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Show HN: CommentBox.io – a responsible alternative to Disqus

64 points by shaunpersad 8y ago

shaunpersad 8y ago
Hi Everyone! I'm the maker of CommentBox.io. Many of us who have built blogs in the past have at least considered Disqus or Facebook Comments as their commenting system. Their ubiquity is unquestioned, and the free price can't be beat. But we're giving up trillions of data-points about us in return, strengthening their data-mining, ad-serving machines. What if providing a great hosted commenting platform was the only goal, and didn't come with strings attached? I built CommentBox.io because I wanted to give users an alternative, and I hope you like it!
- nodex-alex 8y ago
  SOme of your div's have ID's that start with numbers - this is against the RFC. You might want to prefix them with a letter.
- caesarbell 8y ago
  Finally, something we can use, with a piece of mind that our data is not being sold. I also really enjoy the easy setup this product provides. I was able to create two projects in minutes, which is really good because I have two clients I am building blogs for.
caesarbell 8y ago
A very good product, I feel like for a v1 product you are providing us the users with some pretty strong fundamental features needed for a great commenting box system. Keep up the good work, I am excited to see what this product does in the future.
foxhop 8y ago
I'm also in the space of "a responsible alternative to Disqus". My offering is Remarkbox - I've been bootstrapping it for a few years now. Reference: https://www.remarkbox.com/ https://www.remarkbox.com/
- shaunpersad 8y ago
  I'm a fan! Same goal, different execution :)
- masukomi 8y ago
  looks good, but when comparing it to CommentBox.io I have to say that their blurb of "No ads. No Tracking. Just Comments. Hosted commenting that's painless to embed, a pleasure to use, and a breeze to moderate." is _exactly_ what I want. I _think_ you offer the same thing (not sure about the moderation), but they tell me that up front. that being said their $5 per 100 comments is effing scary if anything gets unexpectedly popular.
  - darekkay 8y ago
    To be fair: "no tracking" is only half-true, as you need to login to post a comment and the first three options include Facebook, Google and Twitter. It's up to the user to use the Email login instead, but "no tracking" is strictly speaking not correct.
  - foxhop 8y ago
    Thank you for the feedback. Copy writing is really hard and I will work on getting the proper details upfront.
    - 18pfsmt 8y ago
      Sorry for the off-topic (and cyberstalking :), but that blog post about Instagram's acquisition by FB? It has not aged well, but would be interesting with an update 6 years later.
      - foxhop 8y ago
        Thank you for the advice. I added an update to the top which reads: This post was originally written from a place of jealousy and bitterness. Turns out I was wrong about this transaction and for better-or-worse, Facebook (and Mark Zuckerburg) solidified their edge as the king of social for the last 6 years.
codegeek 8y ago
Build a WordPress Plugin and you could get a huge market share with blog writers etc. I know its embeddable using JS but build a WP plugin and could be huge for you. All the best.
- shaunpersad 8y ago
  Yeah, it's been the #1 requested feature so far. It's in progress!
  - codegeek 8y ago
    The plugin itself can be free and it will give you huge marketing exposure with literally millions of people. Use the recommended practice by codex and get it added to wordpress.org. Profit while giving something back to the community. Win-Win. Don't delay it. Get it out there NOW.
- detaro 8y ago
  What benefit would a wordpress blog have from this over native comments?
  - shaunpersad 8y ago
    Similar benefits to most hosted commenting solutions, most of which have to do with scale in one form or another. If you're a small blog who gets a handful of comments a month, you might not see as big a benefit (though, there are still some). - Decreased server load. - Reliable multi-region storage and delivery. - More login options. - One login account across several websites, which decreases friction whilst still providing the safety of having comments from verified users. - Moderation filters that can act based on past user behavior, before they ever interact with your site.
hkhanna 8y ago
This is great, just signed up. A responsible alternative to Disqus has been needed for years. I hadn't been able to find one when I was looking for a hosted comment platform for my static page blog. Consider me a fan!
- darekkay 8y ago
  Some Disqus alternatives emerged in the last few years: Muut[0], Remarkbox[1], Hosted Comments[2]. I've also linked my blog post in this thread with some more alternatives for static sites. [0] https://muut.com/ https://muut.com/ [1] https://www.remarkbox.com/ https://www.remarkbox.com/ [2] https://www.hostedcomments.com/ https://www.hostedcomments.com/
  - foxhop 8y ago
    Thanks for including Remarkbox. Could you update your blog post to explain that the Free Remarkbox plan does include the ability to moderate comments? This is a change I made a few months back.
    - darekkay 8y ago
      Done, keep up the good work :)
  - ahreflink 8y ago
    Commento (https://gitlab.com/commento/commento-ce https://gitlab.com/commento/commento-ce) is another great alternative that's open source.
darekkay 8y ago
This looks really solid! I will include it in my blog post [0], where I evaluate many different ways and tools to integrate comments on a static site. I really like that you provide a free plan, but I don't understand, why your pricing depends both on bandwidth and monthly comments published. I would also prefer a flat comments-per-month plan, so I didn't have to pay extra 5$ if I get 51 comments in a single month. [0] https://darekkay.com/blog/static-site-comments/ https://darekkay.com/blog/static-site-comments/
hbcondo714 8y ago
Is it possible to allow users to add their comments in an annotation format? This would be helpful for lengthy web pages where users can inline their comments within the content itself.
- shaunpersad 8y ago
  Not at the moment, no. But that would be a great addition. Thanks for the suggestion!
RileyJames 8y ago
Excellent, I was just building a website today which needs a privacy focused version of Disqus. Signed up. Feedback: Little annoying that it throws you straight to the "Create a project" page, but then disables the "create button" until email is verified. I went and verified my email, but then needed to refresh the page and fill all the details out again to progress. Minor, but annoying (and right in your buy funnel really)

64 points by shaunpersad 8y ago

Hi Everyone! I'm the maker of CommentBox.io. Many of us who have built blogs in the past have at least considered Disqus or Facebook Comments as their commenting system. Their ubiquity is unquestioned, and the free price can't be beat. But we're giving up trillions of data-points about us in return, strengthening their data-mining, ad-serving machines. What if providing a great hosted commenting platform was the only goal, and didn't come with strings attached? I built CommentBox.io because I wanted to give users an alternative, and I hope you like it!

nodex-alex 8y ago
SOme of your div's have ID's that start with numbers - this is against the RFC. You might want to prefix them with a letter.
caesarbell 8y ago
Finally, something we can use, with a piece of mind that our data is not being sold. I also really enjoy the easy setup this product provides. I was able to create two projects in minutes, which is really good because I have two clients I am building blogs for.

caesarbell 8y ago

A very good product, I feel like for a v1 product you are providing us the users with some pretty strong fundamental features needed for a great commenting box system. Keep up the good work, I am excited to see what this product does in the future.

foxhop 8y ago

I'm also in the space of "a responsible alternative to Disqus". My offering is Remarkbox - I've been bootstrapping it for a few years now. Reference: https://www.remarkbox.com/ https://www.remarkbox.com/

shaunpersad 8y ago
I'm a fan! Same goal, different execution :)
masukomi 8y ago
looks good, but when comparing it to CommentBox.io I have to say that their blurb of "No ads. No Tracking. Just Comments. Hosted commenting that's painless to embed, a pleasure to use, and a breeze to moderate." is _exactly_ what I want. I _think_ you offer the same thing (not sure about the moderation), but they tell me that up front. that being said their $5 per 100 comments is effing scary if anything gets unexpectedly popular.
- darekkay 8y ago
  To be fair: "no tracking" is only half-true, as you need to login to post a comment and the first three options include Facebook, Google and Twitter. It's up to the user to use the Email login instead, but "no tracking" is strictly speaking not correct.
- foxhop 8y ago
  Thank you for the feedback. Copy writing is really hard and I will work on getting the proper details upfront.
  - 18pfsmt 8y ago
    Sorry for the off-topic (and cyberstalking :), but that blog post about Instagram's acquisition by FB? It has not aged well, but would be interesting with an update 6 years later.
    - foxhop 8y ago
      Thank you for the advice. I added an update to the top which reads: This post was originally written from a place of jealousy and bitterness. Turns out I was wrong about this transaction and for better-or-worse, Facebook (and Mark Zuckerburg) solidified their edge as the king of social for the last 6 years.

codegeek 8y ago

Build a WordPress Plugin and you could get a huge market share with blog writers etc. I know its embeddable using JS but build a WP plugin and could be huge for you. All the best.

shaunpersad 8y ago
Yeah, it's been the #1 requested feature so far. It's in progress!
- codegeek 8y ago
  The plugin itself can be free and it will give you huge marketing exposure with literally millions of people. Use the recommended practice by codex and get it added to wordpress.org. Profit while giving something back to the community. Win-Win. Don't delay it. Get it out there NOW.
detaro 8y ago
What benefit would a wordpress blog have from this over native comments?
- shaunpersad 8y ago
  Similar benefits to most hosted commenting solutions, most of which have to do with scale in one form or another. If you're a small blog who gets a handful of comments a month, you might not see as big a benefit (though, there are still some). - Decreased server load. - Reliable multi-region storage and delivery. - More login options. - One login account across several websites, which decreases friction whilst still providing the safety of having comments from verified users. - Moderation filters that can act based on past user behavior, before they ever interact with your site.

hkhanna 8y ago

This is great, just signed up. A responsible alternative to Disqus has been needed for years. I hadn't been able to find one when I was looking for a hosted comment platform for my static page blog. Consider me a fan!

darekkay 8y ago
Some Disqus alternatives emerged in the last few years: Muut[0], Remarkbox[1], Hosted Comments[2]. I've also linked my blog post in this thread with some more alternatives for static sites. [0] https://muut.com/ https://muut.com/ [1] https://www.remarkbox.com/ https://www.remarkbox.com/ [2] https://www.hostedcomments.com/ https://www.hostedcomments.com/
- foxhop 8y ago
  Thanks for including Remarkbox. Could you update your blog post to explain that the Free Remarkbox plan does include the ability to moderate comments? This is a change I made a few months back.
  - darekkay 8y ago
    Done, keep up the good work :)
- ahreflink 8y ago
  Commento (https://gitlab.com/commento/commento-ce https://gitlab.com/commento/commento-ce) is another great alternative that's open source.

darekkay 8y ago

This looks really solid! I will include it in my blog post [0], where I evaluate many different ways and tools to integrate comments on a static site. I really like that you provide a free plan, but I don't understand, why your pricing depends both on bandwidth and monthly comments published. I would also prefer a flat comments-per-month plan, so I didn't have to pay extra 5$ if I get 51 comments in a single month. [0] https://darekkay.com/blog/static-site-comments/ https://darekkay.com/blog/static-site-comments/

hbcondo714 8y ago

Is it possible to allow users to add their comments in an annotation format? This would be helpful for lengthy web pages where users can inline their comments within the content itself.

shaunpersad 8y ago
Not at the moment, no. But that would be a great addition. Thanks for the suggestion!

RileyJames 8y ago

Excellent, I was just building a website today which needs a privacy focused version of Disqus. Signed up. Feedback: Little annoying that it throws you straight to the "Create a project" page, but then disables the "create button" until email is verified. I went and verified my email, but then needed to refresh the page and fill all the details out again to progress. Minor, but annoying (and right in your buy funnel really)