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WordPress plugin

One plugin for every contact form on your WordPress site.

Contact Form 7, WPForms, Gravity Forms or Elementor Pro: the Ascue plugin sits behind your forms and sorts every message into a real lead, a sales pitch or spam before it reaches your inbox.

It blocks bots with an invisible browser check and attack protection, holds the pitches no anti-spam plugin catches, and never shows your visitors a CAPTCHA.

Start free Setup guide

Free for 50 messages a month. WordPress 6.0 or later, PHP 7.4 or later.

Works with the form plugin you already use.

Ascue replaces only the notification to you. Everything your form sends the visitor is left as it is.

  • Contact Form 7

    SortsThe Mail template, the email to you.

    Mail (2) still goes out.

  • WPForms

    SortsNotifications sent to an address. Lite and Pro.

    Notifications sent to a form field or {user_email} still go out.

  • Gravity Forms

    SortsNotifications sent to an address or by routing.

    Notifications sent to a form field still go out.

  • Elementor Pro

    SortsThe Email action.

    Email 2 and every other action still run.

What happens when someone presses send.

  1. 01

    A visitor sends your form.

    Your form plugin validates it and runs its usual spam checks, exactly as before.

  2. 02

    The plugin hands it to Ascue.

    With the result of the invisible browser check, and waits at most 4 seconds for an answer. The visitor sees your normal success message.

  3. 03

    Ascue sorts it.

    Bots are caught by the quick checks or the attack shield. Everything else is read with your one-line business description and labeled.

  4. 04

    Leads reach your inbox.

    With the visitor as Reply-To, so hitting reply answers them. Your form plugin skips its own notification to you, so nothing arrives twice.

Every message leaves with one of four stamps.

  • Lead

    A real person writing to you: someone who wants to buy, book or hire, or a customer who needs help.

    Delivered to your inbox right away.

  • Ask me

    It might be a pitch or spam, but Ascue isn't sure.

    Delivered to your inbox marked "Ascue wasn't sure". One click confirms or corrects it.

  • Pitch

    Someone selling to you: SEO, dev outsourcing, guest posts, lead lists.

    Held in the Pitch folder and listed in your weekly digest.

  • Spam

    Bots, gibberish, scams, link drops.

    Blocked, and kept for 30 days in case it's needed.

Bot protection, without the puzzle.

How the bot protection works
  • An invisible browser check. When a visitor starts filling in a form, their browser solves a tiny puzzle from your own site in a fraction of a second. Scripts that post forms without a browser, or faster than a person could type, fail it. The visitor’s browser never contacts Ascue.
  • Protection from bot attacks. If a bot starts hammering your form, Ascue blocks its addresses and copies of what it sends, emails you once, and switches off when the attack stops. Blocked messages don’t use your checks.
  • Pitches sorted from leads. The part no anti-spam plugin does: SEO audits, redesign offers and lead-list sellers are held for a weekly digest, because Ascue knows what your business sells.
  • It fails open. If Ascue doesn’t answer within 4 seconds, returns an error, or no site key is set, your form sends its normal email. A message is never lost because of Ascue.
  • It leaves the rest alone. Emails your form sends to the visitor, such as confirmations and autoresponders, aren’t changed. Submissions with uploaded files keep your form’s normal email, so attachments always reach you.

Set up in a few minutes.

  1. 01 Create a free Ascue account and add your site, with one sentence on what your business sells and to whom.
  2. 02 Install and activate the Ascue plugin.
  3. 03 In WordPress, go to Settings → Ascue, paste your site key and press Save Changes.
  4. 04 Press Test connection. You should see “Connected”.
  5. 05 Send a test message through one of your forms.

Until a site key is saved, the plugin does nothing and your forms work as before. The full setup guide.

Questions about the plugin.

Will visitors notice anything?

No. There’s no CAPTCHA and no extra step, and they see your form’s normal success message. In the worst case, when Ascue can’t be reached, sending takes up to 4 seconds longer.

Can I use it with only some of my form plugins?

Yes. Untick the form plugins you want to leave alone in Settings → Ascue.

Do I still need a CAPTCHA or another anti-spam plugin?

Usually not a CAPTCHA: the browser check and attack shield handle bots without one. Keep your form plugin’s own honeypot or built-in protection if you have it; the plugin runs after it, so whatever it catches never reaches Ascue. Why you can drop the CAPTCHA.

What does the plugin send to Ascue?

The fields the visitor filled in, with their labels, minus passwords, CAPTCHA, honeypot and consent fields. Also the visitor’s IP address and browser user agent, for blocking bots, and the browser check’s result. Ascue keeps only a keyed hash of the IP address and deletes it and the user agent within 7 days. Uploaded files are never sent. Read the privacy policy.

Can I turn the browser check or the visitor details off?

Yes, with one line each in your theme or a small plugin: add_filter( "ascue_browser_check", "__return_false" ) turns off the browser check, and add_filter( "ascue_send_visitor", "__return_false" ) stops sending the IP address and user agent. Attack protection then has less to go on.

Is the plugin free?

The plugin is. The Ascue service it connects to is free for 50 messages a month on one site, then $9 a month on Solo. Messages caught by the quick checks or blocked during an attack don’t count.

Try it on your own forms.

Create an account, install the plugin and paste your site key. Free for your first 50 messages a month, no card needed.

Start free Try the free checker first