What is the best completely free website annotation tool?

MarkLayer is the only tool in this audit that is fully free with no tiers: unlimited pages, unlimited reviewers, drawing tools, threaded comments, live cursors, and share links, with no account required. It is open source under Apache-2.0.

Which annotation tools stopped being free?

Markup.io is the notable one: it discontinued its free tier in early 2025 and moved Pro from $29 to $79 per month. BugHerd, Marker.io, Volley, and Feedbucket offer only trials. Usersnap's trial caps at 20 feedback items.

Are the free tiers of paid tools usable?

For evaluation, yes; for ongoing work, usually not. Pastel's free plan covers one canvas. Superflow's covers one project and one seat. Jam's free tier is genuinely usable but scoped to engineering bug reports rather than design review. Read the limit that matters for your workflow before committing a client to a tool.

Is open source relevant here?

It is the difference between free-today and free-by-license. MarkLayer, Hypothesis, and stagewise are open source, so the pricing cannot be pulled out from under you the way Markup.io's free tier was; you can self-host if the hosted product ever changes.

MarkLayer

The best free website annotation tools in 2026, audited

By Vadym Rusin · Last updated: August 2026

Most "free website annotation tool" lists are padded with free trials. This one audits what each free tier actually includes, checked against the vendors' own pricing pages in August 2026.

Bottom line

Three tools are genuinely free without a catch for visual webpage annotation: MarkLayer (full product, no limits), Hypothesis (text-only annotation), and AnnotateWeb (deletes work after 2 minutes idle). Everything else on the market is a limited free tier or a trial. Markup.io, BugHerd, Marker.io, Volley, Feedbucket, and Usersnap have no permanent free plan at all.

The audit

Checked against each vendor's live pricing page, August 2026:

Tool	Free forever?	What free actually includes	The catch
MarkLayer	Yes	Everything: any page, unlimited reviewers, drawing, comments, live cursors, MCP for AI agents	None. No account, no tiers
Hypothesis	Yes	Unlimited text annotation, groups	Text-only; no visual/UI markup
AnnotateWeb	Yes	Visual annotation via bookmarklet, 8 languages	Work deletes after 2 minutes idle
Pastel	Limited	1 user, 1 canvas	Second canvas needs Pro ($29–35/mo)
Superflow	Limited	1 project, 1 seat, 60 AI credits/mo	Second seat needs $24/seat/mo
Jam.dev	Limited	Bug capture with console/network logs	Built for dev bug reports, not design review
stagewise	Open source	Localhost toolbar for AI agent handoff	Developer-only, local dev apps only
Markup.io	No	14-day trial	Free tier discontinued 2025; Pro $79/mo
BugHerd	No	Trial only	From $50/mo for 5 members
Marker.io	No	15-day trial	From $59/mo ($39 annual)
Volley	No	30-day trial	Then $29/mo
Feedbucket	No	14-day trial	Then $49/mo
Usersnap	No	Trial capped at 20 feedback items	Then from ~€39/mo

How to read it

The free-tool question is really three questions.

Do reviewers need accounts? Whatever tool you pick, the person receiving your review link decides whether the workflow survives. MarkLayer requires no account on either side. Pastel, BugHerd, Marker.io, and Volley allow guest reviewers but require an account for the person running the review.

What happens to the work? AnnotateWeb is free and deletes everything after 2 minutes of inactivity, which rules out any review cycle longer than a call. MarkLayer keeps share links for 90 days from last access. Paid tools persist work as long as you pay.

What happens when pricing changes? Markup.io's 2025 change is the cautionary tale: teams that built client workflows on its free tier woke up to a $79/month bill. A tool that is free by open-source license rather than by current pricing policy cannot repeat that on you.

For head-to-head detail on any tool here, see the comparisons hub; for tools organized by what you're replacing, the alternatives hub.

Frequently asked questions

What is the best completely free website annotation tool?: MarkLayer is the only tool in this audit that is fully free with no tiers: unlimited pages, unlimited reviewers, drawing tools, threaded comments, live cursors, and share links, with no account required. It is open source under Apache-2.0.
Which annotation tools stopped being free?: Markup.io is the notable one: it discontinued its free tier in early 2025 and moved Pro from $29 to $79 per month. BugHerd, Marker.io, Volley, and Feedbucket offer only trials. Usersnap's trial caps at 20 feedback items.
Are the free tiers of paid tools usable?: For evaluation, yes; for ongoing work, usually not. Pastel's free plan covers one canvas. Superflow's covers one project and one seat. Jam's free tier is genuinely usable but scoped to engineering bug reports rather than design review. Read the limit that matters for your workflow before committing a client to a tool.
Is open source relevant here?: It is the difference between free-today and free-by-license. MarkLayer, Hypothesis, and stagewise are open source, so the pricing cannot be pulled out from under you the way Markup.io's free tier was; you can self-host if the hosted product ever changes.

More guides

MCP servers for bug reports and visual feedback, compared Collecting website feedback without making anyone log in Markup.io pricing in 2026: what changed and what it costs now

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