ReCAPTCHA vs Turnstile: which CAPTCHA solution is best?

CAPTCHAs are a necessary part of modern website security. They stop spam bots, fake signups and malicious traffic from overwhelming your forms and logins.

For years, the most common CAPTCHA choice has been Google reCAPTCHA. This is the tool that asks you to click all the fire hydrants or make sense of distorted letters to prove you’re not a robot.

But things are changing. By reducing free plan perks, Google is pushing its reCAPTCHA users towards reCAPTCHA Enterprise, a paid-for version of the tool. For many businesses, that means higher costs for something that used to be completely free.

At Radical, we recently migrated away from Google reCAPTCHA and switched to Turnstile, a free CAPTCHA alternative provided by Cloudflare. Our move has been a positive one. But is Turnstile the right bot detection solution for everyone?

Here, based on our experiences with both CAPTCHA solutions, we compare Google reCAPTCHA vs Turnstile. We’ll look at security, user experience, privacy, accessibility, cost and more to help you decide which CAPTCHA solution is best for your website.

But first, an introduction to each bot detection technology.

What is Google reCAPTCHA?

Google reCAPTCHA is one of the oldest and most widely used CAPTCHA services. It’s designed to make sure a human (and not a bot) is submitting your forms.

ReCAPTCHA v2 presents visible puzzles for website users. It asks them to tick a box or complete a challenge (usually identifying objects or distorted letters).

ReCAPTCHA v3 is invisible to users. Instead of showing a puzzle, it runs in the background and gives each user a score based on their online behaviour. If the score is low, the user may be forced into a visible puzzle as a secondary layer of security.

As of 2025, reCAPTCHA v3 is more common, but v2 is still in use because some businesses prefer the certainty provided by a visible challenge.

What is Cloudflare Turnstile?

Cloudflare Turnstile is a modern CAPTCHA alternative that was launched in 2022. Instead of getting users to complete puzzles, Turnstile works in the background, checking the browser environment and user behaviour to decide if a user is legitimate.

Turnstile can be used on any website — not just those hosted by Cloudflare and you don’t need to use other Cloudflare security features.

ReCAPTCHA vs Turnstile: how do these CAPTCHA solutions compare?

So which is the better CAPTCHA to use on your website in 2025? Let’s break down the differences between Google reCAPTCHA and Cloudflare Turnstile.

Security

Both solutions are effective at preventing bot attacks.

Google reCAPTCHA has strong, regularly updated security. Backed by years of Google data, it’s great at spotting bots. It also has the added benefit of using visible puzzles as a fall back when users fail to pass v3 invisible checks.

Cloudflare Turnstile relies on browser behaviour, environment checks and proof-of-work style techniques to spot bots, and it achieves strong website security. It’s newer and less battle-tested than Google reCAPTCHA — but so far, so good.

Bear in mind that no CAPTCHA solution is completely bulletproof. It works best as part of a layered security strategy.

User experience

Google reCAPTCHA can be a bit of a pain for website users. Puzzles can be slow, frustrating and especially awkward on mobile devices. Even when using reCAPTCHA v3 invisible checks, the system sometimes misclassifies users as “suspicious”, which forces them to take the standard CAPTCHA puzzle.

Cloudflare Turnstile, on the other hand, is designed to provide a seamless, uninterrupted user experience. Most users don’t even know the CAPTCHA solution is there. They can complete forms and log into your website while security features tick away in the background.

Privacy

ReCAPTCHA collects a wide range of user data, including browser behaviour, cookies, IP address and device details. Google says that this data isn’t used for ad targeting. But it still raises GDPR and data-protection concerns.

Turnstile is GDPR-friendly. It aligns with modern privacy regulations and user expectations, collecting minimal user data and never using data for tracking or advertising.

Accessibility

ReCAPTCHA v2 doesn’t work well for people with visual or cognitive impairments. While the system offers accessible audio alternatives, they’re often clunky and difficult to use.

ReCAPTCHA v3 and Cloudflare Turnstile are better in terms of accessibility. Turnstile, in particular, is WCAG 2.1 Level AA compliant and has been designed to be accessible for all users.

Compatibility

Google reCAPTCHA can be used across most major CMS platforms, including WordPress, Joomla, and Drupal.

Cloudflare Turnstile is adaptable, too. You don’t have to have a Cloudflare-hosted website or use Cloudflare CDN to use the brand’s bot detection technology.

Customisation

Google reCAPTCHA offers limited design customisation. CAPTCHA widgets look the same across most websites. This makes them familiar and recognisable but it can mean CAPTCHA elements feel out of place on custom-designed sites.

Turnstile offers greater flexibility over customisation. There are multiple appearance modes and themes to choose from, so you can maintain a more cohesive brand experience across your website.

Performance

Google reCAPTCHA’s puzzles can slow down a website. In some regions, with a slower internet connection, a CAPTCHA can fail to load, preventing the submission of a form.

In comparison, the Cloudflare CAPTCHA is lightweight and fast. It supports faster page load times and improved SEO performance.

Cost

Both reCAPTCHA and Turnstile have a free tier. But reCAPTCHA pricing has recently changed.

The reCAPTCHA Essentials plan is free up to 10,000 assessments per month and comes with community support.

For anything more than this, you need to sign up for a reCAPTCHA Standard plan or a reCAPTCHA Enterprise plan. These cost $8 for up to 100,000 assessments per month, then $1 per 1,000 assessments. These costs can quickly add up.

Cloudflare Turnstile’s free plan allows up to 1 million assessments per month. For sites with a higher volume of traffic, there’s the Enterprise plan, which has a custom pricing structure.

ReCAPTCHA vs Turnstile: a summary

ReCAPTCHA or Turnstile? The Radical verdict

Having tested both solutions, we prefer Cloudflare Turnstile. We think it’s the best CAPTCHA alternative for anyone looking to avoid reCAPTCHA’s new fees and improve their bot detection capabilities.

Turnstile provides a friction-free user experience, stronger privacy protections, a free plan that suits the vast majority of website projects and exceptional security too. For small to medium-sized businesses, it’s more than enough to protect forms from bots.

While Google reCAPTCHA v3 offers some of the user experience benefits of Cloudflare Turnstile, for us, it fails to tick as many of the other boxes. We’ll be sticking with Turnstile and will be recommending this CAPTCHA solution to our clients, too.

How to switch from Google reCAPTCHA to Cloudflare Turnstile

For a web developer, switching from Google reCAPTCHA to Cloudflare Turnstile is easy. They just need to follow these simple steps:

1. Sign up for a Cloudflare account
2. Log in and navigate to the Turnstile section
3. Click “Add Site” and enter your website information
4. Copy your site key and secret key for implementation
5. Replace your reCAPTCHA code with Turnstile code
6. Verify tokens on your backend

If you have a WordPress website, you’ll find this process particularly straightforward. Contact Form 7 and Gravity Forms plugins both provide native support.

For further info, take a look at Cloudflare’s setup guide.

ReCAPTCHA and Turnstile FAQs

Is reCAPTCHA free?

Google reCAPTCHA offers a free plan for up to 10,000 assessments per month. For anything more than that, you need to choose a paid plan. These plans cost $8 for up to 100,000 new assessments per month, then $1 for every 1,000 assessments.

What is the best CAPTCHA alternative?

The best CAPTCHA alternative is Cloudflare Turnstile. This CAPTCHA is invisible, so it works in the background to protect your site. It’s effective at blocking bots, easy to use and designed to be privacy-friendly.

Is Turnstile better than reCAPTCHA?

For most small to medium-sized businesses, yes. Cloudflare Turnstile offers a similar level of security to Google reCAPTCHA, while providing a better user experience, improved accessibility and stronger privacy protections. Cloudflare Turnstile is also free up to 1 million assessments, making it a cheaper option than Google reCAPTCHA.

What does CAPTCHA stand for?

CAPTCHA is an acronym that stands for Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart.

Want help improving your website security?

CAPTCHA tools play a big role in protecting your website and shaping how users experience your brand online.

At Radical, we help businesses across Manchester and the UK build faster, safer and more user-friendly websites. Whether you need to switch from reCAPTCHA to Turnstile, improve your site’s performance or redesign from the ground up, we can help.

Get in touch with Radical today to talk about your project.