What is CAPTCHA?
It is doubtful that there exists an internet user who has never faced a CAPTCHA (Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart). Many internet users face those riddle type quizzes and do not realize that they are called this way. For those unfamiliar with it, it is a kind of automated test that should set apart robots (or bots in fact) and humans. Most users face it when registering a new account on different websites. One other specific case is whenever you use a VPN. Since many users use IP in a VPN at the same time, websites might take it as though a lot of people are trying to access the site from the same address.
To prevent this, websites use CAPTCHA. One other known usage is the prevention of the spammed comments. Some developers can write a script that can automatically write comments to the posts. Site owners do not want this as most of those comments include an ad that does not benefit the site owner.
CAPTCHA types
Even though most internet users are not aware, there are a lot of CAPTCHA types. Although they have the same aim, most of them differ in the way they function. Also, while some of them can be solved on one system, the other may not be solved automatically. So, let’s dive into the info about them.
Word problem
The famous one. The logic behind solving a word problem is you enter the words on the image you are shown. In most cases, texts on the picture are either blurred, skewed, stricken out, or modified so that people can read it while bots cannot solve them using OCR. There can be only one word or multiple words. Some of them are even case sensitive.
Math problem
The other not less popular than the “Word problem” type is the Math problem. As its name tells us, you have to solve a mathematical problem. Like “1+3” or “9-5”. Generally, these problems are straightforward to solve and do not require any calculator. Since these numbers are on the image, bots can’t solve the Math Problem, even though they are elementary math questions.
Time-Based
What is the difference between bots and humans? Of course, speed. The trick is that, if “the problem is solved” faster than a specific time, it is most probably done by a bot. In most cases, this type does not have any particular form or so. It just calculates the time you used to fill the specific forms, like your name or email.
Social-Media Sign In
For some, this is not a CAPTCHA type. Yet, it solves some problems related to it. More and more sites allow signing using social media, like Facebook, Google, VK, etc., to use their sites. This eliminates the need to sign up, and all the info needed for registration is acquired from those social giants. Since this method protects against bots, some accept it as a capturing method. Most of the time, people engaged with social media would prefer this signing method to save time.
No CAPTCHA reCAPTCHA
Most of Google’s products are innovative, and No CAPTCHA reCAPTCHA is no exception. Google, in some manner, made it easy for people to solve a capturing. Therefore, today a lot of websites use this method. The working is slightly different from the previous ones. There is a checkbox based on JavaScript, which has a text “I am not a robot.” You only click on it and wait. The logic behind this one is that the bots would mostly click on the center while humans wouldn’t do so. Also, No CAPTCHA reCAPTCHA tracks the mouse’s movement, which boosts the precision of the methods. Google claims that its method is the most accurate one available.
There is a minor thing to consider with this one. If the system is unsure whether it is a bot or a human, it offers another challenge. No CAPTCHA reCAPTCHA method will present pictures and select similar ones. Some even call it a street sign as most of the time, you will see photos related to the streets.
Honeypot
You may not have heard of The Honeypot system. There is a good reason behind this. Different from others, this capturing method does not have any visible field or form to fill. The specific area is hidden on the page so that no human can see it. Yet, bots can see and fill it. So, if that hidden form is filled, the site is informed that it is a bot doing so. As you can see, it is a seamless interaction for our browsing.
Invisible reCAPTCHA
Invisible reCAPTCHA is an upgrade to No CAPTCHA reCAPTCHA by Google. You can guess, due to its name, Invisible reCAPTCHA is indeed invisible. No action is required from the user that visits the page. We know that the code implemented to the page analyzes mouse movement, the way we press the buttons, and other factors specific to humans.
Confident reCAPTCHA
Confident reCAPTCHA is another image-based method for detecting bots. Here, users see multiple pictures and are required to click on the images that have the object. Mostly, there is a text like “Click the dog.” The developer of this technology is Confident Technologies.
Sweet CAPTCHA
Intended to prevent spam contacts, Sweet CAPTCHA is now defunct. Sometime in 2015, security experts revealed that it distributed malware. Therefore, these days nearly nobody uses this method as it is not beneficial, not to the site nor the users.
How to solve a CAPTCHA
There are two ways to solve a capturing problem: manually or using services. Both of them have their pros and cons. Manually solving them guarantees to solve them, while after some time, it may become exhausting. Especially if you have to use a VPN, even searching via Google can be troublesome, and you will continuously face capturing related problems. Even there would be times when you can’t solve a simple word problem. You may even ask yourself, “How to solve captcha automatically?” Services, on the other side, can solve those systems faster. Their disadvantage is that not every service can solve every captcha. Also, some may be pricier than others.
Manual
It is no secret that we tend to choose a free one whenever there is a free option for paid services. The same goes for the captchas. If you don’t want to pay for a high-quality service, your best choice is to solve the captcha manually. Just don’t whine when you can’t solve the captcha, or it becomes too time-consuming. It may be convenient to solve captcha for money in some cases.
Services
As with anything on the internet, there are a lot of services that offer captcha solving. Whenever manual input is not working or needs to be submitted automatically, you can prefer online services that provide captcha solve.
2Captcha
One of the notorious services that offer automatically solving captchas is 2Captcha. They offer their services via their API. You can check their site for the price, but in general, they are affordable. What differentiates them is that they are known for “human-powered image and CAPTCHA recognition service.” After you buy this service, you would not worry about how to solve the captcha. Their API knows how to solve captcha code. In case if something is not working, you can always ask support.
Anti-Captcha
One other captcha solving service. Operates since 2007 and claims that all captchas are solved manually by the employers. They work on the pay-per-captcha payment basis and offer different prices for different services. Anti-Captcha informs that it can solve several captchas.
Captchatronix
A service that claims to solve ReCAPTCHA & 2,585 other Captchas automatically. It has been operating for more than 6 years. Also, different from other services, it doesn’t charge per solved captcha. Captchatronix offers 12 different plans to buy as well as you can buy a custom plan.
De-Captcher
De-Captcher provides both human and OCR solutions to customers. Their APIs are available in more than a dozen programming languages. The minimum payment amount is $10, while their rate is $2 for 1000 images.
Death by Captcha
Death by Captcha, or DBC, proposes plans that start with $0.99 for 1000 solved CAPTCHAs. They have a wide variety of payment options and support several languages to integrate their API.
The future of capture
Search engines, not only Google, by the way, need bots to index sites. Others use it to spam. So, as long as there is the internet, there will always be bots. To prevent misuse, people will integrate similar systems to their sites. Probably, AIs may be implemented soon. Yet, many people may be irritated by this and looking for ways when they can’t solve the captcha. In this case, if you can afford it, then you should solve captcha for money. There will always be services that offer captcha solve. If you can’t solve a captcha, services can do that for you.
Verdict
This article covered some companies that offer their capturing services. If you want to get rid of the question “How to solve captcha automatically?” you may want to consider paid options as well. If you analyze thoroughly, you can infer that 2capthca is one of the best among such services. Its price is affordable, has APIs for Python, PHP, JS, etc. One interesting point about this site. Since captchas are solved manually, their employers get paid, and those employers are from worldwide. Therefore, you contribute to the workforce. Furthermore, not covered above, you can use MyDataProvider services to integrate 2captcha for your needs. They are web scrapping experts and offer other services as well. You can check on their website that they offer to scrap for the giants like AliExpress, Amazon, Taobao, etc. If you have doubts about their services,m you can try their free tool.
