Are you looking for the best plugins to improve WordPress comments?
Comments are an effective way to engage readers and build a community. The default WordPress commenting system is good, but it’s quite plain and basic. Luckily, there are tons of plugins that can help you improve that.
In this article, we’ll show you some of the best plugins to improve WordPress comments and boost engagement on your website.
1. Comment Moderation Role by WPBeginner
Comment Moderation Role by WPBeginner is a simple plugin that creates a comment moderator user role in WordPress.
These users can then log in to your website and moderate comments without getting access to any other area of your site. This comes in handy if you have a support team or staff members responsible for answering comments.
For detailed instructions, see our tutorial on how to let blog users moderate comments in WordPress.
2. Uncanny Automator
Uncanny Automator is the best automation plugin for WordPress. It allows you to easily create automated workflows on your WordPress site. These workflows save you time and offer your users a better on-site experience.
Uncanny Automator allows you to choose triggers and actions. The actions will be performed when the recipe is triggered.
For example, a trigger could be a when a user submits a comment. You can then choose an action such as sending the comment author an email, redirecting them to a thank you page, or adding them to your email newsletter.
It works with all top WordPress plugins including WooCommerce, MemberPress, LearnDash, and more. You can even connect it to more than 3000+ third-party apps through Zapier.
For more information, see our tutorial on how to create automated workflows in WordPress.
3. Yoast Comment Hacks
Yoast Comment Hacks is a suite of tools that help make comment management easier.
You can email comment authors or users who commented on a specific post, customize your comment notification emails, redirect first-time commenters to a thank you page, assign comments to a specific thread, and more.
For more details, take a look at our guide on how to install and setup Yoast Comment Hacks for WordPress.
4. Simple Comment Editing
Simple Comment Editing allow users to easily edit their own comments on your site. Sometimes when a user submits a comment, they immediately realize they have made a spelling mistake or some other error.
This plugins gives a flexible time during which users can edit their own comments on your site. For more details, take a look at our tutorial on how to allow users to edit comments in WordPress.
5. Subscribe to Comments Reloaded
Subscribe to Comments Reloaded allows users to sign up for email notifications when there is a new comment on an article.
Comments are a powerful way to build communities. But how would people know if there is a new comment after they read your post? This plugin lets them get new comment notifications and brings them back to your website.
Users can unsubscribe at any time and manage their own subscriptions on your site. We have a detailed tutorial on how to allow users to subscribe to comments in WordPress with more details.
6. WP Mail SMTP
WP Mail SMTP makes sure that all your WordPress emails are delivered to the inbox successfully.
WordPress sends many important emails including password resets, new user accounts, comment notifications, and more. Some comment plugins on this list may also send emails to your users.
By default, the way WordPress sends emails is unreliable and your emails may never reach their destination. WP Mail SMTP allows you to use a proper SMTP server to securely send all your WordPress emails.
For more details, see our guide on how to fix the WordPress emails not sending issue.
Note: There is also a free version called WP Mail SMTP Lite that would fix email deliverability. However, the free plugin does not include email logs, notification management, analytics, and a few other features.
7. WordPress Comments Fields
WordPress Comments Fields allows you to add your own custom fields to WordPress comment form.
By default, the comment area shows 4 fields (name, email, website address, and message). This plugin allows you to add more fields to your WordPress comment form such as twitter handle, business phone number, and anything else that you need.
The plugin will then display the data submitted through custom fields as comment meta. See our step by step tutorial on how to add custom fields to comments form in WordPress.
8. Better Notifications for WordPress
Better Notifications for WordPress allows you to edit the default WordPress notification emails and customize them to meet your own requirements.
There are a bunch of triggers available that you can use to create your own custom WordPress notification emails.
For instance, you can send a notification to the author when a comment is approved. You can also customize new comment notifications and send them to the author or a moderator instead of the site administrator.
For more details, see our tutorial on how to create custom WordPress notification emails.
9. Remoji Reactions
Remoji Reactions allows you to add Facebook like reactions to your WordPress blog posts and comments. This provides an easier and interactive way for users to engage on your website.
The plugin also provides widgets to display recently reacted posts or most viewed content. You can also disable reactions for unregistered users.
10. One Click Close Comments
One Click Close Comments makes it super easy to close comments on any WordPress post. Simply go to the ‘Posts’ page in the WordPress admin area and you’ll see a green comment icon next to posts where comments are open.
Clicking on the icon will close comments for that post and turn the icon red without reloading the page. This comes in handy if you need to quickly disable comments on multiple posts.
11. Disable Comments
Disable Comments plugin does exactly what it says. It allows you to easily disable comments on your WordPress posts, pages, and custom post types.
You can also choose to completely disable comments on your website, and the plugin even lets you delete all comments at once.
For more details, you can see our article on how to completely disable comments in WordPress.
12. YITH WooCommerce Advanced Reviews
YITH WooCommerce Advanced Reviews takes your WooCommerce reviews to the next level. More than 77% of online shoppers refer to reviews before making a purchase.
YITH WooCommerce Reviews allows you to create a beautiful review section for your products. Users can customize their reviews by giving them a title, upload images, thumbs up or down, and more.
As the store owner, you’ll be able to feature certain reviews, display ratings bars, remove inappropriate reviews, and more.
13. Ark-commenteditor
Ark-commenteditor allows you to add a nice and simple WYSIWYG editor to your WordPress comment form.
By default, WordPress allows users to use some basic HTML formatting in their comments. However, most people don’t use it because they don’t know how to add HTML.
The plugin allows you to create a basic editor with formatting buttons to your comment form. You can choose which formatting buttons you want to add.
14. Comment Link Removal & Other Tools
Comment Link Removal & Other Tools plugin allows you to easily remove links from comments on your website. Spam comments are a big nuisance, but they can be easily managed with plugins like Akismet.
However, manual spam comments are harder to catch with automated tools like Akismet. Leaving links in WordPress comments is the main reason people leave spam comments.
The plugin completely removes links from WordPress comments, discouraging spammers from commenting on your site.
15. DCO Comment Attachment
DCO Comment Attachment lets you add a file attachment field to your WordPress comment form, which allows users to upload images and other files with their comments.
You can set which file types users can upload, and set a limit to the file size. You can also choose to embed the attachment along with comment itself, or display it as a link.
16. WPForms
WPForms is the best WordPress contact form plugin on the market. Not all your users may want to leave a public comment on your website. Using WPForms, you can easily add a feedback form to your website. This allows users to privately reach out and leave their feedback.
You can also use WPForms to create surveys and quizzes, login and user registration forms, email newsletter forms, and more.
We hope this article helped you find some great plugins to improve WordPress comments on your site. You may also want to learn why WordPress is free, or see our expert comparison of the best live chat software for small business.
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Source: WP Beginner