Replacing Disqus with Commento reduced page size 10 timesWhen I started the blog, I installed
Disqus for comments. It was a natural choice: sites put Disqus all over the internet, easy to set up, and there is a free use case. I calmly integrated the comment engine and moved on.
But here's the thing: I always knew that Disqus fanned the pages a little. After all, I
wrote about web performance and usually tried to optimize the page. But I just assumed that Disqus adds a little extra kilobytes.
Logic: if he strongly inflates the pages, everyone would have long since abandoned it. Obviously, Disqus is trying not to increase traffic, right?I was wrong .
Last week, I finally did what I had to do from the very beginning: I took it and checked it. Here are the results (tested on my
Webpack article ):
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Disqus increased the page size more than 10 times, and the number of requests - more than 6 times . This is just nonsense! I immediately began to look for a Disqus replacement
considering web performance .
Alternative: Commento
I recently saw a
post on Hacker News about an alternative to Disqus called
Commento, with an emphasis on performance and privacy. In order not to repeat the previous mistakes, I immediately launched the tests:


The difference is obvious. Commento is an order of magnitude easier than Disqus.
Moreover, it has other advantages:
- This is open source , which can be put on your hosting.
- It is focused on confidentiality - does not sell user data and tries not to collect unnecessary information. This is especially nice for my blog, because my readers are probably more concerned about privacy than the average Internet user.
- Pay what you want . Free level Disqus delivers advertising, and the cheapest paid level - $ 9 per month. Commento is cheaper (if you want to pay)!
- It is customizable . Commento style can be customized according to the style of the rest of the site.
- There is a simple import from Disqus . I was able to quickly transfer all the old Disqus comments to Commento.
My Commento works fine, although you can choose another good, easy platform for comments.
Are you still using Disqus? Do you know how much he inflates the pages? What prevents to switch?