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First thing you need to do is install and activate the New User Approve plugin. The plugin works out of the box, and there are no settings for you to configure.

You can see the plugin in action by logging out of your WordPress site and visiting the registration page.

There you will see a notice informing users that their registration request will be sent to the site administrator for approval.

Once a user has submitted the registration form, you will receive an email notification informing you about the new user registration.

You can visit the Users screen in your WordPress admin area to approve or deny new user registration requests.

When you approve a new user, they will receive an email with their password. If you deny a user request, then they will be notified that their registration has been denied.

It’s important to note that denying a user registration will not delete that user from your database. They will not be able to login to your site, and they will be unable to register again with the same username and email address.

If you delete a user, then the system will allow them to apply again for registration on your site. You will still have to approve them before they can access your site.

We hope this article helped you learn how to moderate new user registration in WordPress. If you are having trouble with sending or recieving notification emails, then check out our guide on how to fix WordPress not sending email issue.

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Method 1: Stop Spam Registrations Using WPForms

This is the easiest and most efficient way to deal with spam registrations in WordPress.

WPForms is the most beginner friendly WordPress form builder. It comes with a User Registration addon that allows you to easily add user registration form to your site while effectively stopping spam registrations.

WPForms is a premium WordPress plugin. You will need Pro License to access user registration addon.

WPBeginner users can use this WPForms Coupon to get 10% Off on their purchase.

First thing you need to do is install and activate the WPForms plugin. For more details, see our step by step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Upon activation, you need to visit WPForms » Settings page to verify your license key. You can get this key from your account on WPForms website.

After verification, you need to visit WPForms » Addons page. Scroll down to locate ‘User Registration Addon’.

You need to click on Install Addon button and then click on activate.

Next, you need to create a user registration form. Go to WPForms » Add New page. Provide a title for this form and then select user registration form template.

This will launch the Form Builder with user registration form template. You can edit the fields by clicking on them.

You can also drag and drop fields to rearrange them.

Next, you need to click on the settings panel. This is where you can configure form notifications, confirmation, and user registration settings.

Click on user registration tab to continue.

On this page, you can map the form fields to your WordPress user registration fields.

Scroll down and check the box next to ‘Enable User Activation’ option. This will reveal a drop down menu, where you can select the User activation method.

WPForms uses two creative ways to prevent spam registrations on a WordPress site. You can choose to send a verification email to each user, so that they can confirm their registration.

Alternately, you can require a site administrator to manually approve each registration on your WordPress site.

Choose the option that best suits your needs and click on the save button to store your form settings.

You can now add this form to any page on your WordPress site and then use that page as your user registration page.

Simply edit a page that you want to use as your user registration page. On the page edit screen, click on ‘Add Form’ button.

This will bring up a popup menu. Select user registration form you created from the drop down menu, and then click on add form button.

A shortcode for the user registration form will appear in the page editor. You can now save your page or publish it.

Visit your website to see your spam proof user registration form. Depending on your user activation settings, the plugin will either require users to verify their email address or an admin will have to manually approve each user registration on your site.

Method 2: Stop Spam Registrations with Stop Spammers Plugin

First thing you need to do is install and activate the Stop Spammers Spam Prevention plugin. For more details, see our step by step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Once activated, Go to Stop Spammers » Protection Options. Stop Spammer Registrations is a powerful WordPress plugin which aggressively monitors your website for suspicious spam activity.

The default settings on this page will work for most websites. However, you can uncheck a few of them, if you feel lots of legitimate users are unable to login.

Don’t forget to click on the save changes button to store your settings.

The plugin uses a number of spam prevention techniques. It uses HTTP Referrer and Header requests to verify that a user is genuinely accessing your website.

It also checks against Akismet API for known spamming activity. The plugin also maintains a list of bad hosts known for tolerating spam activity and blocks them.

There is a small chance that sometimes this plugin would lock you out of admin area. If this happens, then simplest solution is to connect to your site through FTP and rename the plugin file from stop-spammer-registrations.php to stop-spammer-registrations.locked.

You can now access admin area of your site and WordPress will automatically deactivate the plugin for you.

Method 3: Stop Spam Registrations Using Sucuri

At WPBeginner, we use Sucuri to protect our website against spammers and other security threats.

Sucuri is a website security monitoring service. It blocks hackers, malicious requests, and spammers from accessing your site or injecting any malicious code.

See how Sucuri helped us block 450,000 WordPress attacks in 3 months.

We hope this article helped you stop spam registrations on your WordPress membership site. You may also want to see our guide on

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