One <script> tag turns your live page into a review surface. Highlight, draw, pin and comment — anchored to the real content, saved in the browser, shared as a single JSON file.
<script src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/@reviewjs/annotate/annotate.js" defer></script>
↑ This page is live — select a sentence, press R to draw, P to pin, A for comments.
We open with a two-week teaser, then give early access to our waitlist of 12,000 subscribers before the public announcement.
Paid social runs alongside, with the hero video as the centerpiece across every channel.
Can we pull the waitlist email a week earlier? Momentum matters.
Screenshots go stale and chat threads lose context. Six tools keep every note attached to the exact pixel, paragraph or region it’s about — each carrying its own threaded comment.
Select any text to highlight and comment on the exact words — re-anchors even after edits.
Text-aware anchors. Stores the selected quote plus nearby context so feedback follows copy changes instead of becoming a dead screenshot.
Draw a box around any region — a misaligned button, a whole section, anything.
Region-level markup. Captures the exact page area for layout, spacing, alignment, and responsive QA notes.
Ring anything that needs a closer look. Each mark carries its own colored thread.
Visual callouts. Pulls attention to specific details such as icons, image crops, labels, badges, and small design misses.
Drop a precise point marker on a single pixel and attach a note to it.
Pixel-precise notes. Best for tiny targets: typos, broken links, awkward tap areas, and one-off UI defects.
Sketch directly over the design when words won’t do — ink it in.
Drawn direction. Adds rough paths, crop lines, arrows, and markup shapes without switching to a design tool.
Hover any paragraph or heading for a comment button in the margin.
Block comments. Attaches discussion to a heading, paragraph, or content block when the feedback is about the whole section.
No backend to stand up. Nothing to get past security review. It lives in the browser, exports JSON, and gets out of the way.
No build step, no framework, no signup. Paste a line, reload, review.
Plain HTML, React, Vue, Svelte, WordPress, Webflow, Shopify, static sites.
Every comment is stored on the reviewer’s device. Nothing is sent anywhere.
Reviewers export feedback as JSON and send it; you import it with one click.
Floating toolbar, Figma-style comments panel, auto light/dark, full shortcuts.
~40 KB of vanilla JavaScript, zero dependencies, every evergreen browser.
Each text annotation stores the exact quote plus a short prefix and suffix. On load it re-finds that text, so highlights stay put even after you rewrite copy or the layout reflows. Delete the text entirely and the comment is kept, gracefully marked “orphaned.”
Every major visual-feedback tool is paid SaaS that asks your reviewers to log in, install an extension, and trust a vendor to host your feedback. annotate.js is the local-first, open-source alternative.
| annotate.js | BugHerd | Marker.io | Userback | Pastel | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Price | Free · MIT | from ~$39/mo | from ~$39/mo | from ~$79/mo | from ~$29/mo |
| Open source | Yes | No | No | No | No |
| Reviewer login required | None | Account | Account | Portal | Guest friction |
| Install | 1 script tag | Extension | Script + extension | SDK / widget | Proxy / link |
| Where feedback lives | Your browser | Vendor cloud | Vendor cloud | Vendor cloud | Vendor cloud |
| Works offline / self-host | Yes | No | No | No | No |
| Visual tools (draw/pin/ink) | Full set | Pin + box | Pin + box | Pin + draw | Pin + box |
| Bundle size | ~40 KB | Hosted app | Hosted app | Hosted app | Hosted app |
Competitor pricing and capabilities are approximate, based on publicly listed 2026 plans, and change often. The honest trade-off: SaaS tools add cloud sync, real-time multiplayer and built-in Jira/Asana sync that annotate.js leaves to your own workflow. annotate.js is for teams who’d rather own a tiny, private layer than rent a heavy one.
Anywhere people need to point at a page and say “this, right here.”
Box misalignments and circle off-brand color on the staging build before a release ships.
Let clients mark up the staging site directly — no Loom, no spreadsheet of bugs, no logins to chase.
Editors highlight sentences and leave revisions in context, on the live article, not in a separate doc.
Readers flag confusing steps right on the published page, where the confusion actually happens.
Pin the exact element, attach a note, and export the batch straight to your tracker.
Annotate student work and portfolios with threaded, resolvable comments — private to each machine.
It’s a plain browser script, so the recipe is the same for every stack. Copy, paste, ship.
No config files, no init code. Set a brand color, a project namespace, a default theme and a reviewer briefing — all on the script tag itself.
<!-- one tag, fully configured --> <script src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/ @reviewjs/annotate/annotate.js" data-project="marketing-site" data-accent="#6d28d9" data-theme="auto" data-position="bottom-right" data-note="Focus on the hero copy & pricing — flag anything off-brand." defer ></script>
localStorage, namespaced by project and page. Nothing is ever sent to a server. To share, you export a JSON file and your teammate imports it — every note reappears anchored in place.localStorage is unavailable (private mode, sandboxed iframes).Copy one script tag, reload, and start marking up the live page. No build step, no framework, no signup.
<script src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/@reviewjs/annotate/annotate.js" defer></script>
Ready in 30 seconds · ~40 KB · every evergreen browser · no account required