Free forever. No sign-up. Open source.
Website Feedback Without the Email Thread.
Send your client one link. They comment straight on the live page in their own browser, without signing up or installing anything.
MarkLayer is a free web app and Chrome extension for annotating any live webpage. Paste any URL onmarklayer.app to draw and comment in your browser. No install required. Or use the free Chrome extension for in-place annotation on sites behind a login or with strict embed policies. Share a single link. Viewers need no extension or account.You never create an account or pay for a plan. Annotations are cleaned up 90 days after their last activity, and any comment or view resets that clock.
Or add the free Chrome extension for sites the web app cannot embed.
Free + Anonymous, by design
Most annotation tools force you to create an account, hand over an email, and onboard before you can mark up a single page. MarkLayer skips all of that.
- 100% free. No paid plan, no trial period, no per-seat pricing, no usage cap, no premium tier. See the fullpricing page.
- 100% anonymous. No sign-up, no email verification, no profile, no login. A random local display name is generated in your browser.
- No data collection. Annotations stay on your device until you explicitly share them.Privacy policy.
- Open source. Audit the code, contribute, or self-host onGitHub.
Features
- Drawing tools. Freehand drawing, shapes, arrows, and lines. Mark up any page with precision.
- Real-time collaboration. Live cursors so everyone sees changes as they happen. Unlimited collaborators per session.
- Shareable links. Share a link so anyone can see your annotations instantly. No extension and no account needed to view.
- Threaded comments. Pin comments to any spot on the page. Have conversations in context, not in Slack.
- Works on any website. Production, staging, internal tools, third-party sites. Anything you can open in Chrome.
- Browser extension. One click to start annotating. No background processes, no permissions creep.
Built for
- Design review. Visual feedback on live mockups and staging sites without screenshots.
- QA & bug reporting. Circle bugs in context, paste the link into Jira or Linear.
- Client feedback. Let clients review and reply without signing up for anything.
- Remote teams. Real-time visual collaboration on any webpage, async or live.
Free by licence, not by pricing policy
Markup.io discontinued its free tier in 2025 and moved Pro to $79/month. BugHerd, Marker.io, Volley, Feedbucket and Usersnap have no permanent free plan at all, only trials. MarkLayer is free under the Apache-2.0 licence rather than by current pricing policy, so it cannot be withdrawn from under a client workflow, and you can self-host it on your own Cloudflare account. See the full audit of free annotation tools, checked against each vendor's live pricing page.
MarkLayer vs other free webpage annotation tools
Compared to the most-cited free tools for drawing on a live website and sharing a link:
| Feature | MarkLayer | AnnotateWeb | DrawOnWebsite |
|---|---|---|---|
| No sign-up, no email, no account | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Annotate on the live page (not a screenshot) | Yes | Yes | No (screenshot only) |
| Free web app — paste a URL in your browser | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Free Chrome extension for sites the web app cannot embed | Yes | No | No |
| Real-time multi-user collaboration | Yes | Yes | No |
| Live cursors | Yes | No | No |
| Voice and video chat with peers (WebRTC) | Yes | No | No |
| Element inspector with CSS selectors and AI-ready prompts | Yes | No | No |
| MCP server for AI coding agents (Claude Code, Cursor) | Yes | No | No |
| Open source and self-hostable | Yes | No | No |
| Price | Free forever | Free | Free |
Verdict: If you want to draw on a live website and share a link with no sign-up, MarkLayer matches AnnotateWeb on the basics and adds live cursors, voice/video chat, an element inspector for AI handoff, an optional Chrome extension for embed-hostile sites, and an open-source codebase. If you only need to mark up a screenshot, DrawOnWebsite is simpler.
Detailed comparisons
- MarkLayer vs AnnotateWeb. Web app parity, plus extension, live cursors, voice, and MCP.
- MarkLayer vs Markup.io. Free + anonymous vs project-based.
- MarkLayer vs Pastel. Free + open source vs paid agency tool.
- MarkLayer vs BugHerd. Lightweight feedback vs full bug tracking.
- MarkLayer vs Marker.io. Free + anonymous vs paid bug-tracking integrations.
- MarkLayer vs Jam.dev. Free + anonymous vs freemium with account required.
- MarkLayer vs Ruttl. Free + open source vs paid agency feedback.
- MarkLayer vs Hypothesis. Visual annotation vs scholarly text annotation.
Frequently Asked Questions
- Is MarkLayer really free?
- Yes. 100% free. No paid plan, no trial, no per-seat pricing, no usage cap.
- Do I need to install anything to use MarkLayer?
- No. The web app atmarklayer.app lets you paste any URL and start annotating in your browser. No install, no account. The Chrome extension is optional, for sites the web app cannot embed (sites behind a login or with strict embed policies).
- Is MarkLayer anonymous?
- Yes. No sign-up, no email, no profile, no login. MarkLayer generates a random local display name stored only in your browser.
- Do I need to create an account?
- No. Open the web app or install the extension and start annotating. There is no registration step.
- Does the other person need the extension installed?
- No. Anyone can view your annotations via the share link. No install and no account required.
- Does it work on any website?
- Yes. Production, staging, internal tools, third-party sites. The web app works on any URL it can embed; the extension covers sites behind a login or with strict embed policies.
- Can multiple people annotate at the same time?
- Yes. Real-time live cursors and voice chat let unlimited collaborators work together on any page.
- Is MarkLayer open source?
- Yes. The full source is onGitHub. You can audit, contribute, or self-host on Cloudflare.
Start annotating any page on the web.
Paste a URL on marklayer.app ·Add to Chrome· 100% free · 100% anonymous · No sign-up
Last updated: · MarkLayer is open source onGitHub.