It does this by presenting a challenge that is easy for humans to solve but difficult for some bots to figure out. ReCAPTCHA is a specific type of CAPTCHA that includes a risk analysis engine to keep automated software from engaging in abusive activities on your site. reCAPTCHA: What’s the Difference?Ī CAPTCHA is a challenge-response test used to ensure that a human is generating the response. These bots are designed to mimic human behavior, making it difficult for reCAPTCHA to tell them apart from authentic users. Sophisticated bots can still get through the CAPTCHA using strategies like automated form filling and IP masking. It can stop some bad bots, but not all of them.

ReCAPTCHA is a tool that aims to shield websites from automated attacks. We’ll also take a look at the best reCAPTCHA alternatives that can help you stop bad bots for good.įirst, let’s take a closer look at how reCAPTCHA works in the first place. In this article, we’ll explore why reCAPTCHA can’t stop modern automated attacks. In fact, reCAPTCHA has become increasingly vulnerable to sophisticated bad bots over the years. Over 6.3 million websites rely on reCAPTCHA to protect their websites from malicious bots.īut how reliable is reCAPTCHA? Can it really stop bad bots? In 2009, Google acquired reCAPTCHA, which you could describe as a spin-off of the original CAPTCHA we just mentioned.Īlthough there are over 20 prominent CAPTCHA vendors today, Google’s reCAPTCHA is the most widely used solution. With the explosive growth of the Internet in the early 2000s, CAPTCHA became a popular way to stop bots from signing up for email accounts and other online services. A lot has changed since then, including the intelligence of cyber threats. CAPTCHA quickly evolved into a method to prevent other types of automated attacks, such as ticket scalping and blog comment spam.ĬAPTCHA was invented over 25 years ago. It was designed to stop bots from submitting URLs to search engines. The CAPTCHA test was first introduced in 1997. That’s not to say that reCAPTCHA didn’t have its time in the spotlight. Believe it or not, this is precisely what’s happening with reCAPTCHA today. Even the most groundbreaking technologies need to retire and eventually make way for better solutions.

Captcha solving bots