Practical & Research-Based Ways To Make Websites & Capture Customers

IntenseDebate vs Disqus vs Livefyre…A Feature-By-Feature Comparison

Mar 15, 2012 - Written By - Amit

IntenseDebate vs Disqus vs Livefyre vs CommentLuv……With soo many options for WordPress commenting systems, how do you choose the best one?

disqus vs livefyre vs intensedebate vs commentluv premium

One way is to try them all. Which is what I did :) .

According to me the CommentLuv Premium plugin is out of the running because it’s much less dynamic than the others and makes people comment for the wrong reasons.

So that leaves IntenseDebate, Disqus and Livefyre. All these WordPress commenting systems provide similar features and here’s a comparison, based on my experience using them and what’s mentioned on their websites.

intensedebate vs disqus vs livefyre vs commentluv

I removed IntenseDebate soon after trying it on one of my sites because it didn’t sync/show all existing comments, which is funny since it’s backed by the same people behind WordPress. I also think it doesn’t look as nice as the other two and has less social features.

I liked both Disqus and Livefyre. However, I lean towards Livefyre because I prefer the interface and look. But it’s really a personal preference and I’d suggest trying them to see what works best for you.

Written By: Amit

Amit is an entrepreneur, online marketer and career advisor. In a previous life, he's worked with Bain, Morgan Stanley and Citigroup. Amit has masters degrees in Business, Finance and Organisational Psychology.

  • http://thetylerhayes.com/ Tyler Hayes

    Anything specific thoughts or ideas about the Disqus look and feel? We’re currently working on a complete refresh of Disqus, called Disqus 2012, and are inviting people to give it a spin during beta. We’d love your thoughts so if you’d like to help go ahead and check out more details at http://blog.disqus.com/post/20970318081/why-disqus-2012 and http://blog.disqus.com/post/19693554817/disqus-labs

    • http://techmansworld.blogspot.com/ MHazell

      I think that Disqus 2012 should be an embed theme, like Houdini and Narcissus. I would love to see real time updating come to Houdini, though, for free.

    • http://www.kidnapcustomers.com/ Amit

      Hi Tyler,

      Thanks for taking the time to ask for feedback.

      As you can see I’m using Disqus now and really like it. I started out with Livefyre but switched to Disqus because it provides much more control over various settings and features. I also like the Reactions feature.

      Livefyre looked more attractive initially, since it was quicker to setup and it syncs comments with WordPress right away (Disqus takes a day or so). Also their feature of showing number of people live/listening and some Twitter related features were good.

      I think it would be super if Disqus had more integration with Twitter. When I start typing in a Twitter username it could suggest/auto-complete it. Then it could let a Twitter user know that they were mentioned in a comment, without me having to share that comment or send another Tweet (which is what Livefyre does now).

      The new features in Disqus 2012 look very interesting. When is that expected to be available for public use? I’m looking forward to updating the comparison table in my post :) .

      • http://thetylerhayes.com/ Tyler Hayes

        Glad to hear you’re liking Disqus so far. Thanks for the candid thoughts.

        We’re pretty heads-down on getting Disqus 2012 ready for primetime. But I think your Twitter suggestions about our @mentions system are logical next steps we too would like to take to improve that system.

        There’s no date set in stone for Disqus 2012 launch. Beta testers are getting a glance right now and we’re pushing as hard as we can on getting it into everyone’s hands. “Sooner rather than later.”

        If you ever have any other thoughts, questions, or feedback, feel free to keep the conversation going here or shoot us a message at http://disqus.com/support. We’re always happy to lend a hand.

        • http://www.kidnapcustomers.com/ Amit

          Thanks Tyler. I’ll certainly be in touch.

          Could you provide an approximate time frame for the Disqus 2012 release? Will be useful for me and other users to know.

        • http://techmansworld.blogspot.com/ MHazell

          Can we keep the current Disqus also?

          • http://thetylerhayes.com/ Tyler Hayes

            Yes.

        • test

          cool..testing anon comments

        • http://www.shahnewazzwaki.tk/ shahnewaz zwaki

          i have used disqus 2012. But is has a very big problem. It cannot importMy old comments from wordpress. But livefyre is doing is very goodly. I like disqus also. They should slove the problem

          • http://noblepioneer.com/ Tyler Hayes

            Sorry to hear that. To clarify, Disqus import all WordPress comments by default. If that’s not working for you, would you kindly forward our support team the debug info found under Advanced Options in the Disqus plugin on your WP site? We’d be happy to take a closer look then. And if you ever have any other questions we’re always available at http://disqus.com/support

          • http://www.shahnewazzwaki.tk/ shahnewaz zwaki

            Now It is working with my all old comments. I manually import my comments into disqus and it is working. Thanks for your help.

    • PolarStar

      great post – any views os how discqus affects pagespeed?

  • http://techmansworld.blogspot.com/ MHazell

    I know that you can use share Disqus comments on social networks. At least in Disqus 2012. You can link to a comment and post it, making a track back. Right now you can share liked threads on social networks.

    Disqus also has real time updating, but it is a premium package, except for Disqus 2012…which will have free real time updating.

    Hope this helps.

    • http://www.shahnewazzwaki.tk/ shahnewaz zwaki

      thanks for the information. But bro i faced a big problem importing my old comments. How to solve them? Please tell me. Then i will began to use disqus again. I love disqus for its great community. Please solve my problem.

      • http://techmansworld.blogspot.com/ncr MHazell

        What are you exporting from?

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Farhad-Ghayour/519944060 Farhad Ghayour

    test 

  • http://www.seotek.co.uk/seo-company-yorkshire.html Seo Company Leeds

    MMgh interesting thoughts on Disqus here. But what about its rival Livefyre is there much between the apps?

  • jay

    Why none of these comparisons talk about the most important things:

    who owns the comments?
    where are they stored?
    do they sync back to the blogs own comment system?
    how about backup systems?
    what happens when the companies go belly up?

    worse for me is that these are all “software as a service”, any feature which is today free can be a premium feature tomorrow, we start to depend on those features, and then those providers makes us hostages. happens all the time. no thank you.

    • http://www.kidnapcustomers.com/ Amit

      Hi Jay,

      Thanks for bringing up these very valid concerns/points.

      With all the comment systems, comments are/can be stored in your WordPress database. So you own the comments and in case the providers do go belly-up, you’ll still have all your conversations in place.

    • http://www.kidnapcustomers.com/ Amit

      Hi Jay,

      Thanks for bringing up these very valid concerns/points.

      With all the comment systems, comments are/can be stored in your WordPress database. So you own the comments and in case the providers do go belly-up, you’ll still have all your conversations in place.

    • http://khurtwilliams.com/ Khürt L. Williams

      As Jay mentioned your comments can be synced to the built-in WordPress database.  If a free feature become a premium feature you would not be held hostage.  You can simply default back to the built-in system.

  • grevada

    sasasas

  • http://easportscricket.in/ Aman Sethia

    Oh well, you said you are towards looks and interface, But I see you using Disqus. Is Disqus better? Should I use LiveFyre or disqus? Please help :-)

    • http://www.kidnapcustomers.com/ Amit

      Hi Aman :-) – At the moment I prefer Disqus. After using Livefyre I found that it did not provide enough control/options and the social features were not as good as I expected.

      Both the comment systems have recently released new versions, with a bunch of features added. I will be checking them out and writing a comparison post soon.

      • http://www.shahnewazzwaki.tk/ shahnewaz zwaki

        buddy you may be worng. Livefyre is now giving more control over comments like editing comments etc.

        • http://www.kidnapcustomers.com/ Amit

          Hi Shahnewaz,

          Thanks for all your comments.

          I’ll be giving the new version of Livefyre a try soon, to see what improvements they’ve made.

          • http://www.shahnewazzwaki.tk/ shahnewaz zwaki

            @kidnapcustomers:disqus Buddy I am trying manually export my all comments into disqus. They said that it will take 24 hours. What will happen after 24 I will update you.
            If they fail I will back to Livefyre. Because it is very easy. Thnaks for your reply buddy.

    • http://techmansworld.blogspot.com/ncr MHazell

      I would use Disqus, it is such a great system, and the company behind it is very friendly :) . I have used Disqus 2012 on my website, and never have issues with it (outside of the occasional hiccup). You do still own all of you comments if you are worried about that as well.

  • jearuiz111

    I really do agree with you amit especially this part – ” it could let a Twitter user know that they were mentioned in a comment, without me having to share that comment or send another Tweet (which is what Livefyre does now.”

  • http://www.genuinekentucky.com/ Joi Sigers

    I’ve tried both Disqus and Livefyre – they’re both brilliant but I’ve decided to use Disqus because it looks better! That may be a girl-y reason, but I can live with that. I like that it’s more customizable, too. Great post, thanks for the info!

    • http://www.kidnapcustomers.com/ Amit

      That’s as good a reason as any Joi :) .

      Glad that you liked the post!

  • Milos Itic

    I use built-on blog comments on WordPress. I do not use 3rd party commenting systems. Sometimes with combination with Facebook comments, wordpress plugin.

  • John56

    Cool I thought it would be nice to use disqus. @hedanalytics

  • Coolhandbeans

    Gosh darn it. Disqus Is lagging on iPhone when I type.

  • Coolhandbeans

    Disqus is still cool though.

  • Coolhandbeans

    It is all good. I think I will go with discus.

  • http://www.integrationworksinc.com/ Small business IT support Crys

    I think it would be super if Disqus had more integration with
    Twitter. When I start typing in a Twitter username it could
    suggest/auto-complete it. Then it could let a Twitter user know that
    they were mentioned in a comment, without me having to share that
    comment or send another Tweet.The new features in Disqus 2012 look very interesting. When is that expected to be available for public use? I like disqus also. They should slove the problem………………………………..

  • Dave

    I can’t decide, i don’t like any of them because you can’t customize and move around comments

  • Omi

    Intense Debate syncs comments with WP so there is always a copy in the database. Does Disqus or LiveFyre do that?

    • http://www.kidnapcustomers.com/ Amit

      Hi Omi,

      Yes, Disqus and Livefyre do that as well.

  • dasdadas

    comment testing

  • testing

    testing

  • Joe

    Great article. I notice you say that Disqus “kind of” have real time commenting and I am hoping you can elaborate more on that feature. how is that differ from LiveFyre real time commenting

  • josehc

    Hey Amit – I am faced with the same decision right now… how are you doing with Disqus these days?

    • http://www.kidnapcustomers.com/ Amit

      Hi Jose – I still like Disqus. It’s worked well for me so far.

  • http://www.facebook.com/ikiam Ikiam Ninan

    probando a ver como funciona

  • jnjnjnjnjn

    bhbhbhbhbhbbh

  • http://www.sprinklerk.blogspot.com/ Ramesh Krishna

    I used Love Disqus

  • http://www.mindinventory.com/php_dev.php php development india

    This 3 blog commenting system are good and most are using blogging system .In 2012 Disqus are king of blogging system.

  • http://thetasmanians.com/ Tony McGurk

    One of the biggest problems with Disqus, actually more annoying than a major problem is that when people comment as a guest the link to click to add your URL is so eensy weensy tiny that most of my readers wouldn’t notice it. Therefore I’d get comments from people with no URL, thus I couldn’t return the visits to their sites if I wasn’t already famiiar with them. I contacted Disqus a couple of times with a request to make it bigger & more noiceable but nothing changed. I haven’t used Disqus in over a year now so am curious if it’s improved that. Otherwise I found it to be a great comment system.

  • http://www.techiebin.com/ Arup Ghosh

    I love Disqus for both Blogger and WordPress for its easy to use interface , easy comment moderation , my disqus and other attractive features.

  • http://www.saltedlolly.com/ Olly S

    Have you considered producing an update to this article now that Disqus 2012 is out the door?