Userback vs MarkLayer: a free Userback alternative
MarkLayer and Userback look similar at a glance, both put comments and drawings on a page, but they're built for opposite directions of feedback. Userback's core product is a widget: your team installs a script tag on your own site, and it lets your end users, the people using your product, report bugs and leave feedback that lands in your dashboard with browser and OS metadata attached automatically.
MarkLayer runs the other way. There's no widget to install anywhere, because the "product" being annotated isn't yours to embed a script on in the first place. Your team opens marklayer.app, pastes a URL, whether that's your own staging site, a client's production page, or a competitor's product, and annotates it directly in the browser, live cursors and all, then shares a link.
The confusion is understandable, since Userback's dashboard can also be used internally by a team reviewing its own product, which looks a lot like what MarkLayer does. The real dividing line is where the feedback originates: from your customers (Userback's job) or from your own team looking at any page at all (MarkLayer's job). Teams that need both often run them side by side rather than picking one.
Choose MarkLayer when your team needs to give feedback on any webpage, anywhere on the internet. Choose Userback when you need to collect annotated feedback FROM your end users on your own product via an embedded widget.
On this page
At a glance
| Feature | MarkLayer | Userback |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Paid (subscription per user/month) |
| Sign-up required | No | Yes |
| Primary use case | Your team annotating any page | End users giving feedback on your own product |
| Embedded widget on your site | No | Yes. JS snippet you install |
| Works on third-party / competitor pages | Yes. Annotate any page | No. Widget only on your installed sites |
| Browser/OS metadata capture | Yes. Browser, OS and viewport on every comment left in the browser | Yes |
| Integrations | One-way. Posts new comments to Slack, Teams, Discord or a webhook; files single threads as Jira, Linear or GitHub issues. Nothing syncs back | Jira, Slack, Trello, Asana, GitHub |
| Real-time live cursors | Yes | No |
| Open source | Yes | No |
| Best for | Internal team review on any page | Customer feedback widget on your own product |
About Userback
Userback is a paid feedback platform whose primary use case is collecting feedback FROM your end users via an embedded widget on your own product.
About MarkLayer
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.
Userback and MarkLayer get conflated because both have annotation. Userback is the widget customers use to give you feedback on your product. MarkLayer is the tool your team uses to give feedback on any page. Different sides of the table.
When to choose MarkLayer
- You want your team to annotate pages. Including pages you don't own.
- You need real-time collaborative review with live cursors.
- You want a free, no-sign-up tool for ad-hoc visual feedback.
- You're not trying to collect feedback from your own end users right now.
When to choose Userback
- You need a feedback widget embedded on your own production app for end users.
- You need user-submitted bug reports with browser/OS metadata attached.
- You need feedback to flow into Jira, Slack, Trello, or GitHub automatically.
- You want a customer-facing branded feedback experience.
Frequently asked questions
- Is MarkLayer a free Userback alternative?
- Only for one direction of Userback's use case. Internal team annotation on any page. MarkLayer does not replace Userback's widget for collecting feedback from your end users on your own product.
- Can I embed MarkLayer on my website like Userback?
- No. MarkLayer is a tool your team opens in a browser, not a JavaScript widget you embed on your site for visitors. If you need a customer-facing feedback widget, Userback is the right category of tool.
- Can my team use MarkLayer to review competitor sites?
- Yes. MarkLayer works on any webpage, including third-party sites. Many teams use it for competitive analysis and content review.
- What's the cleanest split between MarkLayer and Userback?
- MarkLayer = your team annotating anything on the web. Userback = your end users annotating your product to give you feedback. Different sides of the table.
- Does Userback have a free plan?
- Yes, as of September 2026: a Free Forever plan covering 2 seats, 2 projects, and 7-day feedback retention. Paid tiers start at Team ($29/month annual, 5 seats) and go up through Business ($79/month, adds session replay and AI classification) to Business Plus ($159/month, adds mobile SDK and webhooks). MarkLayer stays free at every scale, with no seat count to outgrow.
Related comparisons
Try MarkLayer
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