Best Comment Reply Notification Plugins

A Comment Reply Notification plugin is an easy way to encourage comments and keep the conversations going on your blog posts. See real-world test results of the top free plugins, and gotchas to watch out for.

The Plugin Tests

Thank you to the 20+ bloggers who helped me put these plugins through their paces. Many of the testers run heavily commented blogs and already use a comment reply notification plugin, so they know exactly what to look for in the feature set and user interface on desktop and mobile too.

Outdated Plugins

I looked at all of the available comment reply notification plugins in the WordPress repository that I thought were worthwhile.

Many are currently unsupported and seriously out of date with:

• WordPress coding standards
• PHP version supported
• security vulnerabilities

I STRONGLY recommended that you switch to a newer plugin if you are using one of the following.

• ReplyMe – No updates in 9 years
• Subscribe to Comments – No updates in 2 years
• Comment Reply Notification – No updates in 7 years – in tests it gave blank screen on submit comment
• Send Email Only on Reply to My Comment – No updates in 3 years
• Comment Notifier – No updates in 2 years – Puts spammers in the database. (See the Lightweight Subscribe To Comments plugin that strips the spammers out on import. )
• Custom Comment Notifications – No updates in 2 years

Current Plugins Tested

Following is the list of currently supported plugins that we tested.

• Lightweight Subscribe to Comments – see the settings tutorial
• Subscribe to Comments Reloaded – see the settings tutorial
• wpDiscuz – see the settings tutorial
• Replyable
• Comment Reply Email Notification

Testing Criteria

Following are the checks I made on every plugin tested.

You’ll see individual results on each plugin.

• Currently supported
• PHP 7 compatibility
• Database tables added
• Files added
• Speed/Requests added
• Import commenters from other plugins
• Subscribes spammers
• Keeps commenters in database in its own table or regular comment tables
• Option to subscribe or auto subscribe
• Options to subscribe to all comments or only to yours
• Option to subscribe to comments without leaving a comment
• Double optin option
• Unsubscribe link in the email message
• Edit comment after submit – (edit by commenter, all comments can be edited by admin)
• Emails the admin – can you choose to receive notifications from the plugin or WP
• Option to style reply message
• Thank You page/message redirect for first time commenters

Can’t Delete the Subscriber List

This was a real shock to discover.

If you currently use one of these plugins, you’d think your comment subscribers would only be held in the commentmeta database table and/or a table created by the plugin.

They aren’t.

They are also held in the postmeta table.

So, even if you delete all of the comments on your site, the commenters list is still in the postmeta table.

Even if you delete the posts, the postmeta table will still hold the subscribers list.

And, when you switch plugins, those subscribers will be imported by any plugin that can do so.

I tried multiple database cleaner plugins to remove the subscriber list. None of them touched it, regardless of settings. I had to manually clean them out of the database.

So, if you delete a comment reply notification plugin, don’t expect a drop in the postmeta database table or any of the subscribers from spam comments to be deleted.

Most of the plugins didn’t even remove the extra tables they added to the database either, leaving orphaned tables behind. Those had to be manually dropped as well.

To ensure I had clean databases for every test, I literally deleted the test site and started over.

Plugin Test Results

Following are the results of all the comment reply notification plugins we tested.

I included notes for each on:

• What I found interesting with the plugin
• How it fared on the standard test criteria
• Pros and cons
• Final assessment

Lightweight Subscribe To Comments

https://wordpress.org/plugins/comment-notifier-no-spammers/

What caught my attention with this plugin is that it fixed a HUGE issue with the older Comment Notifier plugin, which allowed spammers to be subscribed even if their comment was never approved.

When Lightweight Subscribe to Comments is installed, it automatically imports the subscriber list from the following plugins, while stripping out the spammers:

• Subscribe To Comments
• Subscribe To Comments Reloaded
• Comment Notifier

It also imported from newer plugins I tested too.

Testing Criteria Results

• Currently supported – yes
• PHP 7 compatibility – yes
• Database tables added – 1 – comment_notifier
• Files added – none, but the folder it adds in your wp-content > plugins folder is named Comment Notifier No Spammers, so it’s likely this plugin was once called that
• Speed/Requests added – none
• Import commenters from other plugins – yes
• Subscribes spammers – strips spammers
• Keeps commenters in database in its own table or regular comment tables – own table
• Option to subscribe or auto subscribe – option for checkbox, option to have checked by default, customize message
• Options to subscribe to all comments or only to yours – all or nothing
• Option to subscribe to comments without leaving a comment – no
• Double optin option – no
• Unsubscribe link in the email message – yes
• Edit comment after submit – no
• Emails the admin – can turn it off
• Option to style reply message – yes, all parts of the message can be customized
• Thank You page/message redirect for first time commenters – yes, a thank you email can be sent. The subject and message body are customizable. It is a plain text editor, so all links and other elements have to be hand coded.

Additional Options

Comment excerpts in email – This was a huge winner among the testers because it ensures commenters will return to your site to view the entire reply. That drives up visitor count and time on site. The character limit is customizable as well.

Unsubcribe by Admin – The site owner can manually remove an email address from the entire subscribers list. Site owner can also remove an address per post.

Unsubscribe Page/Message – You can create a custom page to send visitors to when they unsubscribe or just customize a pop up message.

Remove all plugin elements on deletion – there is a setting for it, but it doesn’t clear out fully on deletion. It leaves its database table and subscribers list in the postmeta table and some rows in options table.

Pros

• The notification emails were nice and clean looking.
• The excerpt feature was a big plus because it encourages commenters to return to your site to read more.
• Stripping out spammer subscribers is a big plus.
• You can turn off emails to admin so you don’t double up on notifications from WP and the plugin.

Cons

• Subscription is all or nothing. There is no way to subscribe to replies made only to your comment. On heavy comment sites, that will wear out your commenters who will likely just unsubscribe from all comments on that post, killing the conversation.

Final Assessment

This is a very good plugin with several stellar features.

It would work best on a site with moderate to low comments per post (under 15).

Subscribe to Comments Reloaded

https://wordpress.org/plugins/subscribe-to-comments-reloaded/

See the settings tutorial for this plugin!

This is a tried and true plugin that has several great features and is well supported by the developer.

It auto imports your subscriber list from most all other plugins too.

The plugin also creates its own tab in the admin sidebar with links to:

• Manage subscribers
• Edit the contact form and notifications
• Options and settings

The admin management page allows you to

• mass update subscriptions
• Search subscriptions
• Manually add subscribers

You can customize every message this plugin creates, including the message shown next to the comment box, the unsubscribe page, and all of the emails commenters receive.

What’s even better is that each one has a rich text editor so there’s no manual HTML coding.

You can set the plugin to track all subscriptions. I was impressed that it has settings for how often to clear those logs so that they don’t build up too much in the database, causing it to become slow.

Site visitors can elect to:

• Subscribe to all comments on that post
• Subscribe to only replies to their comment
• Subscribe to comments without leaving one of their own

The Manage Subscriptions page for commenters was somewhat confusing. It’s not immediately clear what you need to do to update your subscription preferences.

However, the admin management page for all subscribers is very robust. This comes in super handy for sites with tons of comments per post.

Testing Criteria Results

• Currently supported – yes
• PHP 7 compatibility – yes
• Database tables added – 1 table added subscribe_reloaded_subscribers
• Files added – none
• Speed/Requests added – 3 requests added for:
  • Style sheet
  • Font Awesome – if that option is selected
  • JS file – Javascript file
• Import commenters from other plugins – yes
• Subscribes spammers – no, but it doesn’t strip out ones that may have been subscribed by other previous plugins used
• Keeps commenters in database in its own table or regular comment tables – in its own table
• Option to subscribe or auto subscribe – both
• Options to subscribe to all comments or only to yours – both
• Option to subscribe to comments without leaving a comment – yes
• Double optin option – yes
• Unsubscribe link in the email message – yes
• Edit comment after submit – no
• Emails the admin – yes, but either doesn’t work or I had it set wrong
• Option to style reply message – yes, and has rich text editor
• Thank You page/message redirect for first time commenters – no

Pros

• Excellent subscription options for subscribing to all or just replies to your comment.
• Lots of options, and defaults are good, making it work well right out of the box.
• Only creates one database table and few extra files.
• Has option to include Font Awesome or not (including means one more request and slower site)
• Has option to encrypt notification delivery so it won’t go to spam or be subject to man-in-the-middle peeping.
• Admin management page with good search and bulk action features.

Cons

• Manage subscriptions process is a bit confusing for end user.
• No Thank You page redirect or email for first time commenter.
• There is a setting for HTML emails, but they are delivered as plain text if using the WP email from host.
• It adds several css and js requests, even if the special font is not used

Final Assessment

This is a robust plugin that is a good fit for sites that have a medium volume of comments per post (15-30).

All of the subscribe options will please commenters, as they can self-select what they want to receive. That’s particularly important on posts with tons of comments.

wpDiscuz

https://wordpress.org/plugins/wpdiscuz/

I want to send a BIG thank you to webmaster and designer Michelle Phillips of Codefetti for helping with settings on this plugin!!

wpDiscuz was created as an alternative to the Disqus premium service. (Different developers too.)

It is AJAX based, meaning that it is a real-time comment system.

wpDiscuz also natively integrates with several popular User Profile plugins and anti-spam plugins.

It has TONS of settings and options, maybe too many, as the default settings were not popular with the plugin testers. But once tweaked, it became a real contender for favorite plugin.

Testing Criteria Results

• Currently supported – yes
• PHP 7 compatibility – yes
• Database tables added – adds 3 tables – wc_comments_subscription, wc_phrases, wc_users_voted, plus 4 rows added to options table, and 10 rows added to postmeta table
• Files added – none
• Speed/Requests added – none
• Import commenters from other plugins – yes
• Subscribes spammers – unknown
• Keeps commenters in database in its own table or regular comment tables – own tables
• Option to subscribe or auto subscribe – both
• Options to subscribe to all comments or only to yours – both
• Option to subscribe to comments without leaving a comment – yes
• Double optin option – yes
• Unsubscribe link in the email message – yes
• Emails the admin – can you choose to receive notifications from the plugin or WP
• Option to style reply message – yes
• Thank You page/message redirect for first time commenters – yes

Database Weight

wpDiscuz is a little heavier on the database than the other plugins we tested, but that’s because it has so many more options, like up-voting, and holds that info in a separate table. If you don’t use that feature, the table will never grow.

Lazy Load

If your site is super heavy with comments, you’ll really appreciate that this plugin can lazy load them! As heavy as Gravatars can be on your page load time, this feature will really help speed it up by only loading a few comments at first.

There is an Ajax empowered button so viewers can load more comments.

Comment List Sorting

Another feature unique to wpDiscuz is the option for the commenter to self-select the order they wish to view comments – either oldest or newest. This is a great way for visitors to keep up with an ongoing conversation without having to keep loading more comments or scroll too much just to see the latest.

Subscription Choices

wpDiscuz has all the subscription choices/options you could hope for. But, the way they are arranged was a big put-off for several of our testers.

In the comments box, just above the Submit button, there is a checkbox to subscribe to replies on your comment. That’s great.

But if you want to subscribe to all comments, you have to use an additional set of fields above the regular comment box.

That includes inputting your email address again.

That was a big turn off for testers using mobile devices. More typing is not good.

That extra box was also confusing, as it’s not a standard element among these types of plugins.

Custom Comment Forms and CAPTCHA

Everything about the comment form can be customized, including the inclusion of a Captcha field or not.

That’s a good thing because most all of the testers hated having to enter the Captcha. And it worked differently on phone or desktop, the latter not being all that picky about case sensitivity. On mobile, it always tries to capitalize the first letter and auto-correct to a real world, which of course, was quite frustrating.

We turned the Captcha off in subsequent tests and allowed our normal spam comment control to do that job.

FYI, this plugin integrates directly with WP Bruiser, which has a spam comment filter, and it auto-removes that Captcha field. I would imagine it is much the same with the other spam filter plugins it natively integrates with, but they were not tested.

Add-Ons

wpDiscuz also sports 15 add-on plugins, like Google reCaptcha, comment report and flagging, and ads manager, and more. It also has a special version of the entire plugin just for Woocommerce called WooDiscuz.

Immediately after installation you’re presented with a screen of all these add-ons too.

Looks

Everything the public sees that is associated with this plugin looks great. The comment box auto detects your main theme colors and is fully customizable.

The optin confirmation and notification emails are clean looking too.

Every single phrase the plugin can output is fully customizable as well. We went with the defaults for the test and found them pleasing.

The only other “look” that was turned on by default that we didn’t like was a label under the Gravatar for Admin and Guest. We turned those off for regular blog comments, but I can see where those labels might work well on a member/forum site that might have more than one type of User roll, like a Moderator or such.

Pros

• AJAX based coding is a real plus, especially the real-time update speed of new comments and the lazy load option
• Native integrations with other popular plugins like BuddyPress and member type sites is a big plus if you use those. That’s where the up/down voting feature would shine too.
• Native integration with comment spam filters is a big plus too.
• A redirect to a custom thank you page for new commenters is great.
• Multiple subscription options is a good feature.
• Theme styled comments box that is super clean looking.
• Self-selected sort option for newest/oldest.
• Links to share comment on social media or embed.
• Social login option is available for commenters too.

Cons

• Way too many settings. I had to call in help to figure out what everything was and did. And all of the phrase options is just overkill.
• Double email input to subscribe to all comments. Bad for mobile.
• Captcha on by default, doesn’t work well on mobile.
• Some testers commenting from iPad reported never receiving the emails, either the confirmation for subscription, or the comment replies, but that was not the norm for most of the testers.

Final Assessment

If you run a member/forum site, this is THE plugin to have.

The double email entry to subscribe to all comments may be a barrier to commenters on mobile, as will the Captcha.

It looks beautiful on the site and in emails.

The unique features for lazy load is a MUST for heavily commented sites. That will enable you to turn Gravatars back on.

And viewers will enjoy the ability to select oldest/newest comments at the top too.

Special Note

I will be reaching out to the plugin developer to see if that extra email field for subscribing to all comments can be dropped and a radio set of buttons placed above the Submit button with subscription choices can be added instead. If that double email entry issue can be fixed, this would be my top recommended plugin.

Replyable

https://wordpress.org/plugins/postmatic/

This plugin is a spinoff of the paid Postmatic service. Replyable replaces their previous Postmatic Basic plugin/service that was free too.

Testing Criteria Results

• Currently supported – yes
• PHP 7 compatibility – yes
• Database tables added – 0, but added rows to the Options table
• Files added – none
• Speed/Requests added – none
• Import commenters from other plugins – yes
• Subscribes spammers – unknown
• Keeps commenters in database in its own table or regular comment tables – regular comment table
• Option to subscribe or auto subscribe – both
• Options to subscribe to all comments or only to yours – yes
• Option to subscribe to comments without leaving a comment – no
• Double optin option – yes
• Unsubscribe link in the email message – yes
• Edit comment after submit – no
• Emails the admin, which means double emails – can turn off
• Option to style reply message – yes
• Thank You page/message redirect for first time commenters – yes, but didn’t work

After installation, the first screen you’re presented with is an omen of things to come. You’re asked if you want to do two-way or one-way conversations. Naturally, the two-way conversations, where commenters can reply via email without having to return to the site, is a premium-only feature.

Replyable continues to alert you with other notifications on the plugins page to upgrade to the paid service.

Privacy Concerns

That first screen also has a link to the permissions you are granting to the plugin.

Those permissions include:

• Your profile overview
• Your site overview
• Admin notices
• Current plugin events

I can see needing all of this for the paid service, but not for the free plugin.

On the permissions screen there were also links to their Privacy Policy and Terms of Service.

That made me nervous.

Both of those docs were full of legalese that left me wondering exactly how they use/reuse not only my email address, but those of commenters. It may be fine, but I didn’t want to spend hours digging through legal jargon, especially on a free plugin.

Options

Replyable is robust! Every part of the plugin can be customized.

It detects your theme’s colors automatically to present them in the email sent to commenters. And the messages can be fully customized with a rich text editor.

Throttle feature – if your posts are heavily commented, that not only wears out your subscribers, it puts a heavy load on your hosting resources. Replyable has a customizable throttle feature where you can set how many comments replies can be set before it begins to throttle. The default is 4.

While that’s a nice feature, our testers hated it. Throttling too low kills the conversation. Throttling too high overwhelms them.

Emails

The emails to comment subscribers is nice and clean and even shows the Gravatar of the person who replied. There’s even a recap of the post conversation.

The emails admins receive has an upsell at the bottom. That will get really old, being pushed to go to the paid version all the time.

Thank You Email

There is a option to send first-time commenters a special Thank You email. It did not hold the customizations I made in the rich text editor. And it didn’t send the email to anyone.

Off-Site Unsubscribe

Since this is the “lite” version of a paid service, the subscription management pages for commenters is on the developer’s site, not your site. I wasn’t crazy about that because I don’t know what info they are collecting, including the email address.

Pros

• Emails are nice and clean and show Gravatar of who commented.
• Throttle feature saves hosting resources and subscriber overwhelm on heavily commented posts.
• Rich text editors for all messages.

Cons

• Too many options. I had to change several of them from the default settings to get the plugin to work well.
• Throttle feature. Nice, but can kill the conversation. Testers hated it.
• Constant push to upsell to paid service everywhere for admins.
• Subscriber management taken off site.
• Vague disclosure of how emails may be collected or used.
• Didn’t send Thank You email.

Final Assessment

If you have a large volume of comments on your site, the paid service might be worth looking into for help with management and to offload mail sending to their servers, not yours. This free plugin is a way to try before you buy. There is a settings tab for add-on plugins and services from Postmatic too. So, it’s clear that the devs intend the free plugin to be a stepping stone to their paid service.

I’m leary of the vagueness about whether they are collecting email addresses or not.

For all of the options and features, this plugin felt bloated considering it was the lite version of a paid service.

Comment Reply Email Notification

https://wordpress.org/plugins/comment-reply-email-notification/

Never sent the notification emails.

It only had one job and didn’t do it.

So that was the end of the testing and no other assessment performed.

Over to You

I hope you’ve found the comment reply notification plugin test results helpful.

Which one will you be using on your site, and why?