What is Captcha?

Captcha is one effective tool used to protect websites from automated bots and malicious activities, spam and other security concerns of applications that receives data. Whether you realize it or not, you have likely encountered Captcha multiple times while browsing the internet. But what exactly is Captcha, and how does it work? Let’s delve into the world of Captcha and explore its significance in online security.

The Purpose of Captcha

Captcha, an acronym for “Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart,” serves as a gatekeeper between humans and automated bots attempting to access online platforms. Its primary purpose is to verify that the user interacting with a website or online service is indeed a human.

The Evolution of Captcha

The concept of Captcha was first introduced in the late 1990s by researchers at Carnegie Mellon University. Initially, Captcha utilized distorted or warped text that humans could decipher, but bots found difficult to read accurately. This method effectively prevented automated programs from accessing sensitive areas or overwhelming websites with spam.

However, as technology advanced, so did the capabilities of bots. Traditional text-based Captcha became less reliable, leading to the development of more sophisticated and innovative approaches.

The first captcha were very simple and in some cases as simple as text as an image to make life harder for bots to decipher but as bots and their engineers became sophisticated and could read text on image it became easier for those bots to read even distorted and complicated text on image. even shapes, colors and patterns couldn’t stop a bot from reading the text.

Importance of Captcha in Online Security

Captcha plays a vital role in safeguarding websites and online services from various threats, including automated spam, brute-force attacks, and unauthorized access attempts. By accurately identifying and distinguishing human users from bots, Captcha helps maintain the integrity and reliability of online platforms. and in some cases prevents fraudulent behaviour like mass purchasing of a limited-time-offer and re-selling those products/services.

Moreover, Captcha serves as an additional layer of security when combined with other protective measures, such as email authentication protocols like SPF and DMARC. It complements strategies to combat phishing attacks and protects sensitive information during identity verification processes and whenever our systems consumes data or information from 3rd party source like a potential buyer, consumer, user, applicant and more.

Limitations and Accessibility Considerations

While Captcha is a valuable security measure, it does come with certain limitations and considerations. One aspect is accessibility for individuals with disabilities. Visual challenges, such as image-based Captcha, can present difficulties for visually impaired users. As a result, it is important to ensure alternative options, like audio-based Captcha, are available to cater to diverse user needs.

Additionally, the evolving capabilities of bots mean that some sophisticated attacks can bypass traditional Captcha systems. This necessitates ongoing advancements in Captcha technology to stay one step ahead of malicious actors.

Create a reCAPTCHA with google

First go to reCAPTCHA admin using this link, to create our reCAPTCHA we’ll want to fill in the provided form. however before we continue let’s understand the difference between enterprise reCAPTCHA to classic reCAPTCHA.

Classic reCAPTCHA:

1. Purpose: Classic reCAPTCHA is primarily designed to distinguish between human users and automated bots to prevent spam and abuse on websites.
2. User Experience: It typically presents users with a challenge, such as identifying and selecting specific images or solving a simple puzzle, to prove their human identity.
3. Implementation: Classic reCAPTCHA is relatively easy to implement on websites using Google’s provided API. It requires adding a piece of JavaScript code to the website and configuring the necessary HTML elements.
4. Free of Charge: Classic reCAPTCHA is available for free to website owners, with the trade-off being that it occasionally presents more challenging or distorted images to users to improve machine learning models.

reCAPTCHA Enterprise:

1. Purpose: reCAPTCHA Enterprise extends the functionality of classic reCAPTCHA to provide advanced features for protecting websites and online services from automated abuse and fraudulent activities.
2. Customizable User Experience: reCAPTCHA Enterprise allows website owners to customize the user experience by tailoring the reCAPTCHA challenges to suit their specific needs and preferences.
3. Advanced Risk Analysis: It provides more advanced risk analysis capabilities to evaluate user interactions, combining behavioral data, user reputation, and machine learning models to determine the likelihood of a user being a bot or a legitimate human.
4. Cost and Support: reCAPTCHA Enterprise is a paid service, and the pricing varies based on usage. It also includes technical support and additional features like granular analytics and reporting.

In summary, classic reCAPTCHA is a simpler and free solution primarily focused on preventing spam and abuse, while reCAPTCHA Enterprise offers more advanced customization, risk analysis, and support options for websites and online services that require a higher level of protection against automated abuse and fraud.

1. those are our limitation of usage. for most part it will be enough and all you need. however if you estimate large amount of traffic it best to contact reCAPTCHA cloud sales team.
2. fill in the label, it mostly for yourself to difference between multipile setups of reCAPTCHA.
3. choose the reCAPTCHA type you want for your site. read here more how to choose the right reCAPTCHA for your application.

above, you’ll need to add your domain or google cloud platform integration.

Google reCaptcha Pricing

for most moderate usage, classic reCAPTCHA is free to use and enterprise is free up to 1M calls. below is a table of type of API calls and their costs per 1,000 calls. further than 10M calls you’ll want to contact cloud sales team.

API	1 to 1,000,000 calls per month	1,000,001 to 10,000,000 calls per month	More than 10,000,000 calls per month
assessments.create	Free	$1 per 1,000 calls	Contact our Cloud sales team
password.check	Free	$1 per 1,000 calls
siteverify	Free	$1 per 1,000 calls
Token verification(for Google Cloud Armor)	Free	$1 per 1,000 calls

All API calls count toward the 1,000,000 free calls. to see a full detailed information about reCaptcha pricing check this page.