The Pastel alternative for freelancers, not for marketing teams
Pastel and dotts overlap more than most comparisons admit: both review live websites, PDFs and images, both let clients comment without a login, both connect to AI agents. The differences are who each tool is built for, how the price grows with your team, and what the free plan lets you do.
Pastel and dotts, side by side
Competitor details checked on September 15, 2026 against the official sources: Pastel homepage, Pastel plans. Spotted something outdated? Tell us and we'll fix it.
Pastel or dotts?
You are an agency or a marketing team reviewing ads, social posts and videos as well as websites
Several people on your side need their own seat and you can budget $24 per extra user
You want Trello, Asana, Jira or ClickUp integrations on the Team plan
A 14-day trial of the paid plans is enough to decide
You are a freelancer or a two-person studio reviewing websites, PDFs and images with clients
You want a free plan that runs three real projects, not one canvas
You want one flat price that does not change when a second designer joins
You want a pre-flight check on the page before launch, included in Pro
Why freelancers pick dotts over Pastel
“One canvas is not enough when I have three clients in review at once.”
Pastel's free plan is one user and one canvas. To start a new one you archive the old one.
With dotts: dotts' free plan gives you three projects, each with unlimited reviewers, and it does not expire.
“Every new teammate adds to the bill.”
Pastel's Team plan starts at five users and charges $24 per additional user.
With dotts: dotts Pro is one flat price per account. Reviewers and teammates are not counted.
“The tool is built for a marketing department, not for me.”
Pastel positions itself for fast-moving agencies and marketing teams, and its workflow reflects that.
With dotts: dotts is built for one designer and one client: a project, a link, a comment thread, done.
“I found the broken link after the client did.”
A review tool collects opinions. It does not check the page itself.
With dotts: dotts Pro runs a pre-flight check on the project: link status, missing titles and descriptions, mixed content, and in the app also accessibility and placeholder text. For a manual pass before that, use the free pre-launch QA checklist.
Switching from Pastel to dotts
There is no import from Pastel, 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, no time limit. Your client opens a link, types a name and comments. Nothing to install on their side or yours.
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.
Switching from Pastel, answered
Yes. Pastel's website lists PDFs, images, design work and videos next to live websites, so format support is not the difference. The differences are the cost model, the free plan limits and who each tool is built for.
Yes. usepastel.com states that your AI agent can act on Pastel comments through Pastel's MCP, naming Cursor, Claude and ChatGPT. dotts offers the same kind of connection on Pro through doby AI, and Copy for AI on every plan. AI access is a shared feature, not a reason to switch either way.
Both tools have a free plan. Pastel's is one user and one canvas. dotts' is three projects with unlimited reviewers and comments, no credit card and no expiry. Unlimited projects, the pre-flight check and the MCP server are Pro features on dotts.
Pastel is $35 a month for Pro (2 users, 3 canvases), $119 a month for Team (from 5 users, $24 per additional user) and $450 a month for Enterprise, checked on 15 September 2026. dotts has a free plan and one flat price on Pro that does not depend on the number of reviewers or teammates.
No. Pastel says no login is needed, and dotts asks your client only for a name, with email optional. This is one of the places where the two tools are alike.
A guest reviewer is your client: opens the link, comments, replies, no account. What dotts shows as collaborators is simply the list of people who have commented on a project. There are no seats to buy and no invitations to manage.
For a small studio, yes. For a marketing department that reviews ads, social posts and videos with many people on its own side, Pastel's Team plan is the better fit, and that is a fair thing to say.
One click turns the open comments of a project into structured Markdown for Claude, ChatGPT or Cursor, including page, position, viewport and screenshot links. It is available on every plan.
Keep exploring
dotts vs. MarkUp.io
How dotts compares to the other big client-review tool.
doby AI (MCP server)
What the dotts MCP server can and cannot do.
Website QA checklist
A free pre-launch checklist to run before you share the review link.
dotts vs. Filestage
Simple client review vs. multi-stage approval workflows.
One flat price for the whole review
Websites, PDFs and images in one link. A free plan with three projects, no per-user surprises.