UltraGuest vs Bravenet Guestbooks

Bravenet Guestbooks and UltraGuest both offer a free guestbook, in two different shapes: Bravenet gives you code to paste into your page so that the guestbook appears inside it, UltraGuest hosts the guestbook as a page on our servers that you link to. Everything said about Bravenet here was read on its own website (the guestbook page, its help wiki and its terms of service) in September 2026 and is reported without judgement; features, prices and terms change, so please check bravenet.com/guestbooks for the current details. UltraGuest is not affiliated with Bravenet.

Embedded or linked

Bravenet's page says to copy and paste its code onto the page of your choice, and the guestbook appears there; whether the code is a script or an iframe is not stated. With UltraGuest you paste a link from the Control Panel and visitors open the guestbook as its own page, returning to your site through a link. An embedded guestbook keeps people on your page; a linked page adds nothing to your HTML but a link and works where scripts cannot be added.

Side by side

	UltraGuest	Bravenet Guestbooks, as described on bravenet.com (September 2026)
Cost	Free; no paid plans today.	Free. Its help wiki lists paid plans at $2.99, $3.99 and $5.99 a month (Basic, Advanced, Premium), which it says remove the ads and the Bravenet branding.
Ads	None today, on our pages or in guestbooks.	Its terms say some products and services are supported by advertising, which lets Bravenet provide them at no cost.
On your site	A hosted page; the Control Panel gives you the link code.	Code copied and pasted onto your page; the guestbook appears inside it.
Look and feel	Colours, fonts, background image, header text and full custom CSS.	Pre-made themes; colours, fonts, background, rounding and many other settings; an HTML header and footer of your own. Custom CSS: not stated.
Messages	Plain text with smilies and simple formatting; links are not accepted; up to three custom fields; private messages; no owner replies.	HTML in posts; hundreds of smilies; owner replies; optional viewer comments, so visitors can reply to posts; private messages, per its wiki.
Moderation	Optional approval of new messages; edit, hide, trash and delete; word filter; blocked IP addresses.	Approve, edit and delete posts and replies; pending entries held for approval; ban IP addresses; a profanity filter.
Spam protection	Cloudflare Turnstile on every post, no links in messages, rate limits, automatic content rules and regular scans.	An "Image Verification" option in its security settings, described in its wiki as reCAPTCHA.
Notifications	E-mail for public, private and pending messages; RSS feed.	E-mail notifications for administrators and for users, per its wiki. RSS: not stated.
Languages	24 guestbook languages.	Not stated.
Inactive accounts	Never deleted for being quiet; only never-verified empty registrations and policy violations are removed.	Its terms reserve the right to terminate an account with no evident activity for 90 days.
Your data	Download everything as JSON or CSV and delete the account yourself; no tracking, no data sales; servers in the USA.	Export and deletion: not stated. A privacy policy is linked; the terms are governed by the laws of British Columbia, Canada, and do not mention the GDPR.

Which one is for you?

If you want the guestbook inside your page, HTML and smilies in posts, replies from you and from other visitors, and a paid plan that removes ads and branding, Bravenet lists all of those; its threaded viewer comments make it the better choice when your visitors are meant to talk to each other. If you want a guestbook with no ads on the only plan there is, custom CSS, plain text posts that cannot carry links, an export of your data whenever you like and an inactivity rule measured in years rather than days, that is UltraGuest. Both are free to try with your own site.

Bravenet details were checked on bravenet.com (guestbook page, help wiki, terms of service) in September 2026 and may have changed since; please verify current features, prices and terms there. Bravenet is the property of its owner; UltraGuest is not affiliated with or endorsed by Bravenet.