Hypothesis adds collaborative annotations to digital course materials, so learners can highlight passages, ask questions and discuss material in context. Users can create private highlights, page notes and threaded replies, and add tags to annotations. Supported material includes web pages, PDFs, EPUB files, YouTube videos, and content from VitalSource and JSTOR. Colleges and universities can connect Hypothesis to Canvas, Blackboard, Moodle, D2L Brightspace and Sakai through LTI 1.3; annotations can also sync with LMS gradebooks, including Canvas SpeedGrader. A free account is available for personal use and collaboration. The Free plan costs 0.00 USD per free, billed per student/yearly, and includes core annotation, private groups and self-service support. The web app works with a Chrome extension on Chrome and other Chromium browsers, or a bookmarklet in Firefox and Safari. Hypothesis also offers API access and export to JSON, plain text, CSV and HTML, with JSON import. It was founded as an open-source project in 2011.
Who it is for
Hypothesis suits learners and educators who want to discuss digital materials alongside the passages they are studying. Its institutional integrations are relevant to colleges and universities using supported learning management systems.
What is good
- Annotations support private highlights, notes, tags and threaded replies.
- Supports web pages, PDFs, EPUB files and YouTube videos.
- LTI 1.3 integrations include Canvas, Moodle and Sakai.
- Free plan includes core annotation and private groups.
What to know first
- Bronze package caps seats at 1,000.
- Silver package caps seats at 2,000.
- Gold package caps seats at 3,000.
Verdict
Hypothesis brings annotations and discussion into course materials, with both personal use and institutional LMS integrations listed. Check the seat limits and package details when considering an institutional rollout.
Hypothesis plans and pricing
All plansCompared on web annotation tools
- Free plan
- Yes
- Annotation modes
- both
- Collaborative review
- Yes
- Guest access
- Yes
- Document support
- both
- Browser capture
- Yes
- Team seats
- 1,000 seats
- Export options
- JSON, plain text, CSV, and HTML; import from JSON
