There are to many Captcha plugins available for WordPress with most unbelievable solutions. we collected best captcha plugins for wordpress with our review.
best captcha plugins for wordpress
What is CAPTCHA?
First of all let’s consider what Google search says about definition of this word.
CAPTCHA is a program or system intended to distinguish human from machine input, typically as a way of thwarting spam and automated extraction of data from websites causing them to pass a reverse Turing test. Typically, the user is prompted to enter expression of numbers and letters of the different register into a form field which is shown in automatically generated picture.
Nowadays there are a lot of Captcha plugins for WordPress with the most unbelievable solutions for your website. You can check it by yourself in WordPress plugin search.Today we will consider four most popular instruments of this category. They have different conceptual views, but are directed initially on performance of the same function.
Each plugin has a number of advantages and disadvantages.
Really Simple CAPTCHA
This plugin is a CAPTCHA module intended to be called from other plugins. It is originally created for Contact Form 7 plugin.
Advantagesof this plugin:
- Functions well. A big barrier for robots and fights spam.
- Integration instructions are clear and simple.
- CAPTCHA is actually quite readable and not unintelligible, distorted gibberish that could turn away users!
Disadvantages:
- Incomplete plugin without translations into different languages.
- Works only with Contact Form 7. Really Simple CAPTCHA does not work alone and is intended to work with other plugins. It is originally created for Contact Form7.
Conclusion
What can we say about this Captcha? It is a very simple and understandable Captcha for users. But this simplicity does not fulfill the basic functions of security. When you generate a CAPTCHA, Really Simple CAPTCHA creates two files for it; one is an image file of CAPTCHA, and the other is a text file which stores the correct answer to the CAPTCHA.
It is a very good and simple solution but not so safe. First of all it is not so safe for your hosting and site. Because this two files that created in temporary folder have a size of some kilobytes. Sure you can say “What a problem?” Yes it is not a problem. But when your website will visit and use this captcha a lot of people (for example 1000 or more) it become a problem for your hosting. So make your own conclusions …
SI CAPTCHA Anti-Spam
This plugin adds CAPTCHA anti-spam methods to WordPress on the forms for comments, registration, lost password, login, or all. For WP, WPMU, and BuddyPress.
Advantages of this plugin:
- It is a small, unobtrusive and simple plugin.
- It is easily installed and configured.
- Displays well on mobile and tablet devices.
- Works smoothly on all WordPress updates.
- This plugin doesn’t scam you for your e-mail by demanding registration, additional library downloads and other nonsense.
- Refresh button to reload captcha if you cannot read it.
Disadvantages:
- As users said “This plugin does not prevent full SPAM user registrations and spam comments”.
- This plugin is very colorful and unclear. So colorblind people can’t see some colors and read correctly a letter or symbol.
Conclusion
I think that disadvantages are much stronger than advantages of this plugin. Unfortunately, this plugin does not stop the spam registrations as its description suggests. Users of this plugin said that when you install this plugin on your website you will still get about half a dozen spam comments and spam registrations a day.
Either there are smart bots and the captcha isn’t hard enough, or spammers have an easy way to get humans to complete these captchas en masse… We don`t know!
I think that this Captcha is outdated and does not perform all of its functions well. Because spammers do not sit still and they looking for new ways of their spam attacks.
And also I think that colorful letters are not an excellent solution for Captcha plugin, because the developer did not take into account the colorblind people, who can not distinguish colors.
Confident CAPTCHA
Confident CAPTCHA is a clickable, picture CAPTCHA that stops spam and malicious bots, while remaining a very easy CAPTCHA for humans to solve.
Advantages of this plugin:
- Picture-based CAPTCHA, easy to use and install.
- Mobile-optimized CAPTCHA version available.
- Photos are much easier/friendlier than trying to read a badly distorted text.
- CAPTCHA audio option.
- Confident CAPTCHA is available in several languages.
- You can match the captcha skin to the color of your website.
Disadvantages:
- It doesn’t work with WP Multisite.
- It looks like an advertisement.
- Distracts from content of the website.
Conclusion
This Captcha has both positive and negative features. It is a very interesting solution. This Captcha can make your website more colorful. You can easily change the color of Confident CAPTCHA by selecting one of the several options for CAPTCHA Color on the settings page. This way Confident CAPTCHA will look great regardless of where you place it. But also the main drawback of this plugin is that it looks like an advertisement at the bottom of your comment box asking people to click it before they can post, and there is no Setting to add user-definable informative text just above the Captcha like “Prove you are a human by clicking the photos below.”
I think that this Captcha is not for serious projects and websites, because when your site is replete with a huge number of colorful pictures it can carry a negative point for your visitors.
Captcha
This plugin allows you to implement a super security captcha form into web forms by means of math logic.
Advantages of this plugin:
- You can use letters and numbers in captcha or just one of these two things – either letters or numbers.
- The basic math actions are used – add, subtract, multiply.
- Captcha by BestWebSoft is available in 36 languages.
- It is very easy to use and install.
- Simple and usable.
- Only math logic. You will not have to spend your precious time on annoying attempts to understand hard-to-read words, combinations of letters or pictures that make your eyes pop up.
- Full compatibility with Contact Form.
- PRO version with compatibility of Contact Form 7 and BuddyPress (registration form, comments, group creation)
- There is detailed documentation, step by step video instructions of configuration and installation and also text instructions with screenshots.
- A function of paid customization.
Disadvantages:
- Free version is not compatible with BuddyPress. You have to get the premium version of the plugin, allowing compatibility with BuddyPress (Registration form, Comments form, “Create a Group” form) and Contact Form 7.
- Priority technical support and guaranteed response during the day is only available when purchasing Captcha PRO. Requests from users of the free version can be considered up to five days.
- Every 6 months, you must renew the license of the product. If you do not renew your license, you can continue to use the PRO version, but you will no longer be available have a priority technical support and future product upgrades.
Conclusion
As for Captcha by BestWebSoft it is the best solution to the problem of bot attacks. Simple maths is a brilliant idea! It is very easy to use and doesn’t make your eyes pop out. Also Captcha can be installed with no problems at all, easy to configure, allows customizing the header.
Conclusion
We’ve reviewed the main features of these plugins. All of them have been created for one mission – to implement super security to your website and to stop spam and malicious bots.
So after reviewing all the plugins we can make a conclusion that the easiest, most useful and powerful plugin is Captcha by BestWebSoft. Other plugins are great too but they have a lot of disadvantages. Pictures, letters, codes are not so useful and functional as simple maths. Personally, I hate guessing squiggly images or guessing words to prove I’m human, it hurts my eyes and takes too long, so simple maths is an amazing solution to the problem of spam and bot attacks.
This plugin is great because it has a simple method of work. It protects your website from spam by means of math logic, easily understood by human beings. You will not have to spend your precious time on annoying attempts to understand hard-to-read words, combinations of letters or pictures that make your eyes pop up. All you need is to do one of the three basic maths actions – add, subtract and multiply. This captcha can be used for login, registration, password recovery, comments forms.
Another important factor is the rating of these plugins on the official site WordPress.org.So we can see that Really Simple CAPTCHA has rating 4.4 out of 5 stars. SI CAPTCHA Anti-Spam has 3.9 out of 5 stars. Confident CAPTCHA has 4.3. And Captcha by BestWebSoft has rating 4.6 out of 5 stars. There is nothing more to add, make a conclusion by yourself.