You can decide who sees the Marker.io bug reporting button on your website and where it appears. This helps ensure that only the right people have access to it.
How to Set Up Button Targeting
Go to
Widget > Button > Button Targetingin your Marker.io settings.Choose who should see the button.
Decide on which pages it should appear.
Who Can See the Button?
You have two options for controlling who has access:
Everyone – The button is visible to all visitors.
Best for staging sites where multiple people need to give feedback.
Useful for live sites when you want feedback from anyone.
Only Marker.io Members & Guests – The button is only visible to logged-in users.
Ideal for teams and external stakeholders providing feedback on a live site.
💡 Running the widget on a live, public-facing site? Switching to "Only Marker.io Members & Guests" is the single most effective way to reduce your pageview usage. When the widget is set to "Everyone", every visitor session counts toward your plan's monthly pageview limit. Locking it down to logged-in users can cut your pageview consumption by 90%+ overnight. Learn more about managing pageview usage →
Where Will the Button Appear?
You can decide which pages will show the button:
On all pages – The button appears on every page where the Marker.io snippet is installed.
Works well for staging environments where all users may give feedback.
Only when a specific URL parameter is present – The button only appears when a user adds a secret code to the URL.
🚨 Pageview warning: With this option, the widget script still loads for every visitor on every page load. The button is just hidden until someone uses the secret URL. This means all visitor sessions still count toward your pageview limit. If you're on a high-traffic production site and want to keep pageview usage low, consider using "Only Marker.io Members & Guests" or the Browser Extension instead.
Useful for beta testers who need controlled access to the widget. See below for more details on this option.
Never show the button – The button is hidden from everyone.
This is helpful if you want to prevent feedback collection entirely or use a custom button instead. (Check our custom button guide for details.)
Using a Secret URL Code
If you enable URL-based button activation, the default parameters are:
?bug?feedback
When a user adds one of these parameters to the URL, the Marker.io button will be available for one hour, and only for that user. This allows them time to submit their feedback.
Custom Secret URL Codes
If you're on a Business or Enterprise plan, you can go a step further by creating your own custom secret codes. This is useful for:
🔒 Extra Security – Use unique, hard-to-guess codes instead of
?bug, making access more controlled.👥 Different Codes for Different Teams – Assign custom parameters for developers, clients, or testers.
🚀 Private Feedback Collection – Ensure only authorized users can trigger the button.
How It Works:
Instead of using
?bug, create a custom code like?teamfeedback123or?QA-access.Share this URL only with the right people.
When they add the custom code to the website link, the Marker.io button appears just for them—for one hour.
Example:
If your website is www.yoursite.com, you can create a private feedback link like:
www.yoursite.com?VIPbugreports
Quickly Adding a Secret URL Code with a Bookmarklet
If you want to quickly add a specific URL parameter (e.g., ?marker123) to any page URL without manually typing it, you can create a bookmarklet in your browser.
Set It Up Once:
Copy the following JavaScript snippet into a new file.
javascript:(function(){ let url = new URL(window.location); let param = "yourCustomCode"; if (!url.search.includes(param)) { url.search += (url.search ? "&" : "?") + param; window.location.href = url.href; } })();
2. Replace yourCustomCode with your own secret code.
3. Open your browser's bookmarks manager.
4. Create a new bookmark and name it something like Activate Marker.
5. In the URL field, paste the JavaScript code with your own custom code in it.
6. Save the bookmark.
How to Use It
Whenever you need to enable the Marker.io button using a custom URL parameter, simply click the bookmark.
The URL will automatically update, and the button will appear for you.
This method makes it quick and easy for beta testers and team members to activate the Marker.io button without manually editing the URL. 🚀
Summary
With button targeting, you decide exactly who can see and use the Marker.io widget. If you have any questions, reach out through the chat option at the bottom of our website.