User registration supports the google reCaptcha feature. reCAPTCHA is a free service that protects your site from spam and abuse. It uses advanced risk analysis techniques to tell humans and bots apart.

Obtain Google reCAPTCHA API Keys #

Access the reCAPTCHA Console

• Navigate to the Google reCAPTCHAand sign in with your Google account.
• Click the Get Started button to register a new site.

Integrating reCAPTCHA with User Registration #

After you acquire the Site Key and Secret Key, go to your WordPress dashboard. Then, go to User Registration and Membership-> Settings -> Captcha. Here, you need to choose the reCaptcha type first.

About reCAPTCHA type:

There are two types of reCAPTCHA that you can integrate into your site i.e. reCAPTCHA v2 and the NEW reCAPTCHA v3.

reCAPTCHA v2 tracks users’ actions to identify bots. There are two options in this: Checkbox reCAPTCHA and Invisible reCAPTCHA

reCAPTCHA v3 returns a score for each request from 0.0 to 0.1. And, depending on the score the valid requests are passed. So, it doesn’t track user friction like v2.

reCAPTCHA v3 returns a score for each request (1.0 is very likely a human, 0.0 is very likely a bot). 

Google reCAPTCHA uses algorithms to analyze user interactions and determine if they're human or automated bots. These algorithms observe actions like mouse movements, typing, and browsing behavior to assign a score to each interaction. If the score is low, indicating potential bot activity, reCAPTCHA may prompt the user to complete additional challenges, like selecting specific pictures. Conversely, if the score is high, close to 1, it's likely a genuine human interaction, and reCAPTCHA allows the user to continue without further interruption. Therefore, the lower the score, the more likely the user will need to prove they're human.

In the Threshold Score area, you can set the score threshold from 0.0 to 1.0. Any requests resulting in a score equal to or greater than that threshold will be approved. Any requests resulting in a score less than the threshold set below will be blocked, so be judicious in how you set this.

Enabling reCAPTCHA in Individual Registration Forms #

Then, you need to enable reCAPTCHA Support in the Individual Form Settings. For this, go to Form Settings -> General Settings and you can see the Enable CAPTCHA Support option.

Now, you can select which captcha you want to set for this particular form. You can see the options from the given dropdown.

Enabling reCAPTCHA for Login Form #

Finally, you can also enable the reCAPTCHA feature for your login forms.

For this go to User Registration and Membership -> All Forms -> Login Forms -> Form settings ->Advanced and Check the Enable Captcha checkbox.

Don’t forget to click on the Save Changes button.