
Contact forms are an excellent way to get individuals interested in your website, and WordPress makes it easy to add one with plugins. But if they don't have enough protection, spam can quickly fill them up. This post will teach you how to use the security feature known as CAPTCHA to safeguard your WordPress contact forms. It only takes a few minutes to add reCAPTCHA to contact form 7, but it can save you a lot of trouble in the long run.
What is CAPTCHA, and why do you need them in WordPress?
A CAPTCHA is a program that is meant to tell the difference between people and spam bots, which crawl the web looking for contact forms that aren't protected. Most CAPTCHAs work by setting up a test or trap that people can easily get around, but robots can't. CAPTCHAs have changed because spam bots are always getting better. Google made an improved version of CAPTCHA called reCAPTCHA. You can easily add reCAPTCHA to contact form 7 and stop most spam attacks.
Because WordPress contact forms generally work by sending the information to your website's database or your inbox (or both), it is essential to stop spam in WordPress contact forms. No one wants to wake up to a full inbox or a database that has suddenly grown three times as big. So if you keep spam bots from getting into your contact form, you won't have to spend time and energy mopping up after them.
The guide to integrating CAPTCHA into WordPress:

WPForms plugin installation:
Since WPForms Pro is the most popular plugin for creating contact forms in WordPress, it will be used throughout this tutorial. This guide to the best alternatives to WPForms might help you make the proper choice if you are still deciding which WordPress form plugin you want to use. WPForms Lite, a free plugin from WPForms, provides all the features you need to create and manage forms on your site, such as a robust form builder and several pre-made design layouts. While reCAPTCHA and hCaptcha can be added to a WordPress form with WPForms Lite, the Custom Captcha feature requires a paid upgrade to WPForms Pro. When the plugin has been installed and activated, the next step is to create an account with hCaptcha.
Registering with hCaptcha:
The next step is setting up hCaptcha once WPForms has been installed on your website. Fortunately, doing this is very simple. To get started, sign up for a new account at hCaptcha.com. To establish a new account, click Signup and follow the on-screen instructions. You will first be given the option to select either a free or paid hCaptcha package. We advise selecting the "Add hCaptcha for Publishers to my website or app" button and selecting the "Free" option. It will then be time to obtain your sitekey and secret key.
Create a Secret Key and SiteKey:
Fortunately, getting started won't require much of your time. Your account's secret key and initial sitekey will both be generated by hCaptcha automatically. Both must be copied, but be careful not to mix them up because they each have different functions. When you finish a few configuration procedures, it will send you to a new page where you can see all the site keys you've made. You will only have the one site key that hCaptcha automatically produced when registering your account because you are just getting started. The next thing you need to do is add your website to this site key. To do this:
- Select the SiteKey's Settings option.
- Scroll down to General Information on the new page. You'll be asked to provide your hostname, which is simply your website's domain name.
- Click Add new domain after entering your domain name without the "www.https://" prefix.
The last optional step is to scroll down to Passing Threshold and, if desired, modify the difficulty level. The default setting for the passing threshold is moderate, which we'd consider excellent. Then, when you click Save, you're prepared to return to WordPress and make changes. Have your sitekey and secret key on hand because you will need both.
In WordPress, enter your secret and site key:

Click WPForms » Settings » CAPTCHA in the WordPress dashboard. You'll then be given the option to select the kind of CAPTCHA you want to employ. For example, you now need to choose hCaptcha.
Integrate CAPTCHA into a Contact Form:
Using the form builder, you can add hCaptcha to a brand-new WPForms form or an already-existing one. It's pretty simple!
- Enter a form name, pick one of the 400+ available templates, or click Blank Form to create a new form from scratch.
- The form builder will open with both options selected. The hCaptcha field is located on the left-hand side of this page's Standard Fields section. To activate it, click on it.
- Click WPForms » Add New in the WordPress dashboard. You should now see a message stating that hCaptcha has been activated in the top right corner of the page.
Conclusion:
That's all there is to it! Now, you may use hCaptcha to add CAPTCHA to a WordPress page whenever you want. All the best!