
Ask HN: Good alternatives to disqus? - ateesdalejr
I have a small blog that I&#x27;ve been designing in my spare time. I&#x27;ve been looking around for all kinds of comment systems but don&#x27;t have the money nor time to host one myself and rather despise Disqus. Any suggestions?
======
stackmover
We were looking for one too (but nothing came close to Disqus). You can try
these Isso: [https://posativ.org/isso/](https://posativ.org/isso/) [Doesn't
have any SSO integration]

[https://my.remarkbox.com](https://my.remarkbox.com) [It didn't appear as
clean a Disqus]

~~~
togusa2017
+1. I did the same too. imo their aren't many feasible options

~~~
bgdam
Have you checked out the alternatives listed on this page? If yes, why would
you consider them not feasible as compared to disqus? What are the essential
disqus features that are missing for you?

~~~
togusa2017
I wanted something which is self hosted and open source and the setup would be
quick . Isso was able to provide that. It was a year back so I can't exactly
remember what other options lacked.

------
adtac
I created
[https://github.com/adtac/commento](https://github.com/adtac/commento) \- it's
lightweight and privacy-focused. It's written in Go and you run it in a Docker
container.

------
philippz
If it's about constructive feedback, you can create a STOMT page:
[https://www.stomt.com/signup/business](https://www.stomt.com/signup/business)
and use their different kinds of web-integrations:
[https://stomt.co/web](https://stomt.co/web) It's free.

And the result looks like this: [https://www.stomt.com/empires-of-the-
undergrowth](https://www.stomt.com/empires-of-the-undergrowth)
[https://www.stomt.com/AWMF](https://www.stomt.com/AWMF)

------
foxhop
Hi there, I'm building Remarkbox, you may check it out here:
[https://www.remarkbox.com](https://www.remarkbox.com)

It will cost $4/m at launch but if you help beta test you will earn a
substantial discount.

~~~
ateesdalejr
This actually seems like a really good option. Might give it a try.

------
stevekemp
My own solution is here:

[https://github.com/skx/e-comments](https://github.com/skx/e-comments)

Which you can see demo'd on this page:

[https://tweaked.io/guide/demo/](https://tweaked.io/guide/demo/)

Simple, no facebook-login, etc, but scales well and seems to offer enough to
make conversation useful. (Threading, spam-filtering on the server-side, and
simple to add to pages.)

~~~
KajMagnus
The demo link doesn't work: Chrome shows a blank page, network unreachable:

    
    
        $ curl -v -v https://tweaked.io/guide/demo/
        *   Trying 80.68.84.115...
        *   Trying 2001:41c8:10b:103::115...
        * Immediate connect fail for 2001:41c8:10b:103::115: Network is unreachable
    

Would otherwise be interesting to have a look. How do you do spam filtering?

~~~
stevekemp
Hrm works for me on both IPv4 & IPv6. Sorry it failed anyway.

To implement the spam-filtering the server, which receives POSTed comments
from the javascript fron-end, calls on local plugins. There are just two
supplied with the server, but I wrote a simple one to use the crm114 mail-
filter to run bayesian filtering on incoming comments.

I think letting the server-admin write plugins is probably the sanest way to
go, even if it just shells out to services like
[https://blogspam.net/](https://blogspam.net/)

------
tedmiston
I wonder if anyone's built one on top of an API-first CMS like Contentful?

~~~
ateesdalejr
That seems like an interesting solution.

------
KajMagnus
A new alternative, 2017, both open source and hosted, scroll down to the
bottom here to see how it looks:

[https://www.kajmagnus.blog/new-embedded-
comments](https://www.kajmagnus.blog/new-embedded-comments)

It's called EffectiveDiscussions (for now) & it's an early beta version, I'm
developing it. There are new ideas — look here:
[https://www.effectivediscussions.org/-32/how-hacker-news-
can...](https://www.effectivediscussions.org/-32/how-hacker-news-can-be-
improved).

Install yourself: [https://github.com/debiki/ed-
server](https://github.com/debiki/ed-server) — or $2/month for hosting:
[https://new.ed.community/-/create-site/embedded-
comments](https://new.ed.community/-/create-site/embedded-comments), main
website: [http://www.ed.community](http://www.ed.community)

What tech stack does your blog use? Maybe a link? (What do you write about?)

———

More alternatives to Disqus:

\- Mozilla's Talk,
[https://github.com/coralproject/talk](https://github.com/coralproject/talk)
(open source, install yourself)

\- Discourse, [https://www.discourse.org/](https://www.discourse.org/) (one
needs to navigate to a separate page, to post a comment. Not threaded. Min
$20/month. Open source.)

\- Isso: [https://posativ.org/isso/](https://posativ.org/isso/) (open source,
install on your own server. No Facebook / Gmail login.)

\- HostedComments,
[https://www.hostedcomments.com/](https://www.hostedcomments.com/) (min
$10/month)

\- Remarbox, [https://www.remarkbox.com/](https://www.remarkbox.com/) (min
$6/month)

\- Schnack, [https://www.vis4.net/blog/2017/10/hello-
schnack/](https://www.vis4.net/blog/2017/10/hello-schnack/) (open source)

\- Commento,
[https://github.com/adtac/commento](https://github.com/adtac/commento) (lacks
moderation and spam-protection)

\- And EffectiveDiscussions
([https://www.ed.community](https://www.ed.community)), open source, or $2 per
month.

~~~
nestorherre
ED looks cool, might use it on my upcoming project. Thanks for sharing

~~~
KajMagnus
Can I ask what do you like about ED? Is it mainly how it looks, or something
else?

(I'm wondering, because if I know more about what people like, then maybe I
can focus more on improving that stuff even more.)

(Also note that it's an early beta... or alpha-beta version. Might be some
bugs, right now.)

~~~
nestorherre
Well I have some suggestions, but it can be a little bit biased about what I
want particularly for my project, but I think you can take something out of
it:

I really like the looks, in the matter that the replys of the comments are
followed but that arrow which is very user friendly and appealing.

Like the google like icon of the letter.

Like the heart (like) and the down (dislike) option, although I'm not sure why
I need to click again once I click on the dislike, it should be inmediate,
maybe change the icon so it is more friendly (like the facebook finger down or
something related)

I'm not sure if comments get organized by likes, but I think it would be good
if the admin of the page could select if he wants the comments to be displayed
in chronological order or by likes.

Also following that, I think it would be good if as an admin, I could select a
direct message system (no preview, no code structure, with little to no
parsing) so users can reply inmediately and without hazzle. In the software-
related community this is a good option, but think about other use cases - of
your regular internet user - who just wants to comment. That option with the
preview and parsing is not useful to him/her.

Hope this helps!

~~~
KajMagnus
Thanks this was interesting info :- )

Yes comments are sorted by like votes, or rather, like votes + also taking
into account how many people actually read the comment. (A comment that 5
people read, but everyone upvoted, is probably better than a comment with 10
likes but that 1000 people have read.)

Sorting chronologically is something I've thought about enabling too, as a
config value. I think I'll add that eventually, ... maybe not in the nearest
future though.

Ok yes a simpler editor, maybe some WYSIWYG editor that auto-converts Markdown
to lists, bold, headers etc immediately directly in a write-a-reply editor
directly in the comments iframe, would be nice & better in some/many cases.
There were some HackerNews posts about such editors, recently.

Hmm what does this mean?: _" the google like icon of the letter"_ — which
letter(s)? :- )

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seanwilson
Not that I've looked that hard but Disqus or Facebook comments seem like the
main options unless you want to host something yourself. There doesn't seem to
be many alternatives.

