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Best Online Commenting Tools for Web Designers

September 9, 2022
Ferdie L. Eusebio
5 minute read

If you are designing a website, an efficient comments system is one of the key tools you will need to improve your project. It lets your team members leave feedback on every aspect of your design, ask questions, and start discussions. It can even be a great way to generate new ideas.

In this article, we will look at the best online commenting tools for web designers. There are a few factors that we need to consider when choosing a commenting tool, such as ease of use, allowance for collaboration, providing history or reference to old comments, and more. We will also examine their pros and cons to help your decision-making process.

What are web design commenting tools?

Simply put, web design commenting tools are a great way for website designers to get feedback on their work. By allowing team members to comment on your site, you can gain valuable insights into what people think of your design.

Online commenting tools are also handy for editorial feedback during the website design process. By pasting a link to the tool, anyone with the link can leave comments on specific website sections and may even point out web design errors, if any.

This is extremely helpful when working with a team, as it allows real-time collaboration and eliminates the need for tedious email chains. Plus, many online commenting tools offer features like comment threading and @mentions, further streamlining the feedback process.

By allowing others to comment on your design, you can understand what works and does not. Moreover, comments can help to spark new ideas and inspire you to try something different.

There are several online commenting tools available, each with its unique features. Ultimately, the best online commenting tool is the one that meets your specific needs. Take some time to explore the different options and find the tool that works best for you.

Best Online Commenting Tools for Website Design

If you are a web designer, chances are you're always looking for ways to get feedback on your work. One great way to do this is through online comments. You can use various tools to collect comments from clients and colleagues, but which one is right for you?

Here's a rundown of some of the best commenting tools for website designers:

InVision

InVision is a team collaboration tool that can help you brainstorm and improve a web design project. It has one app focused on feedback, and that’s Freehand, which is like an online whiteboard. Through its drag-and-drop feature, both the designers and clients can easily access the project anywhere and provide feedback and discuss design trends in real-time, thus reducing the need to set up a meeting.

What’s good about InVision is that it has multiple tools for collaboration. But this can also be a downfall. If your goal is to simply get and leave feedback, there are several hoops to go through. However, this commenting app can be accessed using any device, so commenters and clients can open any project in a breeze.

Team plans are priced at $4.95 per month per user. If you’re a freelance web designer, you can use its free individual plan, but that’s limited to 3 freehands (or boards). Any more, and you’re going to have to pay the monthly fee.

ClickUp

This is another collaboration tool that can be used to comment on any project that a team is working on. It has a simple and intuitive interface that any designer with different experience levels can easily access.

ClickUp can also be used to monitor productivity, markup photos and screenshots, and streamline any project by promoting team collaboration.

The downside is that in order to gain access to this project collaboration tool’s commenting app, you would need to sign-up and weed through the entire thing. Monthly costs start at $5 per month per member, but you can always use the individual free plan. Just like InVision, it’s limited to 3 whiteboards.

Ruttl

Ruttl is another website feedback tool that promises to reduce review time in half. With this app, you can comment on images, screenshots, and even PDF files and share it with the rest of your web designing team.

With this app you can also comment directly on live websites that you can share among your teammates wherever they are on the globe. You can also edit CSS, font size, margins, alignments without writing code!

Plans start at $13 per month per person, although a free version is available. The free plan allows one project with up to 5 pages and 5 collaborators only.

Instacap

Instacap is a new commenting tool that allows website designers to collect and manage comments from clients and colleagues around the globe. With it, you won't even need to create a special account to ask for comments.

With it, you can solicit ideas and comments about your design without setting up a meeting — simply provide a link to your design and ask them to send comments with the help of Instacap, and you’re good to go.

Best of all, it is completely free to use! You won’t even have to sign-up to gain access to the tool. If you want to be able to access old comments without having to list down links to screencaps, though, you’d have to create an account — which is still free!

No matter how big the size of your team is and how many captures or feedbacks you need to make, you won’t be charged a cent.

Pros and Cons of Using Online Commenting Tools

There is no denying that online commenting tools can be extremely useful for website designers. After all, they provide an easy way for designers to get feedback on their work and make collaboration with clients or team members a breeze, even if they work in different time zones. However, as with all things found online, there are also some potential downsides to it.

Pros

  • Helps gain valuable input without setting up a meeting.

If you are working on a web design project, you know that getting feedback from your clients or colleagues is important. But sometimes, it can be hard to coordinate everyone's schedules for a meeting. That's where online commenting tools come in handy. With these tools, you can share your work in progress and gather comments without having to schedule a meeting.

And because everyone can provide input on their own time, you're more likely to get more detailed, thoughtful feedback. So if you are looking for a way to get input on your project without setting up a meeting, online commenting tools are the best way to go.

  • Allows for more collaboration.

Online commenting tools are a great way to encourage collaboration among web design team members. By allowing for threaded comments, inline comments, and user tagging, these tools make it easy to keep track of ideas, discuss specific parts of a design, and assign tasks.

Web designers can use these tools to leave feedback for each other, discuss changes that need to be made, and brainstorm new ideas. In addition, these tools can be used to track progress on a project and ensure that everyone is on the same page. By providing a space for collaboration, elaborate commenting tools can help to improve the quality of a web design project.

  • Saves time and effort.

If you're like most web designers, you're always looking for ways to save time and effort. After all, there are only so many hours in the day, and every minute counts when you're trying to complete a project.

That's why online commenting tools can be such a valuable asset. With these tools, you can quickly and easily add comments to your code, saving time when trying to communicate which section you are talking about.

  • Helps organize thoughts and information.

Online commenting tools can help you to organize your thoughts and keep track of your work. By setting up a commenting system, you can make your workflow more efficient and streamlined.

Online commenting tools also allow you to make changes in the early stages of the design process instead of having to go back and make major revisions later. Also, by keeping all of the comments in one place, designers can quickly refer back to them when they need to make changes or want to see what ideas have been suggested that led to the website’s current design.

Additionally, online commenting tools often allow designers to leave private notes for themselves, which can be helpful when working on complex designs.

Cons

  • May lag if team members comment at the same time.

When you're working on a web design project with a team, it's important to be able to communicate efficiently and have tools that everyone can use without any problems. One area where this can become an issue is when you are using online commenting tools.

If team members are commenting on the same thing at the same time, the tools can start to lag, and it can become difficult to keep track of the conversation. This can be frustrating and cause delays in the project.

To avoid this, it is important to plan ahead and stagger your comments so that everyone is not trying to access the tool all at once. By doing this, you can ensure that everyone can easily participate in the discussion and that the project stays on track.

Or you can use a commenting tool that works well even with users asynchronously providing feedback, such as Instacap.

  • Difficult to control who views the comments.

While online commenting tools give users some control over who views comments, it is often difficult to control completely. This is because many online commenting tools allow comments to be seen by anyone with a link to the comment.

This means that if a comment is shared, it can be seen by anyone, regardless of whether or not they are logged in to the commenting tool. This can be a problem for users who want to keep their comments private.

In addition, many online commenting tools also allow users to post anonymously, which makes it even more difficult to monitor who creates the comments. To avoid this, it would be best to ask team members to leave their names on the comments in case it is not done automatically by the tool.

As for private comments, separate team links from private links and send comments directly to the person involved.

  • Comments can lead to analysis paralysis.

Too much feedback can lead to analysis paralysis, where you become so overwhelmed by other people's opinions that you can't make any decisions yourself. This is why it's important to be selective about the feedback you solicited. Keep in mind that web design should be done in a collaborative manner, so you must be open to discussions and will not plainly accept every single comment.

When asking for feedback on your work, consider asking for comments on a specific aspect or section of a design rather than the design as a whole. That way, you can avoid being inundated with conflicting opinions and focus on constructive criticism that will help you improve as a designer.

Ultimately, whether or not to use online commenting tools is a decision that each website designer must make based on their individual needs and preferences. If you can organize the way you use such a tool, then all the cons can be erased, and you will be left with nothing but advantages when using commenting apps.

Final Thoughts

Online commenting tools are a great way for web designers to get feedback on their work. With it, you can solicit feedback from a wide range of people, including other designers in your team, developers, and even your clients. In addition, online commenting tools allow you to get specific feedback on your work, which can be invaluable in improving your designs.

If you are looking for a good commenting tool that can help you with your project, you can always try Instacap. With Instacap, you can solicit comments that can help you improve your design. What's best about this commenting tool is its free-to-use feature, so you don't need to strain your wallet for good input. Click here to try it now.

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