James Kemp Acquires ReplyBox – WP Tavern
James Kemp, a WooCommerce developer and founding father of Iconic, has acquired ReplyBox, a privacy-focused remark system. Initially constructed by Ashley Rich and Lewis Warren and launched in 2018, ReplyBox has struggled to achieve a robust foothold within the WordPress ecosystem as a business product with no free model, however it has continued rising at a gradual charge.
“It’s an excellent SaaS however the earlier proprietor had capability points and had left the app in limbo with no updates and no help,” Kemp mentioned. “We noticed plenty of individuals speaking about wanting to make use of it and having minor points, so I approached Ash and supplied to take it off his palms.
“I’ve personally used ReplyBox earlier than for my very own web site (Iconic) and already knew it was an excellent privacy-focused different to Disqus (which riddled my web site with adverts unknowingly!). Ash had already been searching for a purchaser, and as we’ve labored collectively earlier than he knew I’d be a very good match as the brand new proprietor.”
ReplyBox is positioned as a Disqus different product that’s quicker, extra light-weight, and targeted on privateness. Kemp mentioned customers are sometimes interested in the design, the flexibility to make use of Markdown, social login, and webhooks.
The system could be embedded on any web site, together with static HTML pages so as to add dynamic commenting. It additionally integrates with WordPress by way of a connector plugin that’s available on WordPress.org, which has greater than 400 customers. Kemp mentioned the vast majority of ReplyBox customers are utilizing it with WordPress as a result of that’s the viewers they’re finest at reaching because of the present and former homeowners’ backgrounds.
The deal closed earlier this month and the ReplyBox crew has been specializing in forging new partnerships.
“Since taking on, we’ve seen an uptick in customers and have examined compatibility with Strattic – a static WordPress web site generator – the proper candidate for ReplyBox,” Kemp mentioned. “Joost is utilizing it on his private weblog. We’ll hopefully be establishing WPMayor with an account, too, for his or her web site.
The crew has a couple of preliminary concepts for the upcoming roadmap and is reviewing previous and present requests. Potential options embody the next:
- Emoji reactions
- Pin a remark
- Overview system
- Upvote/downvote
- Edit feedback
- Consumer profile hyperlinks
ReplyBox is at the moment engaged on rolling out some minor enhancements and have requests and the crew is first planning on including “overview” performance so it could actually combine extra deeply with WooCommerce and Shopify. For now, they plan to take care of ReplyBox as a commercial-only service. Kemp mentioned they might think about including a free model of the service sooner or later however “proper now it’s not a precedence.”
