shouldiuse.io

Report

Should I Use Disqus?

disqus.com·Analyzed 1 week ago··Based on 14 sources

More publishers trust us to engage, grow, and understand their audiences than any other. Build your on-site community with Disqus.

Verdict

Depends

Buy it if you want free, instant drop-in comments and accept third-party ads and your comment data living off-site.

Confidence: Medium

Skip it if you need ad-free UX, data ownership, or an easy exit — migration pain and moderation surprises are repeatedly reported.

Free drop-in comments with real network reach, but you trade ads, data control, and trust for it.

Key stats

  • Value for money: 4/5

    Rating

  • $0

    Starting price

  • 14

    Sources

  • Analyzed

  • Value for money: 4/5. Free tier works; ads are the catch
  • Ease of use: 4/5. G2 reviewers call it easy and effective
  • Feature depth: 3/5. Comments, polls, analytics; modest beyond that
  • Support quality: 2/5. 233 PissedConsumer reviews signal weak service
  • Security posture: 2/5. 2012 breach, 17.5M emails; plugin CVEs
  • $11/mo Starting price paid plans; free tier ad-supported
  • Yes Free tier ad-supported
  • ~70,831 Sites using it current customers (BuiltWith)
  • $10.5M Total funding 3 rounds; $10M raised in 2011

Pricing

Free

$0

  • Core commenting embed
  • Ad-supported
  • Polls available

Basic

from $11/mo

  • Ad-free commenting
  • Flexible pricing for publishers of all sizes

Plus

higher tier

  • Everything in Basic
Best for and not for

Best for

  • Blogs wanting instant drop-in comments
  • Publishers with commenter traffic across the Disqus network
  • Zero-budget sites okay with ads
  • High-volume content sites needing moderation tools

Not for

  • Privacy-focused sites — comments and identities leave your domain
  • Anyone who may migrate later; exporting comment data is a known pain
  • Small sites wanting clean, ad-free pages
  • Brands that can't risk moderation or policy changes mid-flight

Biggest gotcha

  • highModeration crackdowns have wiped comment sections overnight for some sites
  • mediumFree tier shows ads; removing them means paying⁷
  • mediumLock-in: alternatives actively market 'keep your comment data' when leaving Disqus
  • mediumToS lets Disqus move publishers between paid and free tiers

Pros

  • Free to use for you and your site's visitors
  • Networked community platform brings commenters from other sites²
  • Easy to set up; G2 users say it solves commenting well³
  • Adds polls and audience analytics to the embed²
  • Proven at scale: millions of sites, long-running publishers

Cons

  • Free tier is ad-supported on your pages⁷
  • 2012 breach exposed over 17.5M user emails
  • WordPress plugin has past RCE and CSRF vulnerabilities⁸
  • Users report comment sections removed after policy shifts
  • Trust complaints: reads comments, blocks some users

Security

2012 breach exposed 17.5M emails; WordPress plugin CVEs exist; current core plugin rated good.

  • 2012 data breachHackers stole details for 17.5M+ unique email addresses; disclosed October 2017.⁹
  • WordPress plugin RCEDisqus Comment System < 2.76 vulnerable to remote code execution.⁸
  • CVE-2025-22705Cross-site request forgery flaw in the Disqus Popular Posts plugin.10

What users say

Users find it easy and effective for comments, but trust complaints about ads, moderation, and data practices keep surfacing.

“It is a great tool, easy to use, and solves many commen…”
G2 review
“No. I do not trust Disqus. It reads my comments and prevents me from co…”
Reddit, r/Wordpress
“All that negativity I'm seeing towards Disqus is baseless. They critic…”
Reddit, r/webdev

Companies that use it

  • CinemaBlend
  • Racer Media & Marketing

Methodology

Based on 40+ public sources: review sites, Reddit threads, CVE databases, breach records, pricing trackers, and official pages.

Sources

  1. Disqus Plans & Pricingdisqus.com
    official
  2. What is Disqus?help.disqus.com
    official
  3. Disqus Reviews — G2g2.com
    review
  4. Disqus Reviews — Trustpilottrustpilot.com
    review
  5. 233 Disqus Reviews — PissedConsumerdisqus.pissedconsumer.com
    review
  6. Is Disqus worth using? — Reddit r/Wordpressreddit.com
    review
  7. Why I Replaced Disqus and You Should Toovictorzhou.com
    review
  8. Disqus Comment System < 2.76 RCE — Wordfencewordfence.com
    security
  9. Disqus Breach Exposed 17.5m Emailsinfosecurity-magazine.com
    security
  10. CVE-2025-22705 — NIST NVDnvd.nist.gov
    security
  11. Disqus Pricing — SaaSWorthysaasworthy.com
    review
  12. Websites using Disqus — BuiltWithtrends.builtwith.com
    news
  13. Disqus — Wikipediaen.wikipedia.org
    news
  14. Disqus relaunches as Reddit-like network — The Vergetheverge.com
    news

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