Spam registrations can be a headache for WordPress membership sites specially the free ones. One way to avoid them is by using CAPTCHA which effectively blocks spam bots on both login and registration forms. In this article, we will show you how to add captcha in WordPress login and registration form.
Video Tutorial
If you don’t like the video or need more instructions, then continue reading.
First thing you need to do is install and activate the Better WordPress reCAPTCHA plugin. Upon activation, the plugin will add a new menu item labeled BWP reCAPT in your WordPress admin. Clicking on it will take you to the plugin’s general settings page.
You will be asked to provide the public and private API keys to use Google’s recaptcha API. To obtain these API keys, you need to visit reCAPTCHA website and click on the Get reCAPTCHA button.
On the next screen, you need click on the Signup or Sign in button and login using your Google account. Once you are logged in, you will be asked to enter a domain name where you plan to use reCAPTCHA.
Next, you will need to click on My Account tab and then select your domain name. This will take you to the page with your public and private API keys.
Copy and paste your public and private API keys on the plugin’s general settings page in your WordPress admin area. Below the API keys, under the Plugin Functionality section you need to check the boxes next to Registration form and Login form options.
Better WordPress reCAPTCHA plugin also allows you to add reCAPTCHA to your WordPress comments form. If you want, then you can also enable reCAPTCHA for comments.
That’s all, you can now click on the Save Changes button to store your settings.
To see the recaptcha in action, logout of your WordPress admin area. You will see recaptcha enabled on your login form. Click on the register link, and you will also see it in action on your WordPress user registration page as well.
W hope this article helped you add CAPTCHA in WordPress login and registration forms.
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Do i need to upgrade my site to business class to instal this plugin to my site? Please help me out
Please see our guide on the difference between self hosted WordPress.org vs free WordPress.com blog.
Hi, new to wordpress…got the Captcha loaded and it is functioning, although it is not acting as a required field.
My form code is custom to my CRM program, so I had it as html using a text box. I added google’s snippits in the places google recommended, and with the Captcha installed it is collecting the submitted data whether the captcha check box has been checked or not. Kind of defeats the purpose. Can anyone advise where I may have gone wrong?
How to Add CAPTCHA in WordPress site at the home page itself. That will ensure that they is no automated traffic to my webpage. Could you help me with this?
what is bmw recaptcha runing in localhost……
reCAPTCHA does not appear on login page. It appears else where on our website but on the login page. this is really strange. anyone can help solving this issue.
Just thought I’d let all know
Plugin was updated to 2.0.3 (2016-01-13)
Thanks.
Do you have a hand coded version instead of using a plugin?
Hello
i want to add captcha to my contact form in WordPress theme. How can i add it ?
How to add reCaptcha in Login and Registration page not in wp-admin. Any solution
Hi there! Finally, useful article. We have been getting lots of spam registrations for our blog and today i was trying to find any plugin to prevent that. There is practically no info anywhere. Your article surely helped.
However, google recaptcha is using old version of it, with numbers from signs and stuff, when latest version uses the “i’m not a robot” thing.
Are you aware of any upcoming updates?
Check the plugin’s page and author profile to see if you can reach out to them.
The plugin has not been updated for 10 months and is not tested with Version 4.2.2.
Do you have any other suggestions?
Kindest
Pattie
Please see this article: Should you install plugins not tested with latest WordPress version.
I would like add it without plugin do u have any tutorial for that please ?
Simply deactivate the plugin.
Hi,
I applied the plugin to my site but it appeared “Could not open socket” on wp-login.php What can I do to retrieve back to normal?
Thx
Great article on how to install a captcha, however I find that captchas are user unfriendly and we do have to keep the goal in mind. Even with a captcha, higher traffic membership website are susceptible to spammers hiring other people to fill in captchas (quite common).
In my opinion, for the majority of blogs a hybrid approach with honeypot email fields, (maybe a drag-and-drop captcha) would be enough. I think that if spam could be reduced to sustainable levels, you shouldn’t sacrifice usability.
We agree that captcha are not very user-friendly. This is why we do not recommend using them on comments. However, using them on login and registration page is a lesser evil. Users will only have to fill in captcha when registering. They can check the remember me box for login and will not have to fill CAPTCHA for a long time.
Captcha may not eliminate spam registrations completey but it will certainly block many common brute force and automated registration bots.
Do you have a CAPTCHA site that is better now? The one listed is almost gone a year without updating.