MarkLayer and Pastel both let you annotate live websites and share feedback via a link, and on the annotation itself they're close: both draw on the live page, both sync in real time, neither one makes the reviewer install anything. The difference is what happens around that core action.
Pastel is built as a canvas, a persistent object with a name, a version history, and a place in a project list, because agencies need to track a client relationship across many review rounds, not one. That's also where the seat count comes from: a canvas belongs to an account, and Pastel bills per account past the first free one. MarkLayer skips the canvas entirely. There's no project to name, no version to archive, just a URL and a link, which is exactly why it stays free: there's no persistent object to meter.
That trade cuts both ways depending on what a team actually does. An agency running the same three clients through structured monthly reviews will feel Pastel's canvas as a genuine organizing tool, not overhead. A team that mostly needs "look at this one page and tell me what's wrong" will feel the canvas as a setup step standing between them and the feedback, and that's the gap MarkLayer fills for free.
Choose MarkLayer if you want unlimited free visual feedback with no account and open-source code you can self-host. Choose Pastel if you run an agency that needs branded review canvases, integrations with Slack/Trello/Asana/Jira, and a paid SaaS workflow.
| Feature | MarkLayer | Pastel |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free, no tiers | Free plan (1 user, 1 canvas); Pro $29–35/month; Team from $99/month + $24 per extra seat |
| Sign-up required | No | Yes |
| Works on live websites | Yes | Yes |
| Real-time live cursors | Yes | Yes |
| Drawing tools | Freehand, shapes, arrows, lines | Pin comments + draw tools |
| Recipient install | Not required | Not required |
| Project workspaces | No. Link-based, ephemeral | Yes. Persistent canvases per project |
| Integrations | Open source. Extend yourself | Slack, Trello, Asana, Jira, Zapier |
| Open source | Yes | No |
| Best for | Lightweight, friction-free feedback | Agencies running client review cycles |
Pastel is a paid visual feedback platform built for design agencies and client review workflows.
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.
Pastel's polish and the Slack/Trello/Asana integrations are genuine, and that's the agency moat. The trade-off is the per-seat bill. MarkLayer covers the visual-feedback core for free; if you don't need auto-routing into a tracker, that's the saving.
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