How to Add CAPTCHA to WordPress Login and Registration Form

Do you want to add CAPTCHA to WordPress site’s registration and login forms?

WordPress user registration and login pages are frequently great targets for hackers, spammers, and brute force assaults. The best strategy to defend your website against “bots” and other “malicious software” is to use CAPTCHA.

This article will show you how to add CAPTCHA to your WordPress site’s login and registration form.

Table of Content

• What is Captcha?
• Why Use reCAPTCHA for WordPress Login and Registration?
• Default WordPress Login and Registration Forms
• Add CAPTCHA to WordPress Login and Registration Forms with LoginPress (In 5 Steps)
• Step 1: Install and Activate LoginPress
• Step 2: Go to WordPress Admin Dashboard
• Step 3: Register Your Site to Get reCAPTCHA API Keys
• Step 4: Adding reCAPTCHA to WordPress with LoginPress
• Step 5: Adding a reCAPTCHA to Your Login Page and Login Form
• Final Thoughts
• Frequently Asked Questions

What is Captcha?

A CAPTCHA is computer software that differentiates between human and automated users. It does that by imparting a check that would be pretty easy for a human person to pass but more complicated and almost impossible for automatic scripts to get right.

Initially, CAPTCHA users were asked to enter the text they used to see in the images. These images had random letters, words, or numbers with a distorted style.

So, developers tried something that would have convenient for the users. Finally, they introduced reCAPTCHA.  

The Google reCAPTCHA was introduced in 2009 to make CAPTCHA. It is helping, since, for having a secure and risk-free site.

However, it needed to fix the problem as these were still annoying for the users and almost ruined the website’s user experience (UX).

As a solution, Google introduced No CAPTCHA reCAPTCHA. It used AI and user interactions to catch spambots.

reCAPTCHA has an easy checkbox for human users to click with I’m not a robot text on the login/registration form. 

Sometimes, you might experience more complex objects to be identified for other suspicious traffic, i.e., bots, such as identifying Traffic Lights, Houses, Cats, and more.

Why Use reCAPTCHA for WordPress Login and Registration?

WordPress login/registration pages often fall victim to spammers, brute force attacks, and more.

The attacker’s main motive behind the attack is to get unauthorized access to your WordPress admin area. Sometimes, the attackers crash the entire network of websites.  They do so just to get a ransom.

There are many ways to help you protect your website against this scenario, like using a  WordPress firewall plugin, adding password protection, and more. 

Google offers reCAPTCHA,  a CAPTCHA-like system, to help you protect your website from spam or abuse. It is like a shield to your website that protects you against “bots” and other “malicious software.” 

Default WordPress Login and Registration Forms

By default, WordPress Login Form has the standard WordPress features. (As shown in the image below)

The default WordPress registration form allows the users to create an account on your site.

Many website owners want to customize the default WordPress login/registration pages. They not only customize the default WordPress login/registration page with their logo, styles, etc. but want to do something for security. Mostly, they use different plugins to meet their need to swipe the default WordPress login/registration pages.

We’ll show you how to use reCAPTCHA on the custom WordPress login/registration page.

Add CAPTCHA to WordPress Login and Registration Forms with LoginPress (In 5 Steps)

Let’s take a look at 5 easy steps to quickly add CAPTCHA to WordPress site using one of the best WordPress plugins, LoginPress.

Step 1: Install and Activate LoginPress

The first thing you’ll need to do is install and activate the LoginPress plugin. For more details, see this step-by-step guide on how to install a plugin in WordPress.

LoginPress free is enough for most of you to swap the dull look and feel of the default login page. But if you want to work on the login form regarding security, you’ll need LoginPress Pro.

Note: LoginPress reCAPTCHA is a premium feature. 

Step 2: Go to WordPress Admin Dashboard

Note: Here, we’ve assumed that you have already upgraded to LoginPress Pro and have activated the License Key. 

First off, you’ll need to log in to your WordPress site. Go to the WordPress admin dashboard and navigate LoginPress > Settings.

Next, a new screen with Settings will open up. Under the Settings tab, you’ll find the enable reCaptcha toggle button. Enable LoginPress reCaptcha by toggling on enable reCAPTCHA button.

Once you enable reCAPTCHA, several other fields will open up, including Recaptcha type, Site Key, Secret Key, Choose a theme, Choose a language, and enable reCAPTCHA 

It will let you choose a Google reCAPTCHA type, theme, language, and where you want to place reCAPTCHA, i.e., Login Form, Lost your password, or Register Form.

Easy, right?

To register your site with Google reCAPTCHA, click on the link shown in the image below.

Step 3: Register Your Site to Get reCAPTCHA API Keys

You must go to the Google reCAPTCHA website to get these API keys.

You’ll need to enter your website name in the Label field and select a reCAPTCHA type. In our case, we’ve chosen the reCAPTCHA v2; I’m not a robot, checkbox.

Note: Make sure to go for the type of reCaptcha same as that you have selected in LoginPress Settings.

Next, you need to Add a domain ( your domain name), e.g., yousite.com.

You’ll need to Enter email addresses in the Owners section to add a new owner.

After that, you need to checkbox next to “Accept the reCAPTCHA Terms of Service” and the ‘Send alerts to owners’ box to get email alerts about suspicious traffic on your site.

Once done, click on the Submit button.

Step 4: Adding reCAPTCHA to WordPress with LoginPress 

Next, a new screen with the Site Key & Secret Key will open up. 

Copy the Site Key & Secret Key and paste them into LoginPress reCaptcha Settings.

Note: You can choose between a Light or Dark theme if you select the reCaptcha V2; I’m not a robot. Select the reCaptcha score from 0.1 to 1.0 if you choose the reCaptcha V3.

Step 5: Adding a reCAPTCHA to Your Login Page and Login Form

You can enable reCaptcha on Login, Registration, and Forget Form where you want.

Click the Save button once the changes have been made. 

Final Thoughts

This article helped you understand how to successfully add CAPTCHA to WordPress site. You can easily make your site protected against bots and automated scripts. It won’t let the user log in to your site unless they pass through a simple test that proves whether they are human or a bot.

Enjoy a well-maintained, secured, and protected WordPress site. 

That’s all we helped you with How to Add CAPTCHA to WordPress Login and Registration Form. You may also want to check out How To Redirect Woocommerce Users after login and How To Customize WordPress Login Page.

Frequently Asked Questions