How to Remove Comments from WordPress

How to Remove the Comment Section from WordPress

Comments are one of those interesting elements of WordPress that will just not go away.  Whether you are looking at a landing page, a post, an image file, or many other items on a typical WordPress website, the comments section is ALMOST ALWAYS THERE.

While it is understandable that some people want the capability to comment on every piece of a website, most people do not want to do this.

The following resource covers how to remove the comments section of WordPress, as well as how to remove spam comments from a website and even how to hide specific elements of the comments section using CSS. We will also go into detail on how to remove the comments section from individual posts and pages.

Remove the Comment Section from WordPress

The reason why you came here is to remove the comment section, and thankfully it is very easy to do on a more global scale as well as on a single post or page.

To remove the comments section from a single post, you want to employ the built-in controls that WordPress gives you as a content creator. First navigate to the WordPress Settings > Discussion and adjust the default article settings so that it is possible for people to post comments in the first place. Now, when you create a blog post, go to the bottom of the editor and you will notice a section for discussion where you can simply uncheck the box to “allow comments”

Remove comments from a single post or page

Not seeing this box? At the very top right of the post editor, make sure that under “Screen Options”, Discussion is checked. Otherwise, it will not display.

Remove the Comments section from WordPress with Disable Comments

If you are looking to eliminate comments totally, this is all accomplished with a free WordPress plugin called Disable Comments.

Once you have downloaded and installed the plugin into your website, you want to go to the new tab under Settings for Disable Comments.

disable comments wordpress

There a couple of different options once you have found this section. You can turn off comments globally on your site or you can specify by all pages or custom post type. For example, if you are a realtor with a Custom Post Type for “Properties” you can turn off just the “Properties” post type so a user like myself can only comment on blogs and images but not on individual properties. Make sure you save your changes when you are finished making them.

Hide portions of the comments section using CSS

It is possible to also remove elements of the comments section, like the title, depending on what WordPress theme and plugins you are using. If you find out what class you are looking to modify, you can always use the classic CSS:

class {
     display:none;
}

You will want to make these code changes on a “child theme” so that you don’t lose changes as plugins or themes are updated. Click here to find out how to make a child theme easily with our themes and make these edits.

NOTE: It is not recommended to simply “hide” the comments section of your site. Spam commenters and others will still technically have access to the comments section, even if it is not displaying on the page physically. Make sure you are actually disabling or removing comments altogether.

Remove spam comments from WordPress

If you are looking to remove just the spam comments from WordPress, the plugin you want to use is actually created by the team behind WordPress itself. The plugin is called Akismet, and it is free and very easy to use.

Remove spam comments on WordPress with Akismet

With Akismet, be warned that you have to create a free account with WordPress and get an activation key before Akismet will work for you. However, once the plugin has been installed and the code has been entered, Akismet practically works by itself, moderating comments and recommending that more clever spammy comments might in fact be spam.

Video Walkthrough on how to remove the comments section from WordPress

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1 thought on “How to Remove the Comment Section from WordPress”

  1. Unfortunately ome templates don’t have this option in the discussion settings (e.g. the popular “Twenty Thirteen” template). If so, you can eliminate all comments sections on all pages of your site by editing the Page Template . Simply remove the line that includes and save the file. To do this in wp-admin mode do the following. Click on “Appearance”. In the menu that appears, click on “Editor”. Click on “Page Template” in the file list on the far right. Delete the line from the file. Click the “update file” button. Done.

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