I think it's possible to query a wordpress post author id of the current post and compare it with the id of the current login user of the current page. Such that, if the IDs is a match, a comment form is shown, otherwise the comment form is hidden. I did tried to do it. The IDs were retrieved and compared successfully, the criteria were met but, I'm not sure what is still keeping the comment form hidden. I don't know if the argument to show or hide comments based on the above stated conditions is best to implement in my custom comment template review-comments.php or if it is best to implement the logic in my theme single review page template single-review.php where my custom comment template is included to show comments and comment form? My trial was done in review-comment.php <?php if (have_comments()) : ?> <div class="escortreviewtext"> <h4 class="rad3">Escort Reply:</h4> <div class="commentlistall"> <?php wp_list_comments(array('callback' => 'theme_comments', 'style' => 'div', 'type' => 'comment')); ?> <div class="clear"></div> </div> </div> <?php endif; ?> <div class="clear30"></div> <?php if (is_user_logged_in()) : $current_user = wp_get_current_user(); $post = get_post(); // Get the current post object $post_author_id = $post->post_author; if ($current_user->ID === $post_author_id || current_user_can('administrator')) : ?> <div class="commform" id="respond"> <form action="<?php echo esc_url(get_option('siteurl') . '/wp-comments-post.php'); ?>" method="post" id="commentform"> <div class="commtext col-100"> <?php _e('', 'escortwp'); ?> <div class="clear"></div> <textarea name="comment" id="comment" class="commtextarea" placeholder="Thanks dear❤️" tabindex="1" rows="10" style="width: 96%; border-radius: 5px; padding: 10px; margin-left: 10px; border: 1px solid #FE5ACB99;"></textarea> </div> <div class="clear10"></div> <div class="text-center"> <input type="submit" class="pinkbutton commsubmitbutton rad25" name="submit" value="<?php _e('Reply', 'escortwp'); ?>" tabindex="2" /> </div> <?php $replytoid = isset($_GET['replytocom']) ? (int)$_GET['replytocom'] : 0; ?> <input type='hidden' name='comment_parent' id='comment_parent' value='<?php echo $replytoid; ?>' /> <input type="hidden" name="comment_post_ID" value="<?php echo esc_attr($post->ID); ?>" /> <?php do_action('comment_form', $post->ID); ?> <a rel="nofollow" id="cancel-comment-reply-link" href="#respond" class="cancel-comment-reply-link rad5" style="display: none;"><?php _e('Cancel reply', 'escortwp'); ?></a> </form> </div> <!-- COMMENTS FORM --> <?php endif; endif; ?> <!-- Display IDs at the footer for comparison --> <footer> <p>Current User ID: <?php echo $current_user->ID; ?></p> <p>Post Author ID: <?php echo $post_author_id; ?></p> </footer>