Commento — Privacy-Focused Self-Hosted Commenting System

Introduction

Commento is a lightweight, privacy-focused commenting platform designed as a self-hosted alternative to Disqus. It loads in a fraction of the time, collects no personal data for advertising, and gives site owners full control over their comment data. The embeddable widget integrates into any website with a single script tag.

What Commento Does

• Provides threaded comment sections for websites via an embeddable JavaScript widget
• Supports anonymous commenting, email-based accounts, and OAuth login providers
• Offers moderation tools including comment approval queues, sticky comments, and banning
• Supports Markdown formatting in comments with XSS protection
• Imports existing comments from Disqus via a built-in migration tool

Architecture Overview

Commento consists of a Go backend that serves a REST API and a lightweight JavaScript frontend widget. The backend stores comments, users, and site configurations in PostgreSQL. The frontend widget is loaded as a single script on the host website, rendering the comment thread inside an isolated DOM element. Authentication is handled via session tokens with optional OAuth integration for GitHub, Google, Twitter, and GitLab login.

Self-Hosting & Configuration

• Deploy with Docker using the official image or compile from source with Go
• Requires a PostgreSQL database for storing comments, users, and configuration
• Set the COMMENTO_ORIGIN environment variable to your website's domain for CORS
• Configure SMTP settings for email notifications and account verification
• Enable OAuth providers by registering apps and adding client IDs and secrets

Key Features

• Page load under 20 KB gzipped compared to Disqus at over 700 KB
• No tracking, advertising, or personal data collection
• Markdown support with automatic XSS sanitization
• Single sign-on integration for websites with existing user accounts
• One-click Disqus import for migrating existing comment histories

Comparison with Similar Tools

• Disqus — feature-rich but heavy, ad-supported, and tracks users; Commento is fast and private
• Remark42 — similar self-hosted approach with more storage backends; Commento has a simpler setup
• Isso — Python-based with SQLite; Commento uses Go and PostgreSQL for better performance
• Giscus — uses GitHub Discussions; Commento works without requiring GitHub accounts
• Cusdis — lightweight alternative; Commento has richer features like OAuth and threading

FAQ

Q: How do I add Commento to my static site? A: Add the Commento script tag and a div with id="commento" to any page where you want comments.

Q: Can visitors comment without creating an account? A: Yes. Anonymous commenting can be enabled in the domain settings.

Q: Does Commento support email notifications for replies? A: Yes, when SMTP is configured. Commenters can opt in to receive email notifications on replies.

Q: Is Commento still actively maintained? A: The original Commento project has limited activity. Community forks like Commento++ extend it with additional features.

Sources

• https://github.com/adtac/commento
• https://commento.io/