You have a prototype that is already HTML: three screens from Claude, a v0 or Lovable export, a Bolt project, or something you wrote by hand. The client needs to look at it and say what is wrong, in the right place. What usually happens instead is a zip in an email, a screenshot with a red circle, and a thread where "the second screen" means a different screen to each person on it.
This guide is about getting feedback on a web design mockup through a link. Hostus is the option we put first, and the category matters: best if the prototype is already HTML and you want the comment pinned to the right screen. Figma prototype links, Markup.io, Pastel and BugHerd each have a case, and they are covered below with the prices their own sites showed today.
What the client sees
Here is a prototype, live: the checkout flow of a fictional store, three screens on one page, each screen a section with its own id. The products and prices on it are illustrative. Open it on a phone and it is the same page from the same link; there is nothing to install.
Each section has a Reply. A client who thinks the shipping step asks for too much says so on the shipping step, without creating an account. The reply reaches the owner by email and stays on the document, anchored to the section it was written on. Try it on the demo: the replies land with us.
How it works on Hostus
Hostus hosts one HTML file, with its images and fonts if it has them, as a page at yourslug.hostus.page. Drop the file in, or let Claude publish it through the Hostus connector. The JavaScript in the file keeps running, so a prototype with tabs, a stepper or a fake cart behaves on the link exactly as it did on your laptop.
Four things happen once the client has the link:
- The reply lands on the screen. Reply is on by default. The client writes "the total is wrong here" on the payment section and that is where it stays. Each conversation is private between that reader and you, so two clients on the same link do not see each other's notes. You answer from the dashboard or through Claude.
- You see which screens they opened. Reading by section shows which sections each reader opened and for how long. If nobody got past the cart, the problem is the cart, whatever the email says.
- The next version goes up on the same link. Upload v2 and the link the client already has shows v2. The previous versions stay in a history.
- The page does not leak. Pages are served with a
noindexmeta, so a prototype never shows up in Google. For a confidential one, switch it to email-gated: the client types an email before the page opens, no account, and you see who did.
The client can also ask the page a question (Ask is on by default) and get an answer from what the prototype says, with the section cited. On a page that is mostly screens this matters less than on a proposal, but it costs nothing to leave on.
The prompt
If the prototype already exists, paste it in with this. If it does not, the same prompt writes it. Hostus connector on.
Here is my checkout prototype (HTML below). Put its three screens on one page as sections with ids: cart, shipping, payment. Add a small sticky nav that jumps between them and a "next" button on each screen. Keep all the JavaScript that already works. No backend, no localStorage, no key in the page, one HTML file, mobile first.
Publish it to Hostus and give me the link.Claude publishes the page with hostus_upload. The page is born private: switch it to email-gated in the Hostus dashboard before you send the link. Reply is already on. A week later, in the same chat or a new one, ask "what did the client open on the checkout prototype, and what did they reply?" and it reads the reading-by-section data and the replies for you. For v2, paste the new HTML and say "update the same page": the link does not change.
Figma, Markup.io, Pastel, BugHerd: pick it if
Hostus first, for the case this page is about: the prototype is HTML, you want one link, and you want the comment on the screen it is about. The prices below were read on each vendor's own site on 2026-10-18; where a page did not state something, this guide does not either.
- Figma prototype link. Pick it if the design still lives in Figma and the client already has an account. Figma's Starter plan is free. Two limits matter when the viewer is a client: Figma's help says that "sharing a prototype-only link is available on paid plans", and that on Starter "viewers can still open the source file". To comment, the client must be "signed in to Figma" with view access. Password protection on files and prototypes is "available on all paid plans". A Professional full seat is listed at $16 per month. If the prototype was exported to HTML, the comments stay in Figma while the thing under review moved.
- Markup.io. Pick it if you need the comment on an exact pixel of a live website, an image, a PDF or a video. There is no free plan: Pro starts at $79 per month for 50 MarkUps a month, every plan has unlimited users, and there is a 14-day trial.
- Pastel. Pick it if you want pixel comments on a live site with a free plan that stays free: one user, one active canvas at a time, and the site says "Let anyone comment or view without needing an account". Pro is $29 per month billed annually, or $35 monthly. The prototype has to be hosted somewhere first; Pastel adds the comment layer on top of a URL.
- BugHerd. Pick it if the feedback is bug reports for a developer team. Standard is $42 per month billed yearly ($50 monthly) for 5 members, with unlimited client guests. There is no free plan, only a trial.
- Netlify Drop or Vercel. Pick it if you only need the prototype online and the feedback arrives some other way. Netlify's free plan is "$0 forever". Vercel's Hobby plan is $0 for personal, non-commercial use; its toolbar comments exist on preview deployments, but Vercel's docs say "all users must have a Vercel account", and inviting external people to comment is a Pro and Enterprise feature.
- Screenshots in an email. The baseline. Free, works everywhere, and the comment lands in a thread rather than on the screen. You learn nothing about what the client looked at.
Side by side
| Tool | Where the comment lands | Client needs an account | You see what they read | New version keeps the link | Free plan |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hostus | On the section (the screen) | No; an email-gated page asks for an email | Yes, per section, with time | Yes, with version history | Yes: 20 docs, 2 MB, no clock |
| Figma prototype link | On a point of the screen | Yes, signed in to comment | Not on the pages we checked | Yes, the link is the file | Starter is free; prototype-only link is paid |
| Markup.io | On the pixel | Not stated on their pricing page | Not stated | Not stated | No; Pro from $79 a month, 14-day trial |
| Pastel | On the pixel | No | Not stated | Not stated | Yes: 1 user, 1 active canvas |
| BugHerd | On the pixel | Guests are unlimited; account not stated | Not stated | Not stated | No; trial, Standard from $42 a month |
| Netlify Drop / Vercel | Nowhere on Netlify; Vercel comments need a Vercel account | No to view; yes to comment on Vercel | No | Yes, redeploy | Netlify $0; Vercel Hobby $0, non-commercial |
| Screenshots in email | In the thread | No | No | No, a new attachment | Free |
The first column decides most of it. If "this screen" is enough precision, the section is the right unit and the client needs nothing. If "this pixel" is the precision you need, Pastel on the free plan or Markup.io on a paid one.
What you do with the feedback
The replies are anchored, so the fix is too. Change the payment screen, upload the file again, answer the reply with "fixed in v2, same link". The client reloads the page they already have. There is no second URL to find in a thread, and the old version is still in the history if anyone asks what changed.
Reading by section is the other half. Three readers opened the cart and nobody opened payment: the cart stopped them, whatever they wrote. One reader spent four minutes on shipping and replied nothing: ask about shipping. The signal is for choosing what to ask, not for mentioning. "I saw you spent four minutes on the form" makes the next review shorter.
Through the connector, Claude reads the same data. Ask it what to change on the prototype and it goes through the replies and the sections before answering, and drafts the reply to the client for you to confirm. It proposes; you decide what goes out.
Keeping a prototype confidential
A page has three visibilities: private (only you), email-gated, and public. Email-gated is the one for a client: the reader types an email, no account is created, and you see who typed it. There is no password option; the gate is by email. Public pages are still served with noindex, so even a public prototype does not appear in a Google result.
A page cannot be embedded in another site (it is served with frame-ancestors 'none'), so a prototype is a link you send, not an iframe in a portfolio. If you want to stop sharing, switch the page to private and the link stops opening for everyone but you.
Good to know before you switch
Replies are per section, not per pixel. A client can say "the button on the shipping step is too small" but cannot drop a pin on the button; Markup.io and Pastel do pixels, and if the feedback is about three pixels of padding they are the better tool. The client sees one page at a time: a prototype with twelve screens is twelve sections on one page, or several pages in a folder, not a site with a menu.
The free plan is 2 MB of storage in total, with images counting, and 20 documents, with no clock and no card. A prototype with heavy screenshots fills 2 MB fast; the paid plan is 200 MB. There is no custom domain on any plan, so the link is always yourslug.hostus.page.