Free comment system with no ads and no tracking: what 'free' actually includes in 2026

"Free comment system, no ads, no tracking" is the search most blog owners type at some point, and every result is telling the truth about a different word. Some are free because they show ads. Some are free until a meter runs out. Some are free because your readers bring their own account. One is free because a single developer kept it running, until they stopped. This post lists the condition attached to each, from the vendors' own pages as they read on 3 September 2026, so that you choose the condition and not the adjective.

We build EchoThread, which is on the list, so treat our claims as claims and follow the links.

The table

Sources: Disqus plans, GraphComment pricing, Commentbox, giscus, utterances, the Cusdis repository, Hyvor Talk pricing, FastComments traffic pricing, ReplyBox pricing, EchoThread pricing. All read on 3 September 2026.

Free because of ads

Disqus Basic is the free plan most people have already used, and its condition is in its one-line description: "Free, ads-supported with a Top ads placement required." You do not pick the ads, they sit above your comments, and the ad network brings the cross-site tracking that readers now block or resent. Disqus also notes that "sites that cannot run ads (due to adult content or other restrictions) may not be eligible for the Basic plan". The first ad-free Disqus plan is Plus at $12 a month for up to 100,000 page views. The Disqus pricing breakdown has the full ladder, and Disqus alternatives without ads is the shortlist if the ads are why you are here.

Free because readers bring the account

giscus and utterances cost nothing and never will, because they store nothing: giscus keeps comments in GitHub Discussions and utterances in GitHub issues, on a repository you own, and each reader authorises the app "to post on their behalf using the GitHub OAuth flow". utterances says it plainly: "No tracking, no ads." There is no meter and no lock-in, since the data is already in your repository.

The condition is the account. If your readers are developers, a GitHub login is nothing. If they are not, it is the end of the comment section: a reader without a GitHub account cannot comment at all, and a reader with one is asked to grant an app permission to post as them before typing a word. giscus also requires the repository to be public, and warns that "some features of giscus may break or change over time". The giscus alternative and utterances alternative posts go through the trade-off for a non-developer audience.

Free until a meter runs out

Three of the free plans in the table are free up to a number, and the number is a different thing each time.

GraphComment meters "data loads", up to 1,000,000 a month on the free plan, with no ads. That is the most generous free ceiling in the category by a distance, and the page does not define a data load, so ask before you rely on it. What the free plan lacks is the paid column: widget customisation, push notifications, SSO and live discussions, which start at $29 a month. Readers sign in; the page prefers "pseudonymity" to "anonymity". The GraphComment alternative post works through where free ends.

Commentbox meters comments: 100 a month on the free Personal plan, with unlimited page views and a $15 charge if you go over. For a busy site with a quiet comment section that is unbeatable; for an active blog, 100 comments is three a day, and the first good post costs $15. Professional is $10 a month with unlimited comments. The Commentbox alternative post has the worked example.

EchoThread meters page views, and only on sites created from 1 October 2026: Hobby includes 10,000 a month for one site, with unlimited comments, no ads and no reader tracking. A site created before that date keeps unmetered page views on Hobby. The allowance is soft: crossing it gets you an email, not a disabled widget, and the next step is Starter at $9 a month for three sites and 100,000 page views. The other condition on Hobby is visible: a small "Powered by EchoThread" line under the widget, which Starter removes.

Free until the maintainer stops

Cusdis was the answer to this search for years: about 5 KB, nickname-and-email comments, no tracking, free for one site and 100 approved comments a month. The project was deprecated and its repository archived on 17 July 2026; the README now reads "Cusdis is deprecated now. If you want to export your data. Please email hi@cusdis.com." Nothing has broken yet, and nothing will be fixed. The Cusdis alternative post is the move, starting with getting your data out.

Commento is in the same family, a small privacy-first system you run on your own server with a hosted option; its pricing page could not be read today, so the hosted price is not stated here. The EchoThread and Commento comparison covers what running it yourself involves, and puts a number on the time it takes.

Not free, but a trial

Three good systems have no free plan at all, and it is worth knowing so you do not spend a trial expecting one. Hyvor Talk offers a 14-day trial with no card and then Personal at €5 a month, billed annually; the Hyvor Talk pricing explainer walks through its credit system. FastComments offers a 30-day trial and then Flex from $0.99 a month, with per-site and per-load meters; the FastComments alternative post works out a real bill. ReplyBox offers a 14-day trial and then $6 a month for 20,000 page views; the ReplyBox alternative post covers its Google-only sign-in.

Five questions before you pick

1. Can a reader comment without an account? If the answer is no and your readers are not developers, the comment section will be quiet whatever it costs.
2. What happens at the ceiling? A blocked widget, an overage charge, an email, or a phone call. Commentbox charges $15; Hyvor Talk disables embeds after two consecutive months over; EchoThread emails you.
3. What does the widget load? An ad network on Disqus Basic; nothing third-party on most of the others. Check with your browser's network tab, not the marketing page.
4. Can you leave with your data? giscus and utterances keep it in your repository; Commentbox exports from the dashboard; Cusdis exports by email; EchoThread exports JSON or CSV for all sites at any time.
5. Who pays for it? Ads, a meter, a paid tier above the free one, or nobody. "Nobody" is the answer that ends in an archived repository.

What EchoThread's free plan includes

EchoThread's Hobby plan is free for your first site: unlimited comments, no ads, no reader tracking, and 10,000 page views a month on sites created from 1 October 2026 (a site created before that date keeps unmetered page views). Paid plans start at $9 a month for three sites and 100,000 page views; see pricing for the full ladder. Hobby also includes the moderation dashboard, the Siftfy spam classifier on every comment, threaded replies, reactions, image uploads, link previews, five team seats, guest comments switchable per site, and a reader interface that follows each visitor's language (English, Italian, Korean and Simplified Chinese today). The disadvantages of free commenting systems post is our own list of what a free plan cannot promise, including ours.

Installing it

Create the site in the dashboard with the domain you publish to, copy the API key, and paste two tags into your page template:

<div id="echothread"
     data-api-key="YOUR_API_KEY"
     data-page-url="https://example.com/your-post/"
     data-identifier="your-post"
     data-page-title="Your post title"></div>
<script src="https://cdn.echothread.io/widget.js" async></script>

The div goes where the comments should appear and the script anywhere on the page. data-page-url is the canonical URL of the page and data-identifier a stable id such as the slug. Platform-specific versions exist for Hugo, Eleventy, Jekyll, Astro, Ghost and any website; WordPress sites use the plugin from the ad-free WordPress comment plugin post, and Publii users get an official plugin.

Every price and condition in this post was read from the vendor's own page on 3 September 2026; they change, and the links above are the authority.