Pastel does one thing very efficiently: it lets clients leave feedback on a live URL by clicking on elements and typing comments. No installation. No account creation. Share a link, the client annotates the page, you see it. For quick design reviews and one-off approval rounds, that simplicity is genuinely valuable.
The limitation is that ongoing bug tracking isn't a quick one-off. It's a continuous workflow across multiple client sites, often involving structured triage, Jira routing, team assignment, and client status updates. That's a meaningfully different job to "please approve this homepage design."
Pastel is built for the second scenario. If you need the first, you'll find its gaps quickly.
Why Agencies Look for Pastel Alternatives
No CMS embedding. Pastel works as an overlay on any URL, but it doesn't embed inside the WordPress admin or Umbraco backoffice. Clients who are logged into their CMS editing content — which is when they're most likely to encounter bugs — have no report button in context. They'd need to navigate to Pastel separately, which adds friction and reduces report volume.
No Jira integration. When a client reports a bug, it needs to get into your development workflow. Pastel has no native Jira integration. Routing a Pastel feedback item into a Jira ticket requires copy-pasting or a Zapier setup — an extra step in every single bug workflow.
No structured bug triage workflow. Pastel is built around feedback threads, not structured bug reports with statuses, priorities, and assignees. You can't bulk triage, assign to team members, set resolution dates, or track whether you're meeting client SLAs.
No client-facing status tracking. Clients leave feedback in Pastel and then wait. There's no portal where they can check what's happening with their reports, see what's resolved, or understand what's in progress. That creates client communication overhead that the tool doesn't solve.
Better suited to project handoffs than ongoing maintenance. Pastel's model aligns with "client reviews a design and approves it," not "client reports a production bug on their live site at 11pm." The ongoing maintenance relationship needs a tool that persists, manages history, and tracks resolution over time.
Pastel vs Lantern: Full Comparison
| Pastel | Lantern | |
|---|---|---|
| Best for | Design mockup reviews | Ongoing bug tracking |
| CMS embedding | ❌ | ✅ WordPress + Umbraco |
| WordPress plugin | ❌ | ✅ |
| Umbraco package | ❌ | ✅ (v1.0.2 on NuGet) |
| Video bug reports | ❌ | ✅ (Loom built-in) |
| Client portals | ❌ | ✅ Scoped per client |
| Jira integration | ❌ | ✅ Native |
| Bug status tracking | ❌ | ✅ |
| Team assignment | Limited | ✅ |
| Free trial (no card) | Yes | ✅ 14 days |
When to Stick with Pastel
Pastel is genuinely the right choice in some contexts:
You only need design approval rounds. If your agency's feedback workflow is "client reviews a design comp, approves or requests changes, and that's it," Pastel is fast and frictionless. No accounts, no installation — just a URL and a click.
Your clients are making one-off design decisions, not reporting live bugs. "I'd like the button to be more rounded" belongs in a design feedback tool. "The button doesn't submit the form" belongs in a bug tracker. If your feedback is the former, Pastel fits.
You want zero friction for clients who only need to annotate a page once. Pastel's no-install, no-account approach is genuinely the lowest friction way to get visual feedback. If a client needs to do this rarely and you don't need the output to flow into a structured workflow, Pastel is the simplest option.
Why Agencies Choose Lantern Instead
The reporting widget lives where clients already are. The WordPress plugin and Umbraco NuGet package embed the bug report button inside the CMS admin. When a client is editing a page and notices something broken, the report button is right there. They don't need to navigate to a separate tool, remember a URL, or open another tab.
Bugs flow directly into Jira. Submitted bugs automatically create Jira tickets with client name, video link, URL, and browser metadata. You can map different clients to different Jira projects. Your development team's workflow stays intact — they work in Jira, Lantern is the client-facing layer on top.
Clients can see the status of their reports. Each client has a scoped portal showing every bug they've submitted, its current status, and any updates. The "did you see my report?" follow-up email disappears when clients can check for themselves.
Video reports for dynamic bugs. When a form breaks during submission or a JavaScript error only triggers under specific conditions, a screenshot of the broken state is rarely enough. A 30-second Loom video — built into the Lantern widget — shows the exact sequence. You fix it without the back-and-forth.
Flat pricing for ongoing retainer work. The Team plan is £30/month for unlimited clients. Pastel's model fits project-based work; Lantern's fits ongoing maintenance retainers where the client relationship doesn't end when the project does.
Flat pricing, WordPress + Umbraco plugins, and video bug reports. No credit card required.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Pastel best for?
Pastel is well-suited to lightweight visual feedback on live pages and design mockups. It's quick to set up — share a URL, clients click to leave comments. Great for one-off design reviews with no installation required.
What is the best Pastel alternative for ongoing client bug tracking?
Lantern. Pastel is designed for design feedback on specific URLs, not structured bug triage across multiple clients over time. Lantern's embeddable widget lives inside the client's CMS admin, Jira integration routes bugs to your dev workflow, and each client has their own portal for tracking issues.
Does Pastel integrate with Jira?
Pastel doesn't offer a native Jira integration. If your development team works in Jira, bugs captured in Pastel require manual transfer. Lantern automatically creates Jira tickets from submitted bugs, with client-to-project mapping so issues route to the right Jira project.
Does Pastel work inside the WordPress or Umbraco admin?
No. Pastel works as an overlay on any URL but doesn't embed inside CMS admin interfaces. Lantern's widget is visible to logged-in CMS users — the bug report button appears inside WordPress admin or the Umbraco backoffice, invisible to public visitors.
Does Pastel support Umbraco?
Pastel has no Umbraco-specific support. Lantern is the only bug tracking tool with a dedicated Umbraco NuGet package (Lantern.Umbraco v1.0.2) that integrates natively with the Umbraco backoffice.
Flat pricing, WordPress + Umbraco plugins, and video bug reports. No credit card required.