head to head · open source
giscus vs mouthful
giscus has 12,204 GitHub stars, 491 forks, 127 open issues and last shipped 5 months ago. mouthful has 777 stars, 40 forks, 32 open issues and last shipped 1.1 years ago. giscus leads on adoption by 1,471% (12,204 vs 777 stars). giscus is written in TypeScript under MIT; mouthful is written in Go under MIT. giscus has attracted 4% as many forks as stars, mouthful 5%. giscus was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (comments), 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 | mouthful | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 12K | ★ 777 |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | TypeScript | Go |
| Last push | 2026-05-26 | 2025-10-08 |
| Forks | ⑂ 491 | ⑂ 40 |
| 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 mouthful if
- You want the mouthful feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and mouthful 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 mouthful
Mouthful is a self hosted alternative to Disqus. Mouthful is a lightweight commenting server written in GO and Preact. It's a self hosted alternative to disqus that's ad free. There's a demo hosted at mouthful.dizzy.zone. Check it out! Features Get mouthful The easy way Build from source Run it on Docker Configure mouthful Moderation Caching Rate limiting Styling Cross origin resource sharing Data sources Multiple domains Config file from Docker image Nginx configuration Periodic cleanup Spoon Migrations Backups and import Contributing Wish list Get in touch Who uses mouthful Features Multiple database…
read the full mouthful overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is giscus or mouthful more popular?
giscus has 12,204 GitHub stars and mouthful has 777. giscus has the larger community by that measure.
Are giscus and mouthful free?
Both are open source. giscus is licensed under MIT and mouthful under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between giscus and mouthful?
giscus is written in TypeScript and mouthful in Go. 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 mouthful?
Choose giscus if you want the larger community (12,204 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose mouthful if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.