A simpler Pastel alternative for client feedback
Pastel is a tool for commenting on any live website through a shared link, plus images, PDFs and video files. Pinnote does one job. Clients click anything on your site and leave a note, with a screenshot, and you reply in place. Here's how they compare, including where Pastel is the better choice.
Updated
Pinnote vs Pastel at a glance
| Question | Pinnote | Pastel |
|---|---|---|
| Cheapest paid plan | $9/month, or $90/year, with a free plan for one site | Pro $29/month billed yearly, or $35 monthly |
| Free plan | Yes, 1 site, unlimited reviewers and 50 open notes | Yes, 1 user and 1 active canvas |
| Clients need an account? | No account or extension. An email invite, a share link or your app's own sign-in lets them in, or you can show the button to every visitor | No login and nothing to install |
| Video recording | Not yet; reviewers can draw on the page, and it's in the screenshot | Review of video files; no screen recording found |
| Console logs | Yes, the page's recent errors with every note, on every plan | Not found |
| Integrations | On Pro: Slack, signed webhooks and GitHub issues (closing one resolves the note). On every plan: a WordPress plugin, a Chrome and Edge extension for sites you can't add code to, CSV and printable exports, and email alerts | Trello, Asana, Jira, ClickUp, Monday and Zapier from Team ($99/month) |
| MCP for coding agents | Yes, on every plan | Yes |
Pastel details are from its pricing page and help pages, checked on 22 October 2026. Prices change; check theirs before you decide.
Where Pastel is stronger
- No code at all. You paste a URL and share a link, so it works when you can't touch the site.
- Feedback on images, PDFs and video files in the same place as websites.
If those matter to you, Pastel is a good tool, and you should use it.
When Pinnote is the better fit
- Feedback should happen on the real site, as your client sees it, rather than through a shared review link. Pinnote is a script on your own site or staging copy.
- You run more than one project at a time. Pastel Pro has 3 canvases, and Pinnote Pro has unlimited sites for $9 a month.
- Clients reply in place. Your answers appear next to their notes the next time they open the site.
How Pinnote works
- Add one line of code to your site or staging copy. Install guides cover WordPress, Webflow, Framer, Shopify, Next.js and more. Visitors see nothing unless you choose to show the Feedback button to everyone.
- Invite your client by email, or send them your share link. They click it and comment straight away, with no account and no extension.
- Each note arrives with a screenshot of what they saw, the page, the element and their browser. Reply in the dashboard and your client sees the answer on the page.
- Talk it over with your team in team-only notes, send a note to GitHub as an issue, or let Claude Code, Codex or Cursor read the notes, fix them in your code, reply and resolve.
Switching from Pastel
Pinnote doesn't import from other tools yet. The simplest switch is to finish the current review round where it is and start the next one in Pinnote: add the script, invite your client, and retire Pastel once its last open note is closed. The two can run side by side in the meantime.