Which is the best blog commenting solution – Facebook’s, Disqus’ or WordPress’?

There are multiple ways to attract visitors to your website. But what will happen once they land on it? What if they want to say something?

Choosing a commenting system for your WordPress website is an integral part of building a community around your brand. It will allow your visitors to leave a comment and let you know what they think about a given subject.

You can choose from a wide variety of commenting systems, the most popular among them being the default WordPress commenting system itself, Disqus and Facebook Comments.

How do I know which one to pick?

There isn’t a perfect, one-size-fits-all solution. That said, all three systems have their merits.

Today, we will take a closer look at each of them and examine their pros and cons. This way, you will obtain a clearer picture of which system best suits your needs.

WordPress Comments

Why pick a new commenting system in the first place when the one you have is completely adequate?

Since its inception, WordPress has included a native commenting system. And there is a very good reason why it has remained pretty much the same after all these years – it just works.

You don’t have to configure anything, to create third-party accounts, to install additional plugins or to worry about special customization tasks.

Plus, it works out-of-the-box with pretty much any WordPress theme.

Still, if it was that perfect, we wouldn’t have to write this article at all.

The biggest issue with the default WordPress commenting system is security – if you allow everyone to leave comments, you will soon drown in spam. If you allow only registered users to comment on your blog, they will have to log in in order to do so.

That said, a centralized WordPress.com account allowing users to comment on any WordPress blog was introduced some time ago. However, by then most blogs had already moved to alternative solutions.

Pros

• No additional installation is required
• Multiple extensions are available
• Works with any WordPress theme
• Loads really fast

Cons

• Each site requires a unique login
• Weak spam protection

Disqus Comments System

One of the most popular alternative solutions is Disqus. A lot of blogs have adopted it since 2007 when the Disqus commenting system was first introduced.

This longevity and large-scale adoption suggest that there are a lot of Disqus account owners, so you don’t have to worry about your visitors having to register. Even if they don’t have a Disqus account, they can use Facebook, Google or Twitter to log in.

Since the registration process involves email verification, there is very little spam going around.

All in all, the Disqus commenting system is simple to set up and use and provides useful analytical information about the comments on your website.

However, it’s not perfect.

Disqus’ free tier involves serving ads to website visitors – something, which many webmasters are not okay with. While many visitors are using ad blockers, there are even more that still do not.

Another downside is the limited customization capability. This could potentially cause problems with some WordPress themes.

And since it’s a third-party solution, in some cases the comments may load a bit slower.

Pros

• A single account for all websites using Disqus
• Efficient spam protection
• Simple to use
• Useful analytics

Cons

• You have to install yet another plugin
• Complex customization
• May be a bit slower than the native WordPress commenting system
• Ads on your site

Facebook Comments

Since it made its debut in 2004, Facebook has amassed more than one billion users from all over the world, each and every one of whom can leave a comment on your blog using the Facebook Comments plugin without having to create additional accounts.

And the interface is very similar to the one found on Facebook.com, which makes the commenting process even more intuitive.

Plus, the plugin offers good spam protection and the comments themselves can be indexed by the search engines.

However, one of the biggest strengths of this solution is also its biggest weakness. Since Facebook requires everyone to use their real name, each comment will also reveal its author’s identity.

While this is a non-issue for many, there are still lots of people who prefer to keep their identity private and would rather not have their real name associated with each and every comment.

Another downside of the Facebook Comments plugin is, again, the limited personalization options. For instance, the option to change the way the comments will look on your website is even more limited than the one offered by Disqus, which may cause problems with specific themes.

Pros

• Over a billion people have a Facebook account
• Good spam protection
• SEO-friendly comments
• Loads really fast

Cons

• You have to install yet another plugin
• Limited privacy options
• Complex customization
• May be a bit slower than the native WordPress commenting system

Disable all comments

A more radical solution is to disable all comments altogether.

This approach has its own advantages and disadvantages. On the one hand, without any comments, your website will load faster and you won’t have to deal with any sort of spam or with abusive comments.

On the other hand, this allows for any potential discussion around your content to be moved to a different space where you will have limited visibility and control over what is going on.

There is also a middle path – you can disable the comments for a specific post (indefinitely or for a limited time) and see what the result will be.

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At the end of the day, there is no perfect commenting system. Each has its own pros and cons – some can be ignored, others cannot.

Our advice is to take a good, hard look at the solution you are using at the moment and find out about the biggest challenges that your visitors have to face every time they leave a comment.

Based on this data, you can determine whether you really need an alternative solution and which one will best meet your particular needs.