IntenseDebate adds threaded comments, social login & moderation to WordPress, Tumblr & Blogger sites. Free, owned by Automattic.
IntenseDebate is a hosted comment system launched in October 2007 to add richer discussion features to blogs and websites, most notably WordPress, Tumblr, and Blogger sites. It replaces a platform's default comment box with threaded discussions, social login, and reader profiles.
Automattic, the company behind WordPress.com, acquired IntenseDebate in September 2008. It has continued to operate as a free, standalone service since then, in the same way Automattic runs other independent products like Akismet and Gravatar.
IntenseDebate supports nested, threaded comment discussions, email notifications when someone replies to a comment, and social login via Facebook, Twitter, or Gravatar, in addition to guest commenting for visitors without an account.
The system also includes user profiles with reputation scoring that track a commenter's activity across sites using IntenseDebate, along with moderation tools and spam filtering powered by Akismet, another Automattic product.
IntenseDebate is offered entirely free of charge. There is no published pricing page, subscription tier, or premium feature set.
Site owners install it via a WordPress plugin or embeddable code snippet at no cost, making it accessible to individual bloggers as well as larger publishers.
Yes, IntenseDebate is a free hosted comment system with no paid tier.
IntenseDebate works with WordPress, Tumblr, Blogger, and other website platforms.
Automattic, the company behind WordPress.com, acquired IntenseDebate in September 2008 and continues to operate it.
Yes, spam moderation is handled through Akismet, Automattic's spam-filtering service.
Yes, IntenseDebate can be embedded on Tumblr, Blogger, and other website platforms, not just WordPress.