MarkLayer and Volley both collect visual feedback on websites, including staging sites and pages behind logins. The mechanics differ: Volley captures a screenshot and pins comments to the capture, while MarkLayer overlays the live page and anchors each annotation to the actual element, so feedback survives page changes. Volley is paid ($29/month after a 30-day trial); MarkLayer is free and open source.
Choose MarkLayer for free annotation on the live page itself, with real-time cursors and an open-source codebase. Choose Volley if you prefer screenshot-anchored feedback with Jira/Trello export and your team fits the $29/month Pro plan.
| Feature | MarkLayer | Volley |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free, no tiers | Pro $29/month (25 projects); 30-day trial; no permanent free plan |
| Sign-up required to create feedback | No | Yes |
| Capture model | Live page. Annotations anchor to the actual elements | Screenshot of the page with comments layered on top |
| Guest reviewers | Open a link, no install, no account | Invited via link, no account needed |
| Works behind logins / on staging | Yes. The extension overlays whatever your browser shows | Yes. The capture includes gated pages you can see |
| Real-time live cursors | Yes | No |
| Integrations | None. Paste the share link | Jira, Trello, Slack; webhooks on Enterprise |
| AI coding agent access (MCP) | Yes. Live watch, acknowledge, resolve, reply | No |
| Open source | Yes (Apache-2.0) | No |
| Best for | Feedback on pages that keep changing | Fixed-snapshot review rounds exported to a tracker |
Volley is a screenshot-based website feedback tool that layers pinned comments on a capture of the page, with Jira, Trello, and Slack export.
MarkLayer is a free, open-source web app for annotating any live webpage. Paste a URL atmarklayer.app and draw, comment, arrow, or highlight directly on the page in your browser — no install, no account, no sign-up. Share a single link and anyone can open the annotations in any browser. A free Chrome extension is available for the sites the web app cannot embed, such as pages behind a login, but it is optional and never required to view a share link. There is no paywall and no trial period.
Volley's screenshot model has one real advantage: the capture can't change under the reviewer. The cost is that it goes stale the moment the page updates. MarkLayer anchors annotations to the live element, so the pin survives a deploy instead of pointing at an old picture.
Paste any URL at marklayer.app and annotate the live page in your browser. No install, no account, no sign-up. Recipients of your share links don't need to install anything either.
Annotate a page