What CleanTalk Inc does

CleanTalk Inc is a privately held, debt-free, self-funded US company founded around 2012 (with operating history cited at 13+ years) that operates a cloud-based anti-spam and website security platform. Its core service, CleanTalk Anti-Spam, performs invisible behavioral analysis on form submissions, registrations, comments, and orders across WordPress, Joomla, Drupal, and custom websites, blocking spam bots without CAPTCHA friction. The platform uses a dual-layer architecture combining a cloud-based traffic filtering layer called SpamFireWall with an application-level Anti-Spam layer, and has accumulated a database of over 20 million spam-active IP and email addresses. As of recent reporting, CleanTalk processes 91–220 million spam events and 560–740 million suspicious requests per month, with a peak of 11+ billion requests blocked in May 2025, serving more than 1,085,000 websites globally at a reported average accuracy of 99.9705%.

The company's product portfolio has expanded from anti-spam into broader website security: a WordPress Security Plugin (brute force protection, traffic control, audit logging), a Website Malware Scanner with heuristic code analysis (launched February 2026), and a professional Malware Removal Service priced at $119 per WordPress site and $199 per other CMS site. Additional offerings include IP and Email Checker tools, a Block Lists Database with API and offline access, Uptime Monitoring, and a Plugin Security Certification (PSC) program that has published 250+ CVE reports. Distribution is product-led and self-serve via the WordPress.org and Joomla plugin directories, REST APIs with libraries in PHP, Python, Ruby, Node.js, .NET, and Perl, and a global direct website signup flow. The company has dual legal entities (CleanTalk Inc in Illinois and CleanTalk LLC), tax registrations across the US, Canada, the UK, and the EU, and a team of approximately 11–50 employees with 23+ named members on the team page; leadership is led by CEO Denis Shagimuratov alongside Co-founder/CMO Alex Bezborodov and CTO Aleksei Znaev.

CleanTalk monetizes primarily through low-priced annual subscriptions to its Anti-Spam and Security plugins, supplemented by fixed-fee professional malware removal services and (implicitly) API/blocklist data access. Customer testimonials are uniformly SMB/individual rather than enterprise, and pricing is positioned as 'the cost of a cup of coffee,' indicating a high-volume, low-ACV, horizontal SaaS model. Revenue is not publicly disclosed, and the company has operated without external funding since founding.

Name

CleanTalk Inc

Legal name

CleanTalk Inc

Website

https://cleantalk.org

Company type

Private

Founded year

2012

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

CleanTalk Inc is a privately held US company providing cloud-based anti-spam and website security services to over 1,085,000 WordPress, Joomla, Drupal, and custom websites worldwide via invisible behavioral analysis, with complementary malware scanning, removal, and security plugin products.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Website Security Software

NAICS

Computing Infrastructure Providers, Data Processing, Web Hosting, and Related Services (518)

SIC

Services-Prepackaged Software (7372), Services-Computer Programming, Data Processing, Etc. (7370)

akta.pro primary industry

Cloud Network Security (Microsegmentation, Cloud Firewall, WAF, DDoS) (HDABAHAJ)

akta.pro secondary industry

Web Application Firewall (WAF) & Bot Management (ADC‑Integrated) (HDAFAHAG)

Keywords

• Cloud anti-spam
• Website security
• Spam firewall
• Bot protection
• Malware scanning

Headquarters

HQ city

Carson City

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices5 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Personnel, Infrastructure, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales, Operations

Revenue model

1. Anti-Spam Subscription: SaaS subscription service billed annually providing cloud-based spam protection for websites. Simple flat pricing regardless of CMS platform. Described as affordable, comparable to the cost of a cup of coffee.
2. Malware Removal Service: Professional malware removal service with specialist-driven cleanup. WordPress sites: $119/site; Other CMS: $199/site. Includes 1-year Security plugin license free and 30-day reinfection support guarantee.
3. Security Plugin Subscription: WordPress security plugin subscription including malware scanning, firewall, brute force protection, traffic control, audit log, and automatic updates.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion3 records

Distribution channels5 records

Marketing channels7 records

Core offering

CleanTalk Inc provides a cloud-based anti-spam and website security service that protects websites, forms, comments, registrations, and orders from spam bots without using CAPTCHA, puzzles, or visitor friction. The platform combines a cloud-filtering SpamFireWall with an application-level Anti-Spam layer driven by behavioral analysis algorithms, and extends into WordPress security (malware scanning, brute-force protection), professional malware removal, an IP/email reputation database, uptime monitoring, and a Plugin Security Certification program for third-party WordPress plugins.

Product overview

CleanTalk Inc offers a cloud-based anti-spam and security platform for websites. The core product is CleanTalk Anti-Spam, which provides invisible protection without CAPTCHA using behavior analysis algorithms. The platform includes SpamFireWall (cloud filtering layer), Website Malware Scanner with heuristic analysis, and a WordPress Security Plugin for brute force protection and malware removal. Additional services include IP Checker, Email Checker, Block Lists Database, Uptime Monitoring, and Plugin Security Certification. The company develops over 15 in-house plugins for major CMS platforms (WordPress, Joomla, Drupal) and provides REST APIs with libraries in multiple programming languages.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• CleanTalk Anti-Spam Cloud-based anti-spam SaaS service for website owners using WordPress, Joomla, Drupal and other platforms that blocks spam bots on contact forms, comments, registrations and orders via behavioral analysis instead of CAPTCHA challenges.
• WordPress Security Plugin WordPress security plugin offering brute force protection, traffic control, audit logging, malware scanning, and a security firewall for WordPress site administrators.
• Website Malware Scanner Free frontend malware and security scanner that checks website pages for malicious code, malicious iFrame content, and hidden external links.
• Malware Removal Service Professional malware removal service where CleanTalk specialist engineers clean compromised websites, restore backups, install protection, and provide 30-day reinfection support. Priced at $119 per WordPress site and $199 per other CMS site.
• IP Checker Standalone IP reputation lookup tool that checks IP addresses against CleanTalk's database of 5+ million spam-active IPs and returns spam activity status.
• Email Checker Email validation service that checks an email address against CleanTalk's database to determine whether the address is genuine and whether it has known spam activity.
• Block Lists Database Database of more than 20 million spam-active IP and email addresses available via API or offline download for integration into existing security infrastructure.
• Uptime Monitoring Website uptime and performance monitoring service that checks if websites are up or down and measures page load speed for global visitors.
• Plugin Security Certification Security certification service that reviews WordPress plugins from a secure-code perspective, checks for common exploitation paths, and issues PSC certification IDs to help site owners identify secure plugins.

Quantifiable outcome

• 99.9705% average accuracy with false-positive rate of 0.0485% and false-negative rate of 0.0535%
• +4 more outcomes

Named customers5 records

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles4 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

Yes

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration11 records

AI capability3 records

Feature6 records

Scale indicators12 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Direct peers

• Akismet: Akismet (owned by Automattic) is the default anti-spam service bundled with WordPress for comments and contact forms. It is CleanTalk's most directly comparable competitor in WordPress anti-spam and is explicitly referenced by CleanTalk as a comparison page target.
• Wordfence: Wordfence is a leading WordPress security plugin offering firewall, malware scanning, login security, and live traffic monitoring. It is the closest direct competitor to CleanTalk's WordPress Security plugin and is explicitly named in CleanTalk's 'vs Wordfence' comparison page.
• Antispam Bee: Antispam Bee is a free, popular WordPress anti-spam plugin focused on comment spam. It competes with CleanTalk in the same SMB WordPress anti-spam category, particularly on price-sensitive customers.
• MalCare: MalCare (by BlogVault) is a WordPress security plugin focused on malware scanning and one-click cleanup. It competes directly with CleanTalk's Malware Scanner and Malware Removal Service for SMB WordPress site owners.
• Astra Security: Astra Security provides a WordPress security suite including firewall, malware scanning, and login protection aimed at SMBs. It competes with CleanTalk's WordPress Security offering in the same price-sensitive SMB segment.

Broad incumbents

• Google reCAPTCHA: Google reCAPTCHA is a free bot/abuse protection service widely used across websites. It is CleanTalk's primary free-incumbent competitor and is explicitly named in CleanTalk's 'vs reCAPTCHA' comparison page; CleanTalk's invisible protection is positioned as an alternative to CAPTCHA friction.
• Cloudflare Bot Management: Cloudflare's Bot Management product sits at the network edge and blocks malicious bots before they reach origin servers, conceptually overlapping with CleanTalk's SpamFireWall. Cloudflare bundles it within a much broader CDN/security platform serving a wider range of customers.
• Sucuri: Sucuri (owned by GoDaddy) provides website security including firewall, malware scanning, and malware removal services. It competes with CleanTalk's Security Plugin and Malware Removal Service from a more enterprise-oriented position within the GoDaddy ecosystem.
• Akamai Bot Manager: Akamai Bot Manager is an enterprise-grade bot detection and mitigation product integrated with Akamai's CDN. It competes with CleanTalk's SpamFireWall at the upper end of the market and represents the high-end benchmark for network-layer bot management.

Emerging players

• Patchstack: Patchstack is a WordPress vulnerability database and security plugin focused on virtual patching and CVE disclosure. It overlaps with CleanTalk's Plugin Security Certification and CVE research output as a security authority in the WordPress ecosystem.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/cleantalk_en
• GitHubgithub.com/CleanTalk
• Facebookfacebook.com/cleantalkcloud

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles4 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about CleanTalk Inc