Remark42
Privacy-focused lightweight commenting engine
Remark42 is a self-hosted comment engine for blogs, articles, and other pages where readers leave comments. It stores all data in a single file rather than an external database and can be deployed as a Docker container or a self-contained executable on Linux, Windows, and macOS.
Features include social login via Google, Facebook, Microsoft, GitHub, Apple, Yandex, Patreon, Telegram, and custom OAuth2 providers, plus email login and optional anonymous access. It supports multi-level nested comments in tree and plain views, Markdown with a formatter toolbar, image upload with drag-and-drop, voting, pinning, verification, and moderator tools for removing comments and blocking users. Import from Disqus and WordPress, JSON export with automatic backups, RSS feeds, and admin notifications via Telegram, Slack, email, and webhooks are included, along with user notifications for replies. The UI offers white and dark themes, and a single instance can serve multiple sites.
It is intended for site owners who want to run comments on their own infrastructure. Authentication requests minimal scope from providers, stores only user ID, username, and avatar link (hashed or proxied), and avoids tracking or third-party analytics. Users can request an export of their data or a full deletion of their activity, and cookie lifespan can be limited to the session.
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