Giscus

Comments via GitHub Discussions

FreeRealtime, comments & collabgiscus.app

What it is

Comment widget that stores each thread as a GitHub Discussion. You install the giscus app, enable Discussions on a public repo, and a script tag maps each page to a discussion by pathname, URL or og:title. Supports threaded replies, reactions, themes and lazy loading, with no database of your own.

Why it earns a slot

Zero infrastructure, zero cost, zero moderation queue — GitHub handles authentication, spam and abuse reporting for you. For a developer-audience project or a docs site it is the default answer and takes about ten minutes.

Know before you commit

Commenters need a GitHub account and must authorise the app, which excludes almost all non-technical readers — usually disqualifying for a general-audience project. The repository must be public, so every comment is public too.

Getting started

Paste the generated script tag from giscus.app/#configuration

Field notes

0 from the community

Loading notes…

Field check

Unverified

Pricing snapshot

Free forever and open source. No hosting cost, no database, no accounts to administer — every thread is stored as a GitHub Discussion in a repository you already own

Snapshots move fast — verify at checkout, and post a field note if it changed.

Drop into your Lovable chat

Evaluate Giscus (https://giscus.app) for this project, then use it only if it fits what we are already building.
Context: Comments via GitHub Discussions. Comment widget that stores each thread as a GitHub Discussion. You install the giscus app, enable Discussions on a public repo, and a script tag maps each page to a discussion by pathname, URL or og:title. Supports threaded replies, reactions, themes and lazy loading, with no database of your own.
Reviewer notes (general, not written for this codebase): Zero infrastructure, zero cost, zero moderation queue — GitHub handles authentication, spam and abuse reporting for you. For a developer-audience project or a docs site it is the default answer and takes about ten minutes.
Watch out for: Commenters need a GitHub account and must authorise the app, which excludes almost all non-technical readers — usually disqualifying for a general-audience project. The repository must be public, so every comment is public too.
Pricing: Free forever and open source. No hosting cost, no database, no accounts to administer — every thread is stored as a GitHub Discussion in a repository you already own
Setup: Paste the generated script tag from giscus.app/#configuration
Rules: treat the notes above as background only. Do not assume a theme, style, layout or feature that is not already in this project — inspect the existing code first and ask me before changing visual direction.

/api/public/tools/giscus

Neighbourhood

How Giscus sits against the rest of the atlas — swaps, companions and the tools builders actually save alongside it.

Instead of thisPartyKit Socket.IO Yjs Ably Agora Chatwoot Circle Crisp Cusdis Daily.co

Also in Realtime, comments & collab

Ably

ably.com

Realtime messaging platform

Free tier + paidRealtime, comments & collab

Free: 6M messages/mo, 200 concurrent connections, 200 channels, 500 msg/sec. Standard $29/mo plus usage (10k connections, 10k channels); Pro $399/mo plus usage (50k). Usage: $2.50 per million messages, $1.00 per million connection-minutes, $0.25/GiB transfer

Open dossier

Agora

agora.io

Metered RTC voice and video API

Free tier + paidRealtime, comments & collab

Free monthly: 10,000 combined RTC minutes, 1M signaling messages, 500 chat users, 300 conversational AI minutes. RTC $0.59 per 1,000 minutes; recording $0.99 per 1,000; speech-to-text $16.99 per 1,000; real-time translation $8.99 per 1,000 per language. Analytics add-on from $449/mo

Open dossier

Chatwoot

chatwoot.com

Open-source support inbox + chat

Free tier + paidRealtime, comments & collab

Self-host free under the MIT licence. Cloud Hacker $0 (2 agents, 500 conversations/mo, live chat only, 30-day retention); Startups $19/agent/mo annual; Business $39/agent/mo; Enterprise $99/agent/mo. Extra Captain AI credits $20 per 1,000

Open dossier

Circle

circle.so

Hosted community and courses

PaidRealtime, comments & collab

Professional $89/mo (3 admin seats, 2% transaction fee, 200 GB); Business $199/mo (5 seats, 1% fee, 500 GB); Circle Plus custom (unlimited seats, 0.5% fee, 1 TB). Unlimited members on every plan. 14-day trial, no permanent free plan

Open dossier