Just like food for humans, comments for blogs and websites. An active commenting section for a website or a blog is a crucial element. Have you ever wondered why are comments important that much? In simple words, comments are the easiest way to drive traffic and get backlinks to your website or your blog. An active commenting section makes the content of your blog more interactive.
WordPress has provided bloggers a perfect Content Management System with a native commenting system. Have you ever wondered whether the WordPress native commenting system can fulfill every task that a perfect commenting system is supposed to do? In this article, we are going to see the best WordPress comment plugins that can make your website/blog with a lot of traffic and backlinks. This will give you a clear idea of choosing the best WordPress comments plugin on your own.
Let's dive in step by step to find the best WordPress commenting plugin for your WordPress blog.
Why not WordPress Default Commenting System?
As bloggers starting a WordPress blog, they usually use the WordPress Native Commenting System as it does not need additional installation process, it is the default, in-built commenting system of WordPress. But, the ease of installation is not always what it seems. WordPress default commenting system has several limitations. Therefore the tendency to look for alternatives has risen as same as the tendency to look for WordPress alternatives because of its complexity. A few of the limitations of the WordPress native commenting system are,
Limited Features: WordPress native comments lack advanced features like upvoting, thread collapsing, and reactions, which are common in third-party commenting systems.
Spam: Native comments are highly prone to spam. While WordPress provides basic tools like Akismet, it requires constant moderation, and spam can still get through.
Performance Issues: Handling a large volume of comments can slow down website performance, as comments are loaded from the database each time a post is accessed, increasing server load.
Lack of User Engagement: Native comments don't provide built-in notifications for replies, which can reduce user engagement as commenters may not return to the site to follow up on discussions.
No Real-Time Commenting: WordPress native comments do not offer real-time comment updates, meaning users must refresh the page to see new comments.
Basic Moderation Tools: While basic moderation features like approval and blacklisting are available, they lack more sophisticated tools like reporting, role-based moderation, or automated moderation rules.
Limited Customization: Customizing the look and feel of WordPress comments requires coding knowledge. Out-of-the-box designs are basic, and for more complex customizations, plugins, or theme modifications are necessary.
SEO Concerns: If not managed properly, a large number of comments can result in duplicate content issues, negatively impacting SEO.
No Built-in Social Media Integration: Unlike third-party systems like Disqus, WordPress native comments don't provide easy social login options (such as logging in with Facebook, Google, etc.), which can be a barrier for users who don't want to create new accounts.
Limited Analytics: WordPress native comments don’t come with built-in analytics, so you can’t easily track metrics such as user engagement, top commenters, or trends in the discussion.
Therefore a question remains. Can WordPress Native Comments really do everything that a perfect commenting plugin is supposed to do?
To find a clear answer to that, first, let's see what a robust commenting system is supposed to do.
A robust commenting system...
It is clear that we mainly expect from a commenting system a high rate of user engagement on our websites/blogs. So, it is fair to define that creating a good rate of user engagement is the main task of a commenting section. Moreover, driving more traffic and creating backlinks indirectly are the other tasks that we expect from a perfect commenting section.
A robust commenting system should provide a balance between user engagement, moderation capabilities, performance, and ease of use. Key features to consider include:
1. User Engagement Features:
Threaded Comments: Allow for better organization of discussions with nested replies.
Real-Time Commenting: Update comments in real-time without requiring page refreshes.
Upvoting/Downvoting: Helps prioritize valuable comments and increase interaction.
Social Media Login/Integration: Allow users to comment using their social media accounts (Google, Facebook, Twitter, etc.) to reduce friction.
Reactions (Likes/Emojis): Simple reactions to comments without requiring full replies.
2. Moderation & Anti-Spam:
Spam Detection: Built-in spam filters, automated moderation, and CAPTCHA support to reduce bots and unwanted comments.
Flagging/Reporting: Let users flag inappropriate comments for moderators to review.
Role-Based Moderation: Assign different roles (e.g., moderators, admins) for various moderation tasks.
Pre-Moderation & Approval: Ability to hold comments for manual review before they go live.
3. Customization & Branding:
Customizable Look and Feel: Should be easy to match the commenting interface with the website’s design (themes, fonts, colors, etc.).
Anonymous/Guest Commenting: Optional guest commenting (with or without approval), allowing flexibility for users who don’t want to register.
Custom User Profiles: Let commenters have user profiles, avatars, or badges to encourage identity and accountability.
Embeddable Widgets: The commenting system should be embeddable across different platforms or parts of the site.
4. Notification & Interaction:
Email Notifications: Notify users when someone replies to their comments or interacts with them.
Subscription to Threads: Allow users to subscribe to comment threads they are interested in following.
Mentions (@user): Enable users to tag other commenters for direct interaction.
5. Performance & Scalability:
Efficient Performance: The system should not degrade site speed, even with large comment volumes.
Load Comments on Demand: Use lazy loading or paginated comments to reduce initial load times, especially on posts with many comments.
6. Mobile-Friendly:
Responsive Design: The commenting interface should be fully responsive, providing a good user experience on mobile devices.
7. Analytics & Insights:
Engagement Analytics: Track metrics such as total comments, top commenters, most upvoted comments, and interaction trends.
Sentiment Analysis: Advanced systems can use AI to gauge the tone or sentiment of comments, helping moderation efforts.
8. Privacy & Security:
Data Ownership: Ensure site owners retain control over user data and comment history.
Compliance with Privacy Laws: Ensure the system complies with privacy regulations like GDPR (e.g., allowing users to request comment deletion).
Encryption & Security: Protect user data with encryption and secure storage.
9. Integration & Extensibility:
Third-Party Integration: Integration with CRM, marketing tools, or other platforms (e.g., Slack, MailChimp).
API Access: For developers to extend or integrate the commenting system into custom apps or workflows.
Markdown/Formatting Support: Let users format comments with bold, italics, links, or even embed images/videos.
10. Multi-Language Support:
Internationalization: Provide multilingual support to cater to diverse audiences.
So, it is clear why it is crucial to replace the WordPress Native Commenting System with a perfect commenting plugin.
There are lots of comments plugins in the WordPress repository. Among all of them, choosing the best WordPress comment plugin according to your desire is important.
When you are choosing a WordPress comments plugin, make sure they have everything you need and they have what a robust comment plugin must have.
Here are our top picks of the best WordPress comment plugins.
1. Hyvor Talk
Hyvor Talk is a privacy-first, fully-featured comment, newsletter, and memberships platform. It comes with a fully-featured, real-time commenting system that can replace the default WordPress commenting system.
Features
Here are the main features of the Hyvor Talk Comments WordPress plugin.
Fully Customizable: Tailor the comments section to match your website's look and feel in just a few clicks. Use custom CSS to make it even more unique.
Privacy-first, No Ads: Hyvor Talk prioritizes user privacy by design and is GDPR compliant. We never add affiliate links, tracking codes, or ads to your site.
Spam Detection: Trainable spam detection system, powered by Akismet® or our LLM-based FortGuard system.
Top-notch Moderation: Moderation made easy: User moderation, IP controls, shadow banning, trusted users, custom badges, email moderation, and more.
Single-sign (SSO) - Enable users to comment using their existing accounts on your website for a better user experience.
Data Ownership: Your data, your control. We never sell your information to third parties, and you can export your data at any time.
Real-time comments - Comments are published and displayed in real-time.
Multi-Language: Embeds are available in more than 30 languages.
Email Notifications: Email notifications for users and moderators. Custom domain, customizable design, reply to comments, etc.
Invite your Team: Add your team members as admins and moderators to help you with moderation.
Moderation Rules: Automate moderation with advanced moderation rules. Ex: keep comments with links pending for review.
Badges: Encourage engagement by rewarding active users with custom badges.
Comment analytics - In-built analytics are provided for your ease
API & Webhooks - You can set up one webhook URL per website in the Hyvor Talk console API & Webhooks section. There is a Data API to access public data (comments, pages) in JSON format which is useful for building custom front-end widgets such as recent comments.
Integrations: Hyvor Talk supports lots of integrations that you might need.
Upvotes and downvotes - Upvotes and downvotes are available for comments.
Reactions Plugin - Hyvor Talk provides a supercool reaction plugin. It is also customizable. You can make your own reaction plugin as you like.
Reactions Ratings Plugin: Hyvor Talk provides you a ratings plugin if you wish to use ratings on your WordPress site.
Ratings Importing Comments - Import your previous comments from WordPress or Disqus to Hyvor Talk with a few clicks. See the Importing guide.
Exporting Comments - You can export them anytime in JSON format to backup or import them to another place.
Surprisingly, when you install the Hyvor Talk comments plugin, you get the chance to use Hyvor Talk newsletters, and Hyvor Talk Memberships too. Therefore, if you are planning to add newsletters, paid memberships, and gated content to your WordPress site, Hyvor Talk comes as an all-in-one solution.
Pricing
Hyvor Talk has a simple pricing plan. It is a paid service so you do not need credit cards to try Hyvor Talk within the 14-day trial period. Moreover, this 14-day trial is filled with all the features plus zero restrictions. After the trial ends, you can choose a pricing plan that suits your needs. Just visit the Hyvor Talk Pricing page set the page views of your website and see how reasonable the price you get is.
Install the Hyvor Talk WordPress plugin today!
2. wpDiscuz
wpDiscuz is a free commenting plugin for WordPress. Plus, it is built by gvectors team. It also has
- Features
Multi Layout - You can choose different layouts for different pages and post types using custom comment form builder settings
Inline Comments - This is an article reading option with the author’s questions and readers' comments. Authors can create questions for readers in any paragraph of the text and ask for feedback while visitors read it.
Live notifications - You can get live notifications when new comments.
Post Rating - Post rating is allowed.
Social Commenting - Social login options are available.
Comments Analytics - You can view comments analytics too
Comment Bubble - Comment Bubble is a real-time updating sticky comment icon on your pages. It invites people to comment and displays current comments information. It also notifies current page viewers about new comments.
- Pricing
wpDiscuz is a free commenting plugin but there is a paid add-on that gives you limitless features. A few of those add-ons are mentioned below.
And, there is plenty more.
3. Muut
Muut is a commenting plugin that is developed by Muut Inc. and is also available in the WordPress repository. This is completely a paid plugin.
- Features
SSO - Single-sign-on is available
Federated Identity - Federated identity is a feature given by Muut that is able to integrate into your user database. It's totally seamless for users.
Optimized for SEO
Online Users - The Online Users list is available on the main forum page and channel embeds.
Latest Comments - Latest comments widget keeps track of which posts have received the latest comments. And, who made those? Plus, all the users on your website can see it updated in real-time as they participate in the discussions on all your posts.
Forums - Let the conversation flow with the fastest and cleanest forums out there.
- Pricing
Muut has a pricing plan divided into several parts called MINI, SMALL, MEDIUM, and LARGE for prices of 16$, 36$, 96$, and 486$ respectively. However, each plan has a free trial to check Muut.
4. Disqus
Disqus is another commenting plugin that you can find in the WordPress plugin repository. It is a third-party commenting system built for websites and blogs. This commenting plugin is also one of the popular commenting systems. There are cool features inside of it. However, people have had some privacy issues with Disqus since a few months ago. This has led them to lose lots of customers.
- Features
There are pretty cool features provided by the Disqus team to the users as follows.
Real-time comments - Fun discussion interactions like upvotes, downvotes, threaded replies, and recommendations, happen in real time.
Works on any device - Supports devices like desktop, and mobile, including Google AMP.
Media commenting - Media-supported comments let readers add images and videos to keep discussions live.
Adapts to your site's look - Automatically adapts to your site's design and colors or you can set it to your own liking.
User reputation - Based on actions across the Disqus network, user reputation helps moderators to identify trolls, spammers, and other troublesome users.
Pre-moderation - Choose to pre-moderate comments that are likely spam or trolling based on user reputation.
Banned and trusted lists - Comments from banned users do not display. Comments from trusted users are automatically approved.
Email moderation - Moderate your comments via email notifications with three simple commands: Approve, Delete, and Spam.
Shadow banning - Discreetly ban troublesome commenters to stop them from coming back.
Automated Spam Moderation - Disqus automatically detects and removes spam before it lands on your site.
Timeouts - Temporarily ban users and provide specific feedback so that they can correct their behavior.
And, so much more.
- Pricing
Disqus has a pretty simple pricing plan based on page views. It has three pricing categories Plus, Pro, Business at 11$/month, 105$/month, and custom pricing. They also have yearly plans. Take a look at the following image for the prices.
However, for the ones who are very considerate of privacy, it is better to know its dark side. It monitors users pretty scary, right?
5. AnyComment
AnyComments is a Russian commenting plugin that you can use as the commenting space of your WordPress site.
- Features
These are the key features of AnyComment.
Set up social authorization - Choose suitable networks to make it convenient for users to comment on sites.
Moderation - Moderation panel without leaving the site with the ability to view the general feed of comments from all sites where the user is appointed as a moderator.
Export and Import
Page Rank - Allows users to rank your page out of 5 stars
Like system - Ability for users to respond to comments and choose the best ones using likes and dislikes
Translation in English and Russian plus other languages
Smart Actions - Setup filters and actions as you like
Analytics - Ability to view the analytics of the comments
And, so much more.
- Pricing
AnyComment has a free plan while having paid plans as follows. Each plan has different limits of features allowed.
6. GraphComment
GraphComment is also a free commenting plugin for great discussions. And, they have put zero to disorganized discussions piled on several pages.
- Features
Features of GraphComment are,
Customization - You can display your personal logo during registration and on transactional emails. Plus, you will have access to the footer modification options to manage according to your preferences.
Easy Installation - Easy to put on all WordPress.
Live Discussions - Comments lead to real live discussions with the publication and updates of messages in real-time. Users can chat in real-time and without losing the thread of the discussion; even with a large number of people will not be an issue.
Automatic registration - Sign In to Comment with a variety of different platforms (Facebook, Twitter, Google). Pseudonymity is preferred to anonymity which causes incivilities.
Theming - Allowed choosing a theme color on an elegant selection to nicely integrate GraphComment in your web design.
Guest Commenting - Commenters can comment as guests.
And, so much more.
- Pricing
This commenting plugin has a free plan called Basic while and two paid plans called Starter and Pro for 7$/month and 74$/month respectively. Furthermore, it has a plan called Enterprise for Enterprises. The Basic (free) plan is for commercial, pro, or professional sites, while Starter is for demanding personal blogs and Pro is for startups and small media. Also, in GraphComments, yearly payments are available.
7. Cackle
Cackle is also a commenting plugin in the WordPress commenting plugin that you can use instead of WordPress native comments.
- Features
Rating Snippet - Your users will vote for their favorite posts - you get the automatic indexing of the site in Google with a review snippet.
Adaptive Design - Commenting plugin responsive to all screen sizes smartphones, tablets, laptops, and desktop monitors.
CrossPosting in social networks - Comments on Facebook, Twitter, Vkontakte, and Mail.ru will automatically fall on the wall of social networks with reference to the site.
Analytics - Analyzes comments, users, likes, post-publication, a full report, and a log of the work of the moderators.
Multi-Languages - Cackle widget supports English, Russian, Ukrainian, Belarusian, Spanish, German, Italian, famous French, Greek, Dutch, Estonian, Lithuanian, Latvian, Polish, Romanian, Kazakh, Georgian
And, so much more.
- Pricing
Cackle is a paid commenting plugin with a different type of pricing plan. They have given users. 4 main plans called Comments, Review, Live Chat, and Polls that of 17$, 14&, 13$, and 7$ per website per month. It also has annual payments. The number of websites you have and the number of features increases, and the price rises.
8. WidgetPack Comment System
This is a commenting system provided by WidgetPack as one of their products.
-Features
Rating-Widget - Available in the commenting plugin to rate the page, aggregate rating, and indexed as Google Rich Snippets.
API - Store your comments in your Database and also change widget behavior by JavaScript API
Voting - Voting for comments and changing the vote when you like is possible.
SEO - Comments are indexable by Google instantly as soon as you install the plugin on your website.
Email notifications - The author of the comment will get email notifications about new replies. Also, users can unsubscribe if needed.
Spam Protection
Social Logins - Can log in via any social network such as Facebook, Twitter, Google, LinkedIn, Instagram, Yahoo, Tumblr, SoundCloud, VK, OK, Yandex, or Moi Mir. It also supports guest login.
Real-Time - Real-time comments with notifications about new comments and replies.
And, so much more.
-Pricing
WidgetPack has both free and paid plans for its users. The free plan is limited to one moderator and one site while other plans called Plus, Pro, and Enterprise are paid at 15$ per month, 35$ per month, and on request respectively. You can pay them not only monthly but also annually. For the annual plan, they provide you with the service free of charge for the first two months.
9. Vuukle
Vuukle is a commenting plugin available in WordPress with some cool features. They mainly focus on user engagement.
-Features
Customization - Fonts, space, colors, themes, icons, and headings all can be customized as you like.
User Profiles - User profiles are generated automatically when signing up.
Comments importing - You can import your old comments to Vuukle from any platform at any time.
Media Sharing - Elaborate rich text editor with GIFs, Image support, editing, and hyperlinking of comments.
Comments Moderation - Auto moderation of comments for spam, hate speech, foul language, and advertisements is available.
Social logins - Login through various social platforms available
Comment threads - Like, share, and flagging comments by users are also available.
Language Support - They support 35 Languages.
-Pricing
Vuukle is free to use on small or personal sites and blogs. They monetize the comments section by a single ad unit and share revenue with you. No, other details are given on their website.
10. ThriveComments
Thrive Comments is a game-changing commenting plugin that takes website engagement and interaction to new heights. Designed to transform your comment section into a thriving community hub, this powerful tool offers a range of innovative features to enhance user participation, boost social proof, and maximize the impact of your content.
-Features
Comment moderation
Notification options
Conversion-boosting features
Valuable insights with analytics
Social Sharing
Auto Generate Visitor Information
-Pricing
Here is the pricing plan of ThriveComments
Conclusion
To conclude, choosing the best WordPress comment plugin to achieve the user engagement and traffic goals of your WordPress blog/site is totally important. So, in this article, we talked about how to choose the best commenting plugin for your WordPress blog/site and there is a list of the best WordPress comment plugins that you can try. Try them yourselves and choose the best to make your blogging goals a success. Happy Blogging!
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