BugHerd and Marker.io compared for agencies: where the comment lives, what the client sees, what each costs for a five-person team, and when neither is the right tool
Both tools were built for the same moment: a page is on staging, someone finds a problem, and the developer needs enough detail to fix it without a call. So both capture the browser, the operating system, the screen size and a screenshot with every report. Both let an unlimited number of guests report without an account. Both integrate with the usual project tools. Both have a free trial and no free plan.
The differences are in where the comment lives, what the reviewer sees, and how the work is organized after the report is in.
BugHerd anchors the comment to the element on the live page. Open the page with the BugHerd sidebar and the pin is sitting on the button it was left on. For a reviewer going back to check a fix, and for a developer finding the exact element, this is the better model.
Marker.io records the comment on a screenshot. The reporter draws arrows and boxes, the screenshot goes with the issue, and the developer reads it in the tracker. There is no pin to return to on the page itself. The screenshot is the record. Marker.io has said on-page pins are on its roadmap; as of October 2026 they are not on the pricing page or in the product.
If your reviewers come back to the page to check what was fixed, BugHerd's model suits them. If your developers live in the tracker and never open the staging site, Marker.io's model suits them.
BugHerd reviewers get a sidebar on the page: a pin tool, a comment box, a list of existing tasks they can see. It is a small app layered over the site, and most people work it out in a minute. There is also a browser extension for the agency side.
Marker.io reviewers get a widget button on the page. Click it, draw on the screenshot, type, send. It is the simpler first-time experience of the two, because the reviewer never sees a task list, only their own report. The trade-off is that they also cannot see what has already been reported, so duplicates are more common.
Both can collect feedback from someone who has never seen the tool. Marker.io asks slightly less of them.
BugHerd has its own kanban board: backlog, to do, doing, done. Tasks can also sync out to Trello, Slack, GitHub and others on every plan, and to Jira, Asana, Linear, ClickUp, Monday and Teamwork on Premium. Many small agencies run the whole bug list on the BugHerd board and never leave.
Marker.io is built to push issues out. Two-way sync with Jira, Linear, ClickUp, Asana, Trello, GitHub and more is the product. It has an inbox for triage, but the design assumes the real board is elsewhere.
This is the clearest line between them. If your agency does not already run a tracker, BugHerd gives you one. If it does, Marker.io feeds it.
Prices in US dollars, monthly, from each vendor's pricing page on 23 October 2026. Annual prices in brackets.
| BugHerd | Marker.io | |
|---|---|---|
| Entry plan | Standard $50 ($42): 5 members, 10 GB, unlimited guests | Starter $59 ($39): 3 members, 10 projects, unlimited guests |
| Middle plan | Studio $80 ($67): 10 members, 25 GB | Agency $129 ($99): 15 members, 50 active client projects, session replay, Jira |
| Top plan | Premium $150 ($125): 25 members, 50 GB, custom branding, premium integrations | Team $199 ($149): 15 members, 50 projects, session replay, Jira |
| Extra member | $8 a month | $4 to $9 a month depending on plan and billing |
| Guests and reporters | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Trial | Free trial, 60-day money-back guarantee | 15 days, no card |
Prices and features checked on 1 November 2026 against BugHerd's pricing page. If something has changed, tell us and we will fix it.
For five people, BugHerd Standard covers the whole team at $50. Marker.io Starter is three members, so a fifth member costs extra, and session replay and Jira need the Agency plan, which is $129 a month and limited to eligible agencies. Marker.io's Agency plan is the better deal if you qualify and you want the replay; BugHerd is cheaper if you do not.
Marker.io dropped its guest caps during 2026. Earlier comparisons that mention 10 or 50 guests per plan, including an earlier version of our own Marker.io page, are out of date.
Both tools organize feedback as issues. That is right for bugs and wrong for the other half of agency work, which is a client looking at a design or a staging site and saying what they think. A client review is not a list of tasks. It has rounds, it has a deadline, it ends in an approval, and the agency needs a record of who approved what and when. Neither BugHerd nor Marker.io has a round, a finish, or a recorded sign-off. Both will happily hold a client's "can the logo be bigger" as an open ticket forever.
If your reviewers are clients, look at the client-review tools instead: Pastel, Markup.io, Ruttl, and ours.
HopBack is the third option for agencies whose feedback comes from clients. The client opens a link, types a name, clicks the thing and types. Pins stay on the element at every screen size. Reviews have numbered rounds that carry unresolved comments forward, a finish button that locks the round, and an approval recorded with a name and a time. Reminders chase the deadline. One link holds the whole project: round one can be the concept as a PDF, round two the staging site, round three the live site, and the client can open any earlier round and compare two side by side. Plans are $19, $49 and $99 a month with unlimited client reviewers. It is not a bug tracker and does not capture console logs; for QA going to developers, BugHerd or Marker.io remain the better choice.
BugHerd if you want the pins on the live page and a board included. Marker.io if your developers work in Jira, Linear or ClickUp and you want session replay. For a five-person team BugHerd is $50 a month and Marker.io is $59, or $39 on an annual plan with three members.
No. Marker.io records feedback on an annotated screenshot and sends it to your tracker. BugHerd anchors the comment to the element on the live page.
No. Both let guests report without an account, and as of October 2026 both allow unlimited guests on every plan.
Marker.io Starter is $39 a month on an annual plan, but it includes three members. BugHerd Standard is $42 a month on an annual plan with five members. For a team of five, BugHerd is cheaper.
Not really. Both treat feedback as issues to fix. For a review with rounds, a deadline and a recorded sign-off, use a client review tool such as HopBack, Pastel or Markup.io.
On 23 October 2026, on each vendor's public pricing page. If something has changed, tell us and we will fix it.
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