Automatic turnstile isolated on white background. 3d.
| |

Cloudflare Turnstile + Gravity Forms: Stop Spam Cold Without CAPTCHAs

Byanotheropus Reading Time: 4 minutes
LINKS: Set It Up in Minutes | Detailed Step by Step

Contents

If you’re using Gravity Forms on your WordPress site, chances are you’ve dealt with spam. A lot of it. Between bots, brute force form fills, and fake leads, it’s a growing mess that wastes your time, slows down your site, and kills legit conversions.

Here’s the good news: you can fix this without frustrating your visitors or slowing your site down with clunky JavaScript CAPTCHA widgets. The answer? A clean combo of three free tools:

  • Cloudflare Turnstile – fast, invisible, and way better than CAPTCHA
  • Gravity Forms Cloudflare Turnstile Add-On – integrates Turnstile directly into your forms
  • Gravity Forms Zero Spam Plugin – for smart backend filtering
  • (Optional but wise): Gravity Forms built-in Honeypot – just turn it on

Why Cloudflare Turnstile?

Automatic turnstile isolated on white background. 3d.
Use Cloudflare Turnstile to limit bots and spam with Gravity Forms

It works silently in the background, validating real users and blocking bots without making people solve puzzles or click tiny pictures of bikes. It’s free, runs on Cloudflare’s global edge network, and it’s privacy-first—no tracking cookies, no personal data sent.

Unlike Google reCAPTCHA, Turnstile doesn’t add drag or break accessibility. Most users never even notice it’s there.

Why Gravity Forms Add-On?

It drops the Turnstile field directly into your form builder. You can place it anywhere—no code. One click and done. It’s the easiest way to embed Turnstile validation without messing with shortcodes or custom PHP.

Why Use Zero Spam Too?

Turnstile blocks bots at the gate. But Zero Spam catches trickier junk—like low-quality human spammers or weird referral junk. It’s lightweight and custom-tuned for Gravity Forms, so it works without clashing with Turnstile or honeypots.

Quick Recap: The Spam-Stopping Stack

Here’s the combo that’s crushing form spam right now:

  • Cloudflare Turnstile – Stops bots invisibly
  • Gravity Forms Turnstile Add-On – Drop it right in your form
  • GF Zero Spam Plugin – Catch the clever spammers
  • Honeypot Enabled in Form Settings – Hidden trap for dumb bots

With all three (or four) running, you’re locking down your site without annoying your visitors or killing conversions.

How to

Set It Up in Minutes | or see our Detailed Step by Step

Just follow these quick steps to install Cloudflare Turnstile on your Gravity Form:

  1. Go to Cloudflare dashboard → Add Turnstile site → Copy Site & Secret Keys
  2. Install and Activate the Gravity Forms Turnstile Add-On
  3. Paste keys into Forms → Settings → Turnstile
  4. Add the Turnstile field to any form
  5. Save & test it

You’ll never look at CAPTCHAs the same way again.

5 FAQs (not yet answered above)

Q1: Do I need to be a Cloudflare customer to use Turnstile?
No. Turnstile works even if your DNS isn’t on Cloudflare. It’s free for everyone.

Q2: Will Turnstile slow down my page load time?
Not at all. It’s faster than reCAPTCHA and loads from Cloudflare’s edge network.

Q3: Can I use Turnstile on multiple forms or just one?
You can add it to as many forms as you want. Just reuse the same keys.

Q4: What if Turnstile fails to load for some users?
Turnstile falls back gracefully or offers a simple challenge. Failures are rare.

Q5: Should I still keep Akismet or other spam plugins?
You can, but with Turnstile, Zero Spam, and honeypot combined, you probably won’t need them.

Written by Chad from The Editorial Team
Helping you build faster, safer, smarter WordPress sites—without the fluff.

The Step by Step

Setup Cloudflare Turnstile

1. Enable Turnstile in Cloudflare

  • Login to Cloudflare: https://dash.cloudflare.com/
  • Then Go directly to this URL:
    https://dash.cloudflare.com/?to=/:account/turnstile
  • Select your site → Security → Bots → Turnstile
  • Click Add widget
    • Site Name: Your site name (e.g., My WP Site)
    • Hostname: Your site name again (search from the selector that appears)
    • Domain: e.g., example.com
    • Widget Type: Managed (Recommended)
    • Click Create
  • Copy Site Key and Secret Key

2. Install Free Plugin

3. Add Site & Secret Keys to Plugin

  • WP Admin → Forms → Settings → Turnstile
  • Paste Site Key and Secret Key
  • Save Settings

4. Add Turnstile to Your Form

  • Go to Forms → Edit your target form
  • Click Advanced Fields
  • Drag Turnstile field into your form
  • Save the form

5. Test It

  • View the page with your form
  • Confirm Turnstile loads and form submits correctly

Done

You now have Cloudflare Turnstile protecting your Gravity Form against spam bots. No CAPTCHA frustration.

Similar Posts