Prosopo Procaptcha vs Google reCAPTCHA
Procaptcha vs Google reCAPTCHA — decentralised, GDPR-clean and free at low volume vs the US data harvester. Which one actually protects your web forms.
CAPTCHA Updated 2 min read
Prosopo Procaptcha vs Google reCAPTCHA: A Comprehensive Comparison for Web Security
Begone, bots!
If you've got any sort of form on the internet, you'll eventually have to protect yourself against bots. Whether it's scalping tickets, comment sections, or even attacks on login forms, it's important to differentiate between human and non-human traffic.
The most popular CAPTCHA service, Google's reCAPTCHA, is a powerful tool, but has some notable downsides.
The case against Google's reCAPTCHA
Centralisation and Data Privacy Concerns
All verification requests go through Google's servers, making it a centralised system. Your site's users don't want to hand all their data over to Google if they don't have to - the privacy concerns here are inevitable.
Price
If you reach the levels of traffic that you're probably aiming for, reCAPTCHA can quickly get very expensive.
Image Labelling Over Verification
Human verification is not the main aim of CAPTCHA for Google - data labelling is. Google is more than happy with supplying a poor user experience and letting false positives through, as long as it helps build their closed-source library of labelled images.
Overzealous Blocking
reCAPTCHA often blocks users who use VPNs, proxies, or Tor, mistaking them for automated traffic. Individuals who care about their privacy, often the most technical and valuable users, should not have their online experience damaged.
It doesn't work!
reCAPTCHA is not infallible. Bots can still get through, and it can be a frustrating experience for users. Some of the most popular browser automation tools can easily bypass reCAPTCHA with no extra configuration.
Prosopo Procaptcha
Better Value
Procaptcha's dynamic frictionless mode has a generous free tier of 10K requests, allowing your users to verify themselves without having to complete image labelling tasks - we leave that for the bots! Our paid plans are also significantly cheaper than reCAPTCHA.
Bot protection first
Prosopo isn't building closed-source datasets and has no incentive to put image labelling first. We provide security against bots first and foremost.
Use your VPN, be private on the internet
Prosopo's CAPTCHA is privacy-oriented and does not discriminate against users protecting themselves online with a VPN.
OK that sounds pretty good actually, how do I set it up?
Prosopo CAPTCHA is a drop-in replacement for reCAPTCHA - setup couldn't be more simple. We have a comprehensive setup guide here: Prosopo Procaptcha Setup Guide.
If you have any questions or issues, feel free to reach out at hello@prosopo.io! We answer setup questions and problem reports directly.
Related reading
Technical · How to deploy Procaptcha on your website or app How to switch from Google's reCAPTCHA to Prosopo Procaptcha and protect your website or app from bots for free. 
CAPTCHA · Google reCAPTCHA Price Hike: What Changed in 2024 & What It Broke Google's 2024 reCAPTCHA change cut the free tier from 1M to 10K requests/month. What actually changed, why it stung SMBs, and where teams moved next. 
CAPTCHA · Stop giving your website data away! Find out why reCAPTCHA, hCaptcha, and Cloudflare Turnstile may be secretly monetising your website data, and how Prosopo's Procaptcha is solving this problem. 
CAPTCHA · Why Am I Clicking Traffic Lights? The reCAPTCHA CAPTCHA Explained Traffic lights, cars and crosswalks in reCAPTCHA are not random — you've been labelling training data for Google's computer-vision models for a decade. Here's how the traffic-light CAPTCHA works, why it's still shown, and what a modern alternative looks like. 
Privacy · Google reCAPTCHA is a privacy nightmare - Questions over privacy promises and cookie use Scrutiny by the French data protection authority, CNIL, reveals the problematic infrastructure that allows for reCAPTCHA's operations 
CAPTCHA · Switching From reCAPTCHA to Prosopo: What's Involved What changes when you swap reCAPTCHA for Prosopo — integration surface, verdict shape, GDPR posture, and what your team sees in the dashboard.Ready to ditch Google reCAPTCHA?
Procaptcha is free for 10K requests a month. No credit card, no cookies.