Pastel is a visual feedback and QA tool that turns a link or file into a canvas for comments: websites, PDFs, images, videos, and emails.
Pastel and layernote both make client feedback painless: share a link, let anyone comment, no accounts needed, and both let a coding agent act on the comments over MCP. Where they part ways is the target. Pastel reviews almost any file, video and email included. layernote is built for websites that end in code, with a kanban board, CSS inspect on the annotated element, and a measured comparison against your Figma design.
Full disclosure: layernote is ours. Every fact about Pastel below comes from usepastel.com, checked on October 13, 2026, including the cases where Pastel is the better pick.
The short answer
Pick layernote if
- A lower price with room to grow: layernote Solo is $19 a month for up to 3 team members and 10 projects. Pastel Pro is $35 a month for 2 users and 3 active canvases.
- Feedback run as a project: status, priority, assignee and labels on every annotation, a kanban board on Studio and Team, and CSS inspect on the annotated element.
- You work from Figma: layernote imports your Figma file and compares it with the live page. Pastel has no Figma integration and asks you to export designs as images or PDFs.
Pick Pastel if
- You want a plan that stays free: Pastel's Free plan keeps one active canvas, with approvals, deadlines and pause commenting included.
- You review marketing emails: Pastel takes them as a canvas, layernote does not.
- You want approval workflow out of the box: approvals, deadlines with reminders, pausing comments, and a Next Steps tab per reviewer.
- Your agent should read the comments too: Pastel launched an MCP server in September 2026 for Claude Code, Codex, Cursor and other agents.
Pastel vs layernote: features side by side
| Feature | Pastel | layernote |
|---|---|---|
| Best for | Canvas review of mixed content | Annotating websites and design files |
| Starting price | $35/mo (2 users) | $19/mo flat |
| Free to try | Free plan, 1 active canvas | 14-day trial |
| Figma vs live | Separate free tool | Yes |
| MCP handoff | Yes | Yes |
| Comment on live websites | Yes | Yes |
| Annotate images | Yes | Yes |
| Annotate PDFs | Yes | Yes |
| Figma import | Via image or PDF export | Yes |
| Clients review free | Yes | Yes |
| Guest comments without an account | Yes | Yes |
| Kanban board | Not documented | Studio plan |
Verified on usepastel.com on October 13, 2026. Spot something outdated? Tell us and we will fix it.
layernote pricing
Solo is $19 a month, Studio $39 and Team $59, or 20% less billed yearly. One flat price per account, never per seat, and clients always review free. Every account starts with a 14-day free trial of Studio, no credit card needed.
Pastel pricing
Pastel has four plans: Free, Pro at $35 a month ($29 billed yearly), Team at $119 a month ($99 billed yearly), and Enterprise at $450 a month, billed yearly. Plans are metered by users and active canvases; reviewers, comments and versions are unlimited on all of them.
| Plan | Users and canvases | Billed monthly | Billed yearly, per month |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free | 1 user, 1 active canvas | $0 | $0 |
| Pro | 2 users, 3 active canvases | $35 | $29 |
| Team | 5 users, unlimited canvases | $119 | $99 |
| Enterprise | 10 users, unlimited canvases | Not offered | $450 |
Extra users on Team cost $24 a month each. A canvas is one website, file or email under review; on Free and Pro you archive one to start another, and archived canvases take no new comments.
Every plan includes approvals, deadlines with reminders and pausing comments. Integrations with Trello, Asana, Jira, ClickUp, Monday and Zapier, and webhook export, start on Team; Enterprise adds SAML SSO and a SOC 2 report.
Pro and Team come with a 14-day trial, no credit card needed. After it the account drops to Free and canvases become read-only.
How Pastel pricing changed
Pastel raised its prices once, early in 2025: the entry plan went from $29 to $35 a month and the team plan from $99 to $119. Later that year it renamed the plans and changed Free from unlimited canvases with a 3-day commenting window to one active canvas without a time limit.
December 2022 to January 2025
Solo at $29 a month ($24 billed yearly) for 1 user and 3 premium canvases, Studio at $99 for 5 users, and Free with unlimited canvases and a 3-day commenting window.
Source: usepastel.com/plans, archivedFebruary 2025
Solo rises to $35 a month ($29 billed yearly), Studio to $119 ($99), and Enterprise to $450.
Source: usepastel.com/plans, archivedNovember 2025
Solo and Studio become Pro and Team. Pro now covers 2 users and 3 active canvases, and Free one active canvas without the 3-day window.
Source: usepastel.com/plans, archivedSeptember 2026
The plans page is redesigned with the same prices: Pro at $35 a month, Team at $119.
Source: usepastel.com/plans, archived
Prices in US dollars, checked on October 13, 2026.
Pastel review: pros and cons
Pastel is one of the friendliest review tools around: paste a link or drop a file, and clients comment on a canvas without an account, with approvals and deadlines on every plan, Free included. Since September 2026 it also has an MCP server. Its limits are the plan caps, 2 users and 3 active canvases on the $35 Pro plan, and the lack of a Figma integration. If your reviews are mostly websites that end in code, a tool built around that fits better.
Pros
- Free plan with one active canvas, and unlimited reviewers on every plan
- Websites, PDFs, images, video, and email, each on its own canvas
- Approval workflow built in: approvals, deadlines, pause commenting
- An MCP server for Claude Code, Codex, Cursor and other agents
- Paste a URL and share a link, no extension needed for public sites
Cons
- No Figma integration; their FAQ says to export designs as images or PDFs
- Pro covers 2 users and 3 active canvases; Team starts at $119 a month
- Integrations with Jira, Trello, Asana and others start on the Team plan
- No design to build comparison inside the product; Compare Pixels is a separate free tool
Try layernote on your own site
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The headline wraps too early on desktop. Can it stay on two lines like in the design?
2 repliesPaste the URL of a page you would review in Pastel, pin a few comments, and send your client the link. They comment without an account or anything to install.
Still comparing? Our list of the 5 best Pastel alternatives puts four more tools beside it.
layernote vs Pastel: FAQ
layernote is $19 a month flat on Solo, $39 on Studio and $59 on Team, for the whole account and never per seat. Pastel starts at $35/mo (2 users), checked on usepastel.com on October 13, 2026.
In layernote, yes: clients open one link and comment as guests, free. In Pastel, according to usepastel.com: yes.
According to usepastel.com: separate free tool. layernote imports your Figma frames and checks them against the live page, element by element, on Studio and Team.
According to usepastel.com: yes. layernote hands every annotation to your coding agent over MCP, and the agent marks it resolved with what changed.
Written by DinoFounder of layernote · @dino_murs on X