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It’s time say Goodbye to Disqus Comment System on Crunchify

Updated on by App   93

Why I killed Disqus Commenting on my site?

On Crunchify, we have been using Disqus since long time. I would say almost 3 years. With more than 14,500 comments on site, it worked very well for us.

Why this sudden change?

You must have felt before about page load speed issue because of Disqus.

Is Disqus Killing Your Blog? Why (and How) I Pulled the Plug? Check it out below. For us, It’s time to say goodbye to Disqus comments.

Well, this is not a sudden change as we have been looking for alternatives for Disqus since last 2 weeks. After careful evaluation and review we finally decided to kill Disqus on Crunchify and enable default WordPress comment form.

Let’s first understand Pros and Cons of Disqus Comment System.

Pros of Disqus:

  1. Disqus extends functionality of default comment system
  2. You will have dedicated approval control panel at disqus.com site
  3. Solid spam moderation and filtering
  4. IP blocking and user blocking features
  5. Auto sync with WordPress comment systems
  6. Social Login for users

Disqus has been enabled on some of the large sites across the world and it’s been working fine for some.

On Crunchify, we have been using Disqus with Disqus Conditional Load plugin as it was lazy initializing plugin on user click event or mouse scroll event.

Cons: There are 4 major problems with Disqus

These all 4 issues contributed us to move away from Disqus.

Issue # 1

Recently disqus announced paid plan which is like $10/month with only 50,000 visits/month and $99/month for more larger sites.

As we have average monthly ~16 millions pageviews, we fits with $99 per months plan which kind of too much for only commenting systems.

There is a basic plan which is Ads Supported. To be honest, I don’t like any additional Ads injection by third party on Crunchify.

Take a look at these screenshots.

Disqus Adds 2 ads even if you don’t any comment on blog post.

Another Ad in between Disqus comment feed.

Issue # 2

If you track how much resources/request Disqus adds on your site, you will be shocked. I just did simple check and saw Disqus adds total 57 external files on single blog post.

How many files?

57 External files on Single Blog Post??? Disqus – I’m sorry but I must say, this is insane? 🙁

Take a look at these all files.

This is absolutely not acceptable. You don’t even know which files Disqus is loading.

Issue # 3

Trust issue. What do you think what Disqus gets from all above javascripts? Somehow somewhere they are tracking all metrics which you may not want them to track.

I tried to disable some of the options available from Admin panel but not all. For me it seems, Disqus needs to be more transparent.

Issue # 4

Disqus adds too much Memory and CPU load on server. Take a look at detailed tutorial.

Now, what’s next after Disqus?

Please follow this detailed article to clean up all Disqus meta-data from WordPress DB.

Have you removed Disqus? Now it’s Time to Clean up Comment Metadata

Well, I’m really going to miss Disqus moderation panel but I’m ready to accept default WordPress comment form and admin panel.

There are few setup tricks like

  • How to setup Comment Spam right way?
  • How to add Google invisible re-captcha rightway on Crunchify Comment form?
  • How to subscribe to comment option right way?

I’ll publish all details in separate tutorial.

Update on 04.11.2018

We moved back over to Disqus for mainly moderation feature. We are giving it a second chance to see how it goes. Please stay tuned for more details.

We are currently subscribed to PRO feature. So far it’s good.

If you liked this article, then please share it on social media. Have a question or suggestion? Please leave a comment to start the discussion.

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  2. How to Style and Customize WordPress Comment Form? Plus, Modify appearance of Comments with CSS
  3. Ads.txt (Authorized Digital Sellers) file and Google Adsense Revenue [All in one Guide]
  4. How to fix Higher CPU, Memory Usage for WordPress site? Optimization Guide, htaccess tricks and Disqus
  5. Best WordPress Adsense Plugins – How to Add Adsense Ad Code in the Middle of Post without Plugin
  6. Have you removed Disqus? Now it’s Time to Clean up Comment Metadata

About App

I'm an Engineer by profession, Blogger by passion & Founder of Crunchify, LLC, the largest free blogging & technical resource site for beginners. Love SEO, SaaS, #webperf, WordPress, Java. With over 16 millions+ pageviews/month, Crunchify has changed the life of over thousands of individual around the globe teaching Java & Web Tech for FREE.

Reader Interactions

  93 Comments...

  1. Ravi Kumar says

    We got to learn something new by coming to your website. All your posts are informative, keep posting new posts like this and keep sharing your knowledge with us.

    Reply

  4. Kingsley Felix says

    I want to use it on an entertainment site, don’t know if its a good idea, also are you saving comments on wordpress?

    Reply

  9. Nguyễn Xuân Nghiêm says

    It’s now 2020…did you guys decide to stick with disqus for good…?
    ———————————————–

    Reply

  10. Duncan Pattinson says

    We have used Disqus on our Homebuyer Conveyancing website but had issues with 100’s of comments that weren’t related. We do value comments but we need a system that is not high on resource. Your suggestion re the invisible Captcha could be the answer.

    Reply

    • App Shah says

      Hi there – what do you mean by not loading on every site? Do you mean not loading on all pages of your site?

      Reply

  15. A Non Ymous says

    Can one (with moderator status and/or as a random disqus user) change the font that appears in disqus comments [not referring to style {bold, italics}] no matter the hosting website?

    Thanks

    App Shah, also thanks for all the detailed info on disqus operation, intrusion

    Reply

    • App Shah says

      Hi there – sorry but didn’t get your question. Can you please explain your query in details?

      Reply

  20. Hina Roy says

    A good post is always beneficial, as your post is making the same effect. Your post is very knowledgeable. I was quite surprised to see your post that you can see such a good post even today. Hope you You will continue to provide similar posts to us as well. Thank you.

    Reply

  21. James Smith says

    I am not agree with this article because disqus system easiest way to express their feeling about article.

    Reply

  23. alex smoulders says

    Hi App, is disqus already going down the drain? or you are just going to shift to something new and responsive commenting platform? can you share which one? thanks.

    Reply

  24. Jerod Killick - FMP says

    Thanks for this. We are thinking about adding it back to our site as well. Looks forward to hearing about your return experience.

    Reply

    • App Shah says

      Hi Jerod – thanks for your comment. After moving to Disqus so far it’s all good. Only thing I changed here is, I’m using Disqus Conditional Load plugin on Crunchify and enabled lazy loading of plugin 🙂

      So far it’s working without any issue. Hope this helps.

      Reply

      • Jerod Killick - FMP says

        Nice!!! That’s good advice. I will go check it out. I bet that plugin also helps with page speed insights by google. Will absolutely give it a go – Have a great week. Jerod

        Reply

        • App Shah says

          Yeah. It does. No changes to page speed insights by google. It’s awesome and I would recommend to use DCL plugin if you choose to use Disqus.

          Thanks and have a great week ahead.

          Reply

  25. helex 11 says

    Disqus is a good source of backlink comments , and this article was very helpful in understanding Disqus as a whole – thanks.

    Reply

    • App Shah says

      Hi Tyler. Thanks for your comment 🙂

      Any feedback on Disqus? Which comment system do you recommend?

      Reply

  29. Aden Fauzan says

    Hi, I’d like to ask you something.
    So I’m using Disqus recent comment on my blog and do you know why this script is detected as document.write() on Lighthouse?

    And is it possible to use DOM Manipulation or any alternative ways to solve this problem?

    Reply

    • App Shah says

      Hi Aden – that’s an official JavaScript provided by Disqus to show your recent comments.

      Any issue are you facing with that?

      Reply

  30. Ahmad Shah Adami says

    But you are still using disqus commenting system on your site 🙂 did you guys changed your mind or it is loading faster now because i have also disabled the disqus commenting for the same reasons you have mentioned above.

    Reply

  32. AZrepair pro says

    Thankyou for this knowledge able article for a new person, and the steps you have given it has become very easy to use disqus. I would just to say that the spam option is sometime working as a negative impact as it might not show some of the good comments from users.

    Reply

    • App Shah says

      Hi there – i haven’t had any issue with Disqus Spam system. In fact it’s one of the best out there.

      Reply

  33. Nagesh says

    Nice informative information, Yeah Disqus is not user-friendly even though I am following their rules and regulation but I am getting spam comments.

    Reply

    • App Shah says

      Yeah. We also started noticing lots of SPAM recently and moved away from Disqus. No longer a good solution.

      Reply

  35. Techshali says

    I see you’ve moved back to the Disqus commenting system. Yes, it does offer good moderation panel

    Reply

  36. Webdevstar says

    I was researching if Disqus based comments is a good backlink source, and this article was helpful in understanding Disqus as a whole – thanks.

    Sometimes we panic, and think there’s a major shift. But with so many people not caring about their users, and dumping ads and trackers on websites, I’ve realized that WordPress’s very basic commenting system will continue to be used by many site owners.

    Spam is not a reason to stop using that system. With various types of captcha, and advance plugins to handle spam, site owners can develop a custom framework for spam prevention that keeps resource requirements low.

    Reply

    • App Shah says

      That’s right Webdevstar. We recently moved back to Disqus just because of their moderation feature.

      I don’t mind paying ~10/month for their service. Let’s see how it goes with Disqus again 🙂 As you see right now – there isn’t any ads because of Disqus on Crunchify.

      I’ll keep this thread updated with more details.

      Reply

      • catlizaweb says

        Hi App Shah, thanks for updating this article, I just come here to ask you why are you are using Disqus again? Also, I want to ask you if you have think about using Discourse as comment system, as I see you already have a forum in this platform, why don’t you just integrate with that?

        Reply

        • App Shah says

          Hey there – thanks for your question.

          Only reason I moved back to Disqus is for better commenting moderation. Regarding your question on Discourse forum – i don’t think that will suite here on Crunchify.

          Rather I would use it as a stand alone service. We tried using Discourse and currently it’s in development phase. I would like to get some help from my readers manager forum though 🙂

          Reply

  37. Juli says

    Hi , thank you for this article. I read a considerable amount about the advertisement following areas that get transferred with the disqus. I utilized D for remarking since everlastingly, however now I am beginning my first blog and I have an issue choosing what remark to put. (help)

    How could you get to the conclusion to utilize the Worlspress remark frame is the best. might you be able to tel us somewhat more?

    Reply

    • App Shah says

      Hi Juli – if you are staring your first blog or business, I would suggest to mainly focus on your niche topics. Try to get your site rank higher in Google Ranking.

      Regarding your question: Setting up WordPress comment to other system or default WordPress form – I would suggest to start with default comment form. Once you have lots of comments and need better moderation fatures then try Disqus or other comment system.

      I hope this helps.

      Reply

  38. Madie says

    Hello , thank you for this article. I read quite a lot about the ad tracking domains that get uploaded with the disqus. I used D for commenting since forever, but now i am starting my first blog and I have a problem deciding what comment to put. (help)
    How did you get to the conclusion to use the Worlspress comment form is the best. could you tel us a little more?

    Reply

    • App Shah says

      Hi Madie – I was a big fan of Disqus. Recently Disqus released a breached happened in 2012 and it’s not good. Thousands of user’s email, name, etc were stolen.

      It’s always good to have one less dependency on your WordPress site. It’s been almost couple of months and have seen user interaction increased after moving over to default WordPress comment. I would suggest the same to you 🙂

      Reply

  39. Mateusz says

    I would like to add another very sever disadvantage SPAM FILTER which puts automatically many comments as a spam, even those legit ones. I got people writing to me on FB and on email about that. That was so frustrating that I removed disqus from all of my sites.

    Reply

  40. Steve Wilkinson says

    Just a note, that it seems to be 50,000 pageviews per day, not month in regard to the pricing jump, though you’re *way* over that.

    However, I really, really hate the default comments system. I switched one of my sites to Disqus but am probably going to switch the others as well. With all of it’s fault, it still seems the best out there (at least for sites w/o the huge amounts of traffic you get). Your concerns certainly seem valid, though.

    Reply

    • App Shah says

      Thanks for sharing your thoughts Steve. Agree. That’s 50k per day which unfortunately wont work for me. It’s been almost a week without Disqus on Crunchify and here are some of my observations:

      1. Google Search console – Crawl Stats page shows improvements in “Time spent downloading a page (in milliseconds)”
      2. I personally feel light weight page load time
      3. Comments are increased on site. Folks started to comment more it seems 🙂

      Only one thing I missed is – Image upload utility. I’m working on a plugin by myself to add that functionality.

      Reply

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