Hypothesis vs NowComment
Hypothesis
web.hypothes.isNowComment
nowcomment.comSide by side
| Figure | Hypothesis | NowComment |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | Free |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | Yes | — |
| Web | Yes | Yes |
| API | Yes | — |
| Plans published | 5 | 1 |
| Spec score · Web Annotation Tools | 8.5 (#6) | 7.4 (#28) |
| Purpose | Hypothesis adds collaborative annotations to digital course materials so learners can highlight passages, ask questions, and respond to peers in context. | NowComment is a group collaboration app for discussing and annotating online documents, with threaded comments shown in context alongside the document. |
| Support | The pricing page lists self-service support for Free and Bronze, standard email support for Bronze, and premium support with a dedicated customer success manager for Gold. | The support page directs users to an online troubleshooting guide and provides a tech support email for problems it does not resolve. |
| Supported content | Hypothesis supports annotation of web pages, PDFs, EPUB files, YouTube videos, and content from VitalSource and JSTOR. | It supports in-context discussion of text, images, and video, and can include audio and animations as multimedia content. |
Plans
Hypothesis
- FreeFree
- BronzePrice not published
- Custom solutionPriced on request
- GoldPrice not published
- SilverPrice not published
In their own words
Hypothesis
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.
NowComment
NowComment has no write-up on Specifiction yet; its figures are above.