Friendly Captcha for WordPress vs Honeypot Guard – Silent Anti-Spam

Friendly Captcha is a privacy-first anti-bot solution that protects WordPress website forms from spam and abuse. Do you use a captcha like reCAPTCHA to keep out bots? Friendly Captcha is a powerful anti-spam service that blocks spam-bots without annoying captcha images and protects user privacy. How Friendly Captcha Works Friendly Captcha is a tool for preventing spam on your website. Other CAPTCHAs are a burden on your users, Friendly Captcha respects your users. Friendly Captcha is a proof-of-work based anti-bot solution in which the user’s device does all the work. We generate a unique crypto puzzle for each visitor. Solving it will usually take only a few seconds. As soon as the user starts filling the form it starts getting solved. By the time the user is ready to submit, the puzzle is probably already solved. Friendly Captcha prevents spam and doesn’t punish real users in doing so. Privacy Notices No personal information Our anti-bot service does not store personal data from your end users. See our Privacy Policy for End Users to learn more. No cookies Our end user solution does not use cookies. This protects your end users from being tracked and followed from site to site. No discrimination Normal CAPTCHA tasks are not easy for all humans. Our solution works without labeling tasks and is thus accessible to everyone. Decentralized data processing By default, requests are processed in the point-of-presence closest to where it is accessed by the end user. See our Privacy Policy for End Users to learn more. Join thousands of organizations in switching to a privacy-first anti-bot solution. Forms and Plugins Supported WordPress Login Form WordPress Register Form WordPress Reset Password Form WordPress Comments CoBlocks Contact Form 7 Divi Contact Forms Elementor Pro Forms FluentForm Gravity Forms Ultimate Member Login Form Ultimate Member Register Form Ultimate Member Reset Password Form WooCommerce Login Form WooCommerce Register Form WooCommerce Checkout Form WooCommerce Lost Password Form WPForms Profile Builder Login Form Profile Builder Register Form Profile Builder Reset Password Form Forminator Formidable Avada Form Builder If you see an integration that’s missing, please open a pull request However, you may wish to email the authors of plugins you’d like to support Friendly Captcha: it will usually take them only an hour or two to add native support if they choose to do so. This will simplify your use of Friendly Captcha, and is the best solution in the long run.

Honeypot Guard is a powerful, privacy-focused anti-spam solution that protects your WordPress forms without annoying your visitors with CAPTCHAs. Using invisible detection techniques, it blocks spam bots while maintaining a seamless user experience. Why Choose Honeypot Guard? Unlike CAPTCHA-based solutions that frustrate users and hurt conversions (studies show CAPTCHAs reduce form submissions by 10-40%), Honeypot Guard provides superior spam protection with zero user friction. How It Works Honeypot Guard uses multiple layers of intelligent detection to catch spam automatically: Invisible Honeypot Fields – Hidden fields that real users never see, but bots fill out automatically Dynamic Field Rotation – Constantly changing field names make it harder for sophisticated bots to adapt Timestamp Validation – Detects instant submissions (bots can’t read like humans) Intelligent Gibberish Detection – Catches keyboard mashing and random text patterns Advanced Heuristic Analysis – Pattern-based detection of common spam characteristics Character Script Filtering – Optionally block submissions containing specific character scripts (Cyrillic, Chinese, etc.) Dotted Email Detection – Catches spammers using excessive dots to generate infinite email addresses (e.g. [email protected]) Cookie Verification – Proves JavaScript execution in a real browser environment Key Features Zero User Friction – Completely invisible protection, no annoying puzzles Privacy-Focused – All processing on your server, no third-party tracking by default Granular Blacklisting – Block by email, domain, IP address, or keywords Rate Limiting – Prevent spam floods with configurable submission limits Detailed Spam Logs – View blocked submissions with one-click IP blocking Multi-Language Admin – Available in 9 languages (English, German, Spanish, Italian, Lithuanian, Swedish, Polish, Estonian, Spanish-Mexico) GDPR Compliant – No data sent to external services (unless you enable optional AI detection) Works Automatically – Integrates seamlessly with popular form plugins Supported Form Plugins Contact Form 7 WPForms Gravity Forms Ninja Forms Formidable Forms WordPress Registration Forms WordPress Comments WooCommerce Checkout & Registration bbPress Forums Any HTML form with minimal configuration Advanced Protection Options Cloudflare Turnstile (Optional) – Invisible CAPTCHA that catches headless browsers, Tor/VPN bots, and bot farms. Free up to 1M validations/month. Fails open — never blocks real users if Cloudflare is down. AI-Powered Gibberish Detection (Optional) – Use OpenAI or Anthropic APIs for advanced content analysis Meta Pixel Protection – Block form submission tracking until verification Custom Honeypot Field Names – Define your own field names for added security Whitelist Trusted Users – Bypass checks for logged-in users or specific IPs Privacy & Performance Honeypot Guard is designed with privacy and performance in mind: Lightweight – Adds virtually zero latency to your site No External Calls – Basic protection requires no API calls Cache Compatible – Works with WP Super Cache, W3 Total Cache, WP Rocket, LiteSpeed, and more No Cookies Required – Core functionality works without cookies (optional cookie verification available) Professional Support Need help? Visit mantasdigital.com/honeypot-guard for documentation and support. Privacy Policy Honeypot Guard collects and stores: IP addresses of form submissions (for spam detection and blocking) Form submission data flagged as spam (for review and pattern detection) Timestamps of submissions (for rate limiting) This data is stored in your WordPress database and is never sent to external services unless you enable optional AI-powered detection. You can configure automatic deletion of spam logs in Settings > Honeypot Guard. External Services This plugin can optionally connect to external AI services for advanced gibberish detection. These services are disabled by default and must be explicitly enabled by the administrator. OpenAI API (Optional) When AI gibberish detection is enabled and configured with an OpenAI API key: What it does: Analyzes suspicious form field content to detect nonsensical or spam text Data sent: Only the specific text field being analyzed (not the entire form submission) When sent: Only when a submission is flagged as potentially suspicious and AI detection is enabled Service provider: OpenAI, L.L.C. Terms of use: https://openai.com/policies/terms-of-use Privacy policy: https://openai.com/policies/privacy-policy Anthropic API (Optional) When AI gibberish detection is enabled and configured with an Anthropic API key: What it does: Analyzes suspicious form field content to detect nonsensical or spam text Data sent: Only the specific text field being analyzed (not the entire form submission) When sent: Only when a submission is flagged as potentially suspicious and AI detection is enabled Service provider: Anthropic, PBC Terms of use: https://www.anthropic.com/legal/consumer-terms Privacy policy: https://www.anthropic.com/legal/privacy Cloudflare Turnstile (Optional) When Turnstile is enabled and configured with site/secret keys: What it does: Verifies that form submissions come from real browsers, not headless bots Data sent: A challenge token and the visitor’s IP address When sent: On every form submission when Turnstile is enabled Service provider: Cloudflare, Inc. Terms of use: https://www.cloudflare.com/website-terms/ Privacy policy: https://www.cloudflare.com/privacypolicy/ Fail-open: If Cloudflare is unreachable, no penalty is applied — real users are never blocked Important: These services are entirely optional. Honeypot Guard provides effective spam protection without any external services using its built-in detection methods. Additional Info Plugin Website Documentation Support GitHub Repository