms. It comes with two built-in choices: reCAPTCHA and Honeypot. However, you can also use other third-party anti-spam plugins like ours, OOPSpam WordPress plugin.

• OOPSpam WordPress plugin
• How to Activate Spam Protection for Breakdance Forms
  • How It Works Now
• Honeypot
• reCAPTCHA
• Final thoughts

OOPSpam WordPress plugin

OOPSpam WordPress plugin (that’s us 👋) is another way to stop spam on your Breakdance Forms and WordPress comments. The plugin works with OOPSpam API that protects over 3.5M websites daily. While the other alternatives above are free, OOPSPam API is a paid service. But it does come with free 40/month spam checks for you to test and see the difference.

It’s likely you have already tried the below options, and they didn’t work for you. It could be a slow website from reCAPTCHA or overwhelming spam you are still getting despite implementing the below alternatives. These are benefits OOPSpam has over other alternative:

1. Doesn’t slow down your website
2. Keeps your site accessible to all users

3. Stops both human spammers and bots

   No need to add actions inside Breakdance forms

The plugin’s settings page also allows you to adjust how sensitive your spam filter should be. Even leaving the default setting Sensitivity Level will help you reduce spam to zero.

How to Activate Spam Protection for Breakdance Forms

Setting up OOPSpam with Breakdance is simple and does not require editing your form actions.

Step 1: Install the Plugin

Go to your WordPress dashboard and navigate to Plugins → Add New. Search for OOPSpam Anti-Spam, then install and activate the plugin.

Step 2: Get Your API Key

Create an OOPSpam account if you do not already have one. Once logged in, go to your dashboard and copy your API key.

Step 3: Add API Key in WordPress

Return to your WordPress dashboard and open Settings → OOPSpam Anti-Spam. Paste your API key into the appropriate field, select OOPSpam Dashboard, and save your settings.

Step 4: Enable Breakdance Spam Protection

If Breakdance is installed, you will see a Breakdance Forms section appear automatically on the settings page. Turn on Activate Spam Protection, optionally customize the spam message, and save your changes.

That’s it!

OOPSpam will now automatically check all Breakdance form submissions and block spam in the background.

How It Works Now

With the updated integration, OOPSpam works automatically once enabled.

• No need to add actions inside Breakdance forms
• No need to reorder submission actions
• No need to modify email settings

Spam submissions are filtered before they are processed. Legitimate submissions continue through your normal workflow without interruption.

Honeypot

We have previously discussed how the honeypot technique works. While it’s not as effective as it used to be, it still prevents some bots from spamming your forms. Breakdance Form has a built-in honeypot field, but you must enable it. The honeypot field won’t be visible to humans, but bots will see the hidden field as a valid field. Bots scan a web page and fill in all the fields, including the hidden field in your form. Breakdance Forms will reject any submission that has an entry in a hidden field.

To enable the honeypot field, edit your form and enable the Advanced -> Add Honeypot Field option.

reCAPTCHA

Breakdance Form also supports reCAPTCHA v3. You have probably heard of it, but for those who have never heard of it, reCAPTCHA is a spam protection solution Google. It has visible and invisible modes, but many people have concerns about privacy, slow website and possibly accessibility (in visible mode). For now, Breakdance Form only supports v3, which is the default invisible mode. With reCAPTCHA v3, users don’t solve a challenge. Instead, it tracks the user’s behavior on your site and scores the user from 0 (bot) to 1 (human).

However, reCAPTCHA is free and works well against simple automated spam bots. Especially if your site is new, enabling both Honeypot + reCAPTCHA can help.

There are two ways to enable reCAPTCHA for your Breakdance forms. First one is through the form settings, which allows you to set up reCAPTCHA for each form individually. Edit your form, click the edit icon under Advanced -> reCAPTCHA and check the Enable reCAPTCHA option. reCAPTCHA requires you to have a Secret Key and Site Key from Google to work. On this screen you will see Custom tab and here you add your keys.

Here is how to get reCAPTCHA keys:

1. Go to the reCAPTCHA website and click on the “v3 Admin Console” button located on the top right corner of the page.
2. Sign in to your Google account if you haven’t already done so.
3. On the Admin Console page, click on the “Add” button to register a new site.
4. Fill in the required fields, such as your website domain name and reCAPTCHA type (v2 or v3).
5. After you’ve filled in the required fields, click on the “Submit” button to register your site.
6. You’ll be taken to a page with your site key and secret key. These are the keys you’ll need to integrate reCAPTCHA into your website.

On the screenshot above, you can see that there is a Default tab next to the Custom tab. If the default option is selected, your secret key and site key will automatically be taken from the Breakdance -> Settings -> API Keys settings. This is the second way you can enter the keys here and enable reCAPTCHA globally for all your forms without entering the keys individually.

📌 Tip: Make sure to enable reCAPTCHA on each of your Breakdance forms.

📌 Tip: Consider adding both reCAPTCHA and the HoneyPot field to your contact form. Remember that HoneyPot is NOT enabled by default.

Final thoughts

All websites eventually get hit by spammers. As a website grows and gets more traffic it attracts more serious spammers with advance bots. Both honeypot and reCAPTCHA will protect your website to a certain degree but they are not enough for targeted spam attacks, manual spam and sophisticated bots. I hope this article helps you find a solution for your spam problem.

That is all! Go on and create your forms.

Happy spam-free day!