reCAPTCHA

You only need to install the code for reCAPTCHA if you are using a Version 1 or Version 2 ShopWired theme. If you're using a later theme version, you don't need to install the code (except to add reCAPTCHA to a custom form).

To install the code, navigate to Website > Themes and select Edit the code for the theme you want to install reCAPTCHA on.

1. Locate the contact.twig file
2. Add the code shown below before the closing </form> tag. Ideally, this will be placed before the <button> code:

1. Locate the account_form.twig file
2. Add the code shown below before the closing </form> tag. Ideally, this will be placed before the <button> code:

1. Locate the product.twig file
2. Add the code shown below before the closing </form> tag for the product reviews form. Ideally, this will be placed before the <button> code:

If you're using the product Q&A app, you'll need to use the code shown below in order to display reCAPTCHA:

If you've added a custom contact form, reCAPTCHA must be added to forms when the app is activated within your ShopWired account.

The {{ recaptcha }} variable will never return true on any pages other than the product, contact form, and account pages, therefore the reCAPTCHA container should be added without the usual accompanying if statement.

reCAPTCHA can only protect the following forms on your website:

• Contact us form
• Custom contact forms
• Customer account registration
• Trade account application
• Product reviews
• Product questions

reCAPTCHA cannot be added to your website's customer login form, newsletter subscriber form, or other pages like your website's shopping basket.

ShopWired has advanced systems in place to protect your website against malicious bot attacks, and reCAPTCHA is only used to prevent spam attacks.

ShopWired uses Google reCAPTCHA v2 to protect forms on the platform from spam and automated abuse. We have chosen to use v2, over v3, for the following reasons:

reCAPTCHA v2 provides a consistent and reliable experience across all websites. It uses visible challenges (such as the "I'm not a robot" checkbox) that make it clear to visitors when verification is required. reCAPTCHA v3, by contrast, operates invisibly and scores visitor behaviour, which can lead to unpredictable results — sometimes blocking legitimate visitors or allowing spam through.

ShopWired implements reCAPTCHA at the platform level. reCAPTCHA v3 requires site-specific tuning of its scoring thresholds to achieve the right balance between blocking bots and allowing genuine visitors. Because ShopWired hosts thousands of websites with different traffic patterns, using v3 would make consistent performance across all visitors and websites very difficult to achieve.

With reCAPTCHA v2, visitors can see when verification is happening and understand why they might be asked to complete a challenge. reCAPTCHA v3 performs checks silently in the background, which can cause confusion if a genuine form submission is rejected due to a low score.

reCAPTCHA v2 is simpler to monitor and troubleshoot. With v3, support requests could increase due to inconsistent behaviour between sites and difficulty explaining why some visitors are rejected or flagged as suspicious.

While reCAPTCHA v3 offers a more invisible verification process, it requires ongoing monitoring, scoring adjustments, and site-specific calibration. For a platform-wide solution like ShopWired, reCAPTCHA v2 provides a more stable, predictable, and transparent defence against spam while ensuring a smooth experience for genuine visitors.

No. reCAPTCHA requires both front-end and server-side components to work correctly. While a theme can load the visible reCAPTCHA script, the actual verification process happens on the server, where the token is checked with Google to confirm whether the submission is genuine.

reCAPTCHA v3 uses a different response format and verification method from v2. Instead of returning a simple pass/fail, it returns a score that must be interpreted by the server to decide whether to accept or reject a form submission. Because ShopWired’s servers are configured specifically for reCAPTCHA v2, it isn’t possible for individual users to switch to v3 within their themes.