What Utterances does well
Utterances is a free, open-source comment widget that stores each thread as an issue in a GitHub repository. It is clever and lightweight: no separate database, no ads, no tracking beyond what GitHub itself does, and comments render as GitHub Markdown. For a developer blog whose readers already live on GitHub, it is a neat fit, and it costs nothing to run because GitHub holds the data.
Giscus is a close cousin that uses GitHub Discussions instead of issues. Both share the same core idea and the same core limitation.
The limitation
To comment through Utterances, a reader must have a GitHub account and authorize the Utterances app on it. That is a small ask for a backend engineer. It is a wall for a designer, a marketer, a student, or a casual reader who has never touched GitHub and never will. If your audience is broader than software developers, a large share of the people who want to say something simply cannot, and you never see the comment they would have left.
Utterances is excellent for a repo of developers. It gets narrow the moment your readers are not all on GitHub.
Where Gabden differs
Gabden keeps the parts you like about Utterances (light, privacy-respecting, no ads) and removes the account requirement. Readers can post anonymously, as a guest with just a name and email, or sign in with Google or GitHub. The GitHub option is still there for the developers in your audience, but nobody is forced through it.
Anyone can comment
Because guest and anonymous posting exist, the barrier to a first comment is close to zero. That matters most on a new post, where the difference between one visible comment and none can decide whether anyone else joins in.
Privacy
Utterances leans on GitHub, which is its own account and tracking surface. Gabden uses no tracking cookies, no fingerprinting, and no cross-site tracking, and keeps only anonymous aggregate analytics. You are not routing your readers through a third-party account system just to leave a comment.
Moderation
With Utterances, moderation happens through GitHub issues, which is workable but blunt. Gabden gives you four moderation modes (pre-moderate everything, auto-approve, auto-approve returning verified people, or moderate only anonymous users), a blocked-word filter, and a spam and pending queue. Since guest and anonymous posting invite more spam than a GitHub login does, that queue and those modes are what keep the tradeoff safe.
Setup and hosting
Both are a small embed. Utterances stores data in your repo; Gabden hosts the data and gives you export as JSON or CSV whenever you want, so you are not locked in. The embed is about 10KB and loads after your content, so pages stay fast either way.
Price
Utterances is free because GitHub carries the storage. Gabden is free forever up to 100,000 widget views per month per website, with a small "Powered by Gabden" mark, and Plus is 5 dollars per month per website for unlimited views and no mark. So the free option exists on both sides; the real question is whether you want to require GitHub accounts.
How to decide
- Stay on Utterances or Giscus if your audience is developers and you are happy that only GitHub users can comment.
- Switch if you want designers, writers, and general readers to be able to comment too, without creating an account first.
Keeping GitHub sign-in as one option while opening the door to everyone else is the whole point. You can create a site and paste the embed, or look at Conversations to see how the thread reads for someone who is not signed in.
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