The Filestage alternative without the approval bureaucracy
Filestage is a powerful review platform for marketing teams and enterprises, with reviewer groups, multi-stage approvals and compliance. dotts is for projects where “the client says yes” is the whole approval workflow: a free plan, one simple price, nothing to configure.
Filestage and dotts, side by side
Competitor details checked on September 15, 2026 against the official sources: Filestage homepage, Filestage pricing. Spotted something outdated? Tell us and we'll fix it.
Filestage or dotts?
You need multi-stage approvals and reviewer groups
You review video, audio and interactive HTML too
You're an enterprise with compliance requirements
A €199+/month tool fits your budget
“The client says yes” is your whole approval process
You're a freelancer or a small studio
You want a free plan and one simple price
You want feedback that flows into your AI workflow
Why freelancers pick dotts over Filestage
“We just need the client to say yes, not a three-step approval chain.”
Reviewer groups and approval stages are built for big teams — overhead for a two-person studio.
With dotts: dotts has projects and comments. Your client comments, you mark things done. That's the workflow.
“€199 a month for a couple of client projects?”
Filestage's paid plans start at €199/month, priced for marketing teams and enterprises.
With dotts: dotts has a free plan and one simple price built for solo and small-studio budgets.
“The free plan only lets me have one project with five files.”
Filestage's free plan caps you at one active project and five files a month.
With dotts: dotts' free plan gives you three projects, each with unlimited reviewers.
“The feedback lives in the tool, my work lives in my editor.”
You retype client comments into prompts and tickets.
With dotts: Copy for AI turns any thread into structured context. On Pro, doby AI (the MCP server) connects your assistant straight to the project.
Switching from Filestage to dotts
There is no import from Filestage, and you will not miss it: a dotts project takes about a minute to set up, so most people simply start with the next client project.
Paste the live or staging URL, or upload a PDF or image. dotts loads the page through its own proxy, so there is nothing to install on the site.
Every project has a review link. Send it to your client. They open it in any browser, type a name and comment. No account. Add a password if the project is confidential.
Each comment arrives with a screenshot, browser, device and viewport. Reply in the thread, or use Copy for AI to hand the open comments to your coding assistant.
Mark each comment as in progress or resolved. Your client sees the status on the same link, so nobody has to ask what happened to their note.
Try it on your next client project
Free plan, no credit card. Pro comes with a 14-day money-back guarantee. There are no reviewer groups to set up and no approval stages to configure — paste a URL and share the link.
What a review with dotts looks like
One link to share
Paste the URL of a live site, or upload a PDF or an image. dotts gives you a link to share, with a password if you want one.
Clients comment without an account
They type a name, the email is optional, and the Just browsing option skips even that. No signup, no install.
Every comment carries its context
Browser, device, screen size and page URL are stored on the comment, together with a screenshot that already has the dot on it.
Set the status, or have it set
Open, in progress, resolved. On Pro, Claude Code or Cursor read the comments over MCP, change the status and reply as doby AI.
dotts and Filestage, answered
If you run formal, multi-stage sign-off with different reviewer groups and compliance requirements, Filestage is built for exactly that. If your approval is really just “the client is happy,” dotts keeps it to a comment thread you can mark resolved.
Filestage's free plan allows one active project and five files a month. dotts' free plan gives you three projects, each with unlimited reviewers.
Filestage's paid plans are €199/month (Starter) and €329/month (Business). dotts has a free plan and one simple flat price with unlimited reviewers.
No — this is a place where the two are similar: like dotts, Filestage lets reviewers comment without an account. The differences are price, simplicity and the AI workflow.
Yes, and that's fair to say: Filestage handles video, audio and interactive HTML on top of the basics. dotts focuses on website, PDF and image review, kept simple.
doby AI is the dotts MCP server, included in Pro: connect Claude Code, Cursor or Codex and your assistant reads the open comments, sets their status and replies in the thread. Copy for AI is the one-click export for any other tool.
Keep exploring
Client review without the bureaucracy
Share one link, get comments back, mark them done. No reviewer groups, no approval stages. Free plan, one simple price.