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HumanCaptcha by Outerbridge

by Outerbridge · Uncategorized

Also makes 2 other plugins · 1.3K+ installs across the portfolio →

HumanCaptcha is a Captcha that uses questions that require human logic to answer them to the WordPress login form, comments form and registration form …

Try it live opens a temporary test site in your browser, which can take about 20 seconds to load. Plugins that rely on outside services or a full server may not work completely there.

⚠ Stale⚠ Likely abandoned

Health

D 46/100

Stale · Likely abandoned

Active installs

200+

≈260 estimated

Momentum

-21%

downloads vs prior 30d

Biggest opportunity: “captcha”, “human” and “logic” aren't earning a slot. You list them, but you're not in the first 24 results for those searches. WordPress.org counts only your first five tags, so free the slot for a search you can win.

How scoring works →
46 Health · D
Maintenance 3/100
Rating quality 78/100
Support 70/100

46 health vs 58 average across 25,737 Uncategorized plugins

Install conversion

How it's measured →

1.5%

of downloads still active

At least 200 of 13.2K lifetime downloads are still running, above its category: the median Uncategorized plugin keeps 0.6%, across 17,769 plugins.

Downloads count every update, not just first installs, so older and more frequently released plugins read lower. Compare against other Uncategorized plugins, not across the directory. wp.org reports active installs as the bottom of a band, so the real rate is this or higher.

Removal-risk signals

53/100

Maintenance and integrity signals that tend to precede a WordPress.org removal. Not an official status, a heads-up to act.

  • Long abandoned. No update in 5+ years — the top precursor to removal once a vulnerability is found.
  • Falling behind WordPress. Tested up to WordPress 5.8.19.

Details

Version
4.1.1
Last updated
5.2y ago
Added
2011-08-27 · 15 yrs old
Requires WP
4.7
Tested up to
5.8.19
Requires PHP
—

Directory ranking optimization

How it's scored →

How well this listing is tuned to rank in WordPress.org search, on the factors an owner controls. Not popularity, optimization.

49 / 100

Under-optimized

Most to gain: Update recency

Update recency 4/100

Updated 1891 days ago, past the ~180 days where wp.org starts discounting

WP compatibility 32/100

Tested up to WordPress 5.8.19; the current branch is 6.8

Rating quality 71/100

4.3★ over 16 reviews, smoothed to 4.15★ and held back under 25 reviews

Listing tuning 100/100

5 of 5 tags set · short description in place

To rank higher: Last updated 1891 days ago — ship an update; wp.org decays a listing's search weight after ~180 days.

Get the full rank-higher report →

Daily downloads

Since 5 Oct 2022 · 1,488 days · wp.org + Plugin Pulse archive

-21% vs prior 30d
031 Oct 2026

30-day downloads

Rolling 30-day volume · peak 166 · peaks are release surges

10131 Oct 2026

Directory rank

Ranked about #11,300 to #12,900, alongside the other plugins at 200+ installs. Plugins with the same install count swap places between wp.org requests, so this is where most of them sit. Checked monthly, last on 21 Oct 2026.

Rating trend

Star average over time · dips mark rough releases

4.331 Oct 2026

Update activity

How busy the existing users are, measured as downloads in the last 30 days for every 1,000 active sites. A spike means a new release everyone's pulling; a long, slow decline means an aging user base that updates less.

50531 Oct 2026

What its installed base runs

via wordpress.org

Share of active installs on each version of this plugin · 92% run the current release. Green is the current release; a big slice on older versions is a user base that has stopped updating.

v4.1 92%
Older / other versions 8%

Estimated active installs

The public count shows “200+”. Our estimate pins where the real number sits.

tracked estimate
200–300 ≈260

Crossed into this band 5 months ago; a band this size takes about a year or more to cross, which places it about 58% of the way through.

Install history since 25 Apr 2015

20031 Oct 2026

Recent reviews

All reviews on wp.org ↗
  1. ★★★★★ lyncee
    3.2y ago

    Une excellente et simple extension de captcha au plan de l’accessibilité pour les aveugles tant en visiteurs qu’en administrateur ! J’en étais vraiment ravi jusqu’à ce que récemment, je me suis aperçus d’une faille de sécurité majeure dans la page “santé du ste” de WordPress : Une session PHP a été créée par un appel de fonction session_start(). Cela interfère avec l’API REST et les requêtes de boucle (loopback). La session devrait être fermée par session_write_close() avant d’effectuer toute requête HTTP. La désactivation de toutes extensions de mon site pour les réactiver une à une ont imparablement diagnostiqué Human Captcha comme responable de cette faiblesse.Je comprends fort bien la réponse du développeur joint par courriel,qui m’indique être trop occupé par des activités rémunératrices pour s’en occuper, sauf si j’accepte de financer ce développement. Moi, quand je suis trop occuper, ce n’est pas un financement qui pourra m’occuper moins !J”espère que les 400 utilisateurs de l’extension que nous sommes n’auront pas à en pâtir !

    Read on wp.org ↗
  2. ★★★★★ sachsongngu
    3.9y ago

    I have tried google recaptcha but somehow my site was still being spam until I change to this human captcha, no more spam user, comment….etc….all gone. Thank you very much for this great plugin and its author. PS: I used this plugin over 4 years. After a long time using and now I come back to review. ))) This topic was modified 3 years, 7 months ago by sachsongngu.

    Read on wp.org ↗
  3. ★★★★★ terokankaanpera
    5.1y ago

    Extremely simple and effective plug-in to cut ALL spam comments. This is just what I wanted: simple questions in the language my content is to block bots from forms on my site. Had a bit of teething trouble when I took it up, the language has characters it didn’t support correctly in combination with numbers but in the end the developer resolved this very fast. Could do with a little more features but KISS.

    Read on wp.org ↗
  4. ★★★★★ WPOso
    6.6y ago

    Three thumbs up for ease of installation, plus a another thumb up for creativity. I installed this plugin on three sites that cater to people who like to think, so being able to customize questions that are a little thought-provoking is a real treat. So far, everything seems to be working OK. David W. Blomstrom

    Read on wp.org ↗
  5. ★★★★★ rileyadamvoth
    9.9y ago

    So I really wanted to like this plugin. It does what it’s supposed to do and does it well. I like the simple options to control where it appears as well as make my own captcha questions. However, The settings for this plugin appear under the Plugins menu item in the admin rather than the typical Settings menu where most would appear. This is extremely abnormal and easy to forget. Worse though, it made it completely unusable for me since I run a multisite network that hides the Plugins menu item in the admin areas. It makes it impossible to reach this plugins settings. So, can’t use it because of this unusual functionality.

    Read on wp.org ↗
  6. ★★★★★ devra
    11.1y ago

    Easy to install and set up. The is a better captcha for a low vision person, because they don’t have to try to interpret a fuzzy image with numbers or letters. Great captcha for people using screen readers.

    Read on wp.org ↗
  7. ★★★★★ dtommy79
    11.4y ago

    The best Q&A captcha on the web.

    Read on wp.org ↗
  8. ★★★★★ rseigel
    11.8y ago

    Doesn’t work with comments. Complete garbage. Uninstalled. I should bill the idiot that made this for my time.

    Read on wp.org ↗

Behavioral tests

via WP Hive

Automated install-time checks, tested on PHP 7.4.8 · WP 5.8

✓ Low memory footprint
✓ Low page-speed impact
✓ Runs on latest PHP + WP
✓ No PHP errors
✓ No JS errors
✓ Activates cleanly
✓ No resource errors
✓ No external HTTP errors
✓ Optimized database use
✕ Frequently updated

Languages

via translate.wordpress.org

Translated into 1 language, 1 at 90% or more · development strings

French (France) 100%

AI assistants

How it's measured →

Whether ChatGPT and Claude name this plugin when asked the category question, and whether the readme gives them something to quote.

Not measured yet for this plugin’s topics. Its tracked searches are not among the measured topics. See the topics measured so far.

Readme readiness

2 of 8 pass · checked 28 Oct 2026

Can an assistant quote this readme? Eight deterministic checks over the wp.org listing, no model involved.

  • ! Says what it does Short description names no action; say what the plugin does for the site.
  • ! Has a FAQ Only 1 question in the FAQ; 3 or more gives an assistant something to match.
  • ! FAQ asks real questions 0 of 1 FAQ entries are headings, not questions ("undefined").
  • ! Names who it is for Never says who the plugin is for or what they use it for.
  • ! Names what it works with Names no plugin, service or platform it works with.
  • ! Headings and lists 1 heading and 1 list; assistants quote headed sections and bullet lists, not paragraphs.
  • ✓ Enough to quote 2,078 characters of description.
  • ✓ Tags match the text 4 of 5 tags appear in the text; "text-based" does not.

Growth timeline

Install-tier crossings we have observed, and how long each tier took to outgrow

  1. 2026-06-01 300+ → 200+ down after 1 days in tier
  2. 2026-05-31 200+ → 300+ up after 26 days in tier
  3. 2026-05-05 300+ → 200+ down after 3 days in tier
  4. 2026-05-02 200+ → 300+ up after 4 days in tier
  5. 2026-04-28 300+ → 200+ down after 1 days in tier
  6. 2026-04-27 200+ → 300+ up after 2 days in tier
  7. 2026-04-25 300+ → 200+ down after 1 days in tier
  8. 2026-04-24 200+ → 300+ up after 3 days in tier

Competes with

The plugins that solve the same job, ranked by shared tags then reach, closest match first. The letter on the right is each plugin's health grade (A best, F worst).

Embed this report card

Drop a live Pulse card for HumanCaptcha by Outerbridge into a readme, a review or a deck. It updates itself.

<iframe src="https://plugins.wpmayor.com/embed/humancaptcha" width="480" height="300" style="border:0" loading="lazy" title="HumanCaptcha by Outerbridge — Plugin Pulse"></iframe>
Preview card ↗

HumanCaptcha by Outerbridge: 200+ active installs, 4.3★ (16 reviews). Plugin Pulse (WP Mayor), as of 2026-10-31. https://plugins.wpmayor.com/plugin/humancaptcha

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