Annot vs Hypothesis

Annot collects feedback on websites through live previews that clients can open from a shared link and comment on without an account. Teams can sort comments into open and resolved states to track issues. Previews support custom code and WebGL, and an in-app widget collects comments from people using a web app. The service identifies Slack notifications, Notion sync, and execution through Claude, Cursor, or any AI model as workflow integrations. It runs on the web and describes agencies and freelancers among its users. The free plan includes one active project, one page, one user, and unlimited guests. Freelance costs $9 a month and includes one active project and one user. Pro costs $29 a month for three active projects and unlimited users; Agency costs $59 a month for unlimited projects and users. All paid plans include unlimited guests. Annot says it does not sell personal data; its policy also describes data collection and retention periods.

Hypothesis adds shared annotations to digital course materials, letting learners mark passages, ask questions, and reply to peers alongside the content. Users can create private highlights and page notes, add tags, and hold threaded discussions. Supported material includes web pages, PDFs, EPUB files, YouTube videos, and content from VitalSource and JSTOR. For institutional use, Hypothesis lists LTI 1.3 integrations with Canvas, Blackboard, Moodle, D2L Brightspace, and Sakai; annotations can also sync with LMS gradebooks, including Canvas SpeedGrader. A free account is available for personal use and collaboration. The web app works with a Chrome extension on Chrome and other Chromium browsers, or a bookmarklet in Firefox and Safari. Hypothesis also offers API access, exports in JSON, plain text, CSV, and HTML, and JSON import. The Free plan costs nothing, billed per student/yearly, and includes core annotation, private groups, and self-service support. The project was founded as an open-source project in 2011.