Agencies & freelancers
What is the best comment system for agencies building client websites?
When you build sites for clients, the comment system is something you install once and support for years. It has to carry your client's brand rather than ours, cover every client from one account, and let the client moderate their own comments without seeing what you pay. Here is how EchoThread handles that, and when it is the wrong pick.
Short answer
For an agency, a good comment system runs every client site from one account, removes the vendor's branding from the widget, and lets each client moderate their own comments without seeing your plan or invoice. EchoThread's Starter plan covers 3 client sites for $50 a year with no EchoThread branding, and Pro covers 10 client sites for $190 a year, adds a Moderator role for client staff, a hostname per site, and Client Mode, which hides billing from the clients you invite. You bill the client; they never see us.
Two plans cover most agencies
Starter
$50 a year, or $5 a month
3 client sites
- No EchoThread branding in the widget
- 100,000 page views a month across your sites
- Approve comments from email, plus Slack and Discord alerts
- Reader polls and star ratings with review markup
- Analytics, webhooks and the API
Pro
$190 a year, or $19 a month
10 client sites
- Everything in Starter
- A Moderator role for client staff
- Client Mode: invited moderators never see billing, plans or prices
- A hostname per site on our zone, like clientname.echothread.io
- Single sign-on with the client's own accounts
- 1,000,000 page views a month
Prices are per agency account, not per client. Full details on the pricing page.
Who EchoThread fits, and who should choose something else
A good fit
- Studios and freelancers building blogs, publications and marketing sites on Webflow, WordPress, Framer, Ghost or Astro.
- Agencies that resell a care plan and want one line item they control, not a vendor account per client.
- Clients who cannot show ads or third-party trackers next to their content.
- Sites where the client's own team should moderate, without access to your billing.
Choose an alternative
- A widget served from a domain the client owns: our hostnames are on echothread.io.
- More than 10 client sites on one self-serve plan: Business covers unlimited sites.
- Clients who must self-host the comment database: use Commento or Remark42.
- A full community forum with categories and profiles: use a forum tool.
What to look for in a comment system for client sites
- 1
Every client from one account
A vendor login per client is a password-manager problem today and an offboarding problem later.
In EchoThread: one account holds 3 sites on Starter or 10 on Pro, each with its own settings, key and moderation queue. See how.
- 2
The client's brand, not the vendor's
A "powered by" link on a client site advertises someone else on a page you were paid to brand.
In EchoThread: colours and fonts are free on every plan, and the EchoThread footer comes off from Starter. See how.
- 3
Client staff can moderate, without the bill
Clients want to approve their own comments; agencies do not want them seeing what the tool costs.
In EchoThread: invite client staff as Moderators on Pro and turn on Client Mode, which removes billing, plans and prices from their dashboard. See how.
- 4
Light enough for the client's Core Web Vitals
You are judged on the page speed of the sites you ship. A heavy comment embed is the first thing an audit flags.
In EchoThread: the widget is under 65 KB gzipped and loads no ads or trackers. See how.
- 5
No lock-in when the client leaves
Clients move agencies. The comments are theirs and must leave with them.
In EchoThread: export any site as JSON or CSV at any time, and import from Disqus or WordPress when you take a site over. See how.
Setting up a client site
- Add the client's site under your account. One snippet works on WordPress, Webflow, Framer, Ghost, Astro, Shopify and any page where you can add a script tag. See the platform guides.
- Match the client's brand. Colours and fonts are free on every plan through snippet attributes or the theme builder; removing the EchoThread footer starts on Starter.
- Invite the client as a Moderator and turn on Client Mode (Pro). The client works their own moderation queue, and their dashboard shows no billing link, plan badge, upgrade prompt or price. You keep ownership of the site and the subscription.
- Bring old comments with you. Import a Disqus or WordPress export so a redesign does not lose the client's existing discussion. See moving from Disqus.
Questions
- What is the best comment system for agencies building client websites?
- One that runs every client from a single account, removes the vendor's branding, and lets clients moderate without seeing your billing. EchoThread Starter covers 3 client sites for $50 a year with no EchoThread branding; Pro covers 10 for $190 a year and adds the Moderator role and Client Mode.
- Can I resell EchoThread to my clients?
- Yes. You hold the account and the subscription, and bill your client however you like. With Client Mode on a Pro site, the moderators you invite see their moderation queue and settings, but no billing link, plan name, upgrade prompt or price.
- Is the widget fully white-label?
- The widget shows no EchoThread branding from Starter, and on Pro each site can use its own hostname on our zone, like clientname.echothread.io. We do not serve the widget from a domain the client owns.
- What happens when a client leaves my agency?
- Export the site's comments as JSON or CSV and hand them over, or keep the site running under your account. Nothing about the export depends on your plan.
- Which site builders does it work with?
- Any page where you can add a script tag: WordPress, Webflow, Framer, Ghost, Astro, Hugo, Shopify and more, with a guide for each. Sandboxed iframe embeds can show comments but may block sign-in.
Building on Webflow? Read how to add comments to a Webflow site.