Grade A

Simple Login Captcha

Name: Simple Login Captcha
Rating: 4.2 (17 reviews)
Author: Nikolay Nikolov

⤓ Download v1.3.6 on WordPress.org ↗

by Nikolay Nikolovupdated 2026-05-26✨The Quiet Achiever

A tiny gatekeeper that might accidentally lock you out.

HealthyGrowing

73/100

Users appreciate the simplicity but frequently complain about security flaws and accidental lockouts.

Loved18/40

Trustworthy13/15

Fair & Honest15/15

Maintained18/18

Momentum9/12

✂️

You might not need this plugin. Its core job is small enough to live in your theme's functions.php.

Show the snippet

add_action( 'login_form', function () {
    $number = rand( 100, 999 );
    echo '<p>
        <label>Security Check: enter the number <strong id="simple-captcha-num"></strong><br>
        <input type="text" name="simple_captcha" autocomplete="off" /></label>
        <input type="hidden" name="simple_captcha_answer" id="simple-captcha-answer" />
    </p>
    <script>
        var n = ' . $number . ';
        document.getElementById("simple-captcha-num").textContent = n;
        document.getElementById("simple-captcha-answer").value = n;
    </script>';
} );

add_filter( 'authenticate', function ( $user, $username, $password ) {
    if ( empty( $username ) && empty( $password ) ) {
        return $user;
    }
    $answer   = isset( $_POST['simple_captcha_answer'] ) ? intval( $_POST['simple_captcha_answer'] ) : 0;
    $entered  = isset( $_POST['simple_captcha'] )        ? intval( $_POST['simple_captcha'] )        : -1;
    if ( $entered !== $answer || $answer === 0 ) {
        return new WP_Error( 'captcha_failed', __( 'Incorrect security number. Please try again.' ) );
    }
    return $user;
}, 30, 3 );

Keep in mind:This does not cover the WooCommerce login form; add a similar hook to woocommerce_login_form and woocommerce_process_login if needed.

More plugins you can skip →

Active installs

~15,000

our estimate · wp.org shows 10k+

→ on track for 20k+in ~4.9 years

Rating

3.9★

17 ratings

Trend · vs a year ago

+6%

Growing

16 → 17 installs/day

Downloads over time

real new installs per day · release spikes shown separately from the trend

2025-04-302025-08-082025-11-162026-02-232026-06-03

organicrelease spikerelease tailorganic trend · 14d rolling median

Growing · +6% in the last year

16/day a year ago→17/day today

Reviews

what people actually say

Simple Login Captcha is viewed as an easy-to-use plugin that blocks basic automated logins, but users frequently criticize its weak, easily bypassed security and occasional lock-outs.

What people like

+Simple, lightweight implementation that adds a basic login code without complex settings×5
+Effectively blocks basic automated brute-force attempts×5
+No paid upgrades required; fully functional out of the box×2
+Privacy-friendly (GDPR compliant) and creates only a single database table
+Works on multisite installations and across major browsers

Common complaints

−Security is weak and can be easily bypassed (e.g., any three numbers may be accepted)×3
−Causes login failures or locks users out, reporting invalid login attempts even with correct credentials×2
−Not a true captcha; provides only a false sense of security×3
−Insufficient for high-security needs; only suitable for basic protection

Review trustReviews look organic

4.21★Verified rating — holds steady vs the raw 3.90★
18%One-shot reviewers — most reviewers are active community members

Reviews per month · 5★ vs lower

Not enough review history.

All-time ratings · 17 total

5★

4★

3★

2★

1★

Latest reviews · 17 analyzed

2023-05-30★★★★★Misses the point! Stupid Plugin manikbajaj
2023-05-26★★★★★Blocks the ability to login randomly hovrashko
2023-02-11★★★★★Simple plugin that just works Micha
2022-12-19★★★★★Locked us out DawnK1-shot
2022-11-06★★★★★Great plugin tinaponting
2022-06-25★★★★★Perfect. Simple. Looks good. Effective.Svensonsan
2022-06-12★★★★★Simple and effictive, preformance light weight.Edwin Bekedam
2021-10-15★★★★★Worthless neuroticartist
2020-12-28★★★★★Better than hcaptcha and Google Captcha in stopping bots tokie0011-shot
2020-12-17★★★★★Simple and effective kalor

Releases

recent versions from WordPress.org SVN

2026-05-26v1.3.6
2023-11-02v1.3.5
2022-12-02v1.3.4
2022-10-27v1.3.3
2021-03-08v1.3.2
2020-12-06v1.3.1
2019-12-13v1.3.0
2019-11-08v1.2.0

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For developers & the curious

the raw signals behind the grade — none of this is on the friendly summary above

Download 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.

Baseline · median of last 7 organic days

Prior 7-day baseline

Floor · 25th percentile over 14 days

Mean release-day peak (30d)

Latest day · 2026-06-03(organic)

+5.6%

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.

—

Max month share · biggest single 30-day window

—

Distribution CV · <0.6 even, >1.5 bursty

71%

5★ share in analyzed sample

18%

Solo reviewers · only this one wp.org activity

—

Volume velocity · last 6mo vs prior 6mo

3.94 → 4.21★

Sample avg · raw → solo-filtered