head to head · open source
Cap vs Friendly Captcha
Cap has 7,798 GitHub stars, 579 forks, 10 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. Friendly Captcha has 33 stars, 15 forks, 2 open issues and last shipped 15 days ago. Cap leads on adoption by 23,530% (7,798 vs 33 stars). Cap is written in JavaScript under a custom or non-standard licence; Friendly Captcha is written in TypeScript under MPL-2.0. Cap has attracted 7% as many forks as stars, Friendly Captcha 45%. Cap was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 3 topic tags (anti-bot, captcha, proof-of-work), so they are genuine substitutes rather than adjacent tools.
Two open source projects, one decision. Both are free and self-hostable — the differences are community size, license terms, language stack and release pace.
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Side by side
| Cap | Friendly Captcha | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 7.8K | ★ 33 |
| License | Custom / other | MPL-2.0 |
| Written in | JavaScript | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-16 | 2026-09-03 |
| Forks | ⑂ 579 | ⑂ 15 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Cap if
- You weight community size — 7.8K stars and counting
- You want the Custom / other license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick Friendly Captcha if
- You want the Friendly Captcha feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MPL-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and Friendly Captcha fits your workflow better
About Cap
Cap is a free, open source, self hosted CAPTCHA replacement that swaps visual puzzles for proof of work and instrumentation challenges, built for developers and site operators who want anti bot protection without shipping their visitors' data to a third party service.
About Friendly Captcha
Friendly Captcha SDK is the TypeScript library that website developers install to add Friendly Captcha v2 proof of work bot protection to their forms and pages, built for teams that want to block spam and abuse while keeping visitor data private and staying GDPR compliant.
read the full Friendly Captcha overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Cap or Friendly Captcha more popular?
Cap has 7,798 GitHub stars and Friendly Captcha has 33. Cap has the larger community by that measure.
Are Cap and Friendly Captcha free?
Both are open source. Cap has no licence declared in this registry, and Friendly Captcha is licensed under MPL-2.0. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between Cap and Friendly Captcha?
Cap is written in JavaScript and Friendly Captcha in TypeScript. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, Cap or Friendly Captcha?
Choose Cap if you want the larger community (7,798 stars) or its Custom / other licence terms. Choose Friendly Captcha if its feature set, stack or MPL-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.