[Dr.CustUmz]

w/e you decide to do, don't take that advice ^^

spam is something that exist, there are ways to combat it, and a lof of methods have been shared here for you. Fighting spam can get annoying, but putting the proper measures in place to combat it helps A LOT, and having a good staff (like here) is key.

One of the best routes to take when fighting spam is not a plugin at all, but go straight to your server firewall, but thats not vb related and there are plenty of tutorials on how you can go about this on the web.

But unless you plan on being the only member of your site, dont block free email. Shoot I even use freemail (GMail) as my business email, because its ultra reliable.

Spam is not something just vbulletin related and you dont see absolute solutions as far as plugins because in fact no matter what type of site you run, you're bound to get spam users and posts, and most people i presume, fight it server side. vBulletin is just one of the favorited by auto posting/registering bots, because it is one of the most common.

you asked for the best addon, you're going to get various replies on peoples opinion. As far as a product goes though I have never experienced any issues with SoM https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthread.php?t=248470, if you are from america and dont really care if anyone other than americans see your site, its your goto product. Other contries often share IPs (im not sure exactly how all this works) but most americans have their own IP.

SoM uses a database of submitted known spam addresses (IPs, email, ect..) and based on the number of reports they get on that ip or email they add it to everyones spam list. someone said admins have been known to be banned because of using this product.... those admins probally share ips or have ran a spam bot for shi*s and giggles (there's always a valid reason an IP or email is on that list)

occasionally a spammer slips through, or a valid user is denied cause they share an ip with a spammer or their email is suspicious, but all that can be viewed in the log, and you can quick ban and submit those bots that slip through.

now if a legit user can't create an account (this doesn't happen often), and they really want to join there is always the contact us page. then you can easily create them an account. but the odds of that happening are slim to none.

this is all based on my experiences and recommendations, I just felt one person shot down SoM and it didnt get it's fighting chance, it truly is a beast spam decimator.

since it doesnt provide any pictures, heres a small example of what it does, and wow that was my first time noticing that lmao, you know what im talking about