A Markup.io alternative built around your coding agent.
Markup.io collects visual comments on websites, images, and PDFs for humans to review. Pincushion turns each comment into work your coding agent executes. A pin carries selector, DOM snippet, screenshot, viewport, and thread in one MCP call — Cursor, Claude Code, or Codex ships the fix from your IDE.
Why people are searching for a Markup.io alternative
Markup.io earned a big user base by being the simplest way to comment on digital content — paste a URL, share a link, collect annotations on websites, images, PDFs, and videos. Then the pricing changed: in early 2025 the Pro plan jumped from $29 to $79 per month, and the free plan was retired. That's a defensible business decision, but it repriced a lot of freelancers and small agencies out of a tool they used casually. If that's how you got here, the honest first question is: what were you actually using it for?
If the answer is "collecting client comments on live websites that my team then implements," read on — that's exactly the loop Pincushion is built for, and the starting price is $0.
Where the model differs
Markup.io's output is a threaded comment for a person to read. Pincushion's output is an agent work packet: the pinned element's CSS selector, the surrounding DOM snippet, a screenshot, the viewport size, and the full discussion thread — everything a coding agent needs to make the change without anyone re-explaining it. Your agent pulls approved pins over MCP with implement_approved_pins, implements them, and records the commit, branch, and PR on each pin. When the fix deploys, the pin links the live URL, and Pincushion AI can verify the change actually shipped (Pro).
Feedback also stays anchored to the live app — pins attach to elements by selector, not to pixels on a snapshot, so they survive reloads, dynamic state, and responsive breakpoints. See why snapshot-anchored comments break on deployed apps.
How Pincushion differs
| Pincushion | Markup.io | |
|---|---|---|
| Pin payload designed as agent work packet (selector + DOM + screenshot + viewport + thread) | Yes | Comment + position on a snapshot |
| Coding-agent integration (Cursor, Claude Code, Codex via MCP) | First-class | No |
| Images, PDFs, video review | No — live web apps only | Yes |
| Feedback anchored to live-app elements (survives reloads and responsive layouts) | Yes — CSS selector + URL | Snapshot-based |
| Branch / PR / deploy trail on resolved feedback | Yes | No |
| Post-deploy verification (AI re-checks the fix) | Yes (Pro) | No |
| Free tier | Unlimited manual pins, 1 project, 25 AI actions/mo — free forever | Free plan discontinued |
| Starting paid price | $19/mo Pro (14-day trial on signup) | Pro around $79/mo as of this writing |
Markup.io tells your team what reviewers think. Pincushion hands your coding agent what to change — and keeps the receipt: branch, PR, deploy, verification.
When Markup.io is still the better fit
If your review workflow is content-heavy — image proofs, PDF decks, video cuts — Markup.io covers formats Pincushion deliberately doesn't. And if nobody on your team implements changes with a coding agent, Pincushion's core payload is context you won't use. Markup.io remains a polished general-purpose annotation tool; the price just now assumes you're a team that uses it heavily. Pincushion is the sharper tool when the thing under review is a live web app and the fixes flow through Cursor, Claude Code, Codex, or Windsurf.
Free to start, built for the agent era
Reviewers are free and unlimited — clients never pay and never make accounts. The free developer tier includes one project, unlimited manual pins, and 25 AI actions a month; every signup starts a 14-day Pro trial with unlimited automation, realtime IDE push, unlimited projects, and access controls. Related reading: client feedback straight into Cursor, and our comparisons with Pastel and BugHerd.