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# Open-source self-hosted comments for a static website

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A side-by-side comparison of open-source, self-hosted commenting systems for
static sites — so choosing one doesn’t mean opening every repository
yourself. Stars, open issues and last-commit dates are refreshed daily.
Missing a system, or a column you need? Leave a comment below or open an
issue.

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## What’s wrong with Disqus

Disqus loads absurd amount of tracking services, which exposes your visitors’
personal data and significantly increases loading time. See, e.g.,
[this post](http://donw.io/post/github-comments/#what-s-wrong-with-disqus).

## What’s not covered here

For a static website, one usually wants a lightweight commenting server with
as little dependencies as possible. Few commenting engines listed on the page
are provided by heavy applications (e.g.,
[discourse](https://github.com/discourse/discourse),
[talkyard](https://github.com/debiki/talkyard)), but the majority are
relatively lightweight applications designed specifically to provide
comments for the static pages.

This page prioritizes information on self-hosted comments. However, there
are other open-source solutions, including implementations of third-party
services (e.g., Github issues, such as
[[1]](https://github.com/imsun/gitment),
[[2]](https://github.com/gitalk/gitalk),
[[3]](https://github.com/Blankj/awesome-comment),
[[4]](https://github.com/utterance/utterances)).

There are also [dokieli](https://github.com/linkeddata/dokieli) and
[hypothesis](https://web.hypothes.is/), that provide annotation-like
functinality.

Also, there is an
[echo-chamber](https://github.com/tessalt/echo-chamber-js).

>When a user submits a comment, echochamber.js will save the comment to the
>user's LocalStorage, so when they return to the page, they can be
>confident that their voice is being heard, and feel engaged with your very
>engaging content. It does not make any HTTP requests. Since LocalStorage
>is only local, you and your database need not be burdened with other
>people's opinions.

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## Stars vs. time

Indirect estimate of how active a project is. Hover a line to isolate it,
click to lock; drag across the plot to zoom, double-click to reset.

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## The table

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## Share your experience

Please share your experience if you are using one of the commenting systems
listed in the table. Write a short summary and provide your "Likes" and
"Dislikes" to help others to decide which commenting system suits them
best.