Open Source Self-Hosted reCAPTCHA Alternatives

reCAPTCHA is not available as a self-hosted solution but there are some alternatives for power users and business that want to host a solution on-premise. The best open source Self-Hosted alternative is Cap Captcha. If that doesn't suit you, our users have ranked more than 25 alternatives to reCAPTCHA and eight of them are open source and available as a self-hosted solution so hopefully you can find a suitable replacement. Other interesting open source Self-Hosted alternatives to reCAPTCHA are Anubis, ALTCHA, mosparo and mCaptcha.

Copy a direct link to this comment to your clipboard
reCAPTCHA alternatives page was last updated

Alternatives list

  1. Cap Captcha icon
     25 likes

    Lightweight, modern open-source CAPTCHA alternative designed using SHA-256 proof-of-work.

    33 Cap Captcha alternatives

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Self-Hosted
    • Docker
     
    |
    1
    Cap Captcha vs reCAPTCHA Comments
    Laney Medallion
    Negative
    0

    I tried cap captcha on my site and the bots just kept on spamming me.

    • Cap Captcha is Free and Open SourcereCAPTCHA is Freemium and Proprietary
    • Cap Captcha is Customizable, Lightweight and Privacy focusedreCAPTCHA is not according to our users
  2. Anubis icon
     16 likes

    Applies sha256 proof-of-work challenges to incoming HTTP requests, targeting AI crawlers, bots that ignore robots.txt, and automated scrapers, protecting server resources and preventing unwanted search engine indexing for privacy-focused sites.

    49 Anubis alternatives

    Cost / License

    • Free Personal
    • Open Source (MIT)

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Self-Hosted
    • Go (Programming Language)
    • Docker
     
    |
    1
    Anubis vs reCAPTCHA Comments
    Jesus Deboussier
    Negative
    0

    I put this on my company page and now my colleagues think I'm into furries

    Review by a new / low-activity user.
    • Anubis is Free Personal and Open SourcereCAPTCHA is Freemium and Proprietary
    • Anubis is Lightweight and Security-focusedreCAPTCHA is not according to our users
  3. ALTCHA icon
     8 likes

    ALTCHA is a privacy-first solution built to help developers and website owners stop bots, spam, and automated abuse — without making things harder for real users. It replaces traditional CAPTCHA systems with a smarter, quieter approach to verification and threat detection.

    20 ALTCHA alternatives

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source (MIT)

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Self-Hosted
    • Software as a Service (SaaS)
     
    |
    1
    ALTCHA vs reCAPTCHA Comments
    Jesus Deboussier
    Negative
    0

    Its proof of work only - this is a delay mechanism only so I don't know why its in the "stop bots" category?

    Review by a new / low-activity user.
    • ALTCHA is Free and Open SourcereCAPTCHA is Freemium and Proprietary
    • ALTCHA is Privacy focused, Security-focused and LightweightreCAPTCHA is not according to our users
  4. mosparo icon
     5 likes

    mosparo is the modern solution for protecting your online forms from spam. The protection method is quite simple: mosparo blocks spam using rules matching the form’s data. The detection method is comparable to an e-mail spam filter.

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source (MIT)

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Online
    • Self-Hosted
    • Python
    • JavaScript
    • Drupal
    • Django
    • PHP
    • Mautic
    • Wordpress
     
  5. mCaptcha icon
     4 likes

    A no-nonsense CAPTCHA system with seamless UX | Backend component.

    Cost / License

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Online
    • Self-Hosted
    • Software as a Service (SaaS)
     
    |
    1
    mCaptcha vs reCAPTCHA Comments
    Biep
    Positive
    0

    It is Free and Open Source. Inspectable.

    • mCaptcha is Free and Open SourcereCAPTCHA is Freemium and Proprietary
    • mCaptcha is Privacy focusedreCAPTCHA is not according to our users
  6. conCaptcha is a self-hosted captcha which is faster, more user-friendly and more customizable than other captchas - available for PHP and ASP.NET websites. Users no longer have to read any annoying text images, solve difficult math equations or play any puzzle games.

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source (MIT)

    Platforms

    • Self-Hosted
     
  7. Multilingual captcha developed by and for EU countries.

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Platforms

    • Self-Hosted
     
  8. Captcheck icon
     Like

    Open source reCAPTCHA alternative.

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Platforms

    • Online
    • Self-Hosted
     
8 of 8 reCAPTCHA alternatives