ProjectsBlogsAbout

Adding Google reCAPTCHA in Next.js 14+ with App Router

Learn to integrate Google reCAPTCHA in a Next.js 14+ app using the App Router, enhancing form security against spam.

Highlights

  • 📜 Set up a Google reCAPTCHA account via the admin console.

  • 🔑 Obtain site and secret keys for reCAPTCHA integration.

  • 📦 Install the react-google-recaptcha package for ease of use.

  • 🛠️ Create a provider component for reCAPTCHA in Next.js.

  • 📝 Develop a form component utilizing invisible reCAPTCHA.

  • 🔄 Implement server-side verification of reCAPTCHA tokens.

  • 🚀 Integrate and test reCAPTCHA functionality in your application.

Google reCAPTCHA is essential for protecting web forms from spam and abuse by verifying whether the user is human or not.

Understanding reCAPTCHA Versions, Google offers version 2 (challenge-based) and version 3 (score-based). Version 3 is recommended for seamless user experience, as it works invisibly.

The 'I'm not a robot' tick box is a visible challenge that users need to interact with in v2, while the v3 invisible reCAPTCHA badge validates requests in the background without user interaction.

To register a new site, you need to go to the Google reCAPTCHA admin console, click 'get started', and follow the steps to create a new reCAPTCHA for your website, including choosing a version and labeling your site.

After registering a site, you are provided with a site key (public key) and a secret key. The site key is used in the HTML code served to users, while the secret key is used for communication between your site and reCAPTCHA.

Why is it important to verify the reCAPTCHA token on the server side? Server-side verification of the reCAPTCHA token is important for security, ensuring that the token is valid and checking the score before processing the form submission. Storing sensitive keys in environment variables prevents exposure in client-side code, ensuring security during deployment. Verifying tokens server-side is crucial to ensure that only legitimate submissions are processed, enhancing overall form security.

Note: There is two types of npm library for reCAPTCHA, depending on the which version is chosen selected during registration.

here we are using the reCAPTCHA version 3, as it provides a score for user interactions. Utilizing this score helps in assessing the likelihood of a user being a bot and determining how to handle submissions.

What is score? In the context of reCAPTCHA version 3, a score is a risk analysis engagement token that provides a probability that a request is legitimate. How to use the score to determine the likelihood of a user being human and to decide whether to process the form submission.

Some important links

Official sites:

You can follow page Integrate reCAPTCHA v3 in Next.js 14+ how to intgrate in project