Managing WordPress comments gets messy fast. One popular blog post can trigger spam, nonstop notifications, and moderation work that takes longer than writing the article itself.
The issue isn’t your content — it’s the default WordPress comment system. It’s too basic for real discussion and hard to manage as your site grows.
At WPBeginner and our other blogs, we handle hundreds of comments daily, so we know how important the right tools are.
In this roundup, I’ll share the best WordPress comment plugins to help you reduce spam, manage discussions more easily, and get readers to engage. 💬

Quick Overview: Best WordPress Comment Plugins
If you don’t have time to test every option, start here. I’ve put together a comparison table of all the best plugins I’ll cover in this guide and what makes each one stand out:
| # | Product | Free Plan | Starting Price | Best For |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 🥇 | Thrive Comments | ❌ | $49/yr | Boosting comment engagement and interaction. |
| 🥈 | Uncanny Automator | ✅ | $149/yr | Automating what happens after users comment. |
| 🥉 | Comment Moderation Role by WPBeginner | ✅ | Free | Letting teams moderate comments without full admin access. |
| 4 | SearchWP | ❌ | $99/yr | Making long comment threads searchable. |
| 5 | WP Mail SMTP | ✅ | $49/yr | Fixing deliverability for comment emails and alerts. |
| 6 | YITH WooCommerce Advanced Reviews | ❌ | $89.99/yr | Enhancing WooCommerce product reviews. |
| 7 | Akismet | ✅ | $5/mo | Automatically blocking spam comments. |
| 8 | Comment Link Remove and Other Comment Tools | ✅ | Free | Reducing link spam in comment fields. |
| 9 | Comment Edit | ❌ | $29/yr | Letting users edit comments right after posting. |
| 10 | Super Socializer | ✅ | Free | Adding social login and social commenting. |
| 11 | Comment Experience by Progress Planner | ✅ | Free | Enforcing comment rules and quality standards. |
Why Use a Comment Plugin?
A comment plugin helps you get more meaningful discussions on your site while reducing spam and moderation work behind the scenes.
The default WordPress comment system works, but it’s basic. On the other hand, a dedicated comment plugin improves how visitors leave comments, follow conversations, and come back for replies.
Here are some of the main benefits of choosing the right comment plugin:
- 💬 Encourages engagement – A clean, easy‑to‑use comment system makes visitors more likely to share their thoughts.
- 📣 Brings people back – Reply notifications and subscriptions help turn one‑time commenters into regular readers.
- 🛡️ Reduces spam and abuse – Built‑in spam filters, link controls, and policies keep junk comments out of sight.
- 🧹 Cuts moderation workload – Better moderation tools save you time reviewing, approving, and replying to comments.
- 📈 Supports growth – Integrations with email marketing services, automation, and other tools let your comment system grow with your site.
Summing everything up, the right comment plugin helps you build a healthier, more active community around your content. All while keeping your workload manageable.
How I Tested and Reviewed WordPress Comment Plugins for this Roundup
I didn’t just read feature lists for this roundup. I installed each comment plugin, used it on real sites with active discussions, and watched how it handled actual conversations, not just test data.
Here’s what I focused on during testing:
- Real-world use: I use these plugins myself on high-traffic sites that handle hundreds of WordPress comments every day.
- Moderation, spam, and engagement: I specifically teste for spam detection accuracy, submission delivery rates, and the impact each plugin has on initial page load times. That includes approvals, notifications, spam filtering, user subscriptions, and engagement features like voting or reactions.
- Popular options and performance: I look at the most widely used comment plugins for WordPress bloggers and evaluate moderation ease, spam protection, user engagement, customization options, and performance impact.
- Different site needs: I know different sites have different goals, so I group plugins based on what they’re best at. That way, you can quickly find the ones that fit your specific setup and audience.
This process helps me recommend comment plugins that don’t just look good on paper but actually work well on real WordPress sites with real comments.
Why Trust My Recommendations?
My reviews of WordPress comment plugins are based on real-world use, not just feature lists. I install these plugins on real WordPress sites with active comment sections and see how they handle everyday tasks like posting, replying, and moderating.
I pay close attention to what actually makes commenting easier for both you and your readers — things like how fast the form loads, how simple it is to reply or subscribe to replies, how well spam is filtered, and how much time the moderation tools really save.
I also look at how stable each plugin is over time on busy posts with lots of comments, whether it plays nicely with other plugins and themes, and how it impacts performance.
That way, you’re not just getting “what it does,” but how it behaves on a real WordPress site with real comments. Want to learn more? Check out our editorial process.
Now, here’s the 11 best WordPress comment plugins:
1. Thrive Comments

| Pros of Thrive Comments | ✅ Keyboard shortcuts make it easy to moderate, reply to, delete, and assign comments to other admins. ✅ Post-comment actions like redirects, related posts, or opt-in forms keep visitors on your site longer. ✅ Built-in engagement tools like upvotes/downvotes, likes/dislikes, and reward badges. ✅ Users can subscribe to a post’s comments so they get notified when someone replies. |
| Cons of Thrive Comments | ❌ There’s no free version. |
| Pricing | Standalone plugin: $49/year Thrive Suite: $299/yr |
| Best For | Bloggers and business sites that want a powerful all‑in‑one comment plugin to build an active, engaged community. |
Thrive Comments, the best comment engagement plugin for WordPress, is built to boost your post engagement. Unlike other tools that just add features, it completely replaces the default WordPress comment section with a new, interactive interface, complete with moderation tools and engagement features.
If you’re curious about the rest of the tools in their ecosystem, you can also see our complete Thrive Themes Suite review for more details.
My Experience
When I turned on Thrive Comments on my own site, the comment moderation workflow got noticeably faster.
I could sit in the Thrive dashboard and fly through long comment queues with keyboard shortcuts — approving, replying, trashing, or assigning comments to another admin without jumping around the WordPress backend.
I also tested a few post‑comment actions. On one post, first‑time commenters went to a thank‑you page with related articles and an email opt‑in.

Or you can also redirect them to a specific URL, show them a related post, or display an email opt-in form using Thrive Leads. It’s a great way to improve your user engagement metrics.
In all of these cases, people spent more time on the site instead of bouncing.
Additionally, features like feature/bury, likes/dislikes, and comment subscriptions helped highlight the best comments and brought people back when they got replies.
🌟 Why I chose Thrive Comments: If you are looking for the best, overall WordPress comment plugin, then look no further than Thrive Comments. It has all the features needed to build an engaged and interactive community on your WordPress site.
2. Uncanny Automator

| Pros of Uncanny Automator | ✅ Beginner-friendly drag-and-drop builder to create automations based on comments. ✅ Tons of options, with hundreds of triggers, actions, and conditions to customize your workflows. ✅ Works with 185+ plugins and apps, so you can connect comments to email, SMS, coupons, and more. ✅ Free version available so you can try it without paying. |
| Cons of Uncanny Automator | ❌ Paid plans get more expensive after the first year, which can add up over time. |
| Pricing | Free version available Pro starts at $149/year |
| Best For | Site owners who want to automate what happens after someone comments, like sending follow-up emails, SMS messages, or special offers. |
Uncanny Automator is a no‑code automation plugin for WordPress that connects your comments to everything else on your site. You can use it to automatically send emails, SMS messages, coupons, and more whenever someone leaves or receives a comment.
To learn more about this plugin, see our complete Uncanny Automator review.
My Experience
With Uncanny Automator, I wanted to see if I could actually create automated workflows and reduce manual follow‑up after comments.
I started with a simple recipe: when someone gets a reply to their comment, send an SMS notification or a custom email (instead of the generic WordPress one). Setting this up with the automation builder took only a few minutes.

Then I tried a more advanced setup on an eCommerce test site: when a comment on a product is approved, send the commenter a small coupon. That worked reliably and ran on autopilot.
I also used comment keywords (like ‘bug’ or ‘error’) to ping my team in Slack when a comment might need attention. All of this happened without writing any code and cut down on the busywork around comment replies.
🌟 Why I chose Uncanny Automator: I know how important it is to keep commenters coming back and engaging with your website. Uncanny Automator lets you set up automatic post-comment actions, turning occasional visitors into regular ones.
3. Comment Moderation Role by WPBeginner

| Pros of Comment Moderation Role | ✅ Completely free to use. ✅ No complicated setup – just install the WordPress plugin and the new ‘WPB Comment Moderator’ role is added automatically. ✅ Gives access only to the Comments page, keeping the rest of your WordPress admin secure. |
| Cons of Comment Moderation Role | ❌ Very focused on just one task, so it’s not ideal if you want lots of extra features. |
| Pricing | Free |
| Best For | Teams that want to let staff or support agents moderate comments without giving them full admin access. |
Comment Moderation Role by WPBeginner is a lightweight plugin that adds a special “comment moderator” user role to WordPress. It’s designed to let team members handle comment moderation without giving them full access to your admin area.
My Experience
I used this plugin when I wanted my teammate to moderate comments on our WordPress site without full admin access.
After installing it, the new “WPB Comment Moderator” role appeared in the Users screen on my WordPress admin area. I assigned it to a few test accounts and logged in as those users.

🛑 Disclaimer: You might notice this plugin hasn’t been updated recently. Since it is a lightweight tool designed to do one specific task, it does not require frequent updates. We use it on our own projects, and it works perfectly.
If you’re concerned, review our piece on whether it’s safe to use an outdated WordPress plugin.
Those accounts only saw the Comments screen. They could approve, reply to, and delete comments, but they couldn’t touch posts, plugins, or settings.
That setup has worked well on real projects where support agents handle day‑to‑day moderation, and I still keep my main admin accounts on our WordPress website locked down.
🌟 Why I chose Comment Moderation Role: If you want a no-frills plugin to add a specific user role for moderating comments, then this plugin is your best solution. Once installed, you can immediately change a user’s role to WPB Comment Moderator.
4. SearchWP

| Pros of SearchWP | ✅ Easy to add a search form using a menu item, Gutenberg block, or shortcode. ✅ Lets you create separate search engines, like one for the whole site and another just for comments. ✅ Relevance settings help you fine-tune which results show up first. ✅ Search analytics show what visitors are actually searching for. |
| Cons of SearchWP | ❌ The main SearchWP plugin is paid, even though the Modular Search Form add-on is free. |
| Pricing | Starting at $99/year |
| Best For | Blogs and content-heavy sites that get long comment threads and want to make comment content easy to search. |
SearchWP is the best WordPress search engine plugin that can make navigating your website much easier. Besides creating a search function to discover pages or posts, SearchWP can also make blog comments searchable.
If you’d like a deeper look into its features, check out our full SearchWP review.
My Experience
On blog posts with long discussions, I used SearchWP to make the comments themselves searchable. I simply enabled comment indexing in the settings and created a separate search engine just for comments.

Visitors could then search for plugin names, error messages, or specific tips and jump straight to the relevant comments instead of scrolling forever.
Beyond that, SearchWP offers several ways to add a search form through the Modular Search Form add-on: your navigation menu, a Gutenberg block, or a shortcode. You can use the last two to add a search function right above the comment section in your single post template.
I also used SearchWP’s analytics to see what people were searching for inside comments and used those insights to update and improve my content.
🌟 Why I chose SearchWP: If you want to improve your comment section with a search feature, then SearchWP makes this super easy to do. As you get more blog comments, you may need to make them searchable so that users can easily find the right information.
📚 Related: For more information, you can see our guide on how to improve WordPress search with SearchWP.
5. WP Mail SMTP

| Pros of WP Mail SMTP | ✅ Free version is usually enough to fix most email deliverability problems. ✅ Works with popular email services like SendLayer, Brevo, Gmail SMTP, and others. ✅ One-click Gmail SMTP setup, so you don’t have to deal with complex settings. ✅ Pro features like email resends, failure alerts, and email reports help you manage messages more easily. |
| Cons of WP Mail SMTP | ❌ If you’re brand new to SMTP, the initial setup can feel a bit technical. |
| Pricing | Free version available Pro starts at $49.00/year |
| Best For | WordPress users who want to make sure comment notifications and other emails actually reach the inbox. |
WP Mail SMTP is the best, must-have WordPress SMTP plugin if your site emails are going to spam or are not sending at all. It reroutes your WordPress emails through a proper SMTP provider so important messages like comment notifications actually arrive in the inbox.
For a full breakdown of features and setup, you can see our complete WP Mail SMTP review.
My Experience
On several test and live sites, I had the usual problem: comment notifications weren’t sending reliably or were going to spam. I can only imagine how frustrating this must be if you’re using WordPress to send your email newsletter.
After installing WP Mail SMTP and connecting it to services like SendLayer or Gmail SMTP, my test notifications started landing in the inbox consistently.

The email log made it easy to confirm which comment emails went out and to resend any that failed.
For less technical teammates, the Gmail one‑click setup removed most of the guesswork. Once it was configured, I didn’t have to keep tweaking it — it just kept comment‑related emails flowing.
For more information, see our guide on how to fix the WordPress not sending email issue.
🌟 Why I chose WP Mail SMTP: I found that WP Mail SMTP can ensure that all comment-related emails actually get received, and, in turn, your commenters can come back to engage more with your blog posts.
6. YITH WooCommerce Advanced Reviews

| Pros of YITH WooCommerce Advanced Reviews | ✅ Shoppers can upvote or downvote reviews so the most helpful ones rise to the top. ✅ ‘Most Helpful Reviews’ tab makes it easy for visitors to see the best feedback. ✅ You can customize how the review section looks, including colors and how many reviews show, to suit your WooCommerce WordPress theme. ✅ Lets customers upload photos with their reviews for more authentic social proof. |
| Cons of YITH WooCommerce Advanced Reviews | ❌ Some features rely on other YITH plugins, which can increase your overall cost. ❌ No free version, although there is a 30-day money-back guarantee. |
| Pricing | Starting at $89.99/year (first year) |
| Best For | WooCommerce stores that want a stronger review system to boost trust and increase conversions on product pages. |
If you are running an eCommerce website using WooCommerce, then your product page comment sections will be changed to review/testimonial sections.
But the built-in review feature is basic. For example, customers can’t add photos to their reviews. Because of this, we recommend installing a WooCommerce review add-on like YITH WooCommerce Advanced Reviews.
It’s a powerful extension that upgrades WooCommerce’s basic review system. It lets you add features like review voting, photo uploads, and “Most Helpful” tabs so your product reviews are more convincing and easier to browse.
For more details, check out our complete review of YITH WooCommerce Advanced Reviews.
My Experience
On my WooCommerce test stores, enabling YITH WooCommerce Advanced Reviews immediately made my product pages’ review section feel more like a real storefront.
Customers could upload photos with their reviews, which made the feedback more believable. The “Most Helpful Reviews” tab and voting system surfaced the best reviews to the top of the list.
I also liked that this WooCommerce plugin allows me to control how many reviews will be shown and adjust the colors so everything matches the theme. Overall, it turned the review area into a real asset on the product page instead of a basic comment box.
🌟 Why I chose YITH WooCommerce Advanced Reviews: While this plugin comes at a cost, it offers all the essentials needed to optimize your product review section. You can think of it as an investment to gain more social proof and build your reputation.
7. Akismet

| Pros of Akismet | ✅ Very simple to use – once activated, it starts filtering spam automatically. ✅ Automatically delete old spam after 15 days so your database doesn’t get cluttered. ✅ Stats dashboard shows how much spam has been blocked and how effective the filtering is. |
| Cons of Akismet | ❌ It can sometimes mark real comments as spam, so you may need to check the spam folder. |
| Pricing | Free version available Plus plan starts at $5/month |
| Best For | WordPress sites that get a lot of comments and need an easy way to cut down on spam. |
Akismet is a set‑and‑forget spam filtering service for WordPress comments. It automatically scans incoming comments and moves obvious spam out of sight so you don’t have to review everything manually.
It’s a very popular WordPress anti-spam plugin, trusted by 100+ million websites. You can read more about Akismet in our opinion piece on why you should use Akismet.
My Experience
On busy sites, I watched spam comments pile up without Akismet, so I tested what happened once I turned it on.
Once you install the plugin, you will need to connect it to a free API key. After that, it immediately starts moving obvious spam into the spam folder instead of publishing it. The stats dashboard showed me how many spam comments it was blocking every day.
I did find the occasional real comment in the spam queue, but that was rare compared to the volume it caught. Restoring those was a one‑click fix.
For any site that gets regular comments, it cuts down my manual spam cleanup by a lot.
🌟 Why I chose Akismet: Spam comments are a common problem in WordPress, and sometimes, WordPress’s moderation feature isn’t enough. Akismet is one of the best comment plugins for easily combating spam and maintaining a positive user experience.
8. Comment Link Remove and Other Comment Tools

| Pros of Comment Link Remove and Other Comment Tools | ✅ Very straightforward to use with no complex configuration. ✅ One-click tools to delete pending, spam, and/or all comments. ✅ Premium version adds extras like file uploads, AI auto-replies, and comment upvotes/downvotes. ✅ Removes the Website URL field and turns existing links in comments into plain text to reduce link spam. |
| Cons of Comment Link Remove and Other Comment Tools | ❌ May not work perfectly with themes that heavily customize the default WordPress comment system. |
| Pricing | Free |
| Best For | Site owners who want to quickly remove the Website URL field and cut down on spammy links in comments without touching code. |
Comment Link Remove and Other Comment Tools is a simple plugin focused on cutting down link spam in your comments. It strips the Website URL field and turns existing links into plain text so spammers can’t abuse your comment section for SEO.
My Experience
I opened comments up and quickly saw a flood of link‑building attempts.
After installing Comment Link Remove and Other Comment Tools, I removed the Website URL field and stripped author links from existing comments. I also converted old hyperlinks into plain text.
From a reader’s point of view, comments still made sense, and URLs were visible when needed, but they were no longer click‑worthy for spammers.
The bulk delete options were also handy when I wanted to clear out spam. Just be careful: this action is permanent, so always make a backup of your site before bulk deleting comments.
🌟 Why I chose Comment Link Remove and Other Comment Tools: If you are looking to remove the Website URL field and all existing links from your comments without any code, this plugin can easily get the job done.
9. Comment Edit

| Pros of Comment Edit Core | ✅ Lets users edit or delete their own comments for a limited time after posting. ✅ You can choose how the timer looks: Compact (like 5:00) or in words (like “5 minutes”). ✅ Offers different editor themes: Regular, Light, or Dark. ✅ Pro version adds features like comment character limit, Cloudflare Turnstile, and custom avatars. |
| Cons of Comment Edit Core | ❌ Some users report weak support for the free version, while better support is reserved for premium users. |
| Pricing | Free version available Pro starts at $19 (one-time fee) |
| Best For | Blogs that want to improve the commenting experience by letting people quickly fix mistakes without opening the door to long-term spam edits. |
Comment Edit is a user‑friendly plugin that adds a short edit window to your comments. It gives readers a few minutes to fix typos or mistakes after posting, without sacrificing control over what gets published.
My Experience
I often see people posting a comment and then replying to themselves to fix a typo or some other grammatical error. Comment Edit Core gave me a nicer way to handle that.
Once enabled, users saw an edit link and a short countdown after submitting their comment. During that window, they could fix spelling errors or tweak their message, then the comment would be locked again.
This reduced messy “correction” replies and made threads cleaner.
🌟 Why I chose Comment Edit: This plugin is simple to use and adds important functionality to improve your commenting experience.
📚 Related: For details, check out our guide on how to allow users to edit comments in WordPress.
10. Super Socializer

| Pros of Super Socializer | ✅ Combines social login, social commenting, and social sharing in one plugin. ✅ Supports many social networks, including Facebook, X/Twitter, LinkedIn, and Discord. ✅ Customizable social network icons to match your site’s design. ✅ Can add Facebook comments so logged-in Facebook users can comment right away. |
| Cons of Super Socializer | ❌ Some users say it slows down their site, so you’ll want to test performance. |
| Pricing | Free |
| Best For | Websites that want to make commenting easier with social logins and encourage visitors to share content on social media. |
Super Socializer is an all‑in‑one social plugin that adds social logins, social comments, and share buttons to your site. It makes it much easier for visitors to sign in and comment using their existing social media accounts.
My Experience
I tested Super Socializer to see if social login would actually increase the number of people who comment.
After setting up providers like Facebook and Google, I added social login buttons above the comment form. In my tests, users could log in and comment in just a couple of clicks without creating a new account.
I also tried Facebook comments on a few posts. For visitors already logged in to Facebook, this lets them comment instantly with no extra steps.
I customized the icon styles so they fit the theme and monitored performance. On most setups, it ran fine, but as noted in the cons, it’s still worth testing on your own hosting.
🌟 Why I chose Super Socializer: This plugin provides an easy way to enable social logins and make people less hesitant to leave comments.
📚 Related: Our article on how to style the WordPress comment form can give you step-by-step instructions on how to use it.
11. Comment Experience by Progress Planner

| Pros of Comment Experience by Progress Planner | ✅ Comment policy feature encourages people to read and follow your rules before commenting. ✅ You can set a minimum and maximum comment length to reduce low-effort or spammy comments. ✅ First-time commenters can be redirected to a specific page, such as a thank-you page or welcome page. |
| Cons of Comment Experience by Progress Planner | ❌ The plugin only warns about comments being too long after the user clicks “Post,” which can mean extra editing time. |
| Pricing | Free |
| Best For | Busy blogs that get lots of comments and want to keep discussions positive, on-topic, and easy to moderate. |
Comment Experience by Progress Planner is a small utility plugin that helps you set clearer ground rules for your comments. It adds a comment policy flow and length controls so you can filter out low‑effort or off‑topic submissions before they hit your queue.
My Experience
I used Comment Experience by Progress Planner to see if a clear policy step would change the type of comments I got.
I created a simple comment policy page and required first‑time commenters to confirm they’d read it. With a minimum comment length set, I saw fewer one‑word and low‑effort comments in my tests.
I also tried sending first‑time commenters to a short thank‑you page after they posted, which let me welcome them and remind them of the rules.
It doesn’t replace comment moderation, but it did cut down some of the noise before comments reached my queue.
🌟 Why I chose Comment Experience by Progress Planner: This WordPress comment plugin is really helpful if you get lots of comments, want to keep things positive, and don’t want any spam. It makes your job easier by stopping bad comments before they show up.
Honorable Mentions: Other WordPress Comment Plugins I Tested
Beyond the main plugins above, I also tested a handful of more specialized tools. They didn’t all make the “top picks” list, but they’re still worth a look if you have specific needs like custom notifications or a different comment layout.
Better Notifications for WP

| Pros of Better Notifications for WP | ✅ Easy-to-use interface for setting up notifications and creating email content. ✅ Flexible rules for who receives which emails, so site admins can avoid getting overwhelmed with notifications. |
| Cons of Better Notifications for WP | ❌ Like other WordPress email features, you may still run into email deliverability issues without a proper SMTP setup. |
| Pricing | Free |
| Best For | Site owners who want to send tailored comment notification emails (like reply alerts) to keep commenters coming back and participating in discussions. |
Do you want to send email notifications to your commenters about new replies? If so, then check out Better Notifications for WP.
By default, WordPress only sends comment notifications to site administrators and the article’s author. But with this plugin, you can change which type of notifications are sent out and who gets these comment notification emails.
🤔 Why you might want to choose Better Notifications for WordPress: Notifying users of new replies is a great way to boost user engagement and get more comments.
wpDiscuz

| Pros of wpDiscuz | ✅ Unique engagement features like inline commenting and real-time comment bubble notifications. ✅ Built-in performance tweaks such as Gravatar caching and lazy loading. ✅ Optional add-ons for extra features like comment reporting, flagging, and top commenter widgets. |
| Cons of wpDiscuz | ❌ The live update feature can slow down your site, especially on shared hosting or lower-powered servers. |
| Pricing | Free |
| Best For | Users who want a powerful, free comment plugin with modern engagement features and are comfortable tuning performance settings if needed. |
wpDiscuz is an AJAX-powered WordPress comment plugin. It has a unique inline commenting feature that adds a button within your blog content to encourage discussion. Visitors can simply click on it to express their thoughts on that post’s particular section.
wpDiscuz also comes with live comment bubble notifications. It works like a real-time social proof notification on your website, letting visitors know about new comments as they are being posted and inviting them to join the conversation.
🤔 Why you might want to choose wpDiscuz: For a free WordPress comment plugin, it’s pretty powerful and can be a good option for people looking for a free solution. Just make sure to monitor your site performance if you enable Ajax-powered features like live updates.
Lazy Load for Comments

| Pros of Lazy Load for Comments | ✅ Free and very simple to use. ✅ Works well with popular themes like Genesis and Divi. ✅ Translation ready, so it fits multilingual sites. |
| Cons of Lazy Load for Comments | ❌ Installing a separate plugin just for lazy loading may feel excessive. |
| Pricing | Free |
| Best For | WordPress sites with lots of comments that want a quick, lightweight way to speed up page load times by lazy loading the comment section. |
Have you been getting so many comments that your page load time has slowed way down? If so, then check out Lazy Load for Comments.
This simple plugin adds a lazy loading feature inside your WordPress Discussion Settings page (above the Avatars section). You can choose whether to load the comments upon scrolling or when the user clicks on it.
Lazy loading improves performance by only loading necessary elements when they’re needed, reducing the initial page load time.
🤔 Why you might want to choose Lazy Load for Comments: If you just want a simple plugin to lazy load your comments, then this plugin does a great job. However, if you want an all-in-one comment plugin with a lazy loading feature, then consider Thrive Comments instead.
🔗 Related: I also tested several other popular options, such as Jetpack Comments, Graph Comments, Social Comments by WpDevArt, Cackle, and ReplyBox. However, their features largely overlap with the plugins I’ve recommended above, or they didn’t offer enough distinct value to make the top list.
Which Is the Best WordPress Comment Plugin?
Out of all the plugins we’ve tested, the best WordPress comment plugin is Thrive Comments.
This plugin is a complete package, offering features to moderate your comment section, make it more interactive, and even convert commenters into leads or customers. While it’s a paid plugin, it’s a worthwhile investment for bloggers looking to build an engaged audience.
If you also want to automate what happens after someone comments, like sending emails, SMS messages, or coupons, then Uncanny Automator is the best companion plugin to pair with your comment system.
And if you simply need a safe way to let team members moderate comments without full admin access, Comment Moderation Role by WPBeginner is the easiest solution.
Best Comment Plugins for WordPress: Frequently Asked Questions
Now that we’ve listed all of the best WordPress comment plugins, let’s answer some frequently asked questions.
Are comments important for SEO?
Yes, comments are important for SEO as they can function as signals to search engines about user engagement and add additional valuable content to your articles.
Is it ok to disable your comment section?
If your goal is to build a following, it is generally recommended to enable your comment section as it helps increase user engagement, which can be beneficial for SEO.
Is the Disqus comment system good for SEO?
Any comment system is technically good for SEO, regardless of the platform.
However, in our experience, Disqus inserted affiliate links and sponsored comments without our permission. This can hurt your site’s SEO, as search engines don’t like it when websites don’t disclose their paid content.
For this reason, we did not include Disqus in our list. You can read more about our experience of why we switched away from Disqus.
Read More Guides to Improve Your WordPress Comments
I hope this article helped you find the best plugins to improve your WordPress comments.
You may also want to see our other helpful guides on:
- How to Easily Add reCAPTCHA to the WordPress Comment Form
- How to Paginate Comments in WordPress (Step by Step)
- How to Add a GDPR Comment Privacy Opt-in Checkbox in WordPress
- How to Highlight Author’s Comments in WordPress
- Top Ways to Get More Comments on Your WordPress Blog
If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

Rob
Are you using thrive comments on this post now?
WPBeginner Support
At the moment we are using the standard WordPress comment system
Admin
Dayo Olobayo
Thanks WPB for this article. I’d love to know if this website uses the WordPress native comment. I like the way it looks and would love my website to be like this.
WPBeginner Support
For the moment our comments are using the default WordPress comment system
Admin
Dayo Olobayo
You’ve set it up so stylishly and it’s responsive. I don’t know if this is a big ask but would you consider writing an article in the future that showcases some of the codes you used in setting this comment section up?
WPBeginner Support
While not at the moment, it could be something we cover in the future!
Dennis Muthomi
great list of comment plugins! I’ve been using Thrive Comments on my blog and have to agree that it’s the best plugin everr made
there two features I fell in love with:
1. I can encourage users to engage further after commenting by sharing the post on social media or signing up for my mailing list using lead generation form. This really helps boost my site’s USER EXPERIENCE and grow my audience.
2. I can also set different actions for first-time and returning commenters. First-timers see an opt-in form to join my email newsletter list, while returning commenters are shown related blog posts to keep them on my blog longer
Jiří Vaněk
I use the WPdiscuz plugin, and I’m very satisfied with it. It has given the website a completely different feel in terms of discussions.
WPBeginner Support
Thank you for sharing what you use on your site
Admin
Jiří Vaněk
After a while, I also tried the plugin for searching in the comments that you recommend in the list and it is great. I probably wouldn’t have thought of that idea myself, but it works very well.
John Smulo
Thanks for sharing this information. Which commenting system does your website use?
WPBeginner Support
At the moment we are using the default WordPress commenting system with the subscribe to comments plugin
Admin
Yuwono
What you plug in in this web
WPBeginner Support
For what we’re using on our site, you would want to take a look at our blueprint page here: https://014.leahstevensyj.workers.dev/blueprint/
Admin
Daniel
Good job
WPBeginner Support
Glad you liked our article
Admin
Roth W
This is the very excellent list of useful extensions which is provided, Actually, I am just trying one of them extensions right now
tejaswaroop
Is there any plugin that filters comment list based on post and category which the post belong to?
Mike
Hey Guys!
I am going to have my site in other languages. Some of them are RTL such as Arabic and Farsi and some others are LTR.
As Enfold is a translation ready theme, could you guys let me know the steps (1- 2 – 3 …) I need to take to create my website in other languages. I’ll start with Farsi.
Thanks,
Mike
Khalid
Thanks for this great post. Is there a plugin to instant translate comments to other languages, maybe the same way twitter offers translation for tweets? I don’t want to use WPML to translate comments.
TaaDaaGina
Hello… I am a little late to the blog comment party, but i was wondering what i could use to have the Blog Post title show up as well as the comments, commenter names and avatars – when displaying latest comments on the homepage? I am currently showing all but the blog post name and my widget does not have the show blog post title option.
Vijaygopal Balasa
Which comment plugin are you using for WP Beginner? Nice share + Detailed information about each plugin.
Thanks & Regards
Vijaygopal balasa
Roman
What plugin you could suggest to show resent comments in sidebar? I need to show only name and comment text, no links, no post titles, no dates
gumusdis
I used to have disqus but its really slow and annoying.. i prefer default commenting or at least social network commenting systems.
thanks for article..
Rakshita
Nice plugin collection. Thanks for great effort.
audian nia
you’re article is nice.
Gaurav Kumar
this is the great article for me, this really helps lot for find out the which is better comment system for WordPress.
felix
good one
Kelsey
Has anyone used the Yoast comment plugin? and is it the same as the SEO Yoast plugin?
I’m curious about how it works and if anyone would recommend it?
WPBeginner Support
Please take a look at our Yoast Comment Hacks guide.
Admin
Josh Pitts
Wonderful article! My only suggestion would be to add a section with suggestions that relate to which plugins do not work with each other and/or work well with each other.
Alec Kinnear
There are some cool features on this list. Featured Comments and Moderator Role particularly stick out. For reliable Subscribe to Comments functionality we’ve recently moved our sites from Subscribe to Comments Reloaded to Satollo’s Comment Plus. Many fewer problems with subscription management. There’s a small fee ($10) but it’s unlimited sites and even includes secure image upload for commenters (nice touch for some visual style sites). WPdisquz we have in testing but it’s a very heavy load on the server. We’ll definitely try De:Comments.
Connor, I agree with you that Wordpress.org is doing scant little for comments. It’s because lousy default comments are a way for Automattic to promote both Intense Debate and JetPack. We added front end comment moderation (works with all themes) with our Thoughtful Comments plugin six years ago. Since then we’ve proposed adding this to core several times but not a nip. You will probably find that Thoughtful Comments makes it much easier to run a purely WordPress comment solution.
We’ve even added comment caching for posts with lots of comments (saves dozens to hundreds of PHP queries).
Liz
My site has been spammed even tho I had Akismet, and had turned off commemts on posts and pages. Could you please give us some advice about this? Thanks, Liz
WPBeginner Support
Please take a look at these tips and tools to combat comment spam.
Admin
David Esrati
I’ve been using Comment Rating widget for a long time without problems-
It’s old- but still working.
Connor Rickett
Syed,
Half of these are things WordPress comments should just do on their own. Especially limiting comment length, and turning off comments on certain pages. You’d think more robust social media options would have happened by now too. I keep expecting a major comment system overhaul with each new major update, and it’s . . . never that, is it?
I had Livefyre for awhile and cut my page loading time in half by getting rid of it. What’s the load like on De: Comments?
Thanks,
Connor
Rich
Do you prefer the Wordpress commenting system versus something like Disqus? My comments are non-existent on most posts and I was wondering if Disqus was to blame. Just curious to see what you guys say.
Alec Kinnear
Disqus is really slow and cranky. I can’t understand why people slow down their user experience so badly. Plus if you configure Disqus wrong, you don’t get comments showing up at all for Google (hence user generated content bonus thrown out the window).
Disqus sucks and native commenting needs more love.
Andrew Miguelez
Disqus is loaded through JavaScript asynchronously. So the page can load independent of the comments. In many cases, this can actually improve page load time. A huge benefit to using a service like Disqus is that you can very easily implement load-when-needed comments. In other words, don’t waste time loading the comments until someone scrolls down to them or clicks a button to view them.
Disqus very certainly doesn’t suck, but it’s reasonable that you may not like it as much as the experience of native WordPress comments. It should also be seen as reasonable that a lot of people are looking for alternatives to the extremely basic and time-consuming process of moderating comments with what WP packages in its core functionality.
Gaurav
Which commenting system does your website use ?
WPBeginner Support
We use the default WordPress commenting system.
Admin
syed zahid hussain
Guidence is needed how to start as learner..moreover tis learner guidience must be free of cost.Becaue as retired personal i cannot afford any cost.My interested to learn and kill my vaccant time.
Cameron
You didn’t mention in this article that you switched back to WordPress comments from Disqus. Maybe a link to that article in the end of this one would be nice for your readers.