Webvizio: The Markup Alternative That Actually Works
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If you left my last video feeling a little bit blah, I did too.
The search for a decent Markup.io alternative hasn’t been easy! Nothing quite fits right, everything's a little uncomfortable in different ways, compromises had to be made, and I'm left wondering if that try-on process felt more like I was shopping for a pair of jeans, than a website annotation tool, and whether I should just wear the proverbial Pastel or Workflow ‘sweatpants’ forever. 🤷🏻♀️😂
In case you missed the drama, Markup.io (my long-time favorite tool for getting website feedback from clients) killed their free plan in February 2025. Not only that, they replaced it with a single Pro plan at $79/month...
$79. Per. Month.
That's nearly $950 a year for a tool that I use for about 3 days each time, a few times a year. It felt like a gut-punch to those of us who've been loyal users and MarkUp advocates for years.
So like you –if you’re reading this– I've been hunting for alternatives too, and my first post covered both Pastel and Workflow (& Ruttl… but it’s not worth mentioning here). So if you read through or watched that deep dive, you know I wasn't exactly jumping for joy about either option.
Why both Pastel & Workflow left me feeling “meh”
Let me be clear about what wasn't working for me with these platforms, –in a nutshell:
Pastel’s Cons:
No pinned comments on hidden elements - This is HUGE. Websites have dropdown menus, FAQs, accordions, and other interactive elements where clients need to leave feedback. If you can't pin a comment to a dropdown item, how is anyone supposed to know where to look?
No comment grouping by page - I'm sorry, but I refuse to bounce around an entire website trying to figure out which page a comment was left on. The constant context-switching between homepage, service page, contact page, portfolio page, and blog just wastes precious minutes of my life I'll never get back.
Three-day feedback window - While this isn't a dealbreaker for everyone, it's not ideal when you need more than 72 hours between revision rounds.
Workflow’s Cons:
Workflow came in looking STUNNING with its beautiful interface, but at $17/month, I expected more than it can currently do; it’s just too new to the game to match up quite yet. Turns out it has the exact same limitations as Pastel, just with a price tag attached.
Now, that's not entirely fair. Workflow is undeniably the most attractive platform I've seen so far. It's way less buggy than Ruttl was (IYKYK, or you saw those issues in my previous testing video), but it's still slightly glitchy.
My Takeaway:
Pastel might be the least buggy of the bunch, plus it's free, so between those two, I decided to use Pastel.
But to be honest, I’m not really thrilled with any of these options yet.
A new alternative to try: Webvizio
GET 40% OFF FOREVER
WITH CODE: DAMN40
* * *
❗️ OFFER EXPIRES ON APRIL 15, 2025
In the grand tradition of the universe delivering exactly what you need when you're complaining loudly enough online, … something interesting happened:
The co-founder of Webvizio sent me a DM asking me to take a look at their platform. Apparently, he saw my YouTube comparison video and reached out, saying that it seemed like I’m not very happy with the choice I've made or the platforms I’ve tried so far, and asked if I would mind looking at their platform too.
I told them I'd actually been recommended Webvizio by some of you –you know who you are!– before making that last comparison video, but I had ignored it because Webvizio doesn't have a free plan & I was specifically looking for affordable MarkUp alternatives.
And then he shared a bit of interesting news:
Webvizio has a special promotion specifically for all us MarkUp refugees – that gives us 40% OFF forever – if we act before April 15, 2025. Not just for your first payment or first year, but for the entire time you have an active subscription.
That brings their roughly $30/month plan down to about $17/month, —the same price as Workflow, but with WAY more functionality & fewer glitches.
So is it worth it? Let's do a deep dive into their platform to see what Webvizio offers... and then you can decide for yourself!
Webvizio features that might make you drool
Webvizio isn't as visually slick as Workflow, I'll give Workflow that win, but it's much closer in functionality to what we're used to in Markup. Plus, it has several features Markup never offered.
The Basic Setup
When you log into Webvizio, the interface probably looks a bit familiar if you've used Markup or Pastel at any point. You can upload files, add URLs, and even create what they call a “new board” for task management outside of asset-specific comments/to-dos.
Creating a new project is as simple as typing in a URL. For Squarespace draft sites, you do the same thing as we did with MarkUp and Pastel: append the password to the link itself, like this:
launchthedamnthing.squarespace.com/?password=yourpasswordhere
add: /?password=
then paste or type the password after the 🟰 exactly like you saved it in Site Availability when you password protected it (and yes, it’s case sensitive!)
Once you're in a project, you have the familiar sidebar on the left for comments, on the right side is the interactive website preview, and there’s a toolbar across the top. Toggle between ‘Task’ and ‘Browse’ mode as needed to leave feedback & use the website draft to click on stuff. Change to ‘Board’ mode to see the list comments WITHOUT the website preview –a unique feature to Webvizio!
Open Links in Different Pages
When you click links in the preview area, Webvizio opens each new link in a new tab within the Webvizio platform. This might seem confusing at first, but I've actually come to like this feature because:
It allows you to see where you left off on other pages you’ve already visited
You can easily jump between pages you're actively working on
You don't lose your place when reviewing multi-page feedback
There’s also a tab list icon in the toolbar across the top of the preview area, where you can search through your tabs to find a specific one quickly & easily, if you end up having a lot open at once.
Comment Management ...That Doesn't Suck
This is where Webvizio starts to shine. Each comment has a ton of useful features that the other platforms don’t or gate within higher Enterprise-level paid tiers:
Browser info tracking - It automatically records what browser, operating system, and screen resolution were used when the comment was left by whoever submitted it
Screenshots - It captures the area where the comment was pinned, which can be viewed from anywhere in the project
Live snapshots - These are essentially clickable or ‘working’ screenshots; not just an image
Built-in video recording - No need for Loom or other tools, you can record right in the platform & attach those files to the comment
Time logging - Share how long tasks take to complete by adding time to the task itself
Labels - Color-code and name your comment categories with labels that show up on the task card
Priority levels - Mark comments as low, medium, or high priority
Deadlines - Set due dates for each comment
Status tracking - Mark comments as open, in progress, or done to easily track your progress as you wade through feedback requests
–But wait, that’s not all! 🤭 If all of that looks cluttered (and it kind of is, TBH), there's a simplified view option that toggles OFF or hides the extra information & only shows it inside each task card, making the task list appear much simpler/cleaner, –which I personally prefer for day-to-day use.
Filtering Comments by Page
This was the big pain point that both Pastel and Workflow couldn't solve for me. While Webvizio doesn't automatically group tasks by page, you can filter down to see only the comments on a specific page & move through them that way.
When you activate a filter, it shows a little red dot on the filter icon to indicate that you're not seeing all comments & need to turn it back off to see the rest. Toggle between pages or reset the filter to see everything again.
But wait, it gets even better... 😆
Task Board View
Beyond the sidebar comment management, like Workflow, Webvizio offers a task board view that knocks the website out of the picture entirely so you can work through the comments without it if you want. This gives you a cleaner & simpler way to work through comments without constantly staring at the website draft.
The Board view is perfect for:
Working through simple tasks that don't require seeing their exact location
Dragging and dropping tasks between status columns or bulk status updates, vs selecting statuses in each comment
Adding new tasks/comments that aren't tied to specific website elements
You can still see screenshots of comments pinned to specific elements in the website, even in Board view, so you don't lose the context. And you can easily filter and sort tasks from here too, including bulk select them to change statuses, and more.
Responsive Testing - finally!
Another standout feature: responsive mode. This gives you the ability to change the width of the screen size that the website draft is being viewed in, from WITHIN Webvizio’s platform:
Manually set exact pixel widths
Choose from preset device sizes (iPad Pro, iPhone 15 Pro Max, Samsung Galaxy, etc.)
Rotate between landscape and portrait views
What's especially nice is that it only resizes the website preview area, not your entire browser window. Plus, when comments are left in responsive mode, it records that information along with the exact pixel width being used at the time.
Project Settings & Customization
Each project has its own settings where you can:
Change the project name or URL
Access team features
View activity logs (who commented what and when)
Set up notifications (email and/or Slack)
Integrate with other platforms
Enable advanced features
Client Collaboration Made Simple
Sharing a project with clients is straightforward. You can:
Send them an email invitation
Set their role & invite them as a guest or team member
Grab a quick copy link to share with guests (no account necessary, for them)
When clients use the sharing link, they can continue as guests without creating an account. They'll be prompted to install the Chrome extension, which enables all the commenting features.
One thing to note: if clients don't create accounts, their comments won't be attributed to specific individuals (no names, no email notifications for them). This isn't a big deal if you're working with one client at a time, but may be something to keep in mind for larger projects!
Bonus: Custom Branding
The custom branding options let you make the platform feel more like your own:
Add your company logo
Set a favicon
Choose 3 accent colors that appears throughout the interface
Customize email greetings & footers for the notification emails
It's not a complete white label option —Webvizio's colors still appear in some areas— but the ability to add your brand colors as accents makes a surprisingly big difference in how professional it feels!
The final verdict: is Webvizio worth it?
After spending time with all these platforms, here's where I've landed:
Pastel is free but missing a couple of crucial features, especially for complex websites with hidden elements in menu dropdowns & FAQs, or lots of pages.
Workflow is beautiful but lacks the same functionality as Pastel, is a little buggy in its “newness,” and costs $17/month; you can’t collect website feedback on their free plan.
Webvizio isn't as pretty, but packs in way more features & stability for essentially the same price as Workflow with their 40% OFF discount expiring April 15, 2025
For me – Webvizio hits the sweet spot of functionality, price, and usability. It solves the major pain points I had with both Pastel and Workflow, while adding some genuinely useful features I didn't even know I wanted.
How to get the discount
If you want to try Webvizio and decide the free trial isn't long enough, use my discount code DAMN40 when purchasing your subscription to get 40% off forever IF you subscribe before April 15, 2025. Otherwise, you'll lose the discount.
Important takeaway:
I want to end by saying that choosing which of these tools to use for yourself is truly personal preference. Just because I'm choosing one over another doesn't mean you have to use the same thing.
Whether you:
Pay $80/month for Markup because you love it and it's worth it to you
Prefer using Loom or Google Docs for (free) feedback instead of a specialized platform
Want to stick with what's already working for you in Pastel or Workflow, etc
There's no wrong choice here!
The reason I'm making these comparison videos isn't to show off new software just for the sake of it or because companies asked me to. It's because I too was genuinely looking for a solution after Markup's pricing change, and I figure if I'm spending all this time researching alternatives, I might as well share my research with anyone else in the same boat.
If what you've been doing is already working for you and you don't have any problems with it, then you should probably stick with it until you actually encounter an issue. But if you've been feeling frustrated with your current feedback system or tech stack, maybe one of these alternatives I’ve shared will be exactly what you need.
Whatever tool you choose, remember that the goal is the same: making the client feedback process as smooth and painless as possible. Because we all know that designing websites is the fun part—it's managing revisions that can drive us to drink. 🍷😂
PS: If you do try Webvizio, comment below & let me know what you think! I'm always curious to hear if my experiences match up with you & other designers in our community.
Quick Links:
Try Webvizio (use code DAMN40 for 40% off forever before April 15, 2025)
Check out Pastel (free plan available)
