All right, in my last post I wrote probably more words than were necessary about why every blog needs a good commenting system. Today, we’re going to get our hands dirty: what are the key differences between Disqus and IntenseDebate, and we’ll even throw the newbie, Livefyre, into the mix.
Compare Client Lists
IntenseDebate has been around the longest and is owned by Automattic, the same company that owns WordPress, PollDaddy, Akismet, Gravatar, and other online ventures. Because of this, you would assume that it would have the largest following, right? Well, based on their client lists, you’d be completely wrong. On IntenseDebate’s own website, their client list includes Screencrave, Macleans, Microsoft Partner Network, Dumb Little Man, and Infectious Greed. After reading the list, I was left scratching my head and saying “Who?”
Compare that to Disqus, which is a 2007 startup. They claim on their client list the following: CNN, TechCrunch, FoxNews, IGN, and Engadget. Yeah…it’s a different sort of list. I was shocked to see the difference between the two.
Livefyre, since they just got out of their private beta, have very few major clients, most notably The Next Web (Update: The Next Web is now with Disqus), Bloguin, and Spin Sucks.
Compare Logins
Disqus: Disqus, Facebook, Twitter, Google, OpenID, and Yahoo.
InteseDebate: IntenseDebate, WordPress, Facebook, Twitter, and OpenID.
Livefyre: Livefyre, Facebook, Twitter, Google, and LinkedIn.
Compare Features
When it comes to features, all three have threaded commenting, commenter profiles, email notifications, moderation, and various other features.
Livefyre is different, though. They seem to have taken a more social approach to commenting. Using their system, you can share your actual comment via your social networking channels, trying to invite others into the conversation; you can tag or @reference people that are in the conversation; receive notifications when people are talking to you in the conversation. Compare this with the other services, which basically only let you subscribe to notifications for all comments on a post (which on a major blog can get old REAL fast) or subscribe to notifications when someone responds to your comments.
Summary
As you can tell, I currently prefer Disqus (Update: I switched to Livefyre). I’m a designer, and the Disqus framework just looks better than the others. It’s clean, easy to use, and I just plain like it. Based on client lists, it also takes the cake for largest community, which is important…when people come across your blog and see that you’re using a framework that they’re familiar with, they’re much more inclined to leave a comment. You can also see a users commenting history within their Disqus profile, and if you’re a part of that, then being part of the bigger community is another large plus.
If it were only between Disqus and IntenseDebate, I’d have an easy decision…I just like Disqus.
Livefyre intrigues me, though. I really like the way that you can “talk” to people within a commenting thread. You can also share links directly to your comment with a Twitter-friendly shorted URL…a really great way to draw outsiders into the conversation. I’m really interested to see where this company goes and if any major blogs start to pick up their service.
Another thing that is very attractive about Livefyre is their customer support. Just look at the way that the Livefyre staff gets involved in conversations around the web: http://www.spinsucks.com/social-media/moderating-blog-comments/ . These guys want to grow, and they want to learn from community feedback to make their product better. Kudos to you guys.
So, for now, I’m sticking with Disqus (Update: I switched to Livefyre). I wouldn’t rule out a switch to Livefyre in the future, though. Something about them just seems right…
What commenting system do you use on your blog? Why?
I am in between Disqus and Livefyre. I find that the login for Livefyre requires more steps when I login with Gmail.
@NguyenNgocTien Hey man, definitely understand what you’re saying. We’re currently working to revamp our auth process, making it smoother and more intuitive. We’ll also be adding guest commenting in the next two weeks as well so users won’t need an account to comment.
Definitely send any questions my way, I’d be happy to answer them.
I’ve just switched to Livefyre from Disqus. I like the social aspect of it but it could do with a few themes and a backend admin panel for easier management.
@JournalXtra Hey there, we’re working on more widget customizations to better fit different themes, but here’s a link to our CSS guide if you’d like to style things yourself as well as a link our FAQ about your Livefyre site admin panel and how to access it:
http://support.livefyre.com/customer/portal/articles/67016-can-i-override-livefyre-s-default-css-
http://support.livefyre.com/customer/portal/articles/138868-what-is-the-livefyre-admin-panel-how-do-i-access-it-
Let me know if you ever have any questions!
@JMattHicks Thanks, that was fast. I had figured I can edit the CSS and I found the admin panel but I it needs one in the WordPress backend for lazy people like me.
@JournalXtra You’re very welcome. And we’re working on making the Livefyre admin panel accessible through the WP-Admin panel, so definitely keep any eye out for that
@JMattHicks I will do and I’ll let me readers know.
hello
yeah I find Livefyre cool.. does disqus also require users to allow app to connect to their account?
I also noticed that livefyre seems to be read by search engines.. that is also cool.. I think I should give it a try
@JeremeCausing All comments are Google crawlable, so each comment provides a nice SEO boost! Let me know if you have any questions, I’d be more than happy to help!
@JMattHicks thanks .. i was just wondering how do I logout here .. this looks cool.. I hope they could make the login a pop up div (like disqus) instead of a pop up window because users might be confused on popup windows..
@JMattHicks oh sorry I found it already.. it’s on my name on top of the comment box haha sorry
is the control panel similar to disqus .?
@JMattHicks@JeremeCausing Wow! Thats awesome.
@JMattHicks@JeremeCausing
@JMattHicks@JeremeCausing thanks
test comment
cool.. it’s realtime
I’m testing it on different browsers.. It posts comment in realtime .. cool.. I’ll be using this.. I also noticed that the email notifications don’t go to my spam folder unlike disqus
@JeremeCausing Just testing guest comments.
cdsfs
Livefyre I think loads faster with my site. And what’s better is the tagging….
I was looking for the traditional option for commenting wherein one can put his site (as well as name and email) which is quite rewarding for comment-ers. Please delete my previous comments, that was and accident…
Livefyre I think loads faster with my site. And what’s better is the tagging….
I was looking for the traditional option for commenting wherein one can put his site (as well as name and email) which is quite rewarding for comment-ers.
Livefyre I think loads faster with my site. And what’s better is the tagging…. And it even follows the recent posts of a commenter’s site.
I was looking for the traditional option for commenting wherein one can put his site (as well as name and email) which is quite rewarding for comment-ers who do not want to expose their account on other services.
I really wants a good commenting system……………..
@jennalanger I find livefyre user facing “look and feel” to be very boring when compared to disqus. Are there templates available to change this, or can it be CCS’ed ?
thanks
@TheDigerati Hey there, here is a guide to changing some of the CSS to fit your look and feel: http://support.livefyre.com/customer/portal/articles/67016-can-i-override-livefyre-s-default-css-
I’m having slight problems with wordpress integration.. the comment count sometimes displays 0.. maybe it has something to do with the theme compatibility
@JeremeCausing Did you ever fix your problem?
nice. livefyre is best
i was using Disqus for a while now. But i saw many blogs recommending livefyre. So i just opened a account, hoping that it will be better than any other commenting platform.
disqus is awesome – but livefyre is too
@FarhadGhayour testing
Disqus is supreme and always will be. And Livefyre does not integrate with that many platforms outside of WordPress and their (assuming) Universal code.
I like Disqus as well but I’m giving LifeFyre a go for the time being. I also wanted to use the Facebook Social plugin for comments, but it doesn’t seem to like working 100% of time and it doesn’t update live (requiring page refreshes). One plus is people can post comments on your website or facebook page and it all stays in sync. I wouldn’t mind getting completely away from Facebook though.
@stevenejb Thanks for the input, Steven. I too like Disqus, but there were just a few things about Livefyre that were too appealing. The way things are going, it’s going to be pretty hard to get away from Facebook…what makes you say that?
@LukeCoburn I just feel like Facebook is taking over everything yet doesn’t work 100% of the time like you’d expect. I guess I feel like everyone is putting their eggs in one basket.
The Next Web now uses Disqus, not Livefyre – might want to update the article. I honestly can’t decide between them all as they all have pro’s and con’s. To be honest I think I’ll just write my own commenting system and grab an open source social login from github or elsewhere. At least then I’ll own the content instead of it being hosted on their servers.