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Self-Hosting Waline: Lightweight Comment System

Waline is a lightweight comment system for static sites. Markdown support, emoji reactions, and moderation — no heavy backends.

walinecommentsblogstatic-sites

What Is Waline?


Waline is a lightweight, self-hosted comment system. Add comments to any website — static sites, blogs, documentation — without heavy backends.


Features


Comments

  • Markdown support
  • Code highlighting
  • Image upload
  • Emoji reactions
  • Reply threading
  • Guest and registered comments

    • Moderation

  • Admin dashboard
  • Spam filtering (Akismet)
  • Comment approval
  • IP blocking
  • Word filtering

    • Notifications

  • Email notifications
  • Telegram notifications
  • Webhook support

    • Other

  • Article reading statistics
  • Page view counter
  • Multi-language (i18n)
  • Custom avatars
  • Dark mode
  • Social login (GitHub, etc.)

    • Waline vs Disqus vs Giscus


  • Waline: Self-hosted, lightweight, full-featured
  • Disqus: SaaS, heavy, ads, privacy concerns
  • Giscus: GitHub-based, requires GitHub account

    • Integration


    Add to any site:

    html

    <div id="waline"></div>

    <script type="module">

    import { init } from 'https://unpkg.com/@waline/client@v3/dist/waline.js';

    init({ el: '#waline', serverURL: 'https://waline.example.com' });

    </script>


    Deployment


    1. Deploy Waline server on TinyPod

    2. Add the script to your site

    3. Comments appear immediately


    Resources: 1 CPU, 128 MB RAM.


    Waline gives your static site a comment system without Disqus's tracking or weight.