Captcha GmbH

What Captcha GmbH does

Captcha GmbH operates captcha.eu, a managed SaaS bot protection service headquartered in Austria and operating as a private GmbH entity. The company provides GDPR-compliant CAPTCHA solutions positioned as alternatives to Google reCAPTCHA, primarily serving European organizations with strict data residency and privacy requirements. Its core technology combines proof-of-work verification (cryptographic computation executed in the visitor's browser) with contextual signal analysis, requiring no cookies, no behavioral fingerprinting, and no user data storage. The platform supports two verification modes — Invisible Protection (background verification with no user interaction) and a Simple Widget (single-click confirmation) — and processes requests at the point of presence closest to the end user via decentralized infrastructure.

Product distribution is delivered through official plugins for major CMS and identity platforms: WordPress, TYPO3, Keycloak, Joomla, Craft CMS, Adobe Commerce/Magento, and NEOS. The WordPress plugin extends to Contact Form 7, WPForms, Gravity Forms, Ninja Forms, Elementor, WooCommerce, and Divi. The platform is independently WCAG 2.2 AA certified by TÜV Austria (WACA Silver) and exposes a standardized API (docs.captcha.eu) for custom integrations. Reference customers span transportation (ÖBB), banking (OeNB), government/insurance (DGUV), telecom (A1), insurance (GRAWE, MG), media (Bauer Media Group), healthcare (Austrian Pharmacists Chamber), and retail/wholesale (Electronic4you, Lekkerland).

The business runs a tiered usage-based subscription model with a freemium entry point (100 free requests, no credit card required). Paid tiers include Starter (€96.12/year, 1 site/1,000 requests/month), Growth (€387.72/year, 5 sites/10,000 requests/month), and Advanced (€1,942.92/year, 10 sites/100,000 requests/month), with monthly billing available at higher rates. Custom enterprise plans are offered for large organizations, particularly in DACH regulated sectors. Go-to-market is hybrid: self-serve PLG via content marketing, SEO (multiple languages), free trial, and CMS marketplace listings, combined with enterprise field sales targeting government, financial services, and healthcare buyers requiring procurement-ready GDPR documentation. Captcha GmbH is privately held with no disclosed external institutional funding.

Name

Captcha GmbH

Legal name

Captcha GmbH

Website

https://captcha.eu

Company type

Private

Founded year

2023

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

51–100 employees

Short description

Captcha GmbH (captcha.eu) is an Austria-hosted SaaS providing GDPR-compliant, cookie-free bot protection via proof-of-work CAPTCHA, serving European websites through plugins for WordPress, TYPO3, Keycloak, Joomla, Craft CMS, Magento, and NEOS.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Bot Protection / Cybersecurity Software

SIC

Services-Prepackaged Software (7372)

akta.pro primary industry

Privacy, Consent & Data Protection Management (BPAEAPAF)

akta.pro secondary industries

Governance, Risk & Compliance (GRC) Platforms (BPAEAPAA), IT Governance, Risk & Compliance (IT GRC) Platforms (HDAEALAK)

Keywords

• Bot protection service
• GDPR-compliant CAPTCHA
• Proof-of-work verification
• Spam prevention
• EU-hosted authentication

Headquarters

HQ city

Vienna, Vienna

HQ country

Austria

HQ region

Europe

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Technology or R&D, Infrastructure, Personnel, Marketing or Sales, Operations

Revenue model

1. Subscription - Usage-based: SaaS subscription with tiered usage-based pricing. Free tier available (100 requests). Paid plans scale by verified request volume: Starter (1,000 req/mo), Growth (10,000 req/mo), Advanced (100,000 req/mo). Annual and monthly billing options. Custom plans for large enterprises.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels5 records

Marketing channels4 records

Core offering

Captcha.eu is a managed SaaS CAPTCHA and bot protection service that verifies human visitors using proof-of-work challenges and contextual signal analysis executed in the visitor's browser. It offers two verification modes — Invisible Protection (fully background) and a Simple single-click Widget — without setting cookies, collecting user data, or routing requests through US infrastructure. All commercial plans are hosted in Austria, and official plugins are shipped for WordPress, TYPO3, Keycloak, Adobe Commerce/Magento, Joomla, Craft CMS, and NEOS, with a standardized API for custom integrations.

Product overview

CAPTCHA.eu is a managed SaaS bot protection platform offering GDPR-compliant, cookie-free verification. The core product provides two verification methods: Invisible Protection (background verification requiring no user interaction) and a Simple Widget (single-click confirmation). The platform integrates via official plugins for major CMS and identity platforms including WordPress, TYPO3, Keycloak, Adobe Commerce, Joomla, Craft CMS, and NEOS. Proof-of-work verification runs cryptographic computations in the visitor's browser without setting cookies, eliminating ePrivacy consent requirements on authentication flows. All commercial plans are hosted in Austria (EU) by default.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• CAPTCHA.eu Bot Protection Platform Managed SaaS bot protection platform that uses invisible proof-of-work verification to distinguish real users from automated bots on websites and applications. Hosted in Austria, GDPR-compliant, no cookies, no user data collection; targeted at European website operators and regulated enterprises.
• CAPTCHA.eu WordPress Plugin Official WordPress plugin protecting against spam, bots, and cybercrime while keeping sites user-friendly; supports login, registration, password reset, comments, and integrations with Contact Form 7, WPForms, Gravity Forms, Ninja Forms, Elementor, and WooCommerce.
• CAPTCHA.eu TYPO3 Extension Official TYPO3 extensions via Composer (captcha-eu/typo3 for EXT:form and captcha-eu/typo3-powermail for PowerMail) that integrate CAPTCHA.eu bot protection natively with TYPO3's built-in form framework.
• CAPTCHA.eu Keycloak Plugin Official Keycloak JAR plugin covering all three authentication flows — login, registration, and password reset — supporting Keycloak 22.0.3+. Provides a drop-in GDPR-compliant replacement for reCAPTCHA in Keycloak-managed SSO and IAM environments.
• CAPTCHA.eu Adobe Commerce / Magento Plugin Plugin for Adobe Commerce and Magento 2 that safeguards logins and contact forms against spam, bots, and cybercrime without compromising user experience; cookie-free and GDPR-compliant.
• CAPTCHA.eu Joomla Plugin Official plugin for Joomla protecting sign-up and contact forms against spam and unwanted bot traffic; user-friendly and fully GDPR-compliant.
• CAPTCHA.eu Craft CMS Plugin Official plugin for Craft CMS protecting sign-up, login, and contact forms against bots and spam; fully GDPR-compliant without compromising user experience.
• CAPTCHA.eu NEOS Plugin Official plugin for NEOS CMS providing protection against unwanted traffic and cybercrime across sign-up, login, and contact forms while remaining user-friendly.

Quantifiable outcome

• Eliminates ePrivacy cookie consent requirement for CAPTCHA layer
• +1 more outcomes

Named customers10 records

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles4 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

Yes

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration14 records

Feature4 records

Partnerships

Three partnerships are on record, tiered core.

• WordPresscoreTechnology or IntegrationOfficial CAPTCHA.eu plugin distributed via WordPress plugin repository. Protects WordPress login, registration, password reset, comments, and integrates with Contact Form 7, WPForms, Gravity Forms, Ninja Forms, Elementor, WooCommerce.
• TYPO3coreTechnology or IntegrationOfficial TYPO3 extensions via Composer: captcha-eu/typo3 for EXT:form and captcha-eu/typo3-powermail for PowerMail. Native integration with TYPO3's built-in form framework.
• KeycloakcoreTechnology or IntegrationOfficial Keycloak JAR plugin covering all three authentication flows (login, registration, password reset) for Keycloak 22.0.3+. Installation via providers folder, configuration through Admin Console.

Scale indicators1 record

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Others

• Keycloak: Open-source IAM platform for which Captcha.eu ships an official JAR plugin. Not a competitor but a complementary ecosystem partner; relevant because Keycloak customers are a primary ICP segment.

Direct peers

• Friendly Captcha: European-headquartered proof-of-work CAPTCHA provider. Closest direct competitor on technology (proof-of-work), geography (EU), and value proposition (GDPR, no cookies, accessibility) — explicitly compared on Captcha.eu's own blog.
• Google reCAPTCHA: The dominant CAPTCHA service Captcha.eu explicitly positions against. Free, bundled with Google ecosystem, and the de facto incumbent that Captcha.eu differentiates on via GDPR-compliance and no-cookie architecture.
• hCaptcha: Privacy-first CAPTCHA from Intuition Machines. Competes head-to-head with Captcha.eu on GDPR/CCPA-friendly verification, often cited as a reCAPTCHA alternative in European procurement discussions.
• Cloudflare Turnstile: Free, privacy-focused CAPTCHA alternative from Cloudflare bundled with their broader security/CDN platform. Direct competitor in the 'no puzzles' privacy-CAPTCHA category where Captcha.eu competes.
• GeeTest: Established global CAPTCHA vendor with behavioral analysis and AI-based bot detection. Competes in the broader bot-mitigation market for enterprise web properties.

Emerging players

• ALTCHA: Open-source, self-hostable CAPTCHA alternative that Captcha.eu directly compares itself against in blog content. Represents the open-source / self-hosted threat to managed privacy-CAPTCHA offerings.

Broad incumbents

• HUMAN (formerly PerimeterX): Enterprise bot mitigation and account takeover prevention provider. Competes in the broader bot-management category for large web properties and applications.
• Arkose Labs: Enterprise bot management platform offering account takeover, fraud, and abuse prevention. A broader incumbent that Captcha.eu customers (banks, telcos) may evaluate for higher-value security spend.
• DataDome: Enterprise bot and fraud protection platform with API, online fraud, and account takeover protection. Competes for the same enterprise security budget as Captcha.eu at a broader solution level.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights5 records

Customer concentration

• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/captcha-gmbh

Compliance3 records

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Captcha GmbH