59
Advanced Google reCAPTCHA
High ratings cannot hide the risk of being locked out of your site.
GrowingReview burst
59/100
Serious reports of login lockouts and broken verification logic undermine the high star rating.
Active installs
~213,000
our estimate · wp.org shows 200k+
Rating
4.8★
429 ratings
Trend · vs a year ago
+107%
Growing fast
1,108 → 2,293 installs/day
Warnings
- Reviews concentrated in a single month — usually a marketing push or paid wave.
What to watch out for
- MAJOR38% of reviews in one month (2023-10-18)
Downloads over time
real new installs per day · release spikes shown separately from the trend2025-04-302025-08-082025-11-162026-02-232026-06-03
organicrelease spikerelease tailorganic trend · 14d rolling median
Growing fast · +107% in the last year
1,108/day a year ago→2,293/day today
Reviews
what people actually sayAdvanced Google reCAPTCHA has a polarized reputation — some users find it easy to set up with responsive support, but a significant number report fundamental breakage including reCAPTCHA not appearing, login lockouts, and core verification logic being ignored or inverted.
What people like
- +Easy to set up and configure×3
- +Support team is responsive and helpful×2
- +Works reliably for some users over extended periods×2
Common complaints
- −reCAPTCHA does not appear on pages where it should, rendering the plugin non-functional×4
- −Plugin locks users out of their own WordPress login — in some cases even after deletion×4
- −Core verification logic is broken: reCAPTCHA v3 score is ignored, allowing all bot submissions through; a subsequent update reversed this to reject all submissions (since 1.23)×2
- −reCAPTCHA checkbox appears but does not actually gate login — unticked checkbox still allows access
- −Blocks users on older browsers or operating systems (e.g. macOS High Sierra)
- −No translation/localization support — hardcoded English strings make it unsuitable for non-English sites
- −Still depends on the deprecated, legacy Moment.js library, raising concerns about active maintenance
- −Pro plan lacks centralized management features (e.g. country blocking, config import/export across sites)
Review trustMostly organic
- 4.28★Verified rating — holds steady vs the raw 4.80★
- 18%One-shot reviewers — most reviewers are active community members
- past spikeReview timing — up to 38% of all reviews landed in a single month
Reviews per month · 5★ vs lower
2023-09-182025-02-092026-06-04
5★ reviews1–4★ reviews
All-time ratings · 429 total
Latest reviews · 90 analyzed
- 2026-05-10★★★★★Excellent pluginpower4all
- 2026-03-04★★★★★Why moment.js in 2026?kc22033
- 2026-02-25★★★★★Works great and support is very helpfuldscreative
- 2025-11-30★★★★★Great Pluginerismanos
- 2025-09-16★★★★★Wouldn't workwplogin12
- 2025-09-03★★★★★No support for translationsinfofabio
- 2025-08-30★★★★★Didn't worksupakwai
- 2025-08-08★★★★★Didn't workfufy
- 2025-07-04★★★★★Didn't workmadukdiver
- 2025-03-27★★★★★Awesome pluginQuotes Ninja
Releases
recent versions from WordPress.org SVNAlternatives to Advanced Google reCAPTCHA
Top Anti-spam plugins, ranked by score.For developers & the curious
the raw signals behind the grade — none of this is on the friendly summary aboveDownload signals
Baselines are computed on organic days only — release spikes and their tails are excluded, so they're not inflated by the auto-update wave.
1,824
Baseline · median of last 7 organic days
2,210
Prior 7-day baseline
1,352
Floor · 25th percentile over 14 days
28,999
Mean release-day peak (30d)
1,798
Latest day · 2026-06-03(organic)
-17.5%
Week-over-week organic trend
Review signals
Concentration and drive-by metrics drive the review-burst and fake-review flags. 30–40% solo reviewers is normal; we only flag the extremes.
38%
Max month share · biggest single 30-day window
2.49
Distribution CV · <0.6 even, >1.5 bursty
82%
5★ share in analyzed sample
18%
Solo reviewers · only this one wp.org activity
-50%
Volume velocity · last 6mo vs prior 6mo
4.37 → 4.28★
Sample avg · raw → solo-filtered