Do you need a comment system and don’t know which one to choose?
Stuck in your decision between DISQUS and Livefyre? Let me help you!

This article is not about explaining the tools itself but a comparison of both.
DISQUS is currently preparing and releasing their 2012 version which looks amazing. Since I have been granted to take use of the new version, I thought it would be on time to compare both comment systems.

 

Feature comparison

I have listed the most advertised features of both systems

 disqus-vs-livefyre

Details

Let’s have a look at the missing options of each of them

Listener count

Livefyre is showing something called “Live Listening Count” which is an indicator how many visitors are currently reading your page. This is in fact a feature I really like and I’m missing on DISQUS 2012.

Post rating

Rate a post if you like it is a feature by DISQUS. Readers are able to give the article a “Star” (formerly known as “Like”). Livefyre isn’t offering something similar, just for comments.

But the question is, is it useful? Do we need it? We have so many ways to show what we like that I think this is just a optional voting instead of a useful one.

Reactions

You have this feature in WordPress and it is optional in DISQUS so nothing dramatic to think or worry about. It just shows the mentions of your post below the comment section.

OneClick Follow

Livefyre made it easy, with a single click you are able to follow the comment conversation. That’s the most easiest way you could have. Subscribe or unsubscribe with a single click.
Missing on DISQUS 2012.

LinkBack

LinkBack is a feature offered by Livefyre which give the commenter to leave a link to his latest blog post within his comment. Nice feature to drive some more attention to the own blog.

On one hand it’s great as it could encourage your readers to leave a comment with the benefit of placing their link on your site.On the other hand it could end up in less quality comments as some readers just want to say something to get their link posted.

DISQUS isn’t currently offering this option but 2012 is still in development, maybe we will see this feature soon. I would welcome it as a no-follow option.

As a personal note: LinkBack doesn’t encourage me more to leave a comment. If I want to comment on an article, I do it, with or without LinkBack.

Social Tagging

Get your facebook friends or twitter followers into the conversation if you think they fit in. Wonderful but missing on DISQUS 2012. Within DISQUS you are able to tag only persons which have left a comment, there is no chance to get your community involved from the outside of DISQUS.
Why I like this feature: Instead of sharing the URL to a DM on twitter or a message on facebook, I could tag a friend of mine to get involved to this article right within my comment.
Sure, there could be a downside if many commenters are leaving “@NickRockIT what do you think?” bundled with their LinkBack URL. This isn’t any quality feedback for the blogger so it could be misused.

Support

Both sites have a great and very fast acting support, they are using social media in a right way. Just wait a bit and I guess one or the other or both will leave a message to this post.
I have tested this via twitter, response within minutes!

Same goes for community support, if you have found any bug their Dev’s will be happy to get back to you.
In terms of support, both are brilliant!

What I love on DISQUS 2012

  • Discussion can be sorted with the option “Newest”, “Oldest” or “Best”
  • The community tab shows you “Top Discussions” and “Top Commenters”
  • A single click on an avatar will show you the user profile, neat
  • Minimal design

Social Sharing on the other hand is quite difficult, you have to post first your comment to share it.

Nice integration from Livefyre, you are able to tick the checkbox of the service you want to share.

Stick to your system

To be honest, I didn’t tried to install one system in change for the other. Why? Both systems are providing the social tagging feature which I don’t think is compatible between each of them. Also I don’t know what happens if you are using Livefyre with the LinkBack feature and you are trying to migrate to DISQUS. Maybe you could end up with some unhappy commenters on your blog as you have removed all of their links.
Whatever you choose, try to stick with it to avoid some unnecessary troubles.

Which one to choose

As you see, both are feature rich and are doing a great job. There isn’t any favorite I could choose so I stick to the system I’m familiar with – DISQUS.

It’s just a personal choice, both systems are so identical for the end-user that you could roll the dice to find your solution to use. BUT if you need the LinkBack and SocialTagging feature, sure there is only one choice: Livefyre

As DISQUS 2012 is still in development, let’s see what else they are coming up with.

So, what are you using on your website? Do you have any favorite and why? Please let me know via your comment.