What Captcha GmbH does

Captcha GmbH is a Vienna-headquartered SaaS provider of GDPR-compliant bot and spam protection for European websites, operating commercially under the brand captcha.eu. The company's core product is a managed CAPTCHA service that uses proof-of-work computation combined with contextual signal analysis per request, offering two verification modes: an invisible background check and a single-click widget. The architecture is deliberately cookie-free, fingerprint-free, and puzzle-free, with all commercial-plan processing hosted in Austrian data centres, no US data transfers, and an independent WCAG 2.2 AA accessibility certification issued by TÜV Austria (WACA Silver). The platform is distributed via official native plugins for WordPress, TYPO3, Keycloak, Joomla, Craft CMS, NEOS, and Adobe Commerce/Magento, covering login, registration, password reset, comments, and major form builders such as Contact Form 7, WPForms, Gravity Forms, Ninja Forms, Elementor Pro, Divi, and WooCommerce.

The business model is tiered subscription SaaS combined with usage-based request limits. Three published tiers (Starter €96.12/year, Growth €387.72/year, Advanced €1,942.92/year, each also available monthly with a 10% annual discount) target SMB and mid-market use cases, while a Custom Enterprise plan is sold via direct contact for large organisations. A 100-request free trial with no credit card required functions as the primary PLG acquisition funnel. Go-to-market is product-led via the WordPress plugin directory, TYPO3 Composer/Packagist packages, and a Keycloak JAR, with direct sales reserved for custom enterprise deals. Marketing is content-led SEO targeting reCAPTCHA alternative queries across EN, DE, FR, ES, NL, and IT.

The primary customer base is European DACH website operators in regulated industries — financial services, insurance, public administration, telecommunications, and healthcare — with named reference customers including ÖBB (Austrian Federal Railways), OeNB (Austrian National Bank), DGUV, A1, GRAWE, Bauer Media Group, Österreichische Apothekerkammer, Electronic4you, Lekkerland, and MG. The company was founded in 2023, operates with 1-10 employees per disclosed firmographic data, is privately held with no disclosed funding rounds, and has not publicly disclosed revenue figures.

Name

Captcha GmbH

Legal name

Captcha GmbH

Website

https://captcha.eu

Company type

Private

Founded year

2023

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

Captcha GmbH is a Vienna-based SaaS provider of GDPR-compliant bot and spam protection for European websites. It offers proof-of-work CAPTCHA technology hosted in Austria with native plugins for WordPress, TYPO3, Keycloak, and other platforms.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Bot Protection / Cybersecurity SaaS

NAICS

Computing Infrastructure Providers, Data Processing, Web Hosting, and Related Services (518)

SIC

Services-Prepackaged Software (7372)

akta.pro primary industry

Privacy Management (Consent, DSAR, RoPA) (HDADAFAH)

Keywords

• Bot protection
• Spam prevention
• GDPR CAPTCHA
• ReCAPTCHA alternative
• Proof-of-work verification

Headquarters

HQ city

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-based SaaS (Paid Plans): Annual and monthly subscription plans offering different volumes of verified requests per month. Starter Plan at €96.12/year (1 website, 1,000 requests/month), Growth Plan at €387.72/year (5 websites, 10,000 requests/month), and Advanced Plan at €1,942.92/year (10 websites, 100,000 requests/month). Monthly billing also available at €8.90, €35.90, and €179.90 per month respectively. Discount of 10% for annual billing.
2. Usage-based Verification Requests: Pricing is tiered by request volume (1,000 requests/month on Starter up to 100,000 requests/month on Advanced). All plans are described as 'usage-based' within the tier limits, with custom plans available for large companies.
3. Free Trial / Freemium Entry: 100 free verification requests offered as a free trial with no credit card required, serving as the primary acquisition funnel for self-serve customers.
4. Custom Enterprise Plans: Custom plan for large companies with quick integration through standardised API, compatible with common CAPTCHA systems, and seamless migration from existing solutions. Contact-sales driven.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels5 records

Marketing channels5 records

Core offering

Captcha GmbH operates captcha.eu, a SaaS platform that delivers GDPR-compliant bot and spam protection for websites and web applications. The service uses proof-of-work CAPTCHA combined with contextual signal analysis to verify users either invisibly in the background or via a single-click widget, with no cookies, no tracking, and all processing hosted in Austrian data centres. It is distributed via official native plugins for WordPress, TYPO3, Keycloak, Joomla, Craft CMS, Adobe Commerce/Magento, and NEOS, plus direct API integration for custom stacks.

Product overview

captcha.eu is a unified GDPR-compliant bot protection platform delivered as a managed SaaS service. The core offering consists of the captcha.eu Bot Protection Platform with two verification methods (Invisible Protection and Simple Widget), available through tiered pricing plans (Starter, Growth, Advanced, and Custom Enterprise). The platform integrates via official native plugins for WordPress, Joomla, Craft CMS, Keycloak, Adobe Commerce/Magento, TYPO3, and NEOS, with additional form builder integrations including Contact Form 7, WPForms, Gravity Forms, Ninja Forms, Elementor Pro, Divi, and WooCommerce. All commercial plans are hosted in Austria with WCAG 2.2 AA certification from TÜV Austria.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• captcha.eu Bot Protection Platform

Quantifiable outcome

• No visible challenge for real users (invisible CAPTCHA reduces friction compared to traditional image puzzles)
• +2 more outcomes

Named customers10 records

Segments5 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

AI capability3 records

Feature9 records

Partnerships

Ten partnerships are on record, tiered minor.

• Electronic4youminorOthersDisplayed as a customer/trusting partner on the CAPTCHA.eu homepage. Nature of relationship is primarily a customer using CAPTCHA.eu for GDPR-compliant bot protection on their website.
• Österreichische Apothekerkammer (Austrian Pharmacists' Chamber)minorOthersDisplayed as a customer/trusting partner on the CAPTCHA.eu homepage. Nature of relationship is primarily a customer using CAPTCHA.eu for GDPR-compliant bot protection on their website.
• ÖBB (Austrian Federal Railways)minorOthersDisplayed as a customer/trusting partner on the CAPTCHA.eu homepage. Nature of relationship is primarily a customer using CAPTCHA.eu for GDPR-compliant bot protection on their website.
• Bauer Media GroupminorOthersDisplayed as a customer/trusting partner on the CAPTCHA.eu homepage. Nature of relationship is primarily a customer using CAPTCHA.eu for GDPR-compliant bot protection on their website.
• GRAWEminorOthersDisplayed as a customer/trusting partner on the CAPTCHA.eu homepage. Nature of relationship is primarily a customer using CAPTCHA.eu for GDPR-compliant bot protection on their website.
• OeNB (Austrian National Bank)minorOthersDisplayed as a customer/trusting partner on the CAPTCHA.eu homepage. Nature of relationship is primarily a customer using CAPTCHA.eu for GDPR-compliant bot protection on their website.
• DGUV (Deutsche Gesetzliche Unfallversicherung)minorOthersDisplayed as a customer/trusting partner on the CAPTCHA.eu homepage. Nature of relationship is primarily a customer using CAPTCHA.eu for GDPR-compliant bot protection on their website.
• MGminorOthersDisplayed as a customer/trusting partner on the CAPTCHA.eu homepage. Nature of relationship is primarily a customer using CAPTCHA.eu for GDPR-compliant bot protection on their website.
• A1minorOthersDisplayed as a customer/trusting partner on the CAPTCHA.eu homepage. Nature of relationship is primarily a customer using CAPTCHA.eu for GDPR-compliant bot protection on their website.
• LekkerlandminorOthersDisplayed as a customer/trusting partner on the CAPTCHA.eu homepage. Nature of relationship is primarily a customer using CAPTCHA.eu for GDPR-compliant bot protection on their website.

Scale indicators1 record

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Broad incumbents

• HUMAN Security (formerly PerimeterX): Enterprise bot and fraud management vendor serving large e-commerce, travel, and financial services customers. Competes at the high end where customers bundle CAPTCHA with account protection, fraud detection, and advertising integrity.
• DataDome: Enterprise bot management platform offering CAPTCHA as part of a broader anti-bot, account takeover, and credential stuffing solution. Competes with Captcha.eu for enterprise customers who outgrow pure CAPTCHA and need layered bot defense.
• Cloudflare Turnstile: Cloudflare's free, invisible CAPTCHA alternative is bundled with its broader CDN/WAF/security stack and is the most direct competition to Captcha.eu's invisible verification approach. Competes primarily on price (free) and ecosystem reach, while Captcha.eu differentiates on EU data residency and accessibility certification.
• Google reCAPTCHA: The default CAPTCHA solution embedded across the web and most CMS ecosystems. Captcha.eu explicitly positions against reCAPTCHA on cookie consent and US data transfer concerns; reCAPTCHA is the largest incumbent Captcha.eu seeks to displace in DACH regulated sectors.

Direct peers

• hCaptcha: hCaptcha is a managed CAPTCHA service positioning itself as the privacy-focused alternative to Google reCAPTCHA. It directly competes with Captcha.eu in the GDPR-conscious segment, though hCaptcha is US-headquartered and uses a challenge-based model rather than pure proof-of-work.
• Friendly Captcha: German-headquartered proof-of-work CAPTCHA provider and the closest European direct competitor to Captcha.eu. Offers a similar invisible, no-cookie value proposition targeting GDPR-sensitive customers, with broader CMS coverage and longer market presence.
• Arkose Labs: Enterprise-focused bot mitigation and CAPTCHA vendor serving large financial services and consumer internet companies. Competes with Captcha.eu at the high end of the market where customers need adaptive challenges, deeper risk scoring, and dedicated support.
• GeeTest: Asia-headquartered CAPTCHA vendor with global reach, offering behavioral and AI-based bot detection. Competes on enterprise bot management at large scale but lacks Captcha.eu's explicit EU data-residency positioning.

Others

• Keycloak: Open-source identity and access management platform for which Captcha.eu ships an official JAR plugin. Relevant as an enabling ecosystem — Keycloak's user base is Captcha.eu's distribution channel for the IAM-admin segment, but Keycloak is not a commercial competitor.

Emerging players

• ALTCHA: Open-source proof-of-work CAPTCHA project with a self-host option and managed cloud tier. Targets the same privacy-conscious, EU-friendly use case as Captcha.eu but competes on a freemium/open-source model that puts downward pressure on Captcha.eu's pricing.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks4 records

Key highlights5 records

Customer concentration

• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/captcha-gmbh

Compliance2 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