Epoch – A native Disqus alternative with a focus on speed and privacy
Epoch is a new plugin from the creators of Postmatic. The goal: To provide a realtime commenting/chat experience using fully native comments while being compatible with page caching, cdns, mobile, other comment plugins…
Consider an alternative
Epoch shows warning signs in 2026 — compare the alternatives below before installing. It runs on 60+ sites, is rated 4.5/5 and was last updated 11 years ago, and scores 40/100 on our health check.
- Loved by users — 4.5/5 from 21 reviews
- Small user base (60+ active installs)
- No update in 10 years
- Only tested up to WordPress 4.4 (latest is 7.1)
How does it stack up?
Side-by-side on installs, updates, ratings & support
Daily downloads
Download spikes usually follow a new release — each site that auto-updates counts as a download.
Rankings
Where Epoch stands todayWordPress.org search rankings
Live position in the plugin search, top 100| Keyword | Position |
|---|---|
| ajax comments | >100 |
| cache | >100 |
| cdn | >100 |
| comments | >100 |
| lightweight commenting | #36 |
Version adoption
Share of active sites per release.
Rating breakdown
★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 from 21 reviews
About Epoch
From the official readme · v1.0.14Description
Epoch is a new plugin from the creators of Postmatic. The goal: To provide a realtime commenting/chat experience using fully native comments while being compatible with page caching, cdns, mobile, other comment plugins, and seo best practices. A tall order? For sure. Try it out.
Epoch provides an amazing commenting experience to your users while improving site performance at the same time.
Key Features
- WordPress native comments
- Realtime with minimal server load
- Fully ajax commenting for both sending and receiving comments
- Integrates with any theme while still blending in with your brand
- Front end moderation with realtime updates. It’s insanely fast.
Epoch solves three big native commenting problems
User Experience
Comment forms and display are often neglected by theme developers. We’ve been there ourselves. The functions and templates involved in WordPress commenting are complicated, frustrating, and no fun to work with. Every day we see fantastic themes with ridiculously poor commenting experiences. So that’s the first thing Epoch fixes.
Speed and context
No more submitting comments and watching the page reload. All Epoch comments are submitted via ajax and post instantly in their proper place within the conversation.
And, as it should be, new comments from other users show up like magic automatically. It doesn’t matter if they are posted from the web, or from email via Postmatic. The conversation is instantly updated.
Cacheing, page load, and CDNs
Epoch is hands down the fastest commenting system available for WordPress, all the while supporting page cacheing and CDNs. Epoch comments lazy load into a placeholder container only when needed. This means your post will load instantly, your comments will load instantly, and your server won’t blink. Comments are magically injected into your page so your full SEO mojo stays in tact.
Success through compatibility
Epoch is built for compatibility. It uses fully native WordPress commenting, plays nicely with most all other commenting plugins, and employs WordPress coding standards. Use it with your favorite social login, voting, moderation, and other commenting plugins.
Epoch is fully integrated with Postmatic
When running Epoch along with Postmatic the magic really happens. The comment stream is updated in realtime with comments being posted from web as well as email. Subscribing to new comments is quick and simple while users are intelligently invited to become site subscribers as well. All without ugly checkboxes and obtrusive forms.
Want to jump into the ring and help with development?
This is just 1.0. We’re hoping the WordPress community will lend strength, ideas, and code to this project. That’s why we’ve kept it open-source. You can find Epoch on Github and jump right in. We can’t wait to see where commenting goes next.
Combine Epoch with [Postmatic](http://gopostmatic.com) for the ultimate engagment package
Postmatic is a free plugin which lets users subscribe to comments but also reply right from their inbox by hitting reply. Postmatic and Epoch integrate perfectly to let you take the conversation on the road and keep the conversation going months after you hit publish.
Installation
Install the plugin through the WordPress Plugins Installer or upload plugin-name.php to the plugins directory of your content directory
1. Activate the plugin through the ‘Plugins’ menu in WordPress
Epoch will then override the comment template that came with your theme.
Changelog
Nothing to report
1.0.14
- This is the real deal. What 10.0.11/12 was meant to be! Nice fast comment posting even on your broken down dinohost server using your homebrewed ie6 port on that galaxy 3 you dumpstered in brooklyln. Because you can. Well, now we can too. So let’s get along and be kind to each other. Mmmk?
- There probably won’t be a lot more Epoch development until we get 2.0 out the door. Which involves a huge bucket of awesome like REST and maybe Angular or something top secret and better. Be in touch if you want to help out.
1.0.13
This release was really just a rollback to 10.0.10 because everything after that broke wptavern. I wish I was allowed to put expletives in changelogs.
1.0.12
Sorry for two releases in one day. Jason’s schedule cleared a bit and, well, we got ambitious.
- A slight improvement over the previous release for making comments post licketly split.
- We cleaned things up a little bit more for improved 4.4 layouts and compatibility with Postmatic Social Commenting.
1.0.11
- Ooooh so fast. Or at least it looks that way. Submitting comments on slowpoke servers (i’m not pointing fingers… you know who you are) is now quick quick quick. We are injecting the comment directly into the DOM for the user… which lets the server sit back and think about it as long as it wants.
- Tested and beaten up thoroughly. Works well on 4.4.
1.0.10
- Ajax requests on some server environments are taking too long when submitting a comment. We’ve put in an animation to fade the comment form out while the user waits for the comment to post.
- The yellow fade when a new comment arrives has returned!
- Fixed a bug that would display & when someone used an amperstand in their name.
1.0.9
- Added support for our new plugin: Postmatic Social Commenting. Lightweight, simple, and fast social authentication. Read about it on our blog.
- We’ve improved validation alerts when filling out the comment form.
Screenshots
For developers
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Best Epoch alternatives
All ajax comments plugins →
FAQ
Epoch: quick answers
Straight answers, pulled from live WordPress.org data.
Live data from WordPress.org · checked Sep 29, 2026
Is Epoch free?
Yes. Epoch is free to download and use from the official WordPress.org plugin directory.
Is Epoch safe to use in 2026?
Epoch shows warning signs in 2026 — compare the alternatives below before installing. It runs on 60+ sites, is rated 4.5/5 and was last updated 11 years ago, and scores 40/100 on our health check.
How many websites use Epoch?
Epoch is active on 60+ WordPress websites and has been downloaded 33,154 times since it launched in May 2015. It was downloaded 233 times in the last 30 days.
Does Epoch work with WordPress 7.1?
Epoch is officially tested up to WordPress 4.4.34, while the latest release is 7.1.2. It may still work, but try it on a staging site first.
When was Epoch last updated?
The latest version, 1.0.14, was released on December 17, 2015 (11 years ago).
Who makes Epoch?
Epoch is developed and maintained by Josh Pollock.
What are the best alternatives to Epoch?
The most popular alternatives to Epoch are Comments – wpDiscuz (60K+ installs), AnyComment (5K+ installs) and Simple Comment Editing (2K+ installs).
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