How to Add a CAPTCHA to Your Form

January 3, 2025

A CAPTCHA requests that users complete simple challenges to help protect your forms against spammers and spambots that are programmed to attack websites flooding by them with tons of unwanted information.

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Adding CAPTCHA to Your Form

You can add a CAPTCHA to your form by following the steps below:

  1. In Form Builder, click on Add Element on the left side of the screen.
Add element Button in Jotform Builder
  1. Under the Basic tab, drag and drop or click the Captcha field to add it to your form.
  2. Then, click on Gear Icon to open its Captcha properties.
Adding a CAPTCHA field to your form and clicking the gear icon to open the CAPTCHA field's properties for customization
  1. In the General Tab of CAPTCHA Properties, you can select the type of CAPTCHA you want to use including hCAPTCHAreCAPTCHA, and JotCAPTCHA.
General tab of CAPTCHA properties displaying the available CAPTCHA type options, including hCAPTCHA, reCAPTCHA, and JotCAPTCHA

Understanding CAPTCHA Types

In Jotform, there are three popular CAPTCHA types that you can set: hCAPTCHA, reCAPTCHA, and JotCAPTCHA. Understanding how these work will help you choose the best option for securing your forms and ensuring a smooth user experience.

What is hCAPTCHA

The hCAPTCHA is a type of CAPTCHA that uses advanced technology to help protect websites from bots and online threats. It works by asking users to complete simple tasks, like identifying images, to prove they’re human. hCAPTCHA is the default CAPTCHA used by Jotform to keep your forms safe from spam and fake submissions.

hCAPTCHA option in the General tab of CAPTCHA properties in Jotform

What is reCAPTCHA

The reCAPTCHA uses an advanced risk analysis engine and adaptive challenges to keep malicious bots from engaging in abusive activities on your forms. With reCAPTCHA, you can toggle to use the Google Invisible reCAPTCHA and keep its badge visible. Invisible reCAPTCHA is Google’s improved CAPTCHA system, which can differentiate humans from bots without additional input from the user. Google’s Invisible reCAPTCHA will only activate when the user’s browsing patterns are, in some way, suspicious.

reCAPTCHA option in the General tab of CAPTCHA properties in Jotform

What is JotCAPTCHA

The JotCAPTCHA is Jotform’s very own CAPTCHA alternative. If you want to use a simple CAPTCHA where users only enter a text from the provided image, you can switch to JotCAPTCHA.

JotCAPTCHA option in General Tab of Captcha Properties in Jotform

Note

  • If your users entered the correct JotCAPTCHA, the form should submit right away. However, if the user entered an incorrect JotCAPTCHA, the form will redirect them to a separate page with the reCAPTCHA as secondary validation. They have to proceed with the reCAPTCHA prompt and click the submit button on the page.
  • When you add a CAPTCHA to your form, it’s automatically set to Required.

We also have some advanced CAPTCHA widgets that you can use. You can check them below:

Contact Support:

Our customer support team is available 24/7 and our average response time is between one to two hours.
Our team can be contacted via:

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