European Alternatives to Google reCAPTCHA

ALTCHA

Czechia

Open Source

Self-Hostable

ALTCHA is a European-based platform dedicated to providing cutting-edge spam and abuse protection for websites and apps. With a focus on privacy and security, ALTCHA offers a GDPR-compliant Captcha alternative designed to...

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Captcha

Austria

Captcha is a European company specializing in solutions that protect websites and online services from automated abuse. Founded with the aim of enhancing security and user experience, Captcha offers innovative technology designed...

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CaptchaFox

Germany

CaptchaFox is a European company that specializes in providing advanced CAPTCHA solutions aimed at enhancing online security and user experience on websites. With a focus on promoting user-friendly verification methods, CaptchaFox offers...

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Friendly Captcha

Germany

Friendly Captcha is a privacy-focused security solution designed to protect websites from automated bots while preserving the user experience. Unlike traditional CAPTCHA systems, which often require users to solve puzzles or complete...

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Swetrix CAPTCHA

Ukraine

Open Source

Self-Hostable

Swetrix CAPTCHA is an innovative solution designed to enhance website security by effectively preventing automated bots from accessing or exploiting online resources. By implementing Swetrix CAPTCHA, businesses can ensure that their platforms...

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Trustcaptcha

Germany

Trustcaptcha is an innovative tool designed to enhance website security and user experience through the use of advanced CAPTCHA solutions. It aims to differentiate between human users and automated bots in a...

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Did we miss one? Feel free to submit a suggestion!

Submit Suggestion

European alternatives to Google reCAPTCHA include ALTCHA (Czechia), Friendly Captcha (Germany), CaptchaFox (Germany), Captcha.eu (Austria), Trustcaptcha (Germany) and Swetrix CAPTCHA (Ukraine). reCAPTCHA is the bot protection of Google in the United States and sits on millions of contact forms, logins and sign-up pages. It is now part of Google Cloud and billed by the number of assessments.

Why sites replace reCAPTCHA

Data and consent. reCAPTCHA analyses signals from the visitor's browser and sends them to Google. Many European sites therefore treat it as a service that needs consent or an entry in the privacy policy.
Cost beyond the free tier. Google lists a free allowance of 10,000 assessments per month. From 10,001 to 100,000 assessments a flat fee of 8 US dollars applies, above that 1 US dollar per 1,000.
Friction. Image puzzles and checkbox challenges cost conversions on forms.

The European alternatives compared

Tool	Country	Approach	Notes
ALTCHA	Czechia	Proof of work, no cookies	MIT-licensed open source, self-hosted for free, managed plans from 47 euros per month
Friendly Captcha	Germany	Invisible proof of work	No HTTP cookies or persistent storage, EU endpoint
CaptchaFox	Germany	Zero-friction challenges	Built and hosted in the EU, API compatible with reCAPTCHA
Captcha.eu	Austria	Invisible protection	No cookies, requests processed in Austria on commercial plans
Trustcaptcha	Germany	Bot score with adaptive proof of work	Part of the TrustComponent infrastructure
Swetrix CAPTCHA	Ukraine	Cookieless captcha	Open source

How to switch

Pick a tool and create a site key.
Replace the reCAPTCHA script and widget on every form. CaptchaFox states that swapping script and keys is enough because its API matches reCAPTCHA.
Update the server-side verification call and test forms with real submissions.
Remove reCAPTCHA from the privacy policy, the consent banner and the content security policy.

Vendor statements about GDPR compliance are no legal advice, so check the data processing agreement for each tool.