Hey everyone! I'm on the hunt for an open-source, self-hosted CAPTCHA solution that features a Smart "invisible" mode. Essentially, I want a system that only shows the spam checkbox when it detects suspicious behavior, similar to how Cloudflare's Turnstile operates. While I think Turnstile has the best performance and UX/UI out there, it's not open-source, which is a bummer. I've found Altcha, but their Smart "invisible" mode comes as a paid add-on called Sentinel, and I'm not a fan of that. I'd really appreciate any tips or recommendations for effective, high-performance, user-friendly spam protection for a contact form!
3 Answers
From what I've seen, your top options for hidden, auto-solving CAPTCHAs are pretty much limited to Google or Cloudflare, which, as you said, aren't open-source. I haven't come across anything new in the last few months, either. Looks like Altcha remains your best bet right now!
Honestly, I don't think an open-source, self-hosted solution can fully deliver what you're looking for. The best CAPTCHA systems adapt based on real-time data from usage, which is hard to manage without being proprietary. Altcha seems more like a proof-of-work system that could stop denial of service attacks, but it might not be effective against spam and fraud.
Honestly, I'm more concerned about annoying users than dealing with a few spam messages. I'd just accept all form submissions and add techniques like hidden fields and timing. That's a simpler way to screen out the bots while keeping things user-friendly! Plus, you can create a spam folder to sort the submissions.
True, and altcha is mainly a computational hurdle. Most traditional systems, like Google reCAPTCHA, are less effective lately since many bots have figured them out. Maybe going open-source isn't that bad after all!