MarkLayer and Loom solve different sides of the same problem: how do I show someone something on a webpage when we're not in the same room? Loom records a video walkthrough with your voice, so the recipient watches an action unfold at whatever pace you performed it. MarkLayer captures a single annotated state of the page with arrows, comments, and threaded replies, so the recipient reads a fact in the time it takes to glance at a screenshot, nothing to press play on.
That's a difference in what kind of information survives the format, not just in price. A multi-step flow with a confusing transition genuinely needs to be watched; describing it in arrows and text loses the timing that makes the confusion visible in the first place. A misaligned button or a wrong headline needs none of that: dressing a static fact up as a video just adds a scrubber between the viewer and the one thing they needed to know.
Most teams that use both land on a rough rule of thumb: if the last thing you'd say while narrating is "and then I clicked here, and then this happened," record it in Loom. If the whole message fits in one sentence pinned to an exact pixel, that was never really a video, and MarkLayer replaces it for free.
Choose MarkLayer when the message is "this specific thing on this page". You want a fast, focused, durable artifact that survives a Loom video's 5-minute attention span. Choose Loom when the message is "watch me walk through this flow" and motion or voice tone matters.
| Feature | MarkLayer | Loom |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free, no tiers | Free tier (5-min limit, 25 videos); paid plans per user |
| Sign-up required | No | Yes |
| Format | Static annotated page snapshot | Video recording with voice |
| Voice / audio | No. Text comments only | Yes |
| Time-stamped comments | No (page is a single state) | Yes |
| Real-time live cursors | Yes | No. Async-only |
| Drawing tools | Yes. Freehand, shapes, arrows | No live drawing on page |
| Threaded replies on the artifact | Yes. Pinned to the page | Yes. Pinned to video timestamps |
| Time to consume | Seconds. Single screen | Minutes. Must watch the video |
| Best for | Specific UI changes, bugs, design notes | Walkthroughs, tutorials, async standups |
Loom is a popular async video tool for screen and webcam recording with viewer reactions and time-stamped comments.
MarkLayer is a free, open-source web app for annotating any live webpage. Paste a URL atmarklayer.app and draw, comment, arrow, or highlight directly on the page in your browser — no install, no account, no sign-up. Share a single link and anyone can open the annotations in any browser. A free Chrome extension is available for the sites the web app cannot embed, such as pages behind a login, but it is optional and never required to view a share link. There is no paywall and no trial period.
I use both. Loom for walkthroughs where motion or voice tone matters. MarkLayer for everything else. A circle on the broken element gets a developer to 'I see it' faster than scrubbing a 90-second video.
Paste any URL at marklayer.app and annotate the live page in your browser. No install, no account, no sign-up. Recipients of your share links don't need to install anything either.
Annotate a page