Threadline
The comment layer the open web deserves.
Privacy-first comments, an open identity protocol, and a managed product publishers can trust — without selling reader attention.
Why we exist
Protocol plus product — not another walled garden.
Threadline started from a simple observation: Disqus was built to sell your readers' attention, not to serve your community. Every privacy-first alternative was either dead, unmaintained, or required a server.
We believed there was a better path: open-source the identity protocol (TIP), so no company can ever wall-garden reader identity again. And build the best-in-class managed implementation on top of it — the Stripe model for web comments.
Threadline is a solo founder project, built in public. If we ever violate our own principles, the community can fork the protocol.
What we refuse to compromise
Open protocol
TIP is Apache 2.0. Anyone can implement it. No company can wall-garden reader identity.
Privacy by default
No third-party cookies. No cross-site tracking. Comment systems should not be surveillance tools.
Publisher-first
No ads without your approval. Monetization controls ship when the ads system is enabled — moderation and discussion stay yours either way.
Transparent
Architectural decisions are documented. The privacy changelog is a public GitHub history.
Build with us
One script tag for comments. An open protocol for identity. No lock-in — and a public record of how we treat privacy.