Friendly Captcha The European alternative to Google reCAPTCHA / hCaptcha

Friendly Captcha is a CAPTCHA and bot protection service from Friendly Captcha GmbH in Würzburg/Munich. Instead of visible image puzzles, the browser solves a cryptographic proof-of-work in the background that does not disturb human users but makes automated attacks computationally expensive. Features include bot detection, IP reputation, risk scoring, and multilingual UIs. The service is used by EU institutions, Porsche, SAP, Auth0, and 1&1 IONOS.

Friendly Captcha operates EU data centers by default and is GDPR-compliant and accessible (BFSG) according to the provider. Friendly Captcha GmbH is registered in the German commercial register and is subject to German law. Additional data regions are available for enterprise customers, while standard operation for EU customers takes place in the EU.

Friendly Captcha sends no data to Google and is GDPR-compliant without a consent banner. Google reCAPTCHA transmits behavioural data to Google servers in the US and has been disputed under data protection law since Schrems II. Friendly Captcha works without visible interaction and is fully accessible, while reCAPTCHA often uses image puzzles. reCAPTCHA is free up to 1,000,000 requests per month, while Friendly Captcha offers a free plan only for non-commercial use.