When we build our blog site, obviously that integrating a commenting system for is a must to gain readers engagement. The question is which commenting system we should use and why?
If you build a WordPress blog site then WordPress already supports a commenting system at core that you can enable and use anytime you want to. Apart from WordPress’s native comment system at core, there is now a host of other 3rd party comment systems available, such as Disqus, LiveFyre, Facebook comment, CommentLuv, Intense Debate, etc. It is, therefore, unsurprising for any blogger, both amateur and expert, to find themselves get lost among the various options and wonder if they should stick to the built-in system or opt for an external one.
Picking out a proper comment system for your blog is never easy. It requires detailed research on each platform’s appearance, usability, moderation, authentication, analytics, community engagement and many more.
WordPress comment system is simple and easy to use. It requires no registration to comment and avoids the slow page loading time that tends to happen when running a 3rd party platform. However, since the last update for threaded comments in WordPress 2.7 ‘Coltrane’ back in 2008, the system has no further improvements. This seems substandard compared to other platforms that keep evolving day by day. Looking at the Datanyze statistics, we can see quite a shift to using external comment systems, with Facebook comments and Disqus to be the dominant.
Does that mean you should switch to or keep using 3rd party comment systems on your blog? Some may argue that following the crowd is not always a good tactic. In today’s blog, I am going to list out some pros and cons of both native and external comment platforms so you can have an overview and make your own decision easily.
WordPress built-in comment system
The pluses
#1 Simple admin interface
WordPress comment system offers a clean and simple moderation interface in the Dashboard. Log in to your site back-end, go to Setting >> Discussion and you can find all options needed to set up your comment system.
#2 Easy authentication
One convenient thing about using built-in comment system is that your users only need to sign in once and they can both comment on your blog page along with other activities on your site. Or sometimes readers don’t even need to log in or register to comment. A name and an email or website URL (optional) are all it takes.
#3 Fast loading time
Unlike running a 3rd party platform, having a built-in comment system on your blog eliminates the need for requesting info to load from other places. This not only reduces the page loading time but also saves your site from potential risks and instabilities that you have little control over.
The minuses
#1 Spams
Much as the no registration technique encourages more comments, it also brings more spams. Anyone or any machine can easily flood your page with inappropriate comments or vicious trackbacks/pingbacks. Spam filter in WordPress ? Don’t count on it too much as it may make this worse as many spams can still get through.
#2 No social media integration
As social networks are getting more and more common these days, it is sad that WordPress offers no social login, social comment or social sharing in its comment system. This can be a big loss, especially if social exposure plays a major part in driving traffic to your business or spreading your promotion.
#3 Need various plugins to add features
It is true that the native comment system in WordPress seems inferior to other 3rd party platforms regarding its built-in features. If you want to enable rich media comments or having the social integration, you have to add more plugins. This, unfortunately, may result in sacrificing your page load speed in the long term.
Third-party comment system
Those are pros and cons of WordPress comment system, let’s talk about third-party comment systems and see if they are surplus solutions.
7 thumbs up
#1 Less spammy
3rd party comment platforms demand user registration to post or reply to a comment thread. Users either can register an account with the platforms or they can log in via their social accounts like Facebook or Twitter. Some may see this authentication requirement as a nuisance. Yet it helps lessen spam bots and cut down on monitoring resources. This, at the same time, does not mean that those platforms lack a powerful moderation system. It is quite on the contrary, to be exact.
Disqus, for example, provides an advanced spam filter together with creating a detailed blacklist and whitelist for better supervision. Users can also help to flag spams and inappropriate comments. For someone who does not like the idea of login requirement, Disqus allows enabling the guest comment option where visitors do not need an account on Disqus to comment. This may increase spam comments, but the choice is yours to make.
#2 Surplus features
It is undeniable that third-party comment systems bring about a myriad of additional cool features that the native system can not match up to. Take a look at these jot-downs for your own trust.
- Real-time conversation
Systems like Disqus or LiveFyre make your comment board look like a genuine chat box with real-time comments popping up instantly. Typing presence is also available so that users can make out whether the others are in the typing process or not. Such things would help stir up the discussion.
- Related posts recommendation
Disqus, for example, provides a widget to show your readers related posts as well as the top commenters and top discussions on your site right below the comment stream. This feature is great to drive traffic from 1 post to others and keep your readers staying on your site for longer time.
- Embed rich media in comments
LiveFyre and Disqus support not only texts but also audios, videos and images to be inserted into the comment content. Supported services are from Soundcloud, YouTube and Vimeo. There is indeed no better way to liven up a chat room than this.
- Notification and Subscribe option
With most of 3rd party comment systems, users can easily keep track of their interested comments and replies through email notification, RSS feeds or email subscriptions. Responses or moderation can also be made via email to keep you in charge right on the go.
- Auto-sync of comments
Let’s say you want to get back to the native comment system one day, there is no problem at all. Both Disqus and LiveFyre supports you to sync comments back to your WordPress database so that you may never face the threat of them getting lost. It also works with the other way around: sync comments from WordPress comment system to third-party ones.
- Adding plugins
If you are not content with how the system is performing, adding further plugins for more enhancement sounds reasonable. Intense Debate – a comment platform from the maker of WordPress allows developers to create plugins based on their API. You can read more at their existing plugins list and detailed guide for writing a plugin.
#3 Responsive/mobile friendly
By using external comment systems, you can pertain users’ experience on the comment section when they are on the go with their smartphones or tablets. No look and feel are compromised for sure. For example, Disqus presents a fully responsive design while LiveFyre and Vicomi offer mobile-friendly support.
#4 Social media integration
Most of systems support social login from Facebook, Twitter or Google with various social sharing options as well. Disqus even allows social mention or tagging people’s accounts on Facebook, Twitter and Disqus itself. If your promotion campaign is targeted to Facebook users, Facebook comment is the one to head for. Users comment by their Facebook accounts and that content would appear on both their walls and your fan page, resulting in a maximum exposure.
#5 Comment analytics
It is essential to keep an eye on how your blog post is doing and see what is working and what is not. In the Disqus admin dashboard, you can easily tell which is the most popular articles with most comments as well as who is the top commenter and their personal profile. There are many other metrics worth considering as the comment and vote growth for the past month.
#6 CSS customization
Some 3rd party comment systems are quite open in letting users customize a bit of their comment section appearance. Intense Debate, for instance, supports custom CSS so that you can freely style your own unique comment section. All you need is to log into your Intense Debate dashboard then navigate to Settings >> Custom CSS. Paste your CSS code into the box and click Save. More tips and tricks on this can be found at Intense Debate blog.
#7 Increase user engagement
Third-party comment systems are not solely comment platforms. Each of them has a community built around it. Community like Disqus is growing fast with 20 million comments and 2 million account sign-ups per month. It is easy for people to follow other users and get update on their reputation as well as daily activities. Stay logged in on one commenting platform and you are free to surf through and comment on many websites. Those are what make up a stirring community that would surely benefit your blog.
Only 2 thumbs-down?
Yes they are. Much as I am trying not to be biased here, I can only find 2 things as the dark side of 3rd party comment platforms.
#1 Slow page loading time
As I mentioned earlier, running external systems on your site can cause slow page loading. According to a speed test carried by Royal Pingdom, WordPress’s built-in comment system beats all other external platforms in fast loading time as it does not need to load remote code from other places. Disqus has therefore offered comments showing on scrolling to deal with this problem. There is still tardiness sometimes but it is tolerable as the speed is not too slow compared to WordPress.
#2 Lack of control
Though comment system like Intense Debate supports CSS customization, it is limited in what you can really do with the whole appearance as design or format. Not to mention, you have to be an expert that masters their API inside out to be able to create further features for it. Depending on 3rd party systems also means “vulnerable” to your blog regarding attacks or other potential harms.
Summary
Both built-in and third-party comment systems have their own pros and cons, though 3rd party ones appears to overwhelm. We are using Disqus on our blog page and it satisfies most of our needs so far. Choosing which system depends on each site’s own purposes and characteristics as well as your needs for readers engagement. So pick one that suit you and your readers most. Leave us your argument as we would love to hear it.