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A static site is a website without dynamic content. A typical static site is built entirely using HTMLHyperText Markup Language. It’s the standard language for creating web pages., CSSCascading Style Sheet. It’s a language used for describing the look and formatting of a document written in HTML., and JavaScriptA programming language used in web development to create interactive elements on a webpage.. These sites don’t load pages using external data inputs. Instead, each page is pre-built and shows the same content to every user which allows site pages to load more quickly compared to dynamic site pages.
A robust comment systemA feature on a website that allows visitors to leave comments, typically on blog posts or articles. is an important element of all websites as it facilitates better interaction among site users and helps site owners easily collect user feedback. In addition to this, comment boxes also boost time-on-page and increase users’ trust in your website.
In this roundup, we’ll run the rule over some of the best tools to add comments on a static site and highlight their key features.
#1: Welcomments
Welcomments is a comments tool for static sites that lets site visitors post comments and takes care of the validation, sanitization, and spam checking of these comments. It is a lightweight and easy-to-use solution that enables you to set up your comment system in a few clicks.
With Welcomments, you can easily customize the style of comments to match your website. Moreover, it is SEO-friendly so search engines will be able to indexA list or database used to make searching faster. user comments without any issues.
In addition to this, you can enable email notifications so you’ll be alerted every time a site visitor leaves a comment. Similarly, visitors will also be notified when you post a reply.
Welcomments uses Akismet – a powerful spam protection system that helps you prevent comment spamming on your static site. Its optional JavaScript snippet is only 2.1 KB which means it won’t affect your site’s page loading speed.
All your site comments are securely delivered to your GitHubA web-based platform for version control and collaboration, allowing multiple people to work on projects at once. repositoryIn version control systems like GitHub, a repository is the most basic element, a folder where all the files for a parti… from where they are directly displayed on your website. Additionally, Welcomments doesn’t mine your comments for data or use it to target ads. So, you can be sure that your site visitors’ data will remain secure.
Price:
- Monthly version costs $6 per month
- Yearly version costs $4 per month
#2: ReplyBox
ReplyBox is a helpful comment system that helps you show user comments at the bottom of your site pages.
You’ll be able to quickly moderate all new comments and grant manual approval in a fast and effective way. ReplyBox uses Akismet to fight spam commenting on your static site which filters all comments through its anti-spam database and detects the most common types of spam comments.
In addition to this, ReplyBox supports markdown formatting so your site’s visitors will be able to easily add links, quotes, lists, code blocks, and emojis in the comments. You can easily customize ReplyBox’s CSS to match your website’s branding.
Similarly, its nested comments feature lets users reply directly to any comment which facilitates natural discussion on your site. ReplyBox also supports social login which means your site visitors will be able to quickly post comments after authenticating via Twitter or Google in just two clicks.
You can also import existing comments from another WordPress website and sync everything in a seamless way. Moreover, your site visitors will be able to subscribe to email notifications so they stay updated whenever someone posts a reply to a comment.
Price:
- 20,000 monthly pageviews version costs $6 per month
- 100,000 monthly pageviews version costs $16 per month
- 250,000 monthly pageviews version costs $26 per month
#3: Commento
Commento is a popular commenting system that enables you to add a text comment box where your site visitors can leave feedback and suggestions.
Commento comes with powerful moderation tools that help you easily block heated threads, implement timeouts, and delete any off-topic comments. In addition to this, its anti-spam system lets you keep deceptive or other types of spam comments off your website.
With its nested comments feature, user replies are nested below the appropriate comments which make the discussion easy to follow and allows users to navigate through comments, give replies, and view replies that were posted on their own comment.
Similarly, users will be able to upvote and downvote comments and replies so readers can quickly find popular comments. This mechanism also boosts quality interaction on your website.
In addition to this, Commento also supports markdown formatting so your users can post comments with bold text, blockquotes, and external links. It also gives you the option to allow anonymous commenting which encourages site visitors to post comments without signing up first.
Commento lets you effortlessly import comments from Disqus to your website. It doesn’t collect personal data on your website to sell to advertisers or third-party trackers, enabling you to protect the privacy of your site users.
Price: Less than 50,000 daily pageviews cost $10 per month
#4: CommentBox.io
CommentBox.io is a hosted commenting platform that can be easily embedded into your static site. It is easy to set up and offers an intuitive UIUser Interface. Part of a software application that users interact with, such as buttons, menus, and forms..
With CommentBox.io, you’ll be able to easily set up a clean and modern-looking comment box on your site pages. Moreover, it offers a number of powerful moderation features such as granular comment filtering and blocking as well as manual moderation.
CommentBox.io reduces friction by allowing your site users to log in with their social or email accounts. Your site users will be able to leave comments and post replies either using their username or anonymously.
Readers will be able to upvote or downvote, flag, and pin comments. They’ll receive notifications when another user replies to their comment.
In addition to this, you’ll be able to effortlessly exportThe process of saving the files and data from your WordPress site to create a static site. your comments directly from the dashboard, and use webhooks to automatically import your comments to another location.
CommentBox.io stores your website’s comments in multi-region storage and it doesn’t mine data on your site or sells data to advertisers.
Price:
- Personal version is free
- Professional version costs $10 per month
- Moderation Plus version costs $20 per month
#5: Cactus Comments
Cactus Comments is another useful comment system for static sites. It is based on the Matrix protocol and follows a federated architecture which means this tool facilitates interoperability and information sharing between different departments of an organization.
Cactus Comments is especially ideal for websites looking to encourage collaboration among users.
This tool works equally well on both dynamic and static websites. Cactus Comments enables users to view and post comments in their web browser as well as other platforms including mobile, command line, or Nintendo 3DS.
In addition to this, Cactus Comments enables you to give your site users complete control over who hosts their data, helping you secure their privacy.
Cactus Comments is open-source so the source code for both the web client and its backend service is in the public domain. Its comment sections can be accessed from any home server on the Matrix network.
Price: Free
#6: Hyvor Talk
Hyvor Talk is a powerful commenting platform for static sites that lets your site visitors leave comments and post replies. It is a simple and lightweight tool that doesn’t affect your site’s performance.
Its Single Sign-On (SSO) feature helps you reduce friction by enabling readers to post comments using their accounts on your system.
Hyvor Talk also allows you to easily import comments from Disqus and WordPress to its platform. Moreover, you’ll also be able to export comments in JSONJavaScript Object Notation. A lightweight format for storing and exchanging data. format to backup or transfer them to another place.
You can easily customize the colors, texts, and UI of the pluginA piece of software that adds specific features to WordPress. to match your website’s branding.
In addition to this, your site users will be able to receive email notifications whenever someone replies to their comment. This mechanism boosts website traffic and engagement while encouraging quality interaction on your site.
Hyvor Talk’s built-in spam detector quickly detects spam comments based on a number of factors including user reputation and included links. It even lets you add your own spam prevention rules.
You’ll be able to assign admin and moderator roles to your team members. Similarly, Hyvor Talk lets you implement pre-moderation for all users or only for guest users so no comment is displayed on your website without moderation.
Price:
- 14 days free trial available
- Premium version costs $5 per month
- Business version costs $35 per month
Conclusion on how to add comments on a static site
Site comments encourage user interaction and user engagement on your site while enabling you to easily collect user feedback. In addition to this, it’s a great way to increase time-on-page on your site pages and increase user trust in your website.
We discussed different tools that can help you collect feedback and suggestions from users and add their comments on your static website. You can use these comment platforms to enable commenting, implement moderation, and prevent spam comments on your static site.
