Cusdis, the privacy-first commenting system

What is Cusdis?

That was my first question when deciding on a technology for my comment section on posts.

As they say on their website, cusdis.com:

Cusdis is an open-source, lightweight, privacy-first alternative to Disqus. It’s super easy to use and integrate with your existing website. We don’t track you and your users."

And what is Disqus? It’s a commonly used commenting system on various websites and online communities, allowing users to comment on anything and participate in blog discussions.

Of course, as a proud developer at Open Innovation in Privacy, when I discovered that there was a commenting technology similar to one of the most popular ones but with a commitment to user privacy, I had to choose it.

How to host it?

At first, I assumed I needed to host the technology by myself, but that wasn’t the case.

Cusdis offers a free plan to host one site and manually moderate up to one hundred comments per month, with an additional ten comments that can be moderated automatically. You can also pay $5/month for unlimited sites and moderation features.

Image with the two plans Cusdis currently offers

How to set it up?

When registering on Cusdis, you can generate a board for your site and get all the necessary information.

The platform gives you the embedded code you need to set it up:

Example of embedded code and button in Dashboard to get it

If you are using the same template as me on your website, you can take the id from that embedded code (the data-app-id value) and put it in the configuration (on config/_default(params.toml):

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## Comments
[comments]
enabled = true
provider = "cusdis"

[comments.cusdis]
host = "https://cusdis.com"
id = "pasteTheIdHere"

How does it work?

The comments can be anonymous, as users can opt for a random username each time they engage. To maintain a positive and safe environment, comments aren’t published immediately.

As the page owner, you can moderate them through the dashboard:

View of the Dashboard with one comment to moderate

And don’t worry about knowing when a user comments on your page. Cusdis will alert you via e-mail ;)

Conclusion

If you are looking for a commenting system, give it a try to this privacy-first alternative. It’s not just user-friendly; it’s a reliable and privacy-conscious choice!

Image taken from cusdis.com