Honest, dated comparisons with the tools agencies switch from. Where they are better, we say so. Where HopBack is different, it usually comes down to five things.
Clients are never seats and never pay. Some tools cap guests or charge per member.
A link, a name, a click. Several tools ask reviewers to sign up or be invited.
Pins anchor to the element, not to screen coordinates, and they survive a resize: switch the review from desktop to mobile and the pin is still on the thing it was about. Several tools anchor to the element but lock each pin to one screen size; a few still have no live-site pins at all.
Numbered rounds with carry-forward, Compare, a finish-review lock and approval with a name and a time. Uncommon in this category.
HopBack counts active reviews, not reviews per month. Archive one and the slot frees up.
| HopBack | BugHerd | Markup.io | Marker.io | Ruttl | Pastel | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Entry price | $19/mo | $50/mo | $79/mo | $39/mo (annual) | $18 per user/mo | $35/mo |
| Most agencies pick | Studio $49/mo | Studio $80/mo | Pro $79 to $129/mo | Agency $129/mo | Pro, per user | Team $119/mo |
| Client reviewers | Unlimited, every plan | Unlimited | Unlimited users | Unlimited guests | Unlimited guests | Unlimited |
| Client needs an account | No | No | No | No | No | No |
| Pricing metric | Active reviews and team seats | Members and storage | MarkUps per month (50 to 600) | Members, projects, monitored pages | Per user | Canvases and users |
| Live website review | ||||||
| Images and PDFs | Limited | |||||
| Video review | ¹ | No | ||||
| Pins anchored to the element | ² | No ³ | Partial ⁴ | Partial ⁵ | ||
| Numbered revision rounds with carry-forward | No | No | No | Partial | No | |
| Compare two rounds side by side | ¹ | No | No | No | No | No |
| Finish-review lock | No | No | No | No | No | |
| Approval with name and time | No | No | No | No | ||
| Automated client reminders | ¹ | No | No | No | No | |
| Slack notifications | ¹ | Via Zapier | ||||
| Microsoft Teams notifications | ¹ | No | No | No | No | No |
| Bug tracking and dev hand-off | No | No | Partial | No | ||
| Free plan | Trial, 14 days | Trial, 14 days | Trial, 14 days | Trial, 15 days | 1 project | 1 canvas |
¹ On Studio and Agency plans. ² Pins are keyed to the page URL and move to the sidebar if their element is removed. ³ Marker.io annotates screenshots; it has no pins on the live site. ⁴ Ruttl keeps a separate set of pins per device size. ⁵ Pastel pins the element but locks the comment to the screen size it was left at.
Pin anchoring researched 12 September 2026 from each tool's docs, API and feature board: BugHerd stores a DOM selector path per pin; Markup.io ties pins to elements and parks them in the sidebar if the element goes; Marker.io's own feature board lists on-site pins as planned, not shipped; Ruttl keeps comments separate per device; Pastel pins the element but snaps the view back to the original width. Slack row per each tool's integrations page; Teams not listed by any competitor.
We check each competitor's public pricing page on the date shown and quote it. We say what they do better. We do not fake reviews or quote anonymous complaints. If something is wrong or out of date, tell us and we will fix it.
For client feedback and sign-off, HopBack: no client accounts, unlimited reviewers on every plan, pins that stay on the element, numbered revision rounds, automated email follow-ups that chase the client for you, and a recorded approval, on websites, design, print and video, from $19 a month. Markup.io and Pastel are the closest alternatives for pinned comments on live sites, without the rounds and the sign-off record, and Markup.io starts at $79. If your feedback is mostly bugs going to developers, BugHerd or Marker.io. If you need enterprise proofing with compliance workflows, Filestage or Ziflow.
No. It is a client feedback and approval tool. It has priority and tags for triage, but no kanban board or developer metadata capture. If you need that, BugHerd or Marker.io do it well.
Not automatically. Most agencies start their next project in HopBack and let the old tool wind down.
Each page shows the date its figures were checked. Competitor pricing changes; if you spot a difference, tell us.