Comparing Disqus to Giscus

Compare Disqus with Giscus for adding comments to your static site.

Disqus

Engage your audiences in discussions

Partial free

Overview

Founded 2007; acquired by Zeta Global 2017; not open source; data stored on Disqus servers

+ Pros

• Mature platform
• large community
• social login
• moderation tools
• notifications
• spam filtering

− Cons

• Vendor lock-in
• ads on free plan
• data ownership concerns
• privacy issues
• injected JS slows site
• centralized

Visit Disqus →

Giscus

A comments system powered by GitHub Discussions

Overview

Inspired by Utterances but uses GitHub Discussions instead of issues; self-hosting available

+ Pros

• No ads
• no tracking
• open source
• data in GitHub Discussions
• themes
• multiple languages
• reactions

− Cons

• Requires GitHub login
• no responses display widget
• ties to GitHub ecosystem
• still actively developed

Visit Giscus →