If you’re receiving more offers to build you a web app, sell you cryptocurrency, or perform SEO miracles, it may be time to say goodbye to this simple contact form. Replacing it may be harder than you think.
No doubt, there are some benefits to using the Jetpack form:
- It comes with Jetpack, so no extra plugins to manage.
- You can add the Form block and configure its settings all on the same page edit screen.
- It sends emails and the messages also show up in WordPress.
- It just works and gets the job done.
What doesn’t work so well is that there is no built-in spam blocking, so replacing it with one of the many form plugins out there should be a quick task, right?
Jetpack’s Hidden Deactivate Screen
For some strange reason, Jetpack’s many settings screens don’t give you the option to disable this particular feature as you can with the other settings like the sitemaps or social sharing.
In recent versions of Jetpack, they hid the screen that allowed you to disable Jetpack modules individually in order to ‘simplify the interface‘.
Thankfully, the plugin hasn’t removed it entirely and there’s a relatively painless way to access it.
How to Disable the Jetpack Contact Form (Feedback)
- Log into your WordPress admin dashboard as an administrator.
An administrator role is required to view Jetpack modules. Remember to export any form submissions that you want to keep under Feedback > Export to CSV.
- Type in the module screen URL using your domain: ‘/wp-admin/admin.php?page=jetpack_modules’.
- Find the Contact Form module, and click the ‘Deactivate’ link.
You can find more details on this feature on this Jetpack support page: Control Jetpack Features on One Page.
No More Form Spam, Please.
Although the suggestion of setting up a free Akismet account works fine for this personal blog, it’s hard to justify paying for the upgraded Akismet license just to protect this type of form on a simple organization or small business site.
In that case, it makes more sense to invest in something with more robust features like Gravity Forms or one of the many other form plugins, which seem to all have reCAPTCHA support along with a variety of other advanced options for that type of project.
Hope this helps!
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