Description
Your login page is the single most attacked page on any WordPress site. Bots hit wp-login.php around the clock, guessing username and password combinations thousands of times a day. Captchinoo puts a human verification step in front of that form, so automated scripts are stopped before they ever reach your password check.
Install it, pick the captcha style you like, and you are protected. There is nothing else to configure.
Three captcha styles, one click apart
- Slide to unlock — a lightweight swipe slider, just like unlocking a phone. No external service, no API keys, works on desktop and touch devices.
- Icon captcha — the visitor picks the one icon that does not belong in the row. Friendly, image based, and no typing required.
- Google reCAPTCHA v2 — the familiar „I’m not a robot” checkbox, backed by Google’s own bot detection.
Why site owners choose Captchinoo
- No puzzles to read. No distorted letters and no math questions. Your users are not punished for logging in.
- Genuinely lightweight. Only the assets for the captcha you actually selected are loaded, and only on the login page. Nothing is queued on the front end of your site.
- Works with caching. The login page is never cached by page caching plugins, so Captchinoo stays reliable where other captcha plugins break.
- Translation ready. Every string is translatable and the plugin ships with full text domain support.
- Zero configuration required. The slide captcha works the moment you activate the plugin — no account, no keys, no signup.
Captchinoo Pro — three more ways to lock down your login
The free plugin gives you three captcha styles for your WordPress login form. Captchinoo Pro adds three stronger layers on top:
- Two factor authentication (2FA) — the most powerful protection in the plugin. 2FA adds a second identity check on top of the password: the user confirms the login from their mobile device, so a stolen, leaked, or guessed password on its own is no longer enough to get into your site.
- Google reCAPTCHA v3 — invisible protection that never interrupts your users. Instead of asking anyone to click a box or solve a challenge, reCAPTCHA v3 scores each visitor silently in the background from their interactions with your site. You can run it everywhere without affecting your conversion rate, and it works best when it has the most context about how people use your site.
- hCaptcha — an independent alternative to Google’s service. hCaptcha blocks automated bots, spam, and abuse by asking visitors to complete a simple verification challenge, and it is the popular choice for site owners who would rather not route their traffic through Google.
Pro includes everything in the free version, so you can switch between all six captcha styles at any time.
External services
This plugin can optionally use Google reCAPTCHA, a third party service, and only when you explicitly select „Google reCAPTCHA” as your captcha type and enter your own API keys.
When that option is active, the visitor’s browser loads Google’s reCAPTCHA script from https://www.google.com/recaptcha/api.js, and your server sends the captcha response token together with the visitor’s IP address to https://www.google.com/recaptcha/api/siteverify in order to confirm the challenge was solved. No data is transmitted to Google when the Slide or Icon captcha is selected, and the plugin never sends data anywhere else.
Google’s terms and privacy policy apply to that service: Terms of Service — Privacy Policy.
Support
If you have a problem, a question, or a feature request, please open a thread in the support forum. We answer every one. If Captchinoo helps keep your site safe, a review would mean a lot to us.
Screenshots



Installation
Automatic installation
- Go to Plugins > Add New in your WordPress dashboard.
- Search for Captchinoo Captcha.
- Click Install Now, then Activate.
- Go to Captcha free in the admin menu to choose your captcha type.
Manual installation
- Download the plugin
.zipfile. - Go to Plugins > Add New > Upload Plugin, choose the file, and click Install Now.
- Activate the plugin.
- Go to Captcha free in the admin menu to choose your captcha type.
The Slide captcha is enabled by default and needs no further setup. If you prefer Google reCAPTCHA, see the FAQ below for how to get your API keys.
FAQ
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Do I need a Google account or API keys to use this plugin?
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Not unless you want to. The Slide to unlock and Icon captcha styles work entirely on your own server with no account, no keys, and no external service. API keys are only required if you choose the Google reCAPTCHA option.
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How do I get my Google reCAPTCHA keys?
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Visit the Google reCAPTCHA admin console, register your domain, and choose reCAPTCHA v2 „I’m not a robot” Checkbox. Google will give you a Site key and a Secret key. Paste both into the plugin settings, then complete the verification step the plugin shows you. That last step confirms your keys actually work before the captcha goes live on your login page, so you can never lock yourself out with a wrong key.
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Which forms does this plugin protect?
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The free version protects the WordPress login form (
wp-login.php), which is the form targeted by brute force and credential stuffing bots. Other login forms on your site, such as a WooCommerce „My Account” form or a custom form from another plugin, are not affected. -
The Icon captcha option is greyed out. Why?
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The Icon captcha generates images on the fly and needs the PHP GD extension, which is not enabled on your server. Ask your host to enable GD, or simply use the Slide or Google reCAPTCHA option instead — both work without it.
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I am locked out of my site. How do I disable the captcha?
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Connect to your site by FTP or your host’s file manager, go to
/wp-content/plugins/, and rename the foldercaptchinoo-captcha-for-login-form-protectionto anything else, for examplecaptchinoo-disabled. WordPress will deactivate the plugin automatically and you can log in normally. This is why the plugin verifies your reCAPTCHA keys before enabling them — to prevent this situation in the first place. -
Will it slow down my site?
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No. Captchinoo loads nothing at all on the public pages of your site. Its scripts and styles are queued only on the login page, and only the ones belonging to the captcha style you selected.
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Does it work with caching plugins?
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Yes. WordPress login pages are excluded from page caching by every major caching plugin, so the captcha is always generated fresh and validated correctly.
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What does Captchinoo Pro add?
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Three additional protection layers on top of everything in the free version: two factor authentication (2FA), which asks the user to confirm the login from their mobile device so a stolen password alone is not enough; Google reCAPTCHA v3, which scores visitors invisibly in the background without ever interrupting them or hurting your conversion rate; and hCaptcha, an independent alternative for site owners who prefer not to route traffic through Google. See Captchinoo Pro for details.
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Can I run the free version and Captchinoo Pro at the same time?
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No, and you do not need to. Activating the free version automatically deactivates the Pro version to prevent the two from conflicting. Pro contains everything the free plugin does, plus reCAPTCHA v3, hCaptcha, and 2FA.
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Is the plugin translation ready?
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Yes. All strings use the
captchinoo-captcha-for-login-form-protectiontext domain and the plugin is ready for translation into any language. -
How can I report a security bug?
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Please contact us directly through wp-buy.com rather than posting details in the public support forum, so the issue can be patched before it is disclosed.
Reviews
Contributors & Developers
“Captchinoo, admin login page protection with Google recaptcha” is open source software. The following people have contributed to this plugin.
ContributorsTranslate “Captchinoo, admin login page protection with Google recaptcha” into your language.
Interested in development?
Browse the code, check out the SVN repository, or subscribe to the development log by RSS.
Changelog
4.3
- Security: fixed a login captcha bypass in the Slider (Swipe) captcha where the check could be skipped by omitting the captcha field. The token is now required, single-use, and rotated after every attempt.
- Security: added a CSRF nonce to the Google reCAPTCHA „Verify & save” admin action.
- Security: replaced the „administrator” role checks with the proper „manage_options” capability.
- Hardening: reCAPTCHA verification now fails closed and is null-safe if Google is unreachable.
- Compatibility: full PHP 8.3 support (null-safe array/property access, guarded sessions) and tested up to WordPress 7.1.
- Cleanup: removed a leftover debug handler and normalized bundled library files.
- Documentation: rewritten readme with a full FAQ and an external services disclosure.
4.2
- hCaptcha Support
4.1
- Fix some errors with slide captcha
- Css fixes
- JS fixes
- Update google captcha help link
- Interface update
- check with the latest wordpress update
3.2
- check with the latest wordpress update
3.1
- Clean outputs
3.0
- Code fix & check with the latest wordpress update
2.5
- Code fix & check with the new wordpress update
2.4
- Code fix & check with the new 5.7 wordpress update
2.3
- Important fixing (PHP Short Array Syntax Error) in Google recaptcha
2.2
- Important fixing (PHP Short Array Syntax Error)
2.1.1
- Important fix for 1.9 update
- Add links to dismiss the new start page links
- Change the name of the plugin
1.9
- New advanced and easy to use starting page panel
1.8
- Review bar added
1.7
- Code fix
- admin styles fix
- Google captcha new option fix
- Auto redierct after saving when use google captcha
- Help added to enable google captcha simply
1.6
- Code fix
- Add google captcha version 2 new feature
1.5
- Fix (slider captcha don’t touch on mobile devices)
- Fix (slider captcha full slide action not doing any action)
- Add about new tab
- Change the translation text domain to be the same as the plugin main slug captchinoo-captcha-for-login-form-protection
1.4
- Change dropdown theme chooser to image chooser
- Some fixes
1.3
- Activate function (icon captcha function), error fixed!
1.2
- Stop the (icon captcha function) because of not loading error
1.1
- Upload missing files by mistake
1.0
- initial version
