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Contact Form 7 (CF7) added support for reCAPTCHA v3 in version 5.1 following repeated requests from CF7 users.
Immediately after this update, there was a large number of questions added in the CF7 Support Forum, asking for answers to problems users were experiencing with using reCAPTCHA v3 in Contact Form 7.
If people are having problems using reCAPTCHA v3 in Contact Form 7, one option to consider, is adding an additional plugin that retains support for reCAPTCHA v2 in Contact Form 7.
In this article, we make people aware of some free Contact Form 7 extensions available as alternatives to using reCAPTCHA v3 in Contact Form 7.
Our Recommended Alternatives to reCAPTCHA v3
You can install any one of the following plugins to retain support for reCAPTCHA v2 in Contact Form 7:
- Contact Form 7 – reCaptcha v2
- Invisible reCaptcha for WordPress
- Advanced noCaptcha & invisible Captcha
- No CAPTCHA reCAPTCHA
- Contact Form 7 Captcha
Contact Form 7 – reCaptcha v2
Contact Form 7 – reCAPTCHA v2 brings the use of reCAPTCHA v2 and the [recaptcha] tag back.
When you install the plugin, you need to select reCAPTCHA v2 as your reCAPTCHA version.
You may also need to add the reCAPTCHA version 2 API keys
If this plugin is installed before updating Contact Form 7 from v5.0.5 to v5.1.1, it will carry over your old API keys.
Then you will be able to use Contact Form 7 with reCaptcha v2 as you did previously and use [recaptcha] tags in your existing or new Contact Form 7 forms.
Once installed and configured Contact Form 7 – reCaptcha v2 offers the same reCaptcha functionality you are used to in previous versions of Contact Form 7.
Invisible reCaptcha for WordPress
Invisible reCaptcha for WordPress combines Invisible reCaptcha by Google with your WordPress site.
With this plugin, you can:
- automatically bind the challenge to a button
- programmatically bind the challenge to a button or invoke the challenge
- programmatically invoke the challenge.
Once you select the type of challenge, you can add it to your Contact Form 7 forms. Here, only the most suspicious traffic will be asked to solve a captcha.
Furthermore, you can also customize your security preferences and add multiple captcha on the same form.
Contact Form 7 Extensions can give users many of the functions available in some of the well-known premium form plugins.
Advanced noCaptcha & invisible Captcha
Advanced noCaptcha and invisible Captcha brings noCaptcha or invisible Captcha in your Contact Form 7 forms.
You can select whether you want a noCaptcha or an invisible Captcha for your form. Moreover, you can add multiple captcha on the same page. You can also change the theme, size and the language of your captcha.
With this plugin, you just need to install the plugin and change the settings as you need. You can then add the captcha in your forms.
No CAPTCHA reCAPTCHA
No CAPTCHA reCAPTCHA simply adds the no CAPTCHA reCAPTCHA by Google to your WordPress site once you install the plugin.
This plugin lets you add the Captcha in your Contact Form 7 forms easily. You can even customize the theme for your Captcha. Further, the plugin also auto-detects the language and translates the captcha to the language used by the user.
You can add the captcha in the login, registration, and comment forms only with this plugin.
Contact Form 7 Captcha
Contact Form 7 Captcha protects your Contact Form 7 forms from spam and abuse.
Once you install and activate this plugin, you must add the site key and secret key in the Captcha Settings. Here, you can also customize the Invalid Captcha Error Message as you require.
You can then add the captcha in your forms by simply adding [cf7sr-simple-recaptcha] tag in your forms.
Our Favourite
Assuming you’ve made the decision not to use reCAPTCHA v3 for valid reasons.
Contact Form 7 – reCaptcha v2 because:
- Easy to install and activate
- Supports the familiar reCAPTCHA v2
- Supports
[recaptcha]tag - Easy to use
Our personal preference is actually to switch to using reCAPTCHA v3 in Contact Form 7.
Further reading
Have questions or need help?
If you are using the free version of CF7 Skins, you can get help via the CF7 Skins community and also the Contact Form 7 Support forum.
If you are using any of our CF7 Skins Add-ons, we provide Premium Email Support to help with your questions and problems.
