Replaces reCAPTCHA

European alternatives to reCAPTCHA

European CAPTCHA services for forms and logins

Browse the category: Captcha services · Web analytics services

reCAPTCHA is Google's CAPTCHA service, used to keep bots away from signup forms, comment boxes, login pages and checkouts. It scores visitors on a mixture of signals and, when it is unsure, shows a challenge. Because it takes minutes to add and is instantly recognisable to users, it appears on an enormous number of websites.

A CAPTCHA loads on your pages before a visitor has agreed to anything, and it reports back to its operator about everyone who arrives. That is a difficult position to defend in a privacy notice, and a particular problem for public sector sites. A European alternative to reCAPTCHA does the same job with a European operator. Friendly Captcha and Trustcaptcha use approaches that ask little of the user, and CaptchaFox and Private Captcha are further options.

European options

4
service Country Hosting Open source Free plan Status
Captcha Austria EU hosted — — EU controlled
ALTCHA Czech Republic EU hosted ✓ ✓ EU controlled
mCaptcha Open source Self-hosted ✓ —
mosparo Switzerland Self-hosted ✓ — EU controlled
Our pick

Captcha

Austrian CAPTCHA and bot protection from the Krone group

captcha.eu is a hosted bot-protection service from Captcha GmbH in Vienna. It offers invisible or widget-based checks and integrations for common website platforms without image-selection puzzles.

AustriaEU hostedEU controlled

ALTCHA

Czech captcha with an open source widget and hosted or self-hosted options

Czech RepublicEU hostedOpen sourceFree planEU controlled

Self-hosted and open source

Open source projects you can run yourself. Not necessarily made in Europe, but nobody else holds your data.

mCaptcha

Open source proof of work captcha service

Open sourceOpen source

mosparo

Open source spam protection for web forms

SwitzerlandOpen sourceEU controlled

Services without verified European control

Kept here for transparency, but excluded from the European options and totals. How we classify services →

Trustcaptcha

Privacy friendly captcha from Germany

GermanyEU hosted Ownership reviewed, controller unresolved

Friendly Captcha

Captcha service from Germany

Germany Ownership reviewed, controller unresolved

CaptchaFox

Hosted CAPTCHA and bot protection from Germany

GermanyEU hosted Ownership reviewed, controller unresolved

Private Captcha

Privacy friendly captcha service from Estonia

EstoniaEU hosted Ownership reviewed, controller unresolved

Myra EU CAPTCHA

Privacy first captcha service built in Germany

GermanyEU hosted Ownership reviewed, controller unresolved

Swetrix CAPTCHA

Privacy focused captcha from Ukraine

UkraineOpen source Ownership reviewed, controller unresolved

Swetrix

Open source privacy analytics from Ukraine

UkraineOpen source Ownership reviewed, controller unresolved

Questions

Do European CAPTCHAs still show puzzles to users?

Several of them work mostly in the background rather than presenting image puzzles. Friendly Captcha and Private Captcha describe their approach on their own sites, so check what your visitors would actually see.

How hard is it to replace reCAPTCHA on an existing form?

It is usually a script tag and a server side verification call, so the change is contained. Trustcaptcha, CaptchaFox and Myra EU CAPTCHA all publish integration guides for common frameworks.

Is there an option that also covers analytics?

Swetrix CAPTCHA comes from the same company as Swetrix, so a site could source both from one supplier. Whether that suits you depends on whether you want your analytics and bot protection in one place.