Third party comment systems, good or bad?

Whilst thinking about how I could improve the design of the blog I thought to myself, "should I use a third party commenting system?"
I have used various commenting systems so I set about trying out a few on the site to see what suited it best.

After installation every thing looked great. It worked good, looked good, but then I thought to my self, "there must be some downsides to using these third party commenting systems".
And there are...

Integration

On certain platforms like blogger, once integrated and left on site for a while there is no going back. If you ever decide to remove the commenting system your comments are gone too. This is definitely something to think about before installing a commenting system.

Yet another account

We've all got too many accounts to deal with already, right? It can be annoying having to log into a completely different account every time you want to manage your comments. I forget my passwords and log-in's all the time, I cant be bothered with the hassle of requesting log in details for yet another account.

Lack of control

All the data is stored on another server that you have no control over. Using default comment systems can stop problems like comments not working due to server down time. By using a 3rd party system your at the mercy of the site you signed up with, if your account suddenly disappears, what are you gonna do?

SEO

Most 3rd party comments are framed. What is this doing to my sites seo? Are comments being indexed correctly?

But do these little problems over weigh the positives of third party commenting systems? After all, I like them enough to want to use them on my blog. What are the pros?

Spam control

Third party commenting systems provide spam control that most default systems don't have.This is great for people who receive high amounts of comments, it can cut down moderation time a lot.

Social media log in

You can make it easier for your visitors to leave comments by allowing them to log in using existing accounts on multiple social networking sites like Facebook, no need to create new profiles. Facebook have there own commenting system which allows you to communicate with facebook contacts directly.

Enhanced Functionality

Certain commenting systems offer little perks that you just wont find with your default comments. Like intense debate with comment luv and ratings, or Facebook comments seamlessly integrating your social networking with your site.

As you can see, there are many reasons why using 3rd party comments can be useful, so are they good or bad?

Overall, I think they are good, although it would be wise to have a little think about the downsides before added it to your site long term. Some times there is just no need for a 3rd party system.

Even though they have their downsides, they have many features that are worth taking advantage of. Below are a few comment systems worth checking out if you are thinking about adding one.

Top 4 third party comment systems

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