---
title: "Site update: Switched from Disqus to Commento"
date: 2020-01-30
description: "Update Oct 12, 2025: I decided to remove the Commento form from my site. Reason: Almost no one uses it. Readers instead prefer to use LinkedIn. Also, 99% of the..."
canonical_url: https://idratherbewriting.com/blog/switch-from-disqus-to-commento/index.html
---

> For AI agents: a documentation index is available at https://idratherbewriting.com/llms.txt. Markdown versions of all pages are available by appending .md to any page URL.

# Site update: Switched from Disqus to Commento

> I recently switched the commenting service on this blog from Disqus to Commento. Commento is a lightweight commenting service that doesn't insert a bunch of scripts with each page load. It also makes it easier to comment.

**Update Oct 12, 2025**: I decided to remove the Commento form from my site. Reason: Almost no one uses it. Readers instead prefer to use LinkedIn. Also, 99% of the comments from Commento are spam, and the controls for managing and approving Commento’s comments are non-existent. There’s been almost no development on the Commento platform for the past 5 years or more. It seems to be a keep-the-lights-on only service.

About six years ago, when I switched from WordPress to Jekyll as the platform for this site, I implemented [Disqus](https://disqus.com/) for comments. However, I’ve disliked Disqus for a long time, especially when I look at all the scripts and other bloat this commenting service ads on my site. For more complaints about Disqus, see [Why you should remove Disqus from your site](https://markosaric.com/remove-disqus/). Disqus doesn’t align with modern web practices and privacy, frankly. When you look at everything that loads with Disqus, it’s kind of startling.

[Commento](https://commento.io/) is lightweight, privacy friendly, and seems to work well even it’s missing some features. For example, it doesn’t let me aggregate the latest comments in a single list, nor does it surface related posts. It also looks like a one-person shop created by a student. However, it’s $5 a month instead of $9, was trivial to integrate, and offered an import from Disqus. Managing comments is easy, and so far even by allowing anonymous comments, I haven’t received much spam.

I have noticed that more people are commenting now. I think Disqus required too many logins and had too many false positives filtered out.

One other feature I’m considering deep-sixing is the Facebook share button on my site (which loads its own scripts). Facebook has fallen into disrepute in the tech community, and I don’t actively use Facebook nor see many conversations there. At the same time, Facebook still does have some traffic and popularity.