We’re all practically living on the internet nowadays. With that in mind, it’s impossible not to encounter CAPTCHA questions, asking you to select photos picturing traffic lights or other blurry objects that only humans can decipher. Google’s ReCaptcha is the most used CAPTCHA tool out there, but that doesn’t mean that it is the only one. There are other popular alternatives as well if Google’s ReCaptcha does not suit your taste and the one we’re highlighting here is hCaptcha.
What is CAPTCHA?
In short, CAPTCHA stands for Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart. So, basically it’s a test to make sure the person submitting data is a human and not a bot. CAPTCHA challenges are often very simple, but they rely on human insights; spam bots are not able to pass these tests.
What is hCaptcha?
hCaptcha, the most popular ReCaptcha alternative, is an anti-bot solution that protects privacy. The internet is accessible, but it’s also a dangerous place to be in. There is always a threat of being tracked, hacked, or your personal information sold to third parties. While hCaptcha does not directly help with these issues, it can keep your (and your readers’) time on the internet free from bots, abuse, or spam.
hCaptcha is quite popular these days and widely-used by individuals and companies. It is also free, and as a website owner, you won’t have a problem with privacy since its developers prioritize the safety and security of personal information. They also use uncomplicated tasks that make it easier to go through the required checks without sacrificing the service they offer — which is offering anti-spam solutions.
Unlike other CAPTCHA services, they are a platform technology as opposed to using hardcoded or dynamic codes. Their developers specifically made their system for complex installations and large portals.
Why You Need hCaptcha
As compared to Google’s reCaptcha, hCaptcha isn’t privacy-invasive, which gives it a definite advantage over the Google-owned one. Moreover, its popularity is well-justified as websites of some of the largest companies in the world use it.
We also mentioned earlier that hCaptcha is free, which makes it easily accessible, from full-blown enterprises to personal users, including start-ups, bloggers, and hobbyists. However, it does have an enterprise plan option, which includes additional benefits if you want to take it to the next level. The developers continually work on improving the functionality to accommodate their users’ needs better.
The most important benefit of using hCaptcha is that it prevents your website from being flooded by bots that may have malicious content or spam you with unwanted e-mails. It also prevents your domain from being overwhelmed with signups and some other unpleasant stuff that happens on the internet.
How Does hCaptcha Work?
The hCaptcha system works like this: the system determines the user’s humanity using a complex machine learning model. Then, it analyzes the data based on how the user interacted with the given tasks.
Generally, CAPTCHA’s goal is to procure a simple test for humans that is difficult for machines. Although, sometimes we all get a bit impatient with them because the pictures are too blurry, or it’s hard to figure out whether it’s a capitalized letter or not. And not to mention bicycles and motorcycles look too much alike in the tiny image boxes.
Let’s not forget that this system is to protect your website. For example, if you are holding online polls without CAPTCHA, you are risking having your polls rigged by bots. hCaptcha’s system protects your privacy while also looking out for malicious users that go to your site. They have this system called Privacy Pass, which they are developing along with Cloudflare and others. Under Privacy Pass, your IP will never be exposed to hCaptcha unless the site sends it, which further solidifies how important your privacy is under their system.
How to Set Up hCaptcha?
Now, onto the setup. For this, we are going to assume you have a WordPress site and that you use the WP Forms Lite or WP Forms Pro plugin for your forms. Currently, hCaptcha is not (yet) available for all form builders.
Follow these simple steps to configure hCaptcha with WP Forms:
Step 1:
We recommend you download the hCaptcha plugin to start with. Once you’re logged into your site, go to the ‘Plugins’ tab and select add a new plugin. Search for hCaptcha and start the download. After you activated the plugin, you can go to its settings where you, at the bottom, can see a list of plugins currently supported.
Step 2:
Click here to create an hCaptcha account. After you’ve verified your email address, you can generate a site key and a secret key, which you need to setup the hCaptcha plugin.
Step 3:
On your WordPress admin page, go to Settings – > hCaptcha and update the site key and secret key. Make sure you go through the list of plugins at the bottom of the page and select the ones you’re going to use hCaptcha with. In our example, you’ll have to select WP Forms Lite and/or WP Forms Pro.
That’s it. You’ve finished setting up your spam bot prevention. Now, you can finally add more forms to your website without worrying about receiving dozens of spammy emails a day.
Final words
All in all, hCaptcha is a simple, safe, and practical option, especially if you’re, like us at Aureum Hospitality Advisers, are fed up with receiving spammy form submission.
