Comparing Giscus to Waline

Compare Giscus with Waline 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 →

Waline

A simple and cute comment system with backend

Partial free

Overview

Fork of Valine with significant improvements; GDPR-compliant storage options

+ Pros

  • Open source
  • multiple deployment options
  • email notifications
  • spam protection
  • Markdown support
  • reactions
  • page views

− Cons

  • Moderate setup complexity
  • requires Node.js knowledge for self-hosting
  • free tier relies on Vercel

Visit Waline →