Free WordPress plugin, and your notes stay in your database

Client feedback, pinned to the actual pixel.

Red Pen adds a Dev Mode to any WordPress site. Flip it on from the admin bar and pin typed notes to anything on the front end: a heading, an image, a rogue margin. Then work through all of them from one repository in wp-admin. Visitors never see a thing.

Works with any theme and any builder. Notes live in your database, nowhere else.

How it works

From install to punch-list in minutes

Nobody gets an invite email and nobody is billed per seat. It is a plugin, and it works like one.

Install and activate

Upload the zip under Plugins → Add New, then activate it. Nothing asks you for a key.

Flip on Dev Mode

One toggle in the admin bar. Only logged-in users you allow ever see the overlay. Your visitors never do.

Pin to the broken pixel

Click any element on the page, type the note, give it a type and a priority. Drag a region to attach a screenshot and scribble on it freehand first.

Work the queue

Every note from every page lands in one repository in wp-admin. Filter, reply, resolve, done.

Built for client work

The feedback round-trip, minus the chaos

Stop translating "the thing near the top looks off" from an email thread. The note is on the thing.

Screenshots attached

Drag a box around the broken bit and the capture rides along with the note. No more guessing games.

Client reports

Print a clean punch-list for the client from the repository, your logo and brand colours included, free. The reviewer link itself is revocable, expiring and rate-limited, and since 0.26.0 a note only reaches it if you ticked Visible to client reviewers.

Triage in wp-admin

Open, In Progress, Resolved, with low/normal/high priority and a separate severity axis. Replies are child posts, and the CSV export honours whatever status and assignee filters you have set.

Stays in your database

Notes are the wprp_note post type in WordPress itself. Nothing is loaded from a third party and nothing leaves the site.

Any theme, any builder

It pins to whatever is rendered: hand-built themes, Oxygen, Elementor, blocks. If it is on the page, you can pin it.

Agent handoff

Delegate a note to an AI coding agent working on the site. It reads the queue locally, with no keys and nothing uploaded.

The red wire

Every site feeds the Hub

Once Red Pen is on several client sites, each install sends its notes to the Red Pen Hub, one local board that sees all of them.

yourclient.com

WordPress plugin
Red Pen Hublocal board
yourclient.com3 open
portfolio-site.com1 open
shop-redesign.local5 open

The Hub runs on your own machine rather than ours. Nothing in it counts projects, so the number of client sites you connect is up to your disk.

Put a red pen on your next client site

The whole plugin is free, permanently: pinning, screenshots, workflow, the repository, white-label reports. None of it is reserved for a tier above this one.

This page runs Red Pen as well. Hit the red button in the corner and leave one.

FAQ

Questions

Will my visitors ever see the overlay?

No. Red Pen only renders for logged-in users with Dev Mode switched on. Logged-out visitors get zero extra markup and zero extra scripts.

Does it slow the site down?

Not for visitors, because nothing loads for them at all. An editor with Dev Mode on gets the inline overlay script plus a vendored copy of html2canvas (194 KB, MIT) for region screenshots. Neither makes an external request.

Where do the notes live?

In your WordPress database, on your own hosting, as the wprp_note post type with replies as child posts. No service sits behind the plugin, so nothing can shut down and take your notes with it.

Does it work with page builders?

Yes. Red Pen pins to the rendered page, so a hand-coded theme, Oxygen, Elementor and Gutenberg blocks all behave the same.

Is there a paid tier?

No. Pinning, screenshots, workflow, the repository and white-label client reports are all included. If Red Pen earns its keep you can back a release (one-time, any amount) on Buy Me a Coffee or GitHub Sponsors and land on the Supporters wall. Nothing is gated behind it.