head to head · open source
giscus vs django-comments-xtd
giscus has 12,204 GitHub stars, 491 forks, 127 open issues and last shipped 5 months ago. django-comments-xtd has 621 stars, 158 forks, 68 open issues and last shipped 6 days ago. giscus leads on adoption by 1,865% (12,204 vs 621 stars). giscus is written in TypeScript under MIT; django-comments-xtd is written in HTML under BSD-2-Clause. giscus has attracted 4% as many forks as stars, django-comments-xtd 25%. django-comments-xtd was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 3 topic tags (comments, javascript, reactjs), so they are genuine substitutes rather than adjacent tools.
Two open source projects, one decision. Both are free and self-hostable — the differences are community size, license terms, language stack and release pace.
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Side by side
| giscus | django-comments-xtd | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 12K | ★ 621 |
| License | MIT | BSD-2-Clause |
| Written in | TypeScript | HTML |
| Last push | 2026-05-26 | 2026-10-28 |
| Forks | ⑂ 491 | ⑂ 158 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick giscus if
- You weight community size — 12K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick django-comments-xtd if
- You want the django-comments-xtd feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the BSD-2-Clause license terms
- Your stack matches HTML
- You evaluated both and django-comments-xtd fits your workflow better
About giscus
[giscus][giscus] A comments system powered by [GitHub Discussions][discussions]. Let visitors leave comments and reactions on your website via GitHub! Heavily inspired by [utterances][utterances]. [Open source][repo]. 🌏 No tracking, no ads, always free. 📡 🚫 No database needed. All data is stored in GitHub Discussions. :octocat: Supports [custom themes][creating custom themes]! 🌗 Supports [multiple languages][multiple languages]. 🌐 [Extensively configurable][advanced usage]. 🔧 Automatically fetches new comments and edits from GitHub. 🔃 [Can be self hosted][self hosting]! 🤳 Note giscus is still under…
read the full giscus overview →
About django-comments-xtd
django comments xtd Work on version 3.0 is taking place in the main branch. When curious, take a look at the e2e project . Still some points TODO.md to have it ready. 🚀 A Django pluggable application that adds comments to your project. It extends the original Django Comments Framework with the following features: Thread support, so comments can be nested. Customizable maximum thread level on per app.model basis. Optional notifications on follow up comments via email. Mute links to allow cancellation of follow up notifications. Comment confirmation via email when users are not authenticated. Comments hit the…
read the full django-comments-xtd overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is giscus or django-comments-xtd more popular?
giscus has 12,204 GitHub stars and django-comments-xtd has 621. giscus has the larger community by that measure.
Are giscus and django-comments-xtd free?
Both are open source. giscus is licensed under MIT and django-comments-xtd under BSD-2-Clause. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between giscus and django-comments-xtd?
giscus is written in TypeScript and django-comments-xtd in HTML. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, giscus or django-comments-xtd?
Choose giscus if you want the larger community (12,204 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose django-comments-xtd if its feature set, stack or BSD-2-Clause licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.