How’s that? and Pastel compared
A dated, sourced comparison for agencies weighing a switch. Where Pastel does something better, we say so.
How’s that? is a separate product.
We’re not affiliated with Pastel.
Checked on See the comparison sources
Plan against plan
Our Solo and Team plans against Pastel Pro and Team, the paid plans below Enterprise on each side. Monthly against monthly, yearly against yearly. Every Pastel cell links to the Pastel page it came from.
| Feature | How’s that? Solo | How’s that? Team | Pastel Pro | Pastel Team |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Price, billed monthly | $19 a month |
$49 a month |
$35 a month Pricing page |
$119 a month Pricing page |
| Price, billed yearly | $190 a year |
$490 a year |
$350 a year ($29 a month) Pricing page |
$1,190 a year ($99 a month) Pricing page |
| Team members | 1 |
10 |
2 users Pricing page |
Starts at 5 users, then $24 for each extra user Pricing page |
| Sites | Unlimited projects. One project can cover several addresses, such as staging and production. |
3 canvases Pricing page |
Unlimited canvases Pricing page |
|
| Clients and guests | Unlimited, no account needed |
Unlimited guests on any plan. “Let anyone comment or view without needing an account.” Pricing page Home page |
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| Free plan and trial | Free for 1 member and 1 active project. Every signup starts with 14 days of Agency, no card, then drops to Free. |
Free for 1 user and 1 canvas. 14 days on any paid plan, no card. Pricing page |
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| What you can review | Web pages only |
Websites, PDFs, images, video, design work and more Home page |
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| How a site is loaded | Mainly a browser extension for Chrome and Edge, in the reviewer’s own browser. Review links, for people who won’t install anything, go through our servers. |
Through Pastel’s proxy. Password-protected staging: log in through the canvas. Sites limited to certain IP addresses: allowlist Pastel’s IPs. Sites behind a VPN or firewall: a Chrome extension, which everyone who needs that canvas installs. Help: whitelisting Pastel’s IPs Help: Pastel Chrome extension |
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| Project tools | Linear on every paid plan, with replies synced both ways. No Jira, Asana, ClickUp, Trello or Monday yet. |
Project-management integrations start on Team Pricing page |
Trello, Asana, Jira, ClickUp, Monday and Zapier, plus webhook export. Linear isn’t listed. Pricing page |
|
| Coding agents (MCP) | On every paid plan. Sign-in with a consent screen. Agents read, reply and resolve. They can’t pin new comments or change what anyone wrote. |
MCP server for Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor and others. Its help doesn’t say which plans include it. Help: Pastel MCP server |
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Where How’s that? is different
Both tools can reach a site behind a VPN. The difference is which route comes first.
- The extension is the default
- Teammates comment through the extension in their own browser, signed in as they already are. A staging site locked to your office IP works for anyone in the office, with no address list to keep up to date. Pastel offers its Chrome extension as the alternative when allowlisting isn’t possible.
- More people for less
- Team includes 10 members for $49 a month, and Agency has no member limit at $99. Pastel’s Team plan includes 5 users for $119.
- Linear from $19
- Send a comment to Linear with its screenshot and browser details. Replies stay in step on both sides, and closing the issue resolves the comment. It comes with every paid plan.
Where Pastel is ahead
- PDFs, images, video and design work as well as websites.
- Trello, Asana, Jira, ClickUp and Monday on its Team plan.
- Approvals, deadlines and reminders, even on its free plan.
- An Enterprise plan with a SOC 2 report and SAML single sign-on.
Small buildings, carefully made.
Architects for homes and schools across Bristol and the Cotswolds.
See our projectsTry it: click anything on this page to leave a comment. The practice, agency and names are made up.
Moving from Pastel
There’s no importer. Your existing canvases stay in Pastel, so most teams finish open review rounds there and start new projects here.
Create a project
Add the site’s addresses. Staging and production can sit in one project.
Install the extension
For you and your team. It only switches on for sites in your projects.
Send clients a review link
They click and comment without making an account.
Launch offer: the first 100 paying workspaces get half off their first year on any yearly plan.
Your price stays put
The price you sign up at is the price you pay for as long as you stay on that plan. If our prices go up, yours doesn’t.
Your money back if it isn’t right
Ask within 30 days of your first payment and we’ll refund it in full. No form to fill in.
Questions about this comparison
Is How’s that? connected to Pastel?
No. How’s that? is an independent product. It has no connection to Pastel or the company that makes it, and Pastel hasn’t reviewed or endorsed this page.
How did you check these facts?
We read Pastel’s plans page, home page and three help articles on 10 October 2026 and quoted them. We haven’t used a Pastel trial, so where its pages don’t say something, the table says so instead of guessing. The sources box below lists every page.
When was this page last updated?
10 October 2026. If a price or plan has changed since then, the competitor’s own page is the one to trust, and we’d like to hear about it.
Something here is wrong. Who do I tell?
Email [email protected] with a link to the page that shows it. We’ll correct this page within two working days.
Can I bring my Pastel canvases across?
Not yet. There’s no importer, so past feedback stays where it is.
Will I need to allowlist your IP addresses?
Not for anyone using the extension. It loads the site in their own browser, so if they can open it, they can comment on it. Review links are different: they go through our servers, so a site limited to certain IP addresses would have to let our servers in, as with any proxy.
Sources and method
Checked on 10 October 2026 by reading each page below. Plans compared: How’s that? Solo and Team at their current prices against Pastel Pro and Pastel Team. Monthly is compared with monthly and yearly with yearly. Prices are in US dollars as shown; ours exclude VAT, and Pastel doesn’t say whether tax is included.
- usepastel.com/plans Plans, prices, users, extra users, canvases, guests, trial, integrations, Enterprise and Free features. Accessed 10 October 2026.
- usepastel.com File types, unlimited guests, trial wording. Accessed 10 October 2026.
- help.usepastel.com/en/articles/5986535-whitelisting-pastel-s-ips Password-protected staging, IP allowlisting, the proxy. Accessed 10 October 2026.
- help.usepastel.com/en/articles/8168731-pastel-chrome-extension Chrome extension for sites behind a VPN or firewall. Accessed 10 October 2026.
- help.usepastel.com/en/articles/16399713-using-the-pastel-mcp-server MCP server. Accessed 10 October 2026.
What we didn’t test
We haven’t used Pastel ourselves. Everything here comes from Pastel’s own pages, linked above. If they don’t say something, such as how Pastel handles localhost, we’ve left it out.
Shortened it to “Book online” so it fits on one line. How’s that?
Spot on, thanks.