What Makes ReplyBox The Number One Disqus Alternative?

Your blog's comments section is one of the best ways to engage with your site's visitors. When it comes to blog commenting systems, Disqus is a popular market leader. However, the tool impacts your user's privacy, and your site's performance.

We're going to show you why you need a Disqus alternative, and why ReplyBox is ideal. First, let's look into Disqus and find out why it's not on the side of you or your users.

1. What is Disqus?
2. Why would you choose Disqus for your comment system?
3. Introducing ReplyBox
4. Why Is ReplyBox the Best Disqus Alternative On the Market?
5. How Is ReplyBox Focused on Privacy?
6. Is ReplyBox Lean and Mean When It Comes to Speed and Performance?
7. Why Is Disqus Free While ReplyBox Is a Premium Tool?
8. This is What Makes ReplyBox Your Go-To Disqus Alternative

What is Disqus?

In short, Disqus is a blog commenting system with around a 40 percent market share. It lets the site owner host a comments section on their site, and enables users to leave rich comments. The core solution is free, although there are premium tiers with greater functionality.

On a basic level, Disqus is much like any other commenting system. It lets you post real-time comments, add links to your comments, and use other rich features.

For a site owner, Disqus is a godsend on paper. It lets you centralize your comments, which in theory keeps your site and page size down. You also get to moderate comments and manage your moderator's profiles.

What's more, there are tools to help turn readers into contributors. This is through features such as Single Sign-On (SSO), comment subscriptions, and more. You can see the effects of these features through a robust analytics dashboard.

Given Disqus' parent company Zeta Global, you'll also be able to monetize your comments too. In fact, this leads us onto why a Disqus alternative might be a better fit for your blog.

Why Would You Want to Choose a Disqus Alternative for Your Comments System?

While Disqus is a blog commenting system, its parent company is in a different line of work. Zeta Global is a marketing company specializing in the 'customer lifecycle'.

In a nutshell, they have an interest in the entire journey of a user across their lifetime on the internet. A marketing company generally has an interest in user data, and Zeta Global is no different.

It has hundreds of millions of user advertizing profiles in its database. This adds up to a potential ten percent of the world's population.

Given that Zeta Global deals in user data, Disqus is also part of this strategy. In fact, it was part of a data privacy issue a few years ago involving tens of millions of user profiles.

As such, there are a few reasons why you'd want to choose a Disqus alternative for your commenting system:

• You can control the level of user privacy you offer.

• The comments don't form part of a data collection strategy. In other words, comments are for engagement purposes only.

• The functionality you put in place will only serve commenting. This means you can get all the benefits of a comments system, without the performance hit.

Introducing ReplyBox

Like Disqus, ReplyBox is also a blog commenting system. It lets you post and reply to comments, using rich content. Here are a few other features within ReplyBox:

• It uses Akismet and some under-the-hood trickery to keep spammers at bay.

• The moderation tools let you approve comments in an instant.

• Users can subscribe to comments and receive email notifications.

• Users are also able to log into ReplyBox using one of a few social media platforms.

There are a few other goodies that helps users and developers work with ReplyBox too. Developers can use custom CSS and webhooks to create a near-perfect experience. End users can press Markdown styling into service to format comments too.

These features are only the tip of the iceberg. In fact, let's look further into why ReplyBox is a top-notch Disqus alternative.

Why Is ReplyBox the Best Disqus Alternative On the Market?

We've already touched on a few ways that ReplyBox and Disqus approach blog commenting. Even so, there's much more we have to say on how each solution compares.

Here are some of the most burning questions about how ReplyBox and Disqus relate.

How Is ReplyBox Focused on Privacy?

As you may have gathered, Disqus isn't focused on privacy at all. We've already noted how Disqus has shared a whole database of user data without consent.

What's more, if you don't want your personal data monetized, you have to give Zeta Global an explicit opt-out. The link to the guidance and data tracking policy is right at the bottom-corner of the Disqus footer:

From there, you need to opt in or out through your Disqus profile. Of course, advertising and tracking are on by default. This means user tracking happens from the second a visitor hits your page.

In fact, ads are a given with Disqus, and monetization is part of the key service. Disqus also inserts affiliate links into your comments where relevant. This revenue goes straight to them, rather than you.

In contrast, ReplyBox is privacy-focused from the start. We hate trackers, ads, and affiliate links – especially where they impact the user. As such, we don't track users, hijack and take over links, or make money from your user's data.

Is ReplyBox Lean and Mean When It Comes to Speed and Performance?

You'd expect a blog commenting system to be easy to access and out of the way of your site's other elements. However, despite Disqus' claims that it doesn't impact your site's speed, this isn't the case.

There have been other tests carried out on Disqus' impact on site performance. The results haven't been impressive. Part of this is going to be down to the high number of trackers and HTTP requests carried out.

When it comes to ReplyBox, the whole blog commenting system 'weighs' under 25kb. This presents a few home truths:

• A 'heavier' package such as Disqus isn't packing in commenting features. Instead, it's adding in data collection functionality to serve its own needs.

• With Disqus, the User Experience (UX) is secondary to user content engagement.

• Everything else being equal, Disqus will likely impact your Search Engine Optimization (SEO).

All in all, ReplyBox has a privacy-first, performance-centric approach. As such, you can rely on it to deliver a stellar blog commenting system, focused on the user.

Why Is Disqus Free While ReplyBox Is a Premium Tool?

On paper, Disqus is the more budget-conscious option. After all, the core functionality is free. In contrast, ReplyBox starts at $5 per month and has no free tier.

As such, it's clear Disqus has an advantage over ReplyBox – although everything is not as it seems.

Yes, Disqus is free, and if your budget is low, it may tempt you. Even so, remember that 'free' here is a construct. For Disqus, you're paying for the product with your personal data.

As an example, consider how tracking pixels are still included in premium tiers. This means the priority for Disqus is to track data and make money. By opting for a premium tier, you're helping them to do both.

There are only three tiers with ReplyBox, and each offers the same functionality. The only difference is the number of pageviews you'll get:

• Up to 20,000 pageviews. Starting at $5 per month.

• Between 20,000–100,000 pageviews. $13–16 per month depending on whether you opt for annual billing.

• Between 100,000–250,000 pageviews. Around $22–26, again based on whether you opt for annual billing.

ReplyBox can scale higher than this, and we offer custom plans above 250,000 pageviews.

This is What Makes ReplyBox Your Go-To Disqus Alternative

If you're convinced that a Disqus alternative is right for you, look no further. ReplyBox has a focus on privacy, no system lock in, and doesn't impact your site's performance.

For more on how ReplyBox can be your go-to Disqus alternative, check out our full set of features and pricing or see Replybox in action.