AnnotationBase vs Hypothesis

AnnotationBase is a web tool for placing visual feedback on website elements. Users can pin comments to a specific element, add context or screenshots, and tag teammates; replies, updates, and resolutions stay in a thread associated with that element. Clients and stakeholders can comment through a shared link without an account or download. It works with live websites, staging environments, and localhost sites that open in a browser. Listed platforms include Elementor, Framer, Shopify, Squarespace, Webflow, Wix, WordPress, and GoDaddy. Open feedback can be copied as a structured prompt for an AI editor, and comments and project data can be exported at any time. The free Lite plan allows five active projects and up to five collaborators. Monthly Pro costs £9.99 a month, and Yearly Pro costs £99 a year; both allow unlimited active projects and collaborators. API access is marked as coming soon, with planned connections to Linear, Notion, Jira, or custom systems.

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.