Some notes: not every feature is of equal value. The totals give some indication of how feature/support-rich a solution is but shouldn't be seen as an objective "score", it's not weighted in any way, though it all averages out for the most part.
| Feature | Factotum | Convenient Discussions | DiscussionTools | reply-link | Flow |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total green | 66 | 33 | 22 | 12 | 26 |
| Total red | 0 | 28 | 40 | 51 | 32 |
| PageContentModel | wikitext | wikitext | wikitext | wikitext | flow-board |
| Automatically add reply links | opt-out | always on | always on | always on | always on |
| Link to add a new section | opt-out | opt-in | opt-in | no | sort of |
| Links to add new subsections | opt-in | always on | no | no | no |
| Reply to section | opt-in | yes | no | no | yes |
| Discussion activity info | opt-in | TBD | opt-out | no | yes |
| mw:Extension:InputBox takeover | opt-out | no | no | no | no |
| Edit conflicts | Full immunity provided the signature you're replying to is still on the page. | Deals with edit conflicts according to the developer. | yes | TBD | no |
| Auto-mention | opt-out | no | no | always on | yes (in a sense) |
| Mention menu (button) | opt-in | always on (unless you disable the editing toolbar) | always on | no | yes |
| Mention menu (press @) | opt-out | opt-out | always on | no | no |
| Add mentions by pressing the reply link of someone's reply with the reply window already open | yes | no | no | no | no |
| Bites DiscussionTools | no | yes | n/a | no (if using AJ's fork, the original got bitten by DiscussionTools) | yes |
| Edit your comments | opt-out | always on | no | no | yes |
| Edit other users' comments | opt-in, but can only edit the last line of non-Factotum comments, automatically pings the victim | opt-in | no | no | yes |
| Show signature dates in local time | opt-in | opt-in | no | no | no, but shows relative time |
| Section order reversal (newest first) | opt-in | no | no | no | no |
| Topic subscription | opt-in, won't bite DiscussionTools' subscription feature in case you want both | always on | yes (can be hidden, not sure if opt-in or opt-out) | no | yes |
| Wysiwyg editor | opt-in, it's fairly basic but generally sufficient for commenting | no | yes | no | yes |
| Configurable buttons to insert text | yes | yes | no | no | no |
| Option to configure such a button to immediately post a reply | yes | no | no | no | no |
| Configurable buttons to apply regular expressions | yes | no | no | no | no |
| Configurable regular expressions that are applied automatically | yes | no | no | no | no |
| AWB RegExTypoFix support | yes | no | no | no | no |
| Automatically rewrite most external wikilinks (including diffs and crosswiki) to internal ones | yes | no | only local pages and only when using the link button | no | no |
| Has a meaningful settings window | yes | yes | "Advanced"? What a joke. | there isn't one | no |
| Adjustable edit summary | opt-in | yes | yes | no | no |
| Automatically add comment snippet to summary | opt-out | no | no | no | yes |
| Live preview | opt-in | opt-out | always on | no | frankly there is no "true" preview. |
| View diff of the edit you're about to make | when editing comments, sections or pages | yes | no | no | no |
| Edit full pages | opt-in | no | no | no | no |
| Edit full sections | opt-in, similar to BrandonXLF's QuickEdit. I swear I had never heard of that until I did a search for scripts using wgUrlProtocols a few days ago, it's eerily similar to what Factotum does. | no | no | no | no |
| Basic markup toolbar | opt-out | opt-out | always on | no | always on |
| Collapsible threads | opt-in | opt-out | no | no | can hide topics |
| Configure watchlist setting | yes | yes | no | no | yes |
| Configure watchlist duration | yes | no | no | no | no |
| Additive watchlist duration option (add N days to existing expiration) | yes | no | no | no | no |
| Autocomplete mentions/links/tags/templates | yes, when using link insertion form | yes | mentions | no | no |
| Put buttons on the left | opt-out | no | no | always on | no |
| Put buttons on the right | opt-in | always on | always on | no | always on |
| Recover comment after unexpected exit | opt-out | always on | always on | no | always on |
| Legally compliant with license warning | opt-out | no | always on | no | always on |
| Show edit notices | opt-out | no | only when adding a new section, otherwise no | no | no |
| BBCode support | opt-in | no | no | no | no |
| Markdown support | opt-in, partial | no | no | no | no |
| Could be used to comment on articles in The Signpost | When replying to a comment that was placed with Factotum or if the Signpost implements a special "FCL" link | Untested | no | no | no |
| Works on comments on sqwiki from before 2012 | yes | TBD | no | TBD | n/a |
| Development time as of March 2022 | ~3 months | Since 2018 | years | years (before being discontinued) | years |
| Translations | Basic translation imported from MediaWiki. Full translation (settings etc) in Dutch, German WIP | Many, completeness unknown | Presumed to be complete | English, Portuguese | Presumed to be complete |
| Check for new comments | opt-out (on preview, posting and when opening form, every 30s with live preview) | always on | always on | No | No |
| Warn before leaving the page with an entered comment | opt-out | uses general preference? | uses general preference? | uses general preference? | uses general preference |
| Extra reply link at the bottom of the section | opt-in | always on | no | no | always on |
| Permalink generator for sections | opt-in (old revid) | no | no | no | yes |
| Permalink generator for comments | opt-in (oldrevid for comments with locator, diff otherwise) | yes (diff) | no | no | yes |
| Automatic outdenting | always on, configurable to activate at minimum 5 or maximum 30 levels, default 10, does not require template | TBD | no | always on, requires outdent template | yes |
| Automatically disable on diffs and old revisions | always disable, opt-in enable | never disable | never disable | always disable | n/a |
| Automatically hide or disable in elements with the "archived" class | opt-out | yes | no | yes | n/a |
| Plug-in/module support | yes | TBD | no | no | no |
| Consumes bandwidth and server CPU time even if you've disabled it | no | no | yes | no | n/a (nothing else can interact with flow-board so you have no choice) |
| ResourceLoader compatible (loadable as gadget) | yes | no | yes | no | yes |
| Typical extra bandwidth consumption (all gzipped) for loading a page with 1000+ comments, not counting static files like the script itself | 0 (if no comments were placed with Factotum) ~5K (if all comments are placed with Factotum) |
17K in 6 API requests followed by an endless stream of 1.3K API requests | >65K in HTML, 23K API, >88K total | 1.3K in one api request | n/a |
| Typical server CPU time needed on a page with 1000+ comments | 0 | 0 | on wikt:en:Wiktionary:Requests for deletion/Non-English "DiscussionTools time usage: 1.326 seconds" was observed and on another try 1.087 seconds. Depends on server load. On a snapshot of that page on beta cluster it's often around 0.629 seconds. Different server, but maybe the lack of edit history also helps, this is unclear. | 0 | unknown |
| Typical client load time on a page with 1000+ comments on a Core 2 Duo laptop (average of three) | 849ms. Depends on client CPU. Can be a bit higher or near-zero depending on settings. | 6316ms, appears to depend on client CPU. | non-zero, will take some time to set up a benchmark | non-zero, TBD but it's quick | unknown |
| In case of failure, generates a detailed error report with a convenient link to bug the developer(s) with it | yes | TBD | no | no | no |
| Skin support | all | Has issues on Minerva. | all | According to Enterprisey just Vector, but seems to load on monobook and timeless as well. Not on Minerva. | all |
| Link to send thanks | opt-in | yes | no | no | no |
| Scroll to previous/next section/comment | yes (opt-in section buttons + keyboard shortcuts for sections and comments) | TBD | no | no | no |
| Search and replace | yes | yes (through 2010 wikitext editor) | no | no | no |
| Undo/redo (when inserting markup, beyond what the browser natively offers) | opt-in | no | yes | n/a | yes |
| Section moving | opt-in | no | no | no | no |
| Block tool (block/unblock a user and comment on their talk page at the same time) | yes | no | no | no | no |
| Feature | Factotum | Convenient Discussions | DiscussionTools | reply-link | Flow |