WordPress plugin

The GraphComment plugin replaces WordPress's native comment system with the GraphComment widget — no code, no template editing. It also brings your existing WordPress comments into GraphComment, and keeps a copy of every new GraphComment comment back in your WordPress database.

This page documents the current published version, 4.2.0.

What the plugin does

Replaces the WordPress comment template with the GraphComment widget, on classic themes and block themes (Full Site Editing) alike.
Connects your WordPress site to your GraphComment site from the WordPress admin.
Imports your existing WordPress comments into GraphComment (batched, in the background).
Synchronizes GraphComment comments back into your WordPress database — your comments stay in your own database as a backup.
Signs your WordPress users in automatically via SSO (Premium plans).
Optional read-only mode, configurable per WordPress role.
Optional side panel mode: comments in a sliding overlay instead of an inline block.
SEO fallback: search engine bots are served your native, indexable WordPress comments instead of the widget.
Domain migration tool, embedded straight in the WordPress admin.

Requirements

PHP 7.4 or newer
WordPress 5.9 or newer (tested up to WordPress 7.0)

The plugin's admin interface is available in English and French.

Install

From the plugin directory: in your WordPress admin, go to Plugins → Add New, search for "GraphComment", then Install and Activate.

Manually: unzip the plugin archive into wp-content/plugins/graphcomment-comment-system/, then activate it from the Plugins screen.

On activation the plugin creates its pairing table (used by the synchronization) and enables the SEO fallback by default.

Connect your GraphComment site

Open the GraphComment settings page in your WordPress admin and log in with your GraphComment account. Pick the GraphComment site to associate with this WordPress blog — or create one on the spot: the setup wizard walks you through it, selects the newly created site automatically, and ends on an action menu that takes you straight to the next step (import your WordPress comments, enable synchronization, or migrate a domain).

Settings

General

Activation — enable GraphComment on all posts, or only on posts published from a date you choose. Older posts keep native WordPress comments until you're ready.
SEO — when enabled (default), detected search engine bots get your native WordPress comments, which are indexable, while human visitors get the widget. The detection covers the major search, social and SEO crawlers (Googlebot, Bingbot, DuckDuckBot, Yandex, Twitterbot, facebookexternalhit, and many more).
SSO — available on Premium plans. When enabled, your logged-in WordPress users are signed in to GraphComment automatically: the plugin signs their profile (id, username, email, language, avatar) server-side and hands it to the widget. No configuration or code needed — the plugin uses the immutable WordPress user_id as the SSO identity, so renaming a user never detaches their comment history.
Read-only (Premium plans) — display threads without allowing new comments, either for everyone or for specific WordPress roles.
Side panel (overlay) (Premium plans) — show the comments in a sliding panel instead of an inline block. Configurable: open by default or not, panel width, button label and colors, notification bubble, fixed header offset.

Where the widget appears

The widget replaces the comment area your theme renders. It shows on a post when all of these are true:

The visitor is not a detected bot (when SEO fallback is enabled).
Comments are open on the post.
The plugin is activated, and the post is within the activation range you chose.
The post is not a WooCommerce product.

Import your existing comments

The Import tab pushes your existing WordPress comments to GraphComment, preserving threading (parent/child), author name and email, dates, statuses (approved / pending / spam) and the link between each comment and its post.

The import runs in the background, in batches of 30 comments, with a live progress indicator. You can restart it after an error, cancel it, or reset it. Comments on WooCommerce products are excluded, consistently with the widget's display rules.

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Large archives
For very large comment archives, GraphComment also supports importing a WordPress WXR export file from the GraphComment back-office — see Migrate from Disqus for the same mechanism applied to Disqus exports.

⚠️
If the import doesn't start
The background import relies on WordPress's async task mechanism, which requires your server to be able to send an HTTP request to itself ("loopback"). A few hosts block this. If your import stays at 0%, ask your host about loopback requests, or use the WXR file import from the back-office instead.

Keep a WordPress backup of your comments

The Synchronization tab enables the reverse direction: new comments posted in GraphComment are periodically written back into your WordPress database as native WordPress comments.

Runs on WP-Cron, at the interval you choose: 1 min, 10 min, 30 min (default), 1 h or 12 h.
Comments are matched to their WordPress posts, threading preserved, and each pair is tracked so nothing is duplicated.
Statuses are mapped: approved → approved, pending → pending, refused/deleted → trash, spam → spam.

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About WP-Cron
WordPress's cron only runs when your site gets traffic, and some hosts disable it. On a low-traffic site the sync can lag behind — if you need it punctual, trigger wp-cron.php from a real system cron (a standard WordPress technique your host can set up).

Your content never gets locked in: whatever happens, your WordPress database holds a copy of every comment.

Domain migration

Changing your site's domain is the classic way to "lose" comments — the threads still exist but no longer match the new URLs. Version 4.2.0 embeds GraphComment's domain migration tool directly in the WordPress admin (dedicated submenu): it remaps your threads to the new domain without touching the comments themselves.

When you run it, tick every former domain your site ever used (including www/non-www and http variants). A domain left unticked leaves its threads behind — that's the number-one cause of "some threads came back empty" after a migration.

Troubleshooting

The widget shows on some posts but not others. Check the display conditions above first (comments open? within the activation range?). If a specific post shows no widget while others do, the most common cause is the post's template: page-builder layouts (full-width / canvas templates in Elementor, Divi…) often omit the comment area entirely, so the plugin has nothing to replace. Switch the post to a standard template that includes comments — or, with Elementor Pro's Theme Builder, add its "Post Comments" widget, which restores the comment area. After fixing, purge any full-page cache or CDN for that URL.

The widget shows on posts but not on pages. On block themes (Full Site Editing, e.g. Twenty Twenty-Five), WordPress Pages don't render a comment area by default — so there's nothing to replace. Use a Post, or edit the page template to include the comments block.

The widget loads but shows "no comments" after a domain change. The thread exists but is still attached to your old domain. Run the domain migration tool (above) — it re-attaches your threads to the current domain.

Advanced

Certificate verification. The plugin verifies SSL certificates on its outgoing API calls (default since 4.1.0). If your hosting environment ships an outdated CA bundle and API calls fail with certificate errors, you can override this from wp-config.php:

// wp-config.php — only if your host's CA bundle is outdated
define('SSLVERIFY', false);

Prefer asking your host to update the CA bundle; only use this override as a last resort.

Next steps

Widget configuration — what the widget itself can do (the plugin drives these options for you).
Migrate from Disqus — moving to GraphComment from Disqus on WordPress.
Comment count — comment counters next to your article links.