LukasApps CAPTCHA tools for Contact Form 7 vs Really Simple Security – Simple and Performant Security (formerly Really Simple SSL)

Protect your Contact Form 7 forms with Google reCAPTCHA V2, Google reCAPTCHA V3, hCAPTCHA, or Cloudflare Turnstile. Easy integration and supports multiple forms on a single page. Four CAPTCHA Options Choose the CAPTCHA provider that works best for you: Google reCAPTCHA V2 — Google’s classic “I’m not a robot” checkbox. Google reCAPTCHA V3 — Google’s invisible, score-based bot verification. hCAPTCHA — A privacy-first alternative that offers robust bot protection while keeping user data secure. Cloudflare Turnstile — A modern CAPTCHA that verifies users in the background, only requiring a simple click if the visitor appears suspicious. Simple Setup Sign up with your chosen CAPTCHA provider and grab your Site Key and Secret Key. Paste them into CF7 Captcha in your WordPress admin. Add protection to any CF7 form in seconds using the shortcode provided in the same settings page. Customizable Appearance Each CAPTCHA widget supports customization options directly from the shortcode: Size — Choose between normal and compact to fit your form layout. Theme — Switch between light and dark themes (or auto for Turnstile) to match your site’s design. Language — Force any CAPTCHA to render in a specific language for your audience. All options are combinable, so you can mix and match to get the exact look you need. Submission Insights (NEW in v0.1.7) Go beyond just blocking spam. Submission Insights gives you full visibility into every form submission: Sender IP — See the IP address of the person who contacted you. Source Page — Know exactly which page on your site the form was filled out on. Device & Browser — Get technical details about the sender’s setup. Want More? Upgrade to CF7 Captcha Pro This free version gives you solid CAPTCHA protection. CF7 Captcha Pro adds six extra layers of spam defense on top of what you already have here, plus a full set of tools to capture and act on every lead your forms collect. What you get with Pro 6-Layer Spam Defense — additional spam-blocking methods that work quietly in the background: – Advanced Honeypot — invisible trap fields with names that regenerate every 24 hours. – Time Limit Validation — bots submit in 0.2 seconds. Humans take 15–30. This blocks anything that moves too fast (or stays too long). – Rate Limiting — caps submissions per IP so bot networks can’t flood your inbox or burn through your email quota. – Geographic Blocking — whitelist only the countries you serve, or blacklist known spam regions. – IP Pattern Blocking — block single IPs, wildcards, CIDR ranges, or entire subnets when you know exactly where an attack is coming from. – Word Filter — scans every submission for spam keywords, phishing URLs, and known scam phrases before it reaches you. Lead Recovery — captures form data in real-time as visitors type, so you don’t lose leads from abandoned forms. Database Storage & Export — every submission is saved with full metadata (IP, browser, referrer, timestamp). Export to CSV, Excel, JSON, or PDF whenever you need it. No more lost leads if your email fails. Webhooks — send form data instantly to any URL. Connect to Zapier, Salesforce, Slack, Google Sheets, or any custom API. Multiple webhooks per form, with retry logic built in. Mailchimp Integration — submissions automatically added to your Mailchimp lists. Field mapping, tags, opt-in handling. Twilio SMS — receive instant alerts for every submission or send automated SMS replies to your clients. Comprehensive Logging — every spam block, webhook call, and integration event is logged. Debug any issue in minutes instead of hours. 👉 Get CF7 Captcha Pro External services This plugin relies on third-party CAPTCHA providers to detect and block spam submissions on your Contact Form 7 forms. Only the service(s) you configure and activate in the plugin settings are contacted. Google reCAPTCHA (v2 and v3) This plugin loads the Google reCAPTCHA script and sends the CAPTCHA response token to Google’s verification API when a protected form is submitted, in order to confirm the submission is not from a bot. The visitor’s IP address is also sent as part of this verification. This service is provided by Google: Terms of Service, Privacy Policy. hCaptcha This plugin loads the hCaptcha script and sends the CAPTCHA response token to hCaptcha’s verification API when a protected form is submitted, in order to confirm the submission is not from a bot. This service is provided by hCaptcha: Terms of Service, Privacy Policy. Cloudflare Turnstile This plugin loads the Cloudflare Turnstile script and sends the CAPTCHA response token to Cloudflare’s verification API when a protected form is submitted, in order to confirm the submission is not from a bot. This service is provided by Cloudflare: Terms of Service, Privacy Policy. These services are only contacted when the corresponding CAPTCHA type is enabled and configured with valid API keys.

Easily improve site security with WordPress Hardening, Two-Factor Authentication (2FA), Login Protection, Vulnerability Detection and SSL certificate. Really simple, Effective and Performant WordPress Security Really Simple Security is the most lightweight and easy-to-use security plugin for WordPress. It secures your WordPress website with SSL certificate generation, including proper 301 https redirection and SSL enforcement, scanning for possible vulnerabilities, Login Protection and implementing essential WordPress hardening features. We believe that security should have the absolute minimum effect on website performance, user experience and maintainability. Therefore, Really Simple Security is: Lightweight: Every security feature is developed with a modular approach and with performance in mind. Disabled features won’t load any redundant code. Easy-to-use: 1-minute configuration with short onboarding setup. Security Features Easy SSL Migration Migrates your website to HTTPS and enforces SSL in just one click. 301 redirect via PHP or .htaccess Secure cookies Let’s Encrypt: Install an SSL Certificate if your hosting provider supports manual installation. Server Health Check: Your server configuration is every bit as important for your website security. WordPress Hardening Tweak your configuration and keep WordPress fortified and safe by tackling potential weaknesses. Prevent code execution in the uploads folder Prevent login feedback and disable user enumeration Disable XML-RPC Disable directory browsing Username restrictions (block ‘admin’ and public names) and much more.. Vulnerability Detection Get notified when plugins, themes or WP core contain vulnerabilities and need appropriate action. Login Protection Allow or enforce Two-Factor Authentication (2FA) for specific user roles. Users receive a two-factor code via Email. Improve Security with Really Simple Security Pro Protect your site with all essential security features by upgrading to Really Simple Security Pro. Advanced SSL enforcement Mixed Content Scan & Fixer. Detect files that are requested over HTTP and fix them to HTTPS, both Front- and Back-end. Enable HTTP Strict Transport Security and configure your site for the HSTS Preload list. Firewall Really Simple Security Pro includes a performant and efficient WordPress firewall, to stop bots, crawlers and bad actors with IP and username blocks. 404 blocking – Blocks crawlers as they trigger unusual numbers of 404 errors. Region blocking – Only allow/block access to your site from specific regions. Automated and customisable Firewall rules. IP blocklist and allowlist. Security Headers Security headers protect your site visitors against the risk of clickjacking, cross-site-forgery attacks, stealing login credentials and malware. Independent of your Server Configuration, works on Apache, LiteSpeed, NGINX, etc. Protect your website visitors with X-XSS Protection, X-Content-Type-Options, X-Frame-Options, a Referrer Policy and CORS headers. Automatically generate your WordPress-tailored Content Security Policy. Vulnerability Measures When a vulnerability is detected in a plugin, theme or WordPress core you will get notified accordingly. With Vulnerability Measures, you can configure simple but effective measures to make sure that a critical vulnerability won’t remain unattended. Force update: An update process will be tried multiple times until it can be assumed development of a theme or plugin is abandoned. You will be notified during these steps. Quarantine: When a plugin or theme can’t be updated to solve a vulnerability, Really Simple Security can quarantine the plugin. Advanced Site Hardening Choose a custom login URL Automated File Permissions check and fixer Rename and randomize your database prefix Change the debug.log file location to a non-public folder Disable application passwords Control admin creation Disable HTTP methods, reducing HTTP requests Login Protection Secure your website’s login process and user accounts with powerful security measures. Two-Step verification (Email login) 2FA (two factor authentication) with TOTP Passwordless login with passkey login Enforce strong passwords and frequent password change Limit Login Attempts With Limit Login Attempts you can configure a threshold to temporarily or permanently block IP addresses or (non-existing) usernames. You can also throw a CAPTCHA after a failed login (hCaptcha or Google reCaptcha) Access Control Restrict access to your site for specific regions. Add specific IP addresses or IP ranges to the Blocklist or Allowlist. Useful Links Documentation Security Definitions Translate Really Simple Security Issues & pull requests Feature requests Love Really Simple Security? If you want to support the continuing development of this plugin, please consider buying Really Simple Security Pro, which includes some excellent security features and premium support. About Really Simple Plugins Our mission is to make complex WordPress requirements really easy. Really Simple Security is developed by Really Simple Plugins. For generating SSL certificates, Really Simple Security uses the le acme2 PHP Let’s Encrypt client library, thanks to ‘fbett’ for providing it. Vulnerability Detection uses WP Vulnerability, an open-source initiative by Javier Casares. Want to join as a collaborator? We’re on GitHub as well!