Commento built a following by being the privacy-respecting, lightweight comment system that was not Disqus. If you are looking at it, you already care about the right things: not tracking your readers, not slowing your pages, and not drowning in ads. Gabden shares those values. This is a fair, feature-by-feature comparison so you can decide which fits your site.
Where they agree
It is worth being clear that these tools want the same things. Both are privacy-first: no ad networks, no selling reader data, and a focus on a clean comment section rather than a monetization surface. Both aim to be light rather than the bloated widgets that ship with trackers. If your only requirement is "privacy-respecting comments," either one is pointed in the right direction, and this comparison is about the details past that shared starting point.
Hosting: the first fork
The clearest practical difference is how you run it. Commento is commonly self-hosted: you stand up the software, connect a database, and maintain the server, patches, and backups yourself. There is also a paid hosted option, but the project's identity is rooted in self-hosting. That appeals to people who want the code on their own machine and are happy to run it.
Gabden is hosted only, by design. You paste one script tag and there is no server, database, or upgrade cycle to own. If you want to self-host and enjoy running infrastructure, Commento's self-hosted route is the honest better fit. If you would rather never think about a comment server again, Gabden removes that whole job.
The question underneath this comparison is simple: do you want to run a server, or not?
Reader identity and sign-in
Both let people comment without handing their identity to an ad network. Gabden gives readers a few ways in: post anonymously, comment as a guest with just a name and email and no account, or sign in with Google or GitHub. Returning readers can have a hosted profile, which helps build recognition across your threads. The aim is to keep the barrier low so good comments actually get posted, while still letting you require a bit more from anonymous posters through moderation.
Moderation depth
This is where Gabden leans in. You get four moderation modes: pre-moderate everything, auto-approve everything, auto-approve returning verified people, or moderate only anonymous users. Alongside that there is a blocked-word filter, a spam and pending queue, threaded replies, and reactions with a like and a heart. For a busy site, the "auto-approve returning verified people" mode is the one that keeps the queue small without slowing down your regulars.
- Per-page rules can turn comments off on specific URLs while the rest of the site keeps its threads.
- Team roles with per-module permissions let you hand moderation to one person without giving away billing or theming.
- Per-tenant public community pages collect discussion beyond individual posts.
Speed and footprint
Both prioritize a light footprint, which is a large part of why people leave heavier systems for either one. Gabden's embed is around ten kilobytes and loads asynchronously, so it does not block your page from rendering. On a self-hosted Commento the footprint depends partly on how you run it, but the design intent on both sides is to stay small. If you are comparing on raw page weight, both are in a very different league from ad-supported widgets.
Data ownership and price
Owning your data is a shared value here. With Gabden you can export everything as JSON or CSV whenever you want, so you are never locked in. On price, Gabden is free up to 100,000 widget views a month per website, with a small "Powered by Gabden" mark, and Plus is five dollars a month per website for unlimited views with the mark removed. With self-hosted Commento the software cost is zero but you pay in server and maintenance time, which is the usual self-hosted tradeoff.
Which to choose
Pick Commento self-hosted if running your own infrastructure is something you want and have time for. Pick Gabden if you want the same privacy-first, lightweight approach without operating a server, with deeper built-in moderation, guest and social sign-in, and a flat, low per-site price. Both respect your readers, which is the part that matters most.
If you want a wider view, the open-source versus SaaS comparison covers the hosting tradeoff in depth, and the pricing page lays out Gabden's side plainly. When you are ready to try the hosted route, you can set up a site and drop the embed onto a page in a few minutes.
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