As of April 2026, ALTCHA Spam Protection is a WordPress spam plugin with 7.0K+ active installations and a 3.9/5 rating from 21 reviews. It has been downloaded 49K+ times in total. Requires WordPress 5.0+ and PHP 7.3+. Available on WordPress.org since 2024. Download volume is stable this week. Top alternative: Akismet Anti-spam: Spam Protection.
3.9/521 reviews
7.0K+active installs
49K+total downloads
2 yearssince 2024
Overview
This is ALTCHA Plugin version 1.
ALTCHA Plugin version 2 is now available, offering improved protection and enhanced reliability. An upgrade is recommended for all users.
Learn more | Installation guide | Migration guide
What’s new in version 2:
- Effective: blocks 99% of spam and abuse attempts
- Invisible for users: frictionless protection, no puzzles or CAPTCHAs
- Works everywhere: plugin-agnostic Request Interceptor integrates with any form plugin
- Handles heavy traffic: stay online with Under Attack Mode
- Stops abuse at scale: firewall and rate limiting included
- Privacy-first: 100% GDPR-compliant and fully accessible
- Unlimited: no external services, unlimited verifications
Learn more about ALTCHA at altcha.org.
ALTCHA provides a free, open-source Captcha alternative utilizing a proof…
Screenshots
Ratings & Reviews
3.921 reviews
5 ★
14
4 ★
0
3 ★
1
2 ★
3
1 ★
3
Recent Reviews
Works well
by Hiroshi·4 months ago
its a simple plugin easy to setup and work well with my websites… so far eliminated almost all spam +1
Thank you!
by abaantravis·4 months ago
I personally find this plugin very useful and working just fine, no problems. I don’t understand why people here complain. Great work, thanks! And please keep this plugin alive.
Ruined by the devs
by sarahsolus·4 months ago
The version 1 Altcha WordPress plugin was a promising, if not perfect, captcha plugin. Unfortunately, the developers got everything wrong with version 2. First of all, it can only be installed via the website, which is suspicious. There are no upgrade notes, which is an absolute no-go for commercial sites. Incidentally, a captcha that installs itself into all forms without being asked is a very bad idea. For example, Altcha v2 also activates when using form-like elements such as filter widgets for lists. Or in globally integrated service forms, so that the Altcha screen pops up on every page. We also suspect that Altcha v2 prevents AI search engines from crawling – this has not yet been verified, but it coincides with the use of the plugin. For all these reasons, we have decided to stop using the plugin for the time being.
v1 was great; v2 – I had to uninstall
by Alwyn Barry·4 months ago
Altcha v1 was brilliant – did just what I wanted seamlessly. Sadly when I installed v2 the login blocked for some users (and it was impossible to see why). I think the increased comms to the central system were to blame, but I’m not sure. I can’t switch back to v1 without having the ‘nag’ to upgrade constantly visible on the plugin page, and putting the shortcode back into all the forms. A quick switch to Cloudfare Turnstile and all is working nicely. Sad, though, because Altcha looked great.
Useful and simple
by riccardomercurio·4 months ago
It is simple it works!
Download Trends
Today: 45Yesterday: 68This week: 286Period total: 40K
Compatibility
| WordPress | 5.0+ requiredTested up to 6.8.5 |
| PHP | 7.3+ required |
Version Adoption
v1.26
85.8%
Other
14.2%
Top Alternatives to ALTCHA Spam Protection
Frequently Asked Questions
Changelog
1.26.3
- Fixed possible replay attacks via salt splicing.
Contributors
Plugin data sourced from WordPress.org. Analysis and metrics by PluginSift.