WordPress is the most popular content management system (CMS) for a reason: even if you don’t know anything about programming, you can use it to create your website in just a few minutes.
And once you have uploaded your content, other users can leave comments on your posts. For some websites, the comment function provides a great way to interact with your readers. However, for others, it may be a better idea to keep the comments section closed.
How to hide comments in WordPress
There are a few different methods you can use to hide comments in WordPress & stop others from commenting on your posts.
If you want to turn off all comments on your WordPress website, you can actually do this fro within your dashboard. To disable comments on the entire site, go to Settings in your admin panel and navigate to the Discussion tab.
In the Default post settings section, uncheck the Allow comments on new posts option.
This is the easy way to stop allowing users to comment on your posts. However, unchecking this box does not mean that all old comments will be removed. You will have to go through each article manually and delete individual comments to remove them.
Also, any new post will no longer have a comments section from now on. However, existing articles on your website will still have a comments section. If you want to remove them, one way to deal with this is to go through each individual post and delete everything manually.
To do this, go to the Comments tab in your WordPress dashboard. There, you’ll find a list of all comments on your site, compiled from all posts.
There is a checkbox at the top of the comments list. You need to check the box to select all comments.
Then select the Move to trash option under the Bulk actions drop-down menu. Then click on Apply. This will delete all selected comments.
Hide comments on specific posts
Do you want to switch off the comments section or activate it for certain posts? To do this, go to the Pages or Posts tab in your WordPress dashboard. Here you will see a list of all pages and posts that are currently on your website.
Find the page you want to hide comments on and click on the Edit option just below the title. You will then be redirected to the WordPress editing screen.
In the top right corner of the page, you will find the screen options. Click on it and make sure the Discussion option is checked.
Scroll down to find the Discussion menu and uncheck the Allow comments box.
Click Update to commit the change to the post. Now, the comments section on this page/post is now disabled.
Deactivating comments using plugins
All of the above methods use the options built into WordPress and are therefore extremely simple. But as you can see, these solutions are often require a lot of manual work.
This is where the plugin comes in to bridge the gap – there are free and paid plugins to help you better control the commenting function.
Disable Comments is a popular free solution. It allows you to disable the comment function on the entire website with just a single mouse click. You can also decide whether you want to disable comments for individual posts only.
This plugin is the perfect choice if you need a tool that accomplishes the simple task of hiding comments. There are also premium plugins that offer features other than disabling comments.
Perfmatters, for example, can help you improve the performance of your website and gives you full control over the comment function.
Conclusion
These aren’t the only ways to hide comments in WordPress. However, they are the easiest. There are many reasons why some websites want to disable the comment feature – disabling the comment section is a good way to prevent spam, and large businesses with many customers and site visitors usually opt for this approach. With our guide, hopefully now you can too!
