The FriendlyCaptcha Alternative. Hardware-level and truly invisible.
The Friendly Captcha alternative and friendlycaptcha alternative for teams that want a truly invisible widget — no proof-of-work cost on the visitor's device. A short FriendlyCaptcha review: privacy-first EU widget, but still a widget. TrustSig is the next step — no widget at all, hardware-level signals, full data sovereignty in Germany.
50,000 requests/month free. Complete threat engine. No credit card, ever.
Already in production
Publishing platforms, fintech and national charities across Europe already run TrustSig on their forms.
PublitPrint-on-demand and digital book distribution for publishers.Publishing · Sweden
LEI SystemOfficial Legal Entity Identifier registration agent.Fintech · Estonia
Disability Sport WalesNational charity for inclusive and disability sport.Charity · Wales
Friendly Captcha vs TrustSig — side by side
Friendly Captcha vs TrustSig and friendlycaptcha vs TrustSig — compared on detection model, residency, device cost and friendly captcha pricing. Both EU-aligned and privacy-respecting; the difference is the detection model and how much runs on the visitor's machine.
| Capability | TrustSig | Friendly Captcha |
|---|---|---|
| User-facing element | None — no widget at all | Embedded widget with status text |
| Work on user's device | None — passive signal read | Proof-of-work computation in browser |
| Detection method | Hardware-level deterministic signals | Proof-of-work + behavioural heuristics |
| Data residency | EU only (Germany) | EU (Germany) |
| Cookies / tracking | Zero cookies, zero PII | Cookieless |
| Low-end device experience | No compute cost to the visitor | PoW can be slow on weak hardware |
| Free tier | Full engine, 50K req/mo, no card | Free tier with usage limits |
| Server verification | Local — sub-millisecond, no network call | Round-trip to verify endpoint |
Where TrustSig goes further
Friendly Captcha is a solid privacy-first choice. Teams move to TrustSig when they want zero footprint on the visitor and a deterministic verdict.
Truly invisible
Friendly Captcha renders a small widget that shows progress. TrustSig has no UI element — there is nothing on the page for a visitor to notice.
Nothing runs on the user's device
A proof-of-work check spends the visitor's CPU and battery, which is noticeable on older phones. TrustSig reads existing hardware signals passively, with no computation asked of the device.
Deterministic, not probabilistic
TrustSig returns a clear ALLOW/BLOCK verdict you verify locally, rather than tuning a difficulty parameter and a heuristic.
Full data sovereignty
Both Friendly Captcha and TrustSig are hosted in Germany; TrustSig is additionally built in Estonia. Both are EU, both single-jurisdiction — TrustSig adds an independent dual-country corporate and infrastructure footing.
Zero-latency server check
verifyLocal() resolves on your own server with no outbound call, so verification adds no network round-trip to a request.
Complete free engine
The free tier is the full deterministic threat engine and 50,000 requests/month, with no credit card.
Swap Friendly Captcha for TrustSig
Remove the widget mount and verify call; add the invisible scan and a local verify. Two npm packages, no infrastructure changes.
- Frontend — remove the widget mount
// Before — Friendly Captcha widget // <div className="frc-captcha" data-sitekey={SITE_KEY} /> // After — TrustSig (no element, runs in the background) import { useTrustSig } from "@trustsig/react" function ActionForm() { const { scan } = useTrustSig() const handleSubmit = async () => { const response = await scan() await fetch("/api/action", { headers: { "X-TrustSig-Response": response?.token || "" }, }) } } - Backend — replace the verify call
// Before — Friendly Captcha (network round-trip) // await fetch("https://api.friendlycaptcha.com/api/v1/siteverify", ...) // After — TrustSig (verified locally, zero latency) import { TrustSig } from "@trustsig/server" const ts = new TrustSig({ secretKey: process.env.TRUSTSIG_SECRET_KEY }) app.post("/api/action", async (req, res) => { const token = req.headers["x-trustsig-response"] const result = ts.verifyLocal(token) if (result.action === "BLOCK") return res.status(403).json({ error: "Blocked" }) })
Start free. Stay free until you grow.
No card. EU-hosted on every tier.
Starter
For personal projects and sites getting started with bot protection.
- 50,000 requests / month2 domains
- Full threat protection suite
- Bot farm blocking
- No CAPTCHAs for visitors
- Community support
Growth
For growing businesses with moderate traffic and multiple properties.
- 300,000 requests / month20 domains • €5 per 100k extra reqs
- Full threat protection suite
- Bot farm blocking
- No CAPTCHAs for visitors
- Email support
Business
For established companies needing high-volume protection and priority SLA.
- 750,000 requests / month25 domains • €5 per 100k extra reqs
- Full threat protection suite
- Bot farm blocking
- No CAPTCHAs for visitors
- Priority support
Enterprise: unlimited volume · SLAs · on-prem · dedicated support.
One check is a single verification request: a page view, form submit, or login attempt that TrustSig evaluates. You only spend a check when traffic actually hits a protected surface, so bot floods do not quietly drain your quota.
Friendly Captcha migration questions
Friendly Captcha is a cookieless, EU-built widget that runs a proof-of-work puzzle in the visitor's browser. TrustSig has no widget and asks the device to compute nothing — it reads hardware-level signals passively and returns a deterministic verdict you verify locally.
It is — it is one of the more privacy-respecting options and is EU-hosted. TrustSig is for teams that additionally want no visible element, no proof-of-work cost on the user's device, and single-jurisdiction data residency in Germany.
On modern hardware the cost is small. On older phones — common for traffic from broad consumer campaigns — proof-of-work can add a noticeable wait. TrustSig adds none.
Usually under five minutes per form. Remove the widget mount, install the two TrustSig packages, and replace the siteverify call with verifyLocal().
The complete deterministic threat engine and 50,000 requests per month, with no credit card.
Friendly Captcha pricing starts free with a metered ceiling and tiers up by monthly request volume. TrustSig pricing follows the same shape — a free forever tier with 50,000 requests/month and the complete deterministic threat engine — then €29/€79 plans for larger volume. The practical friendlycaptcha pricing question is usually 'do I get the full detection engine on the free tier?' With TrustSig the answer is yes.
A fair FriendlyCaptcha review: it solved the reCAPTCHA data problem honestly, is EU-built, is cookieless, and is a credible Friendly Captcha alternative to Google. The trade-off is a visible widget and a proof-of-work computation on the user's device, which is noticeable on older phones. As a friendlycaptcha alternative, TrustSig keeps the privacy posture and removes the widget and the device-side compute.
Friendly Captcha vs TrustSig comes down to invisibility and detection model. Pick Friendly Captcha if a small visible widget and proof-of-work fit your stack. Pick TrustSig as the friendly captcha alternative when you need a truly invisible captcha, hardware-level deterministic detection, and a local server verify with no network round-trip.
Yes — TrustSig is the friendlycaptcha alternative built on passive hardware signals rather than a browser proof-of-work puzzle. Nothing is asked of the device, nothing renders on the page. For teams running broad consumer campaigns where mobile load is a conversion lever, that's the difference between a friendlycaptcha vs hardware-attested signal.
Privacy-first, with zero footprint.
Start free in minutes. No widget, no proof-of-work, EU-hosted. No credit card.