9 Best reCAPTCHA Alternatives

Still, looking for the best reCAPTCHA alternatives that don’t baffle or confuse your users? 

Physical endurance tests are considered the second most difficult tests carried forward, reCAPTCHA tests still grab the first slot. ;)

Hence this is becoming a drawback for several website owners. Instead of solving that CAPTCHA, people leave the website without even checking the products and services. 

In this post, I will share some good alternatives to reCAPTCHA that will do their job with ease, and visitors will not feel any difficulty completing it. 

Does Your Website Need a CAPTCHA? 

Bots can reach up to any website and start submitting forms with spam and other such unwanted content. Hence that’s the reason the websites need a CAPTCHA. 

Some More Reasons Why Your Website Needs a CAPTCHA: 

• Stops brute force attacks on your online accounts. 

• Stops from multiple email signups. 

• Makes your online shopping process more secure. 

• Helps you get rid of dodgy comments and links on your blogs and websites. 

• It helps in protecting the integrity of online polls by stopping hackers and bots from sending false responses. 

What Is reCAPTCHA? 

reCAPTCHA is a free service offered to users by Google, with the help of which you can protect your websites from spam and unwanted content entries from bots. CAPTCHA is a kind of test with the help of which you figure out if the entry is from a human or a bot. 

When to Look for a reCAPTCHA Alternative? 

reCAPTCHA is a viral form creator developed by Google, with the help of getting rid of bots from our websites and blogs. 

But in various conditions, it was figured out that the reCAPTCHA becomes unresponsive during heavy traffic on your website. 

Another reason to look for a reCAPTCHA alternative is to get more human-friendly options that offer better illustrations, and users spend less time getting on the website safely. 

Features reCAPTCHA Alternative Plugin Must Have 

reCAPTCHA comes with amazing features, support, and the reliability of Google, but there are plenty of alternatives to reCAPTCHA who are offering way more than that we get with reCAPTCHA. 

Let us have a look at the feature reCAPTCHA alternatives tools must have: 

• The reCAPTCHA alternative should offer more user-friendly options that lead to an enhancement in the user experience. 

• Alternatives should have features like better integrations. Most of the websites are developed using WordPress, so integrations to WP forms & other popular CMS is a must. 

• Safety should always be your number one priority. So always have a look at the security feature reviews. 

• Make sure the alternative you pick is easy to use for humans and hard for bots. 

• There are a lot of better CAPTCHA and form-building tools for protection from bots and spam. So you don’t always have to go for a paid plugin for CAPTCHA building. 

My Criteria for Selecting reCAPTCHA Alternatives Tools 

As I have already mentioned, picking up the top reCAPTCHA alternatives was not an easy task. I developed precise three-step criteria to pick up the best alternatives that you will surely love: 

• Core features: The reCAPTCHA alternatives should have features that make it easy for users to set up and visitors to get into the website efficiently. 

• Recommendation ratings: I made a specific limit for recommendation ratings and picked up all those options that fit in the section of higher ratings. 

• Features support & ratings: Carried forward precise research and filtered out the best reCAPTCHA alternatives that showed higher ratings for features and support. 

Best reCAPTCHA Alternatives Software 

After all the research and hard work, I have finally created a list of best reCAPTCHA alternative software, which are as follows: 

1. hCaptcha 

Protecting your website and your privacy from hackers, spammers and bots is the major reason behind the hCaptcha plugin’s development. Most of the CAPTCHA form creators protect your website from bots and other such stuff but, unfortunately, are unable to protect your own privacy and personal data. 

But this is not the case with hCaptcha. It offers you complete protection and that too in a more human-friendly method that perfectly fits your website or form, just like its actual part. 

Along with that hCaptcha offers you complete support regarding its integration with WPForms, this will add extra security to your WPForms and keep them away from bots. 

hCaptcha offers features like: 

• Provides a privacy-focused solution that filters out bots from your websites, blogs, and forms. 
• Accurate results are something that you are going to get every time with hCaptcha. 
• The plugin enhances your user experience by being easy to use and fitting your requirements entirely. 

Pros: 

• More privacy-focused solution 
• Offers a human-friendly touch for a better user experience 
• Accurate results every time 
• Supports integration for WP-forms 

Cons: 

• Users don’t get the earned rewards to feature under the Enterprise plan. 

hCaptcha comes with two different plans: 

1. Free plan: It’s specially designed for single users/publishers that offers all the required features. 
2. Paid plan: This is a plan developed for enterprises with extra add-on features and support. 

2. The Honeypot Method 

The honeypot method is a more technical method, as we need to completely write the code to set it up to protect your website from bots and spam. Moreover, you don’t need to pick up a particular plugin or tool for getting started with this bots protection or CAPTCHA method. 

The Honeypot method offers features like: 

• It is more technical but offers you complete security. 
• Even the latest bots systems cannot pass through this CAPTCHA protection method. 
• Users can customize it anytime, as it’s completely coding-based. 

Pros: 

• Offers robust protection 
• Customizable 
• It comes with various integrations like multiple network connections, spam traps, and more… 

Cons: 

• Completely technical
• Requires coding knowledge 

The Honeypot Method plans: 

There are no plans; you can directly install the plugin and use this method to protect your website using various languages like HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and more. 

3. Really Simple CAPTCHA

Really Simple CAPTCHA is one of the most widely used WordPress plugins with more than +1 million active installs. Really Simple CAPTCHA, as its name indicates is quite “simple” in nature. This plugin doesn’t work alone and was originally created for Contact Form 7, although, now you can use it with other plugins as well.

Really Simple CAPTCHA features: 

• Open-source software
• “Simple” in nature.
• Uses temporary files.

Pros:

• Easily installed plugin.
• Really Simple CAPTCHA uses temporary files instead of PHP ‘Sessions’ for storing states.
• Supports more than 30 Languages.

Cons:

• No “control panel” available for this plugin.
• Although it’s easy to use, many users have still complained that they receive spam.

Really Simple CAPTCHA plans:

Really Simple CAPTCHA is open-source software, so it is free to use. In most cases, you can directly install it from WordPress.

4. Antispam Bee

Antispam is the next best choice after Akismet and can work as a blessing to help you deal with spammers. The plugin is actively developed by a team of German developers- Pluginkollektiv.

The best feature of this plugin is that it entirely works without Captchas and doesn’t send your personal data to third parties. Antispam bee works with algorithms and filters out unwanted entries, spam comments & trackbacks effectively.

Unlike Akismet, this plugin doesn’t require registration and is completely free to use for both personal and commercial use. The plugin is 100% GDPR compliant and comes with a ton of excellent features.

Features:

• Trust approved commenters.
• Treat BBCode links as spam.
• Block users from certain countries.
• Validate the IP address of commenters.
• Allow omments only in certain language.

Pros:

• Clears your WordPress database of spam after a specified number of days.
• This plugin offers spam statistics in your dashboard monthly.
• Notify admins by e-mail about incoming spam.

Cons:

• Antispam bee only works with native WordPress comments. You won’t be able to use Jetpack comments.

Antispam Bee plugin plans:

With almost all 5 star ratings, this plugin is completely free to download. You can directly install it from WordPress.

5. Akismet 

Akismet is the most reliable alternative to reCAPTCHA, with the help of which you can put a full stop on almost every kind of spam and bots entry to your website. 

Features: 

• Comes with 3 step criteria for set up 
• Offers you spam protection 
• Priority support feature is also available. 

Pros: 

• Easy to use
• Reliable spam protection 
• Customer support is extremely helpful. 

Cons: 

• Higher charges on plans 

Pricing: 

1. Personal plan: Offers spam protection for free of cost. 
2. Plus plan: Professional spam protection at $10/month 
3. Enterprise plan: Spam protection for large networks at $50/month 

6. VisualCaptcha 

Here we have an open-source entry, which is known as VisualCaptcha, and as it’s clear from its name, this will offer some of the best and visually appealing CaptchaCaptcha that will surely look good on your websites and forms. 

Features of VisualCaptcha: 

• Firstly it’s an open-source app. 
• Offers support for multiple languages 
• Users can take advantage of framework integrations. 

Pros: 

• It’s a mobile-friendly product. 
• Completely self-hosted 
• Offers higher pixel density 

Cons: 

• Does not have WPForm integration

VisualCaptcha plans: 

As it’s an open-source product, it is free to use. But if you want, then you can contribute to the developers from their official website. 

7. Captcha Bank 

The next best alternative to reCAPTCHA is Captcha Bank, which is an effective WordPress plugin. With this plugin’s help, you can add an extra layer of security to your website and forms. Hence it helps you in getting rid of bots and spammers on your website. 

Features: 

• You can choose between simple math operations or pictures for CaptchaCaptcha. 
• Users can change the settings and make CaptchaCaptcha even more tricky. 
• Offers you feature to configure error messages. 

Pros: 

• Comes with an easy to use UI
• Auto IP block support 

Cons: 

• At times blank errors take place in CAPTCHA bank.

CAPTCHA Bank plans: 

This is free to use WordPress plugin; you just need to install it on your website and start with it. 

8. CleanTalk

CleanTalk is a spam protection plugin that stops spam comments, spam contact-emails, spam sign-ups, and spam trackbacks. This plugin is not visible to website visitors which results in better engagement with your site.

Features:

• Stops spam comments.
• Stops spam subscriptions
• Stops spam contact emails
• Mobile friendly Anti Spam & FireWall.

Pros:

• In-depth validation checking.
• Keeps a record of all filtered comments, registration, and other spammy attacks.

Cons:

• None so far.

CleanTalk plugin plans:

CleanTalk offers a premium plan starting at $8/year per website. You can also sign up for a 14-day free trial and decide if you want to continue with this service.

9. Securimage PHP CAPTCHA

Securimage is a free PHP CAPTCHA plugin that generates complex images and codes to protect your website from spam and abuse. Before using this plugin, you need to first install PHP and have GD support within PHP.

Features:

• Customizable code length, character sets, and Unicode support.
• TTF font support.
• Easily add background images

Pros:

• It creates audible codes for visually impaired users.
• Live demo available.

Cons:

• None so far.

Securimage plugin plans:

Securimage is an open-source free PHP CAPTCHA script.

Final Verdict: Which reCAPTCHA Alternative Should You Go For? 

reCAPTCHA is a reliable CAPTCHA creating a plugin with the help of which you can keep your website away from: 

• Bots 
• Hackers
• Spammy content 

But if you are trying to find a reCAPTCHA alternative that offers you support for controlling the content shown, earn rewards from human use, and comes with WP form integrations, the hCaptcha is the best option for you. 

While if you want to go with a more technical and coding-based alternative to reCAPTCHA that offers support for coding languages like HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and others, then The Honeypot method is especially for you. 

Moreover, if you want to go for a simple, hassle-free, and yet effective option then, Really Simple CAPTCHA is the most appropriate plugin for you.

Comparison of Best Alternatives of reCAPTCHA