There is not a internet user anywhere that likes seeing a CAPTCHA at the bottom of a form.

In 2016, we started seeing “I’m not a robot” simple one TICK verification and immediately fell in love.

It’s so simple and most importantly, works every time with a simple click by a human.

How it works I don’t know, it simply does.

Good news: “I’m not a robot” one-click verification comes from Google
Better news: It is now a free plugin.
Even better news: It is free, easy to install and configure.

As time goes on there are bound to be hundreds of plugins that mirror Google’s fantastic No CAPTCHA but the plugin we found, tested and use was created by Nigerian web developer Agbonghama Collins, provides the most flexibility for specifying the forms where you want to add the protection.

No CAPTCHA reCAPTCHA

No CAPTCHA reCAPTCHA By MailOptin Team

How To Install and configure

Choose a theme (light/dark).
Auto-detects the user’s language.
Option to show/no show CAPTCHA on your forms.

The plugin is easy to configure – simply paste in your Google reCAPTCHA keys on the settings page:

recaptcha-keys

Select the login, registration, or comment forms, or any combination thereof, for adding No Captcha reCAPTCHA protection.

select-form

You also have the option to force the plugin to use a specific language (dropdown), or leave it on auto-detect. You can also set a custom error message for when the user fails to solve the CAPTCHA and select a theme for the CAPTCHA display.

We don’t know whether Google will create an official WordPress plugin, but for now, this fabulous plugin works as advertised protecting our forms.

Installation Tips

We discovered getting the two Google keys very easy because we were already logged into our Google account and had our web site verified.

One complaint: the plugin does not explain how to implement and show No CAPTCHA reCAPTCHA with our form.

The final installation step is paste 2 bits of Google code found below the Google Keys:

Header snippet
Form snippet

We use the amazing StudioPress themes, so the header snippet pasted easily in Genesis.

We use Contact Form 7, and easily pasted in the snippet into the form.

Have Fun

Enjoy the best plugin of 2016

UPDATES

May 2017

I have now installed the plugin described above on hundreds of web sites. It works and works well every time, and best of all it’s free.

Interestingly, old habits die hard. Instead of accessing the plugin from a known source, I find myself using the Add Plugin feature that comes with WordPress.

The first observation is, none of the Google CAPATCHA plugins are shown if I search for “capatcha”.. strange.

When I search for “No CAPTCHA reCAPTCHA” I now see 218 results with the one described above ranking third.

Google Captcha (reCAPTCHA) by BestWebSoft – 90K active installs
Login No Captcha reCAPTCHA By Robert Peake – 10K active installs
No CAPTCHA reCAPTCHA By MailOptin Team – 10K active installs

Here’s the thing..

No #1 is NOT free for “contact forms” only login and comment forms.

No #2 is free but cannot be configured for each form including logins, comments and contact. I only want it for contact forms.

Ah well, better the devil you know.

September 2018

After a flood of spam originating through our WordPress Contact forms with No CAPTCHA reCAPTCHA, we needed a fix.

We now employ these 2 methods to Stop Contact Form 7 Spam in WordPress

Plugin: I’m not a robot CAPATCHA

No CAPTCHA reCAPTCHA