Google’s reCAPTCHA is the most widely used CAPTCHA system in the world, effectively blocking relentless Spam Bot attacks on website forms by the millions every day. But there are reasons reCAPTCHA might not be the best solution for your website.
A key concern about reCAPTCHA is data privacy. While Google states that the data it collects from its reCAPTCHA system isn’t directly used to target advertisements to website visitors, the ways in which it does use the information it collects is not publicly available.
This lack of openness about the data Google collects may not be surprising, but it’s definitely not a positive in reCAPTCHA’s favor. And, if your website’s audience falls under GDPR – the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation, CCPA – the California Consumer Privacy Act, or other data privacy regulations, there is some question whether reCAPTCHA is fully compliant. Both of these issues can leave you understandably uncomfortable with the choice of reCAPTCHA as the form spam solution for your website.
And when it comes to user experience and the look and feel of your website’s design, the fact that Google reCAPTCHA places a mandatory pop-up tag at the bottom right of any web page that contains a form can be an issue, especially if you use a chat client like Tawk.to, both services want to use the same space on your pages. Not a good look!
Fortunately, for whatever reason you may be looking for Google reCAPTCHA alternative, there are a number of highly capable CAPTCHA alternatives you can choose from.
Best reCAPTCHA Alternatives For Your Contact Forms
Let’s look at a few of the best CAPTCHA solutions for stopping form Spam and providing your site visitors with the best possible experience too. Since we’re focused on the effectiveness of the CAPTCHA systems we’re reviewing, we aren’t considering whether or not there’s a fee associated with a particular CAPTCHA’s use, but there are great alternatives to reCAPTCHA out there in the free, “freemium” (free and paid versions), and fee based sectors.
- hCaptcha
- WPForms Custom CAPTCHA Addon
- Third Alternative
1. hCaptcha
hCaptcha is one of the most popular alternative to Google’s reCAPTCHA, and it has some unique features that make it stand out among Spam Bot fighting options. It starts with a strong focus on protecting user privacy while also keeping an eye on user experience when a website visitor is filling out a form.
The CAPTCHA challenges hCaptcha creates are clear and intuitive, making it easy for people to solve and helping to keep the CAPTCHA process from feeling intrusive.
Regarding privacy, by default, hCaptcha does not use any stealth tactics to track users, save any personal data to the WordPress database, send any data to external servers or use Cookies. hCaptcha maintains a strict focus on determining whether a visitor is a real human or a bot, as evidenced by its full compliance with GDPR, the California Consumer Privacy Act, and other global data laws.
A unique feature of hCaptcha is a reward program based on the volume of CAPTCHA solves made by people visiting your website, the proceeds of which can be treated as income or donated to charity. hCaptcha leverages the information it gathers from CAPTCHA solutions to fuel a constant process of improvement, resulting in better performance of the CAPTCHAs it presents as time goes on.
From the website administrator’s perspective, hCaptcha has its bases covered, working natively with a wide range of WordPress plugins, including WooCommerce, just about every popular Form plugins, and even the Divi and Elementor WordPress frameworks. This is an an especially strong advantage for more complex WordPress website installations that use multiple add-on solutions in their construction.
hCaptcha has both a free and a paid plan. The free Publisher plan delivers all the key features most website operators will require, and is the only one that offers the rewards program. The paid Enterprise plan is targeted at larger organizations that require detailed reporting, a finer level of CAPTCHA control, and enterprise-level support.
2. WPForms Custom CAPTCHA Addon
If you use a paid version of WPForms on your website, the WPForms Custom CAPTCHA addon offers a powerful, flexible and fully configurable alternative to reCAPTCHA that lands it at the number two position on this list.
While WPForms provides full integration for both Google reCAPTCHA and hCaptcha, its Custom CAPTCHA Addon stands by itself as one of the most effective and configurable CAPTCHAs available for WordPress.
WPForms Custom CAPTCHA allows you to select either a simple math problem or a custom question and answer that you create.
The math CAPTCHA is easily solved by a human but difficult if not impossible to answer correctly for a Spam bot.
And because you can choose whatever topic you want for the custom CAPTCHA question and answer option, you can not only defeat Spam bots, but also have the CAPTCHA tie in to your product or service, or reflect your website’s personality. By having the CAPTCHA relate to your company’s philosophy or mission, it’s possible to have your CAPTCHA perform its intended function while actually enhancing UX (User Experience) at a critical moment in the visitor conversion process.
WPForms Custom CAPTCHA is as easy to use as adding a CAPTCHA field to you new or existing form and configuring as needed. Since the Custom CAPTCHA defaults to the math problem option, you actually don’t need to do any configuration at all unless you choose to. It just doesn’t get easier than that to add CAPTCHA to your website forms!
An additional and potentially important benefit of WPForms Custom CAPTCHA is that is operates totally within your WordPress installation. That means that it will be fully compliant with your Privacy and Use policies, with no chance that any user supplied data will be shared with third parties of offsite resources. It also ensures that your CAPTCHA won’t rely on external services or servers to deliver its functionality.
WPForms has four paid plan levels, and the Custom CAPTCHA is included with all of them.
3. Really Simple CAPTCHA
With over 600,000 WordPress installs, Really Simple CAPTCHA must be doing something right. As its name implies, Really Simple CAPTCHA is not as sophisticated as other CAPTCHA solutions, and for that reason might not be your first choice for an alternative to Google’s reCAPTCHA, but it does have some compelling features, and although some Spam form entries may get past it, it might be effective enough for your needs to end up adding your website to its already huge installed base of users.
Let’s start by looking at the positives. Really Simple CAPTCHA is fully Open Source, which means there are no costs associated with it, and there are no limits on how many CAPTCHAs can be processed per month. Since Really Simple CAPTCHA does not rely on any resources outside of WordPress, it is fully compatible with your site’s Privacy and Use policies, and it’s sure to be available when a person fills out a form on your website. The CAPTCHAs presented are straightforward text characters that site visitors simply have to enter into a form field, so there is minimal effort requested of them which minimizes the chances of form abandonment.
There are some downsides to the use of Really Simple CAPTCHA that you will want to consider in addition to its somewhat less effective ability to prevent Spam form submissions. Although Really Simple CAPTCHA is a WordPress plugin, it does not have an entry on the WordPress Admin Menu or an associated control panel. Implementing a CAPTCHA on your site will require some knowledge of WordPress shortcode utilization and will likely have to be implemented in every location you want to use it. So, if you’re not comfortable with that level of WordPress customization, Really Simple CAPTCHA may not be the best choice for your situation.
Beyond the three top reCAPTCHA alternatives we’ve looked at above, you will find many more WordPress-specific CAPTCHA solutions by visiting the WordPress Plugin Repository, one of which might be a better fit for your needs.
Bonus: An Additional Tool for Fighting Form Spam
When it comes to blocking Spammy form entries, can there be to much of a good thing? The answer is no if tightening up parameters or layering Spam blocking components doesn’t stop forms filled out by legitimate visitors from getting through to you.
As an example, WPForms continues to support the older HoneyPot method of reducing Spam. A HoneyPot stops Spam by adding a hidden field to a form that human visitors are blocked from seeing by using JavaScript or CSS formatting. Spam Bots don’t realize that the field is expected to be empty when the form is submitted, so Spam forms can easily be identified and blocked. Is a HoneyPot superior to a CAPTCHA? No, but it’s not a bad idea to continue using it along with a CAPTCHA if you have it available or want to code one into your website (which takes a bit of WordPress customization knowledge to do).