Comparing Giscus to Valine

Compare Giscus with Valine for adding forms to your static site.

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 →

Valine

A fast, simple and efficient comment system without back-end

Overview

LeanCloud free tier is limited; requires configuration; Chinese-developed

+ Pros

  • No backend required
  • fast
  • lightweight
  • Markdown support
  • emoji support
  • visitor count feature

− Cons

  • Relies on third-party services (LeanCloud) for storage
  • privacy concerns with data stored externally
  • development paused

Visit Valine →