Disqus vs Livefyre, who has the better commenting system? I’m going to help you figure out which commenting system is best for you by comparing nearly every feature provided in both systems. We’ll look at the following functionality:

• Notifications
• Real-time Commenting
• Media Embedding
• Mobile Commenting
• Mobile Administration
• Community and User Profiles
• 3rd Party Account Sign-in
• Social Posting
• Other Social Features
• Analytics
• Moderation
• And More…

[Edited] When I originally published this post I left out a very important LiveFyre feature that I had originally planned to include. However, in my rush to get this post up at 2:00am I not only forgot to mention the feature, but I forgot that the feature was an important factor in my original decision to install LiveFyre on this site. Every publisher has different needs. What works for me may not work for you. I’ve decided to stay with LiveFyre, here’s why…

Both Disqus and Livefyre provide notifications via email, but let’s take a closer look.

Comments: For the most part both services offer the same functionality, except that LiveFyre let’s you send your notifications as hourly digests and Twitter notifications on Disqus are sent from the Disqus twitter account rather than the Twitter account of the commenter. I should mention that I did not receive updates from Disqus via email when my posts were liked, or when people mentioned my twitter account. I also didn’t receive email when I my twitter account was mentioned.

Again, both LiveFyre and Disqus provide real-time commenting which means you don’t have to refresh the page to view your new comment. At this point any commenting system worth it’s weight in bytes provides real-time commenting so this isn’t a big differentiator. However, let’s compare them a little closer.

Comments: LiveFyre certainly provides more real-time functionality than Disqus. Real-time commenting on mobile devices sure is nice, and I like the real-time counter that shows the number of current readers.

Comments: While both systems allow embedding media, Disqus appears to provide a little more functionality by letting you attach photos and video to your comments rather than just link to them. Pretty cool!

Comments: I’ve already made mention of the fact that both services allow for mobile commenting. Livefyre allows real-time commenting, while Disqus does not. There’s no need for further comparison on this point.

Comment: Disqus is clearly ahead in the mobile game. The ability to administer your account and moderate comments via a mobile app is, for many, a major factor in deciding which system to go with.

Comments: Disqus provides the full user profile via a pop-up while LiveFyre contains only a few pieces of the user profile. Livefyre’s profile pop-up is much smaller.

Comments: Disqus just edges out LiveFyre in relation to 3rd party account sign-in. You can’t login to LiveFyre with Yahoo!.

Comments: Depending on your needs you may prefer one posting convention over the other. Disqus posts part of your comment, but also mention Disqus in the twitter post. The LiveFyre peeps have left the comment out all-together and don’t make mention of LiveFyre at all.

Comments: The major difference with regard to social features is that you can share any individual comment with LiveFyre via Twitter or Facebook. Otherwise both systems are essentially equal. Disqus does have a community box that displays Disqus comment metrics for the website you’re currently on. However, the usefulness of this feature is questionable. I prefer LiveFyre’s ability to share any individual post.

Comments: Neither system offers solid analytics by default. However, both systems offer basic metrics in various places as mentioned before. Disqus’ Community Box, for example, contains metrics for the website you’re currently viewing. And LiveFyre keeps a live counter of comments, and other information on each page. Both services track the likes your comments have received. Unfortunately, however, these statistics are scattered about in different places and certainly don’t constitute helpful analytics. If I had to choose a winner here, I would pick Disqus for its Community Box.

Comments: Disqus provides more powerful moderation features than LiveFyre. Batch moderation is a huge advantage, and the wildcard filter will probably save moderators a lot of time and headache.

Comments: LiveFyer’s ability to tag your friends on Facebook and Twitter is really cool! It’s highly unfortunate that Disqus doesn’t provide this feature.

At this point there’s no comparison to be made. I had originally forgotten all about this new feature by LiveFyre when I posted this article last night. Thanks to Jenna Langer (a.k.a DJ Langy Langs?) at LiveFyre for reminding me. The new feature is called SocialSync and I mentioned it on one of my early podcast episodes. Read more about SocialSync at the LiveFyre website. What makes SocialSync so cool is its ability to capture Facebook and Twitter posts referring to your content and return them to your comment thread.

On top of that, I also forgot to mention that LiveFyre puts a link to your most recent conversation in your comments. This is great for commenters as it increases traffic back to their sites, and as a result it encourages even more commenting.

I admit that I’ve left out a lot of little details. Why? Because both of these systems contain dozens of little features that either aren’t important to a large segment of website owners, or were too difficult to categorize. More detailed information about Disqus can be found in their documentation. LiveFyre’s feature set can be explored on their feature page.

Which comment system is best for you? I don’t know. I love LiveFyre’s ability to tag your Facebook and Twitter friends in your comments. I also appreciate that LiveFyre let’s you customize your Twitter and Facebook posts when you share via one of those networks. It’s nearly impossible to overlook Disqus’ powerful moderation tools, and the fact that they have custom mobile apps for iOS, Android, and WebOS is a big advantage.

I’ve gone back and forth, but I’m sold on LiveFyre right now, thanks to SocialSync.

I removed the poll due to technical issues. LiveFyre won by a landslide.