In a post on this blog we had covered in detail how to use comment systems  to increase visitor engagement on your website. In this article we take a look at some of the leading free comment systems you can take advantage of. I have also included the pros and cons of each system so you can make the best decision and choose the best comment platform for your website or blog.

1. Disquss

Disqus is a networked community platform used by hundreds of thousands of sites all over the web. It offers a feature-rich comment system for your website complete with social network integration, advanced administration and moderation options, and other extensive community functions.

Disquss is by far the most popular commenting system. According to a recent study by Lijit, 75% of the websites using 3rd party commenting system are powered by Disqus.

The Disqus commenting platform is used by over half a billion people across some of the largest sites on the web. You can also customize and tweak Disqus for your website with extensive APIs and JavaScript hooks.

Pros:

Post as: Guest, Disqus, Google, Twitter, Facebook, Yahoo, OpenID

Extra features such as Like/dislike function for comments

2. Livefyre

Livefyre is one of the leading real-time conversation platforms on the web. It lets you replace your outdated comment system and change the way people interact with content on your site. Designed for the social web, Livefyre replaces static comment sections of your website with dynamic, real-time conversations.

Pros:

Post as: Guest, Livefyre account, Facebook, Twitter

Cons:

Does not yet allow Guest commenting

3. IntenseDebate

IntenseDebate is a feature-rich comment system for WordPress, Blogger, Tumblr and many other blogging/CMS platforms. The system is feature rich and included a number of improved features such as rich profiles for users and the ability to connect with others, email notifications alerts,  improved administration, and more.

Pros:

Comment as Guest, Twitter, OpenID, Intense Debate

Extra features such as ability to add polls to comments, comment voting  can help you to get more comments on your site

Multi-author moderation

Cons:

Increased moderation overhead

4. Triberr

Triberr is a relatively new comment system but has an expanding customer base. It is more than just a commenting system. Triberr is a unique content distribution platform, which makes it particularly useful for bloggers and other publishers.

In addition to standard commenting feature, it also allows publishers to feed content to their tribes, and other social media channels.

5. Facebook Comments

You can also use Facebook plugins such as Facebook’s comment box plugin or the Connect Api to allow commenting on your website or blog.  Connect API of Facebook provides the ability to allow users to log in with a single click and comment with their real name and profile photo from their Facebook account.

Using Facebook comment feature on your website offers several benefits. According to Facebook, websites have seen as much as 40-50% more comments as a result of this. Furthermore integrating your website with Facebook can provide a boost to your Facebook marketing efforts.

Pros:

Names and identities connected to Facebook; less spam

Automatic sign-in

Viral

Cons:

Cannot post as guest or with other social accounts such as Google or TwitterFacebook access may be blocked from some workplaces