remark42

A privacy-focused comment system you embed in blogs and articles instead of Disqus, with social login, moderation and no external database.

5.6k stars, 461 forks Go On GitHub since December 2017

Visit website View on GitHub How to run it

remark42 at a glance

Open sourceYes, MITNo paid parts in the repository
Health81 of 100Actively developed
Self-hostingDocker, Desktop appsCompose file, 1 service
AppsLinux, macOS, Windows, including ARMBuilds in GitHub releases
Interface23 languagesIncluding English, German and French
Issue repliesWithin ~7 hoursMedian first reply; 46% of recent issues answered

What is remark42?

Remark42 adds a comment section to any web page through an embedded widget served from your own instance. Readers sign in with Google, GitHub, Apple, Telegram, Discord and other OAuth providers, by email, or anonymously if you allow it. Threads can be nested or flat, comments support Markdown and image uploads, and readers can vote. Moderators delete comments, block users, pin and verify. Admins hear about new comments through Telegram, Slack, webhooks or email, and readers can be told about replies. Everything is kept in one embedded data file, with JSON export and automatic backups. Old comments can be imported from Disqus and WordPress; one instance can serve several sites.

Good fit if

  • You run a static or self-built blog and want comments without third-party tracking or ads.
  • You are leaving Disqus or WordPress comments and want to bring the old threads along.
  • You host several sites and want one comment backend for all of them.

Look elsewhere if

  • You want a lighter Python-based Disqus replacement: Isso.
  • You need a full discussion forum with categories and long-running topics: Discourse or Flarum.

Before you adopt it

Remark42 is under the MIT license, with no paid parts in the repository. Development is active: 14 authors made 114 commits in the last 90 days, and one of them accounts for about two thirds. The interface is available in 23 languages. Deployment is a single Docker container or a self-contained binary for Linux, macOS or Windows, and because data sits in an embedded file, there is no separate database server to run.

Drafted with AI from the project's README and repository data, then checked against that data on 7 November 2026. Report a correction

How to run remark42 yourself

One-click install

Not listed in the app catalogs of Umbrel, YunoHost, TrueNAS, Unraid, CasaOS, Runtipi, Proxmox VE Helper-Scripts and Coolify.

Ways to install

Docker files
Dockerfile or compose file in the repository
Docker image
umputun/remark42: 2.6M pulls · x86-64, ARM64 · 34 MB downloadAlso ghcr.io/umputun/remark42
Compose file
docker-compose.yml: 1 service
Setup effort
1 of 5, judged from the compose file
Kubernetes
No Helm chart in the repository
Packages
Nix and FreeBSD versions on Repology
Desktop and mobile
Builds for Linux, macOS, Windows, including ARM in GitHub releases
Interface languages
23 languages, including English, German, French, Spanish, Dutch, Polish, Russian, Turkish, Japanese and Korean
Show all 23

Arabic, Bulgarian, Chinese, Czech, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Hebrew, Hungarian, Japanese, Korean, Macedonian, Persian, Polish, Romanian, Russian, Spanish, Swedish, Thai, Turkish, Vietnamese

Install instructions: remark42.com or the README on GitHub. Docker images and packages are checked weekly.

remark42 health: is it still maintained?

81 of 100, actively developed

Release rhythmEvery ~49 days9 releases in 12 months; latest v1.18.0
Issue repliesWithin ~7 hoursMedian first reply; 46% of recent issues answered
Bus factorMedium riskThe most active of 15 authors wrote 70% of recent commits
  • Activity
    127 commits in the last 90 days, the latest on 12 November 2026.
    26 / 30
  • Contributors
    15 people wrote the latest 100 commits; the most active wrote 70% of them.
    16 / 20
  • Releases
    9 releases in the last 12 months; the latest, v1.18.0, on 11 October 2026.
    18 / 20
  • Replies to issues
    Maintainers answered 46% of recent issues, with a median first reply after 7 hours.
    16 / 20
  • Security practices
    OpenSSF Scorecard 4.5 of 10.
    5 / 10

Read from GitHub on 12 November 2026. How the score works

remark42 security

Security advisories are the vulnerabilities the maintainers disclosed on GitHub, with the versions that fix them; many advisories can mean careful disclosure as much as weak code. OpenSSF Scorecard checks how a project is developed and released: reviews, protected branches, pinned dependencies, signed releases. It does not audit the code itself.

Security advisories5 published2 high; 4 list a fixed version
OpenSSF Scorecard4.5 of 10How the project is built and released
Security policyYesExplains how to report a vulnerability
Signed releasesNoDownloads cannot be checked against a signature

Latest advisories

All 5 advisories on GitHub

What each Scorecard check found

  • Binary files10 / 10No compiled binaries checked into the repository
  • License file10 / 10A license file is present
  • Maintained10 / 10Steady commits and issue activity in the last 90 days
  • Packaging10 / 10Releases are published as packages from CI
  • Security policy10 / 10Explains how to report a vulnerability
  • Code review8 / 10Some changes are merged without review
  • Branch protection6 / 10Rules on the main branch are partly enforced
  • Best-practices badge0 / 10No OpenSSF Best Practices badge
  • Dangerous workflows0 / 10GitHub Actions workflows have risky patterns
  • Fuzzing0 / 10No fuzz testing found
  • Pinned dependencies0 / 10Dependencies are not pinned to fixed versions
  • Signed releases0 / 10Releases are not signed
  • Static analysis0 / 10No static analysis found
  • Token permissions0 / 10CI tokens have broad write rights

Advisories read from GitHub on 12 November 2026. From the OpenSSF Scorecard of 9 November 2026; checks that do not apply to remark42 are left out.

remark42 license: is it open source?

remark42 uses MIT, an open-source license approved by the OSI.

  1. December 2017First published on GitHub.
  2. TodayMIT.

remark42 for developers

Written in

  • Go 69%
  • TypeScript 24%
  • CSS 3%
  • JavaScript 2%
  • HTML 1%
  • Other 2%

Getting involved

Good first issues6Open, labelled “good-first-issue”Help wanted18Open, labelled “help wanted”
Contributing guideNot foundNo CONTRIBUTING file in the repository
Open issues68On GitHub
Authors, 90 days15Of the latest 100 commits
Donations2 waysGitHub Sponsors, Patreon

Language shares are GitHub’s count of the code in the repository.

Alternatives to remark42

  • Issoa Disqus alternative 52 health · MIT · 5.3k stars
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  • MastodonYour self-hosted, globally interconnected microblogging community 88 health · AGPL-3.0 · 50.6k stars
  • MisskeyA completely free and open interplanetary-microblogging platform 81 health · AGPL-3.0 · 11.4k stars
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All 18 projects in Social networks & forums

Questions about remark42

Is remark42 open source?

Yes. remark42 is published under MIT, an OSI-approved open-source license.

Is remark42 still maintained?

Its health score is 81 of 100 (actively developed). It had 127 commits in the last 90 days, the latest on 12 November 2026, and its latest release came out on 11 October 2026.

How do I run remark42?

You can run it with the Docker image umputun/remark42 and as an app for Linux, macOS, Windows, including ARM. The README on GitHub has the exact steps.

What is remark42 written in?

remark42 is written mainly in Go (69% of the code), with TypeScript (24%), by GitHub’s count of the repository.

What languages is remark42 available in?

The repository has interface translations for 23 languages, including English, German, French, Spanish, Dutch, Polish, Russian and Turkish.

What are the alternatives to remark42?

Close alternatives in the Social networks & forums category include Isso, Redlib, Mastodon.