Are you fed up with the Google reCAPTCHA service? Are you searching for reCAPTCHA alternatives or competitors? Are you looking for a Captcha provider which keeps your user’s personal data safe and secure? Are you facing or scared of GDPR legal troubles due to Google reCAPTCHA? Well, you don’t have to worry anymore. We researched hundreds of Captcha providers and now presenting you with the top 5 Google reCAPTCHA alternatives that will protect your website forms as well as ensure that your user data is safe and not leaking for advertising purposes. Whether you are a WordPress user or not, this article includes captcha services that are suitable for all kinds of websites.
- Most recommended article: RankMath Vs Yoast SEO: In-depth Comparison
What is Google reCAPTCHA
Google ReCAPTCHA is the bot protection service introduced by Google back in 2007. Since then Google ReCaptcha has been continuously evolving and has been serving CAPTCHA services to millions of websites. You can read complete details about CAPTCHA.
Why Google ReCaptcha Alternatives?
Before moving forward, it is important to understand why people and major companies are leaving or planning to switch from Google ReCaptcha. These are the main issues that force us to look for ReCAPTCHA alternatives:
Not a Free Service Anymore:
Google ReCaptcha is not a free service anymore. They start charging after a 1,000,000 challenge request which is not enough for a large website or application.
User Data Privacy Concern:
With ReCaptcha, Google started using user data for advertisement purposes which is clearly a violation of personal information. The privacy concern is the main reason to move out from this CAPTCHA platform.
GDPR Compatibility:
The third reason is GDPR compatibility, there are a lot of questions and people’s discussion can be seen on the web regarding ReCaptcha and GDPR compatibility. Even companies like MTCaptcha and CAPTCHA.com have provided a lot of information and documents which clarify that reCaptcha is not fully compatible with the GDPR Guidelines.
Under GDPR laws, all captcha services must take user consent before collecting user data to use it for advertisement purposes. ReCaptcha is one of them and since reCaptcha is not providing any direct way which takes user consent, organizations have to modify their reCaptcha forms to take user consent. Organizations or websites which didn’t know the exact process to make their reCaptcha forms GDPR friendly had faced a lot of legal troubles. That’s why people are migrating to other captcha providers.
All the reCaptcha alternatives discussed in the next section are 100% GDPR-friendly.
Earning Potential:
Another reason is earning potential. Other CAPTCHA services like hCaptcha allow website owners to earn money based on the number of captchas solved on their website generated by them. This feature could not be seen in Google ReCaptcha.
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Top 5 Google reCAPTCHA Alternatives
During our research, we found multiple CAPTCHA services, out of them we are showing you the top 5 from which you can choose as your ReCaptcha alternative based on your situation.
Video Tutorial:
For the reader’s convenience, we always create a video tutorial. Either you can watch and learn or simply skip the video and continue with the steps mentioned afterward.
1. hCaptcha: Best Free alternative to Google reCAPTCHA
hCaptcha is the number one alternative to Google reCaptcha. hCaptcha is the machine learning-based CAPTCHA service developed by Intuition Machines. Organizations such as Cloudflare have already switched to hCaptcha because of the perks hCaptcha is providing as compared to Google ReCaptcha.
Let’s see the comparison table of hCaptcha vs ReCaptcha to understand the difference:
Why hCaptcha is an alternative to Google reCaptcha?
| Points | hCaptcha | Google ReCaptcha |
|---|---|---|
| Price | hCaptcha is a totally free service. | Free up-to 1,000,000 CAPTCHA requests |
| Privacy Violation | No user data can be leaked or used for advertising purposes. | User personal data is used by Google for advertising purposes. |
| Availability | Available to all over the Globe | Not available to the countries where Google is banned. Example China |
| Privacy Pass | hCaptcha supports privacy passes to reduce CAPTCHA occurrences | X This feature is not available |
| Performance | Better Performance as compared to the Google ReCaptcha according to the Cloudflare case study. | Low Performance |
| Earning Potential | Yes. Based on the number of CAPTCHA challenges solved on a website | X |
| Setup | WordPress plugin ✓ API ✓ | WordPress plugin ✓ API ✓ |
| Browser support | Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Edge | Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Edge |
| Mobile Compatible | ✓ | ✓ |
| Difficulty Level | Adjustable | Adjustable |
| Invisible Captcha Support | ✓ | ✓ |
| Plugin Integration | WPForms, Contact Forms 7, Ninja Forms, WooCommerce form, BuddyPress, BBPress, MailChimp, JetPack, etc. | WPForms, MailChimp, Contact Form 7, Ninja Forms, Simple Membership, etc. |
| GDPR Compatible | ✓ | X |
| Multiple Captcha Per Page | ✓ Possible. You can use WPForms to set up multiple hCaptcha based forms on a single web page. | ✓ Yes Possible by tweaking the HTML API code. |
hCaptcha Features at a Glance:
- hCaptcha is free of cost regardless of the number of challenges calls requested by the publisher.
- The user has the option to control or configure the CAPTCHA difficulty
- The publishers can earn a reward by adding hCaptcha-generated challenges on their website
- GDPR and CCPA-friendly CAPTCHA service.
- Available all over the world
- Compatible with all popular forum-based plugins including WPForms, Ninja Forms, etc.
- The knowledge base is available on the website to learn how to set up hCaptcha on a website without a plugin.
- Compatible with vision impairment users
- Compatible with Mobile devices
- Invisible Captcha Support is there
- hCaptcha has all features that you will find in Google reCaptcha v3 and reCaptcha v2.
- hCaptcha challenges can be categorized into 4 different levels which the user can control from its dashboard: Easy, Medium, Hard & Always on.
- hCaptcha does not collect user personal data. They only collect basic input information like mouse movements, scroll positions, touch events, etc. So there won’t be any concern about privacy.
- RELATED – How to setup hCaptcha
2. MTCaptcha: One of the best reCAPTCHA competitors
MTCaptcha is another popular free CAPTCHA service that you can choose over the Google reCaptcha alternative. It beats reCaptcha when data privacy is the main concern. Another possible reason to go with MTCaptcha is their CAPTCHA user interface customization facility. The user can easily design and customize the CAPTCHA interface according to their website theme with their MTCaptcha code builder tool.
Let’s see the detailed MTCaptcha vs Google ReCaptcha comparison table
Why MTCaptcha is an alternative to Google ReCaptcha?
| Points | MTCaptcha | Google ReCaptcha |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free up-to 2 Million Captchas per month | Only 1 Million Captcha requests are free |
| Themes & Presets | 11 themes are available | Only 2 themes are available |
| Adaptive Proof of Work technique | ✓ Supported | X Not supported |
| Threat SPECT dashboard | ✓ Available | X Not available |
| Custom CSS feature | ✓ Available | X Not available |
| Data Privacy | User data is safe and not collected for advertising purposes. | User data is collected by Google |
| Automated Testing | Possible through Selenium web testing software | X Not available |
| China Availability | ✓ | X |
| Earning Potential | X | X |
| Setup | WordPress Plugin ✓ API ✓ | WordPress Plugin ✓ API ✓ |
| Browser Support | Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Safari, Edge | Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Edge |
| Mobile Compatible | ✓ | ✓ |
| Difficulty Level | Not Adjustable | Adjustable |
| Invisible Captcha Support | ✓ | ✓ |
| Plugin Integration | WooCommerce, Contact form 7 | WPForms, MailChimp, Contact Form 7, Ninja Forms, Simple Membership, WooComerce. |
| GDPR Compatible | ✓ | X |
| Multiple Captcha Per Page | ✓ | ✓ |
| Audio Captcha | ✓ | ✓ |
MTCaptcha Features at a Glance:
- MTCaptcha can easily be connected to multiple types of forms including Login forms, Registration forms, Comments forms, forgot password forms, and WooCommerce forms.
- MTCaptcha has an MTCaptcha code builder tool that helps you to design the user interface of the CAPTCHA and generate the code to embed into your website page directly.
- MTCaptcha has a separate easy-to-use plugin available through the WordPress plugin repository which can help you to install the MTCaptcha widget on all forms of your website.
- 11 preset themes are available including Standard, Overcast, Caribbean, etc. You can see a demo and customize all themes with the MTCaptcha code builder tool.
- MTCaptcha is using a “Proof of Work” mechanism to stop automated attacks as well as brute force attacks which is not seen in the case of Google reCaptcha.
- MTCaptcha allows you to test captcha is working or not using automated testing tools like Selenium without having to disable the WordPress MTCaptcha plugin.
- 30 days free trial is available on all MTCaptcha paid plans
- MTCaptcha is fully functional in China
- When we talk about plugin integration, MTCaptcha is only able to connect with Contact Form 7 and the WooComerce plugin. If you are using WPForms on your website, then hCaptcha should be your preferred reCaptcha alternative.
- With MTCaptcha you don’t need to worry about GDPR compatibility
- Multiple Captcha can be set up on a single web page
- MTCaptcha doesn’t use user personal data for reselling and advertising purposes.
- With the Threat SPECT dashboard, you can identify the source of risk from where your website receives the maximum number of threats.
- MTCaptcha supports invisible Captcha, However, this feature is not available in a free plan.
- Similar to reCaptcha, MTCaptcha supports local languages to deliver captcha messages. Over 65 Languages are available to choose from.
MTCaptcha Pricing & Plans
MTCaptcha has 2 paid plans along with a free plan. Both Paid plans have 30 days trial period for new users.
MTCaptcha Free Plan:
- 1 Domain
- 7-day dashboard history
- Up to 2 million captcha requests per month.
MTCaptcha Pro Plan:
- Started from $85 per website
- 3 Domains
- 90 Days dashboard history
- UX Automation testing support (through Selenium)
- 2 million captcha request
- Invisible Captcha support
MTCaptcha Enterprise Plan:
- Everything available in Pro Plan+
- Started from $150 per website
- 6 Domains
- Unlimited dashboard history
- MTCaptcha Threat SPECT support
3. WPForms Custom Captcha: Best alternative to reCAPTCHA for WordPress forms
WPForms is one of the most downloaded plugins of WordPress used to build forms. If your website is on WordPress, then you must have heard about or already used the WPForms plugin on your website. Well, WPForms allows users to embed captcha into forms in 3 ways: ReCaptcha integration, hCaptcha integration, and Custom Captcha.
With Custom Captcha functionality, you can manually configure the challenges to appear on the forms generated by WPForms.
WPForms Custom captcha allows you to include random math questions or custom questions in the form field. For Bots, Custom questions are almost impossible to solve. Hence, it increases security and also reduces spam form submissions.
The math captcha example is: 5+9=?
An example of a custom question you can add into a form is: “What is the fourth letter in the English alphabet?” Then the user has to input the answer for submission.
The custom Captcha support is included in the WPForms addon which is a feature of the WPForms paid plugin. However, it is only a one-time expense and there will be no restrictions on the number of captchas generated through the WPForms Custom Captcha add-on. And this is why WPForms custom captcha is a great reCaptcha alternative.
And later you can also move to HCaptcha without installing the additional plugin.
Why WPForm Custom Captcha is an alternative to Google ReCaptcha?
| Points | WPForm Custom Captcha | Google ReCaptcha |
|---|---|---|
| Price | No restrictions on the number of custom Captcha requests. WPForms pricing starts from $39.50 per year. | Free up to 1 million captcha requests |
| Data Privacy Violation | X No | ✓ Yes |
| Availability | All over the world | Not in all countries. Example China |
| Performance | Better, due to captcha is loaded from the own website server | Low performance. Captcha can be supplied through third-party (Google) API |
| Earning potential | X No | X No |
| Captcha challenge control | Full control | Less control |
| Setup | ✓ WordPress plugin X API | ✓ WordPress plugin ✓ API |
| Mobile Compatible Captcha | Yes | Yes |
| Difficult level | More control | Less control |
| Invisible Captcha | X No | ✓ Yes |
| GDPR Compatible | Yes. (With WPForms you can create GDPR-compliant forms easily) | X No |
| Audio Captcha | X Not Supported | ✓ Supported |
| Math Captcha | ✓ Supported | X Not Supported |
WPForms Custom Captcha Features at a Glance:
- WPForms custom captcha can easily be added to all forms created through WPForms including login forms, registration forms, Brevo(Formerly SendInblue) forms, multi-page forms, donation forms, payment forms, etc.
- Apart from custom captchas, WPForms allows you to embed hCaptcha Captcha into forms in a single click.
- Custom captcha gives more control in terms of selecting questions and difficulty.
- Multiple forms can be set up on a single page, and so a captcha.
- The preview function can allow the user to preview as well as test the captcha before publishing.
WPForms Custom Captcha Pricing & Plans
WPForms has 4 plans start from just $39.50 per year and all of the plans allow you to create unlimited custom captcha forms on WordPress.
4. BotDetect Captcha: Best reCAPTCHA competitor for small website
BotDetect Captcha or say CAPTCHA.com launched in 2004 is one of the oldest and most widely used Captcha libraries existing in the market. Unlike other captcha service providers, BotDetect Captcha free plan allows you to add captcha up to 1,000 URLs per domain which is enough for a small to mid-scale website. This is the main reason to consider BotDetect Captcha as a Google reCaptcha alternative. Apart from that, the BotDetect Captcha is fully customized as we saw in the MTCaptcha.
Why BotDetect Captcha is an alternative to Google ReCaptcha?
| Points | BotDetect Captcha | Google reCaptcha |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free Up-to 1,000 Urls per domain | Free up to 1 million captcha requests |
| Privacy Violation | X No | ✓ Yes |
| Availability | Covered the whole world | China Excluded |
| Earning Potential | X No | X No |
| Captcha challenge control | Automated | Automated |
| Setup | WordPress plugin ✓ API ✓ | WordPress plugin ✓ API ✓ |
| Browser Support | All major browsers platform | Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Edge |
| Mobile Compatible | ✓ Yes | ✓ Yes |
| Difficulty level | X Not adjustable | ✓ Adjustable |
| Invisible Captcha | X Not supported | ✓ Supported |
| Plugin integration | Only Contact Form 7 | WPForms, MailChimp, Contact Form 7, Ninja Forms, Simple Membership, etc. |
| GDPR Compatible | ✓ Yes | X No |
| CSS Customization | ✓ Possible | X Not Possible |
BotDetect Captcha Features at a Glance:
- Multiple BotDetect Captcha API is available for all major languages such as Angular, jQuery, React, .Net, Java and PHP.
- A separate WordPress plugin is available for smooth installation
- BotDetect Captcha can easily be embedded in forms created through contact forms 7. However, major third parties plugin integration support is missing such as WPForms, WooCommerce, etc.
- The Captcha style, image height, number of characters, Sound, icons, tooltips, etc are fully customizable
- Hard-to-crack Captcha audio presets are available including Radio, Robot, Pulse, Dispatch, etc.
- BotDetect Captcha is fully compatible with vision-impaired users.
- Apart from contact form 7, BotDetect Captcha can be connected to the login form, user registration form, lost password form, and comment forms automatically.
- No problem with GDPR, CCPA, LGPD, or WCAG AAA compliance.
- More than 60 different image styles are available for CAPTCHA text. These are designed specially by keeping in mind that humans can easily crack it but not bots.
- Up to 100 languages for text and 56 languages for audio are supported
- BotDetect Captcha is 100% user data privacy-friendly.
- The free BotDetect license is available for forever usage.
BotDetect Captcha Pricing & Plans:
Apart from the free plan, BotDetect Captcha is available in 4 different licenses and the price varies on the technology you choose. In any paid plan, there would be no limitations on the URL number on which the captcha is used per domain.
BotDetect Captcha Enterprise Licence
The BotDetect Captcha Enterprise Licence costs you $499 for the first month and then $19.90/month onwards. Price is the same for all APIs (PHP, Java, and .Net)
BotDetect Captcha Blueprint Licence
The BotDetect Captcha Blueprint Licence costs you $999 for the first month and then $19.90/Month onwards. The Price is the same for all technologies. (Java, PHP, and .Net)
BotDetect Captcha Developer Licence:
The BotDetect Captcha developer license costs you $999 for the first month and then $99.90/month onwards. The Price is the same for all technologies. (Java, PHP, and .Net)
BotDetect OEM Developer Licence:
The BotDetect Captcha OEM license costs you $4999 for the first month and then $99.90/month onwards. The Price is the same for all technologies.
5. Sucuri Captcha
Sucuri is the last reCaptcha alternative and the reason we put this in the last is that it is not a standalone Captcha service provider. Sucuri is basically a popular website security solution. Captcha protection is part of it. However, the Sucuri captcha isn’t the ordinary captcha, it is added and protected by a Web application firewall (WAF) which provides complete protection to the website from malware, bots, threats, brute force attacks, and much more.
Apart from Captcha, Sucuri security solutions offer various ways to protect web pages including password protection, 2-Factor Authentication, Captcha challenge, etc.
During our live talk with the Sucuri team, we found valuable information regarding Sucuri Captcha:
- First Sucuri is not applied to forms but to the whole page. Further, you can specify the pages on which you want Sucuri Captcha protection.
- The whole Sucuri security service is fully compatible with GDPR guidelines and hence doesn’t collect user personal data for advertising purposes.
- The Sucuri captcha can be enabled on the WordPress website using their plugin and also easily implemented on non-WordPress websites.
Why Sucuri Captcha is an Alternative to Google ReCaptcha
Sucuri captcha can be a perfect reCaptcha alternative when you want to protect your whole website with a robust security system along with captcha functionality.
As I said Sucuri is not mainly focused on Captcha service. However, you still find the Sucuri captcha more secure than any Captcha service provider. Further, no manual configuration is required, the Captcha service can enable in a few clicks as soon as you enroll in the Sucuri premium security service.
However, you cannot find these additional features in Sucuri Captcha as compared to other captcha service providers:
- You can’t earn by embedding a Sucuri Captcha to your website
- The Captcha difficulty is not adjustable
- Invisible captcha feature
- The Sucuri captcha cannot be integrated into other plugins including WPForms, Contact Forms 7, Ninja Forms, etc.
- You cannot customize the style, theme, or styles of the Sucuri captcha
- Sucuri captcha cannot be added to the forms. It would apply to the whole page.
- Mainly, the Sucuri captcha is only available in the English language.
- Custom questions cannot be set to the captcha as we saw in the WPForm custom captcha
Sucuri Captcha Pricing & Plans:
Sucuri plans started from $199.99/year for a single website. Since it is a whole website security package, you cannot apply for a single captcha feature. But it is worth it, if you are serious about your online web-based business, then you should definitely secure your website with a premium security solution like Sucuri.
- RELATED – 3 Best Ways to Scan WordPress Website
Final Thoughts on Google reCaptcha Alternatives
Now you have seen the 5 top Google reCaptcha alternatives. Still, have confusion? Consider the below summary and take the decision:
Go for the hCaptcha when you want to enjoy the world’s best captcha service for free. There is no limitation on the number of captcha requests. Also, it can be easily installed on WordPress as well as non-WordPress sites. Apart from this, this is the only captcha service after Google reCaptcha that has multiple integration support in its list.
Go for the MTCaptcha when your monthly captcha requirement is not greater than 2 million per website. This way you can enjoy this service for free. Next, we highly recommend MTCaptcha when you want to customize the captcha field according to your website theme with the free MTCaptcha code builder tool.
Go for the WPForms custom captcha when you want to set the custom manual questions based Captcha on your forms created through WPForms. If you are already using this plugin on your WordPress site, then this is the best option for setting up Captcha. It supports hCaptcha integration too.
Go for the BotDetect Captcha when your website is small to mid-scale and doesn’t have more than 1,000 URLs on your website. When you exceed 1,000 URLs you can switch to another captcha service provider, because BotDetect Captcha paid plans are very expensive. BotDetect is the best option for web applications and websites that build through platforms through Angular, jQuery, .Net, and Java. In other words, non-WordPress websites majorly use this Captcha service to enable Captcha functionality.
Go for the Sucuri Captcha, when you want to protect your whole page and website from bots and hackers rather than just forms. Sucuri is a complete security solution and is recommended to WordPress users who don’t want to involve in manual captcha configuration.
I hope this article, Top 5 Google reCaptcha Alternatives, helped you to find the best captcha service compared to reCaptcha for your website. If you like this article, please share it with your friends. If you want more blogging tips, follow BlogVwant on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube.
Top 5 Google ReCaptcha Alternatives – FAQs
How to set up hCaptcha on a website?
hCaptcha could be set up on websites either by installing a plugin or include hCaptcha API into your website. The detailed hCaptcha setup process is mentioned in this article.
How much can I earn from hCaptcha?
Earnings from hCaptcha are not fixed. It may vary and generally depend on the 3 factors: the number of answers users submit, the frequency of correct answers, and the real-time demand.
What is Invisible Captcha?
The invisible captcha does not require humans to solve the captcha challenge first manually. It can automatically identify between a bot and a human based on different parameters such as scroll positions, mouse movements, clicks, and so on. If the indicators point to a bot, then only a captcha challenge will appear.
What is GDPR?
GDPR is the law created for EU citizens to protect personal data and privacy.
We are using MTCaptcha in our enterprise systems and overall we are very happy with MTCaptcha. We transited from ReCaptcha. MTCaptcha is fully GDPR-compliant and privacy-first approach. MTCaptcha doesn’t store any personal information and accessible compliant.
Problem with Google reCaptcha now is that you are limited in the number of entries you can make, and there is no functional method to remove entries already added to Google table, so once you hit max you are forced to migrate to their ridiculous cloud developers platform to get a simple recaptcha.
In reCAPTCHA Terms of Service I see following information.
“You acknowledge and understand that the reCAPTCHA API works by collecting hardware and software information, such as device and application data, and sending these data to Google for analysis. The information collected in connection with your use of the service will be used for improving reCAPTCHA and for general security purposes. It will not be used for personalized advertising by Google.”
Does it mean that your first point about “With ReCaptcha, Google started using the user data for advertisement purposes which is clearly a violation of personal information.” is not correct?