Cusdis comments

An open-source, privacy-respecting comment system you can drop under any article. No cookies, no tracking, minimal JavaScript.

Cusdis is a lightweight comment system aimed at independent publishers. It has no cookies, no third-party tracking, and a simple moderation dashboard. The script is about 3 KB gzipped.

Sign up

1. Go to https://cusdis.com.
2. Create an account and a new "site."
3. Copy the App ID (a UUID) from the dashboard.

The free tier covers unlimited comments and sites. Paid plans add features like email notifications and a custom domain for the comment server.

Configure Project Broadsheet

In src/_data/site.json:

"cusdis": {
  "appId": "xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx"
}

Leave empty to disable comments entirely.

Where comments appear

Comments render at the bottom of every article by default. The integration is loaded in layouts/article.njk:

{% if site.cusdis.appId %}
<div id="cusdis_thread"
  data-host="https://cusdis.com"
  data-app-id="{{ site.cusdis.appId }}"
  data-page-id="{{ page.url }}"
  data-page-url="{{ meta.url }}{{ page.url }}"
  data-page-title="{{ title }}">
</div>
<script async defer src="https://cusdis.com/js/cusdis.es.js"></script>
{% endif %}

Moderation

New comments appear in the Cusdis dashboard. You can approve, reject, or delete each one. Approved comments appear publicly; unapproved ones don't.

Email notifications are configurable in the dashboard (paid tiers).

Self-hosting Cusdis

Cusdis is open-source. If you prefer to run your own instance:

• Source: https://github.com/djyde/cusdis
• Deployment guide covers Docker, Vercel, and Railway.

Change data-host in the template to point at your instance.

Disable comments on specific articles

Add comments: false to an article's front matter:

comments: false

The template skips the Cusdis block when that flag is set.

What to do next

• Web3Forms for contact forms and bookings.
• Umami analytics to see which articles get engagement.
• Buttondown newsletter to email readers who commented.