Guestbooks and comment systems
A guestbook is one page where visitors leave a message for you; a comment system attaches a discussion to every post or page of your site. Many people use one where the other would fit better, so this page says when each is the right tool and puts the comment systems most often mentioned next to a hosted guestbook. Facts about each system were read on its own website (pricing page or home page) in September 2026 and are reported without judgement; prices and plans change often, so please check each site. UltraGuest is not affiliated with any of them.
When a comment system is the better tool
- You publish posts and want a discussion under each one, with threads and replies. Disqus, Hyvor Talk, CommentBox.io, Remark42, Isso and Comentario are built for that.
- Your readers are developers with GitHub accounts: giscus and utterances keep the comments in GitHub Discussions or Issues and say "no tracking, no ads, always free". Commenters need a GitHub account.
- You run your own server and want everything under your control: Remark42, Isso, Comentario, Artalk and Waline are open source and self-hosted.
- You want a live chat box rather than messages: Cbox offers a chat-style box with a free tier.
When a guestbook is the better tool
- You want one place for greetings, not a debate. The maintainer of Meadow's Guestbooks put it this way when keeping replies admin-only: "it's a guestbook not a forum or reply thread".
- Your visitors should not need an account. One Neocities author who uses giscus keeps a separate guestbook "if you want to comment anonymously".
- Your site is on a static host where scripts to other domains are blocked, such as a free Neocities account (see guestbooks for Neocities); a hosted guestbook page is a plain link.
- You do not want ads or branding on the free tier, which several comment systems carry, as the table shows.
Side by side
| System | Cost, as stated on its site | Ads on the free tier | On your site | Data and privacy notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| UltraGuest (guestbook) | Free; no paid plans. | None. | A hosted page you link to. | No tracking cookies, no data sales; export as JSON or CSV; no account needed to sign. |
| Cbox | Free "forever" (100 stored messages, 150 messages and 1,000 visitors a day, one channel); Premium $1.67 a month billed annually, Pro $7.50, Pro+ from $15. | The free tier is "Cbox-branded, ad-supported"; paid tiers have no branding or ads. | A widget; placement is not described on its pricing page. | GDPR not stated on that page; captcha and auto-ban from Premium up. |
| Disqus | Basic free; Plus $12 to $35 a month by pageviews; Pro $115 to $180; Business on request. | Basic is "ad-supported with required top ads placement". | JavaScript embed. | Tracking and the GDPR are not stated on its pricing page. |
| Hyvor Talk | Personal €5 a month (billed annually, 2,500 credits a month), Premium €12, Business €40; 14-day trial, no free tier. | Not mentioned. | JavaScript embed. | "GDPR compliant"; Akismet and FortGuard spam options. |
| giscus | "No tracking, no ads, always free". | None. | A script tag with data attributes. | Comments live in GitHub Discussions of a public repository; commenters need a GitHub account. |
| utterances | "No tracking, no ads, always free". | None. | Script widget. | Comments live in GitHub Issues of a public repository; GitHub account needed. |
| Remark42 | Open source, self-hosted (version 1.17.0, September 2024). | None. | Embedded widget. | "No tracking of any sort"; optional anonymous access; RSS; e-mail and Telegram notifications; needs a server (Docker). |
| Isso | Open source, self-hosted (version 0.14.0, March 2024). | None. | One JavaScript file. | SQLite storage; moderation queue; Markdown; needs a Python server. |
| CommentBox.io | Free up to 100 comments a month; Professional $10 a month; moderation add-on $20 a month. | "No ads. No Tracking." | An HTML div plus a script. | Anonymous posting; export; storage in several regions. |
| Comentario | Open source, self-hosted (version 3.18.0, August 2026); the fork of Commento, whose hosted service closed in December 2025. | None. | JavaScript embed. | Self-hosted, so the data stays on your server. |
Also found: Talkyard (€4 a month per active coworker), ReplyBox (a trial, then a pageview-based subscription; "no ads"), GraphComment (a free tier; "no ads"; servers in France), FastComments (usage-based from $0.99 a month; anonymous commenting allowed), Elfsight Comments (free for one widget and 200 views a month, with Elfsight branding), Common Ninja Comments (a free plan for one widget), Schnack, Waline and Artalk (open source, self-hosted), Staticman (git-based; staticman.net itself now redirects to an unrelated site) and Komments.cloud (free; every comment approved by you). The Cusdis repository was archived in July 2026.
Pricing, ads, tracking and embedding
Comment systems mostly meter their plans: by pageviews (Disqus, ReplyBox), credits (Hyvor Talk), comments a month (CommentBox.io) or messages and visitors a day (Cbox). Ads or branding appear on the free tiers of Cbox, Disqus and Elfsight; giscus, utterances, Remark42 and CommentBox.io state that they show none, and UltraGuest shows none. On tracking, the GitHub-based tools, Remark42 and CommentBox.io say they do none, UltraGuest sets no tracking cookies on guestbook pages, and Disqus' pricing page does not say. Every comment system in the table goes on your page as a script (Staticman posts a form instead), which needs a host that allows scripts to other domains; a hosted guestbook page is a link, so it works anywhere a link does. Finally, giscus, utterances and Schnack ask commenters to log in with an account, while a guestbook lets anyone sign.
Which one is for you?
If your site is a blog and you want conversations under posts, choose a comment system: giscus or utterances if your readers live on GitHub, Remark42 or Isso if you run a server, Hyvor Talk, CommentBox.io or Disqus if you would rather pay, or accept ads, than host anything. If your site is a personal page, a club, a family site or a portfolio and you want one page of greetings that anyone can sign without an account and without scripts on your site, a guestbook is the better tool; UltraGuest is one, free and without ads. Some sites sensibly run both.
Details of the comment systems were checked on their own websites in September 2026 and may have changed since; please verify current features, prices and terms there. The names belong to their respective owners; UltraGuest is not affiliated with or endorsed by any of them.
See also: UltraGuest vs HTML Comment Box, hosted or self-hosted guestbooks, free guestbook services compared, all comparisons, or create a free guestbook.