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Marker.io vs Pastel

Marker.io is the bug reporter; Pastel is the approval tool for creative work. Marker.io starts at $39 a month billed annually with session replay, console logs and network requests at Team. Pastel comments over a live site through its proxy, and over PDFs and emails, from free for one canvas to $29 billed annually on Pro.

See the table Where Notarus fits
  • Reviewed
  • 2 pending verification
Marker.io

Marker.io

A widget and browser extension aimed at agencies reporting bugs on client sites, priced by page views as well as by seat.

Free plan
None. A 15 day trial on the paid plans, no card required
Paid plan entry
Starter, $59 a month or $39 billed annually, for 3 users and up to 10 projects
What is counted
Users, projects and page views: 5,000 a month on Starter, 25,000 on Team
Pastel

Pastel

A review and approval tool for creative work, layering comments over a live site through its own proxy as well as over PDFs, emails and uploaded images.

Free plan
Free Forever: 1 user, 1 active canvas and 2 GB of video storage, with unlimited guest reviewers
Paid plan entry
Pro, $35 a month or $29 billed annually, for 2 users and 3 active canvases
What is counted
Users and active canvases. Canvases stop being counted on Team, $119 a month or $99 billed annually

What are Marker.io and Pastel built for?

Marker.io

Marker.io

Marker.io is a widget and browser extension aimed at agencies reporting bugs on client sites. It prices on three axes at once, seats, projects and page views, and separates the reporter, a free and unlimited role with no dashboard, from the member who works the issue. Session replay, console logs, network requests and the Jira integration all start at Team. Its help centre states there is no built-in screen recording.

Pastel

Pastel

Pastel is a review and approval tool for creative work. It layers comments over a live website through its own proxy, so nothing is installed on the site under review, and it takes the same comments on PDFs, emails, uploaded images and uploaded video. Guest reviewers are unlimited on every plan, the free one included, and its MCP server describes an agent that makes the change and then resolves the comment itself. It captures no console logs, no network requests and no session replay.

How do Marker.io and Pastel compare head to head?

Dimension
Marker.io Marker.io
Pastel Pastel
Free plan
None. A 15 day trial on the paid plans, no card required
Free Forever: 1 user, 1 active canvas and 2 GB of video storage, with unlimited guest reviewers
Paid plan entry
Starter, $59 a month or $39 billed annually, for 3 users and up to 10 projects
Pro, $35 a month or $29 billed annually, for 2 users and 3 active canvases
What is counted
Users, projects and page views: 5,000 a month on Starter, 25,000 on Team
Users and active canvases. Canvases stop being counted on Team, $119 a month or $99 billed annually
Reviewers and reporters
Reporters are free and unlimited on every plan and never count as a seat
Guest reviewers are unlimited on every plan, including Free
Installation
A widget on the site, or the browser extension
Nothing on the site. Comments are layered over the live page through Pastel's own proxy
What it takes feedback on
Live websites, through the widget or the browser extension
Live websites, PDFs, emails, uploaded images and uploaded video
Session replay
Team plan, $199 a month or $149 billed annually
Not offered on any plan
Console and network capture
Team plan, listed as developer tools
Not offered on any plan
Screen recording
Not offered. Its help centre suggests recording elsewhere and pasting the link
Not stated on its plans page Pending verification
Issue tracker integrations
GitHub, Trello, Asana, ClickUp, Monday, Linear, GitLab, Azure DevOps and Bitbucket from Starter. Jira and issue sync from Team
Trello, Asana, Jira, ClickUp and Monday on Team. Neither GitHub nor Linear is listed on any plan
MCP server
Documented as open to every plan while in beta
An agent that reads the comment, makes the change in the codebase, replies and resolves it, named for Cursor, Claude and ChatGPT
Single sign-on
Not stated on the pricing page Pending verification
SAML on Enterprise, $450 a month from 10 users

Every claim about Marker.io and Pastel comes from each vendor's own public materials, read on 13 September 2026. Products change; check each vendor's site before deciding. Pending cells are unresearched, not zero.

When should you choose Marker.io, and when Pastel?

Marker.io

Choose Marker.io when

  • The comment is a bug and a developer has to reproduce it. Marker.io attaches session replay, console logs and network requests from Team; Pastel states plainly that it captures none of the three on any plan.
  • Your issues live in GitHub, GitLab, Linear, Azure DevOps or Bitbucket. Marker.io connects all of them from Starter; Pastel lists neither GitHub nor Linear on any plan and holds its trackers to Team.
  • You review more than three things at once and cannot pay Team to stop counting. Marker.io counts projects, up to ten on Starter, rather than active canvases.
  • You want the person filing the bug to follow it. Marker.io's reporters follow their own issue from a link without a dashboard or a seat.
Pastel

Choose Pastel when

  • You cannot put anything on the site under review. Pastel reaches a client's staging site through its own proxy on a day nobody can deploy a snippet for you; Marker.io needs its widget on the page or its extension in the browser.
  • The thing being approved is a PDF, an email or an image rather than a page. Pastel takes comments on all of them; Marker.io works on live websites through its widget or its extension.
  • You want to start for nothing and stay there. Pastel's Free Forever holds one user and one active canvas with unlimited guest reviewers; Marker.io has no free plan.
  • You want the agent to close the loop rather than open a ticket. Pastel describes its MCP server as making the change and resolving the comment; Marker.io's is documented as a beta with a tool set for triage.
Notarus

The third option

Where does Notarus fit?

Notarus is on Marker.io's side of this line, and one step past it: it files bugs from a live web page, and the replay, the console, the network requests and the environment arrive with every report on the free plan, with unlimited seats and 5 projects. Each plan's page view ceiling is printed on the pricing page, and every panel action is also an MCP tool.

It does none of what Pastel is for. There is no proxy, so the widget has to be on the page; there is no review of a PDF, an email or an image; there is no mobile SDK and no Intercom or Zendesk integration. A creative team approving a campaign will not find its workflow here.

Its three prices are on the pricing page rather than behind a quote.

Start free Notarus pricing
Seats on Free
Unlimited
Projects on Free
5
Replay retention
30 days
Session replay
On Free
Console and network
Every report
MCP server
Every plan

What do buyers ask about Marker.io vs Pastel?

Is Pastel a bug reporting tool?

Not in the sense Marker.io is. Pastel is a review and approval tool for creative work: a comment says where on the page or the PDF something should change, and it captures no console logs, no network requests and no session replay. Marker.io's whole purpose is the bug report, with those three attached from its Team plan.

Which one has a free plan?

Pastel. Its Free Forever plan carries one user, one active canvas and 2 GB of video storage, with unlimited guest reviewers. Marker.io runs a 15 day trial that asks for no card and then starts at Starter, $59 a month or $39 billed annually.

Do I have to install anything to use either?

On Pastel, no: it layers comments over a live website through its own proxy, with no code snippet and no Chrome extension, which is the feature that lets it reach a site you cannot deploy to. Marker.io works through a widget embedded on the site or through its browser extension.

Which one connects to Jira?

Both, though neither on its entry plan. On Marker.io, Jira and two-way issue sync arrive with Team, $199 a month or $149 billed annually, while GitHub, Trello, Asana, ClickUp, Monday and Linear are already on Starter. On Pastel, Jira arrives with Team alongside Trello, Asana, ClickUp and Monday, and GitHub and Linear are not listed on any plan.

Does Marker.io or Pastel offer single sign-on?

Pastel does, on its Enterprise plan at $450 a month from 10 users, where SAML is listed. Marker.io's pricing page does not state single sign-on on any plan, so that cell is marked pending rather than answered. For a team that needs SAML today, Pastel is the one of the two that publishes it with a price, and the plan sits one step above the Team tier where its trackers arrive.

Or try the third option on the free plan.

5 projects and unlimited seats, session replay included. No card.

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