Better Disqus Comments puts Disqus comments on your WordPress site without slowing your pages down. Disqus is heavy — its embed pulls in several hundred kilobytes of scripts, fonts and iframes on every page view. This plugin holds all of that back until a visitor actually gets to the comments, or clicks a button to open them.
It works on its own. You don't need the official Disqus Comment System plugin: enter your Disqus shortname and comments show up. Everything else is optional:
Lazy loading — Disqus loads when the comments come into view, when the visitor clicks a button, or straight away. Mobile visitors can get a different method.
Comment counts — "12 Comments" links on your archives show the Disqus count.
Comment sync — Disqus comments are copied into your WordPress database as they are posted, and older ones can be pulled in or sent the other way.
SEO mode — search engines get your comments as plain WordPress comments they can index, while people get Disqus.
Add-ons — Disqus on WooCommerce and Easy Digital Downloads pages, comment widgets, button styles and more.
Formerly Disqus Conditional Load
The plugin was called Disqus Conditional Load until version 13. The slug (disqus-conditional-load), settings and shortcodes are unchanged, and most hooks are kept, so existing sites keep working. A few old developer hooks were removed; the Changelog lists them. Coming from the official Disqus plugin or the 11.x Pro plugin? See Upgrading.
In your WordPress admin, go to Plugins → Add New Plugin.
Search for Better Disqus Comments.
Click Install Now, then Activate.
Or download the ZIP from WordPress.org and upload it under Plugins → Add New Plugin → Upload Plugin.
If the official Disqus Comment System plugin is active, see Upgrading from the official Disqus plugin before you deactivate it — your settings are copied over automatically, but only while its data is still there.
Until a shortname is saved, nothing is shown to visitors and the WordPress admin shows a reminder:
Better Disqus Comments is almost ready. Enter your Disqus shortname to start showing comments.
Open Disqus in the WordPress admin menu (just below Comments). The General page opens. Until a shortname is saved, it says "Comments are off until you add your Disqus shortname" and the sidebar marks it Needs fixing.
Under Disqus site, enter your Shortname — the example in example.disqus.com. Pasting the full address works too.
Click Save at the top of the page.
That's it — open any post with comments enabled and scroll down. See Disqus Account for finding your shortname and what the other keys are for.
Save sits in the header at the top of each settings page. It does nothing until you change something. Then the header counts your changes — "2 unsaved changes" — and Discard appears to undo them.
Changes on different pages are kept together, and one Save saves them all. A message at the bottom of the screen confirms it: "Settings saved." If you try to leave with unsaved changes, the browser asks first.
If saving fails, a notice says "The settings could not be saved" and why. Your changes are kept; click Try again.
The screen needs the manage_options capability by default (administrators). Developers can change that with the DCL_ACCESS constant.
Disqus replaces your theme's comments area — the classic comments template or the Comments block in block themes — on posts where all of these are true:
It is a single post, page or custom post type view (not an archive).
Comments are open on that post.
The post is published (not a draft, scheduled, pending or trashed).
Its post type isn't in Exclude post types on the Display page.
The visitor isn't a search engine bot — bots get SEO mode instead.
WooCommerce products are left alone so product reviews keep working. The Comments for WooCommerce add-on puts Disqus on product pages.
To place the thread somewhere else in your content, use the [dcl-comments]shortcode.
Getting Started
Better Disqus Comments puts Disqus comments on your WordPress site without slowing your pages down. Disqus is heavy — its embed pulls in several hundred kilobytes of scripts, fonts and iframes on every page view. This plugin holds all of that back until a visitor actually gets to the comments, or clicks a button to open them.
It works on its own. You don't need the official Disqus Comment System plugin: enter your Disqus shortname and comments show up. Everything else is optional:
Formerly Disqus Conditional Load
The plugin was called Disqus Conditional Load until version 13. The slug (
disqus-conditional-load), settings and shortcodes are unchanged, and most hooks are kept, so existing sites keep working. A few old developer hooks were removed; the Changelog lists them. Coming from the official Disqus plugin or the 11.x Pro plugin? See Upgrading.Requirements
Install
Or download the ZIP from WordPress.org and upload it under Plugins → Add New Plugin → Upload Plugin.
If the official Disqus Comment System plugin is active, see Upgrading from the official Disqus plugin before you deactivate it — your settings are copied over automatically, but only while its data is still there.
Connect your Disqus site
Until a shortname is saved, nothing is shown to visitors and the WordPress admin shows a reminder:
example.disqus.com. Pasting the full address works too.That's it — open any post with comments enabled and scroll down. See Disqus Account for finding your shortname and what the other keys are for.
The settings screen
Everything lives under Disqus in the admin menu. A sidebar lists the pages in three groups:
Add-ons add their settings to these pages too; each add-on's guide says where.
Each page has its own address, so a reload or a bookmark opens the same page.
Saving
Save sits in the header at the top of each settings page. It does nothing until you change something. Then the header counts your changes — "2 unsaved changes" — and Discard appears to undo them.
Changes on different pages are kept together, and one Save saves them all. A message at the bottom of the screen confirms it: "Settings saved." If you try to leave with unsaved changes, the browser asks first.
If saving fails, a notice says "The settings could not be saved" and why. Your changes are kept; click Try again.
The screen needs the
manage_optionscapability by default (administrators). Developers can change that with theDCL_ACCESSconstant.Where Disqus shows
Disqus replaces your theme's comments area — the classic comments template or the Comments block in block themes — on posts where all of these are true:
WooCommerce products are left alone so product reviews keep working. The Comments for WooCommerce add-on puts Disqus on product pages.
To place the thread somewhere else in your content, use the
[dcl-comments]shortcode.The toolbar menu
Users who can moderate comments get a Disqus menu in the WordPress toolbar, on the front end and in the admin:
The first three appear once a shortname is saved and open in a new tab. The core Comments menu is left in place.
What's next