Joomla! Documentation™

Native reCAPTCHA was added into Joomla in version . Using reCAPTCHA is a great way of preventing bots from making fake accounts and content on your site. There are four steps to setting up reCAPTCHA:

1. Log in to your administrator back-end (How do I do this?)
2. Go to your Plugin Manager. You can find this under the Extensions drop down menu in the top menu or in the Control Pannel page.
3. Edit the Plugin Captcha - ReCaptcha
   • Set Status to Enabled
   • Copy and paste the Public and Private keys in their appropriate fields.
     • You will get the Public and Private keys by signing in with your Google account (create it if you don't have one) here: Create a reCAPTCHA key
     • Once you have register your website domain, Google will provide your ReCAPTCHA keys.
   • Click Save & Close
4. To enable reCAPTCHA
   • For Contact forms and the Registration form
     • Go to Global Configuration, and select the Site tab.
     • Choose Captcha - ReCaptcha in the Default Captcha field.
     • Click Save & Close.
   • For the Registration form only
     • Go to the User Manager. You can find it under the Users top menu or in the Control Pannel page.
     • In the Component tab in the Options choose one of the following for the Captcha:
       • Use Default - that is the default setting and follows the Default Captcha field setting in your Global Configuration.
       • None Selected - that setting ignors the Default Captcha setting in Global Configuration. Use it when you want ReCAPTCHA in the Contact forms but not in the Registration form.
       • Captcha - ReCaptcha - Only needed if the Default Captcha in the Global Configuration is set to None Selected but you want the ReCAPTCHA not in Contact forms but in the Registration form.
     • Click Save & Close.

That's it! You're done!