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Disqus alternative

The Disqus alternative for Hugo

Hugo builds some of the fastest sites on the web, and Hugo even ships a Disqus partial out of the box — but Disqus brings ads, trackers, and bloat. EchoThread is the privacy-first swap: one partial, included in your single template, and you are done.

Start free in 30 secondsRead the Hugo setup guide →

Short answer

Yes — EchoThread is a drop-in Disqus replacement for Hugo. Add a layouts/partials/echothread.html partial and include it in single.html. Comments appear on every post, ad-free, in about five minutes.

Why switch off Disqus on Hugo

No ads, no tracking

Disqus shows ads and loads cross-site trackers on its free tier. EchoThread serves no ads and uses no third-party cookies on any plan.

Light, not bloated

The widget is about 37 KB gzipped with zero dependencies and loads asynchronously — a fraction of Disqus's ad and tracking payload.

Free, and yours to leave

A permanent free Hobby tier, one-click import from Disqus, and a one-click export of every comment as JSON or CSV. No lock-in.

Add EchoThread to Hugo

  1. 1

    Create a free EchoThread site

    Sign up, add your Hugo site, and copy the API key from your dashboard.

  2. 2

    Add the EchoThread partial

    Create layouts/partials/echothread.html with the container div and script tag, using .Permalink and .File.UniqueID for the page values.

  3. 3

    Include it in your layout

    Add {{ partial "echothread.html" . }} to single.html and rebuild — comments appear on every page using that layout.

Read the Hugo setup guide →

The difference that matters in 2026

Built for AI-generated comment spam.

Comment spam is now AI-generated — fluent, on-topic, and invisible to keyword filters and Akismet bolt-ons. EchoThread ships a first-party ML classifier (Siftfy) that scores every comment the moment it lands, so your Hugo comments stay clean without constant babysitting.

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Questions

Which identifier should I use in Hugo?
data-identifier with {{ .File.UniqueID }} is the safe default — it keeps comments attached to the right post even if you later change your URL structure. RelPermalink or a custom front-matter field also work.
Can I keep my existing Disqus comments on Hugo?
Yes. Import your Disqus export into EchoThread in one step; it matches old threads to your Hugo post URLs so existing discussions carry over. Export everything as JSON or CSV at any time — no lock-in.
Is EchoThread free for a Hugo site?
Yes. The Hobby tier is free forever — 10,000 page views and 1,000 comments per month, per site — with no ads. Paid plans start at $5/month when you outgrow it.

Weighing the options? See the full Disqus alternatives lineup, or the detailed EchoThread vs Disqus comparison.