Your Personal Blog Should Have Comments

I will say something not popular.

Your blog should have comments.

Yes, even in 2026.

Especially in 2026.

I see many personal blogs today. Clean design. Fast loading. Static site generator. Deployed on some cool edge platform. And then at the bottom of the post?

Nothing.

No comments.

Just silence.

I remember the days of WordPress.

Every blog had comments.

Every post had a discussion.

People argued. People added links. People corrected mistakes. People said thank you.

It felt alive.

You did not just publish into the void. You started a conversation.

And that was good.

Messy sometimes. But good.

Now we have static site generators.

Hugo. Jekyll. Eleventy. Astro. Next.js.

I love static sites.

They are fast.

They are simple.

They are secure.

But "it's a static site" is not an excuse to remove comments.

Static does not mean silent.

Some people say:

"Comments are too hard to host."

No.

They are just uncomfortable to host.

That is different.

We became used to outsourcing everything.

Auth? Use GitHub.

Comments? Use a SaaS widget.

Discussion? Send people to social media.

But why?

It is your blog.

Why is the discussion happening somewhere else?

And please, GitHub login is not the answer.

I do not want to log in with my account from some random website just to leave a comment.

Maybe I have GitHub.

Maybe I have Google.

Maybe I have something else.

But why should I connect it to your blog?

I just want to say something simple.

"Nice post."

"I disagree."

"Here is another link."

That should not require OAuth.

Your blog is not a SaaS dashboard.

Make it easy.

Name. Email. Comment.

That's enough.

I hear another argument:

"Moderation is too much work."

No.

Just do premoderation.

Approve comments before they appear.

Delete the bad ones.

It is not that much work.

You are already writing full blog posts.

You spend hours thinking, drafting, editing.

Approving a few comments is nothing compared to that.

If you care enough to publish your thoughts, you can care enough to review replies.

Spam is not a new problem.

We solved it before.

We can solve it again.

Moderation is part of having a blog.

People ran WordPress blogs on shared hosting in 2008 and survived.

Another trend is using third-party comment services.

Disqus. Some "comment as a service" startup. Random embed script from a company that may disappear next year.

I do not like this.

They inject trackers.

They load slowly.

They can shut down.

They own the data.

And sometimes they put ads under your writing.

Why would you do that?

It is your blog.

Own your comments.

There is something beautiful about hosting your own discussion.

The comments live with your content.

They are part of the archive.

Ten years later, someone reads your post and sees the conversation below it.

Context.

History.

Disagreement.

Growth.

Without comments, your blog is a monologue.

With comments, it becomes a dialogue.

Also, comments keep you honest.

When readers can reply, you think more carefully.

You explain better.

You update mistakes.

You engage.

It builds trust.

And small blogs need trust more than big platforms do.

Some bloggers say:

"People can email me."

No.

That is private.

That hides discussion.

If someone asks a good question, others cannot see the answer.

Comments make knowledge public.

Email keeps it closed.

I think we lost something when blogs removed comments.

We optimized for speed.

For minimalism.

For "no distractions."

But we also removed community.

We removed friction, yes.

But we also removed connection.

If you have a personal blog, I have a simple request:

Add comments.

Even a basic system.

Even something small.

Even if only five people use it.

Do not be proud of zero comments.

Be proud of thoughtful ones.

Do not outsource your community.

Host it.

Moderate it.

Care for it.

A blog is not just publishing.

It is conversation.

Bring the conversation back.