CAPTCHA
A CAPTCHA is a check meant to confirm a real human is taking the action on a page, not a script — picking images, ticking 'I'm not a robot', or typing distorted text. It shows up both on the ad-network side and inside the offer itself, at registration or at payment. In PWA arbitrage, CAPTCHA cuts both ways: useful for blocking bots, but a real risk to conversion rate if it sits in the wrong place in the funnel.
Where CAPTCHA shows up along the traffic chain
Some ad networks serve a CAPTCHA to visits they flag as suspicious before the click ever reaches the landing page — that's the platform's own filter, not the buyer's. On the offer side, CAPTCHA often sits on the lead form or the payment step, which is exactly where it hurts conversion most, since some genuine users simply drop off rather than finish it. Antifraud scripts add another layer of CAPTCHA on top, and a buyer has no direct control over when a third-party service decides to trigger one.
Why APEX leans on antibot instead of CAPTCHA
Showing a CAPTCHA to a real visitor just to filter out bots is a bad trade — some genuine audience drops off before finishing the check, and conversion rate takes the hit. APEX's built-in antibot works differently: it reads click signals server-side (IP-intel, carrier, user agent, headless fingerprints) and decides before the page even renders, with no visible check for the person on the other end. That keeps bot filtering from adding an extra funnel step or costing conversions among real visitors.
FAQ
- Does CAPTCHA protect a buyer from fraud?
- Partly — it blocks some automated scripts, but it's no substitute for real antibot: bots running an actual browser engine sometimes clear a CAPTCHA, while genuine users sometimes fail it on the first try.
- Should a buyer put a CAPTCHA on their own PWA?
- Usually not — it adds an extra step and drags down conversion; server-side antibot solves the same traffic-filtering problem without a visible check for the user.
Cloaking, anti-bot, push, split tests and your own domains — in one service.
Get started free