Google reCAPTCHA — US-headquartered (Mountain View, CA), the dominant captcha service on the web. Widely flagged for sending visitor data to Google and for cookie / fingerprinting concerns under GDPR.
The most common reasons buyers tell us they're moving to an EU alternative.
CLOUD Act exposure
US authorities can compel non-EU providers to hand over data even when stored on EU servers — incompatible with strict data-sovereignty contracts.
DPAs & CJEU rulings
Multiple EU DPAs have ruled that data transfer to the US violates GDPR Article 44 without further safeguards.
Procurement requirements
Many EU public-sector and regulated tenders now require EU-jurisdiction software and data residency. Tools listed here meet those requirements out of the box.
Vendor diversity
Reducing dependence on a small number of US hyperscalers and SaaS providers is a strategic goal across many EU governments and enterprises.
Open-source self-hosted captcha using proof-of-work, no external calls or data sharing
Invisible captcha hosted in Austria with WACA accessibility certification and per-site quotas
Invisible proof-of-work captcha that blocks bots without cookies, puzzles or tracking