Features

What’s so special about Comentario?

Features in a nutshell

  • Privacy by design
    Comentario adds no tracking scripts or pixels, and shows no ads. It does collect some high-level statistics, such as visitor’s country, browser, and language. It can collect visitors’ IP addresses, but this option is off by default.
  • Multilingual
    Embedded comment engine supports i18n out-of-the-box.
  • Role-based access
    Every user gets a role (Owner, Moderator, Commenter, or Read-only) within a specific domain. There’s also the global superuser privilege.
  • Multiple login options
    • Optional commenting without registration, including anonymous comments;
    • Local authentication with email and password;
    • Social login via Google, Twitter/X, Facebook, GitHub, GitLab;
    • Single Sign-On (interactive and non-interactive).
  • Hierarchical comments
    Each comment can be replied to, which results in nested comments. The number of nesting levels is unlimited, but you can opt to limit the maximum visual nesting level.
  • Markdown formatting
    Comment text supports simple Markdown formatting rules. So users can use bold, italic, strikethrough, insert links, images, tables, code blocks etc.
  • Thread locking
    Commenting on certain pages can be disabled by the moderator by making the page read-only. This can also be done for the entire domain by “freezing” it.
  • Sticky comments
    Top-level comment can be marked sticky, which pins it at the top of the list.
  • Comment editing and deletion
    Comments can be edited and deleted, either by the author or by a moderator — all of it is configurable.
  • Comment voting
    Users can upvote and downvote comments, updating their score. This feature is also configurable.
  • Live comment updates
    When a user adds or updates a comment, everyone sees this change immediately, without reload.
  • Custom user avatars
    Comentario supports avatars from external identity providers, including SSO, as well as Gravatar. Users can also upload their own image.
  • Email notifications
    Users can choose to get notified about replies to their comments. Moderators can also get notified about a comment pending moderation, or every comment.
  • Multiple domains in one UI
    Comentario offers the so-called Administration UI, allowing to manage all your domains, pages, comments, users in a single interface.
  • Flexible moderation rules
    Each domain has own settings, automatically flagging comments for moderation based on whether the user is registered, how many approved comments they have, how long ago they registered, whether the comment contains a link etc.
  • Extensions
    The so-called extensions link Comentario to external services that check comment text for spam, offensive language, or toxic content. Those services include Akismet, APILayer, and Perspective, and they are configured separately for each domain.
  • Statistics
    Comentario collects and displays statistics on views and comments. It includes high-level depersonalised data, such as country, language, OS, browser, and device type. The statistical data can be viewed per-domain or for the entire system.
  • Data import/export
    Comments and users can be easily imported from Disqus, WordPress, Commento. Existing data can also be exported as a JSON file.

From the end-user perspective, Comentario consists of two parts: the embedded comment engine and the Administration UI (we also call it the frontend).

Embedded comments

Comentario’s embedded comment engine allows to render a comment thread (tree), and each page it’s embedded on has its own comment tree.

Administration UI

The Administration UI is an extensive web application that allows users to perform all kinds of administrative tasks, moderate comments, view statistics, etc.