Chromatic

What it is for

Chromatic is a hosted visual-review desk: you open a pull-request Activity list, and Free is $0 (5,000 billed snapshots / month). Use it when the job is Storybook snapshots you review on a PR, not when you need a $20 chat seat.

What makes it unique: the cover is the official Chromatic PR Activity (hichroma/acme, Onboarding improvements v2, 37 changes / 4 discussions / 1744 stories, Build 4 • 3 jobs, Tom Coleman / Dominic Nguyen reviewers) from the docs still — not a pricing card. The rows themselves are ops of Reviews. Chromatic bills billed snapshots, not a chat seat.

Key features

• Reviews — a pull-request Activity list you triage (cover still; docs). One PR desk. Cover Onboarding improvements v2 and the 37-change header sit here.
• Builds — a CI job run that produces snapshots (cover still Build 4 • 3 jobs; docs). A build, not a review. The x8219cee hashes sit here.
• UI Tests / changesets — a visual diff of stories against the baseline (docs still; docs). A changeset, not a build. Cover Histogram: Default lives here.
• Library — the published Storybook you browse (cover 1744 stories) (docs). A library, not a PR. Composition and embed sit here.
• Projects — the org/project you pin snapshots to (hichroma/acme on the cover) (docs). A project, not a library. Unlimited projects on Free sit here.

The install / Storybook addon snippet is install. Free / Starter / Pro snapshot tiles are the meter. TurboSnap is a snapshot multiplier, not a sixth desk we fold into UI Tests.

Who it's for

Best fit: frontend teams who will stay on Free at $0 (5,000 billed snapshots, Chrome-only) while they open a first PR Activity list, then buy Starter at $179 / month (35,000 snapshots) or Pro at $399 / month (85,000 snapshots) when they need extra browsers or a larger snapshot bucket.

Pricing

Verified 2026-10-23 (Asia/Shanghai) from chromatic.com/pricing. Tiles print Free $0 / month, Starter $179 / month, and Pro $399 / month.

• Free — $0 / month. 5,000 billed snapshots / month (docs copy: equivalent to 25k TurboSnaps). Chrome. Unlimited projects and collaborators. No card.
• Starter — $179 / month. 35,000 billed snapshots / month. Everything in Free. Extra billed snapshots $0.008. Safari / Firefox / Edge.
• Pro — $399 / month. 85,000 billed snapshots / month. Everything in Starter. Custom domain.
• Enterprise — contact sales. Unlimited snapshots on the compare table we fetched.

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Limitations / costs

• Free is 5,000 billed snapshots / month and Chrome-only. A busier Storybook is the $179 Starter tile.
• Extra snapshots are $0.008 on Starter. A noisy CI branch can outrun the 35k bucket.
• A visual-review desk, not a synthetic monitor. For Checkly’s browser checks see Checkly. For session replay see OpenReplay.

Alternatives

• Checkly — synthetic browser checks when you want Checkly’s monitor desk, not Chromatic’s $0 / $179 snapshot review.
• Jam — a bug report with a click timeline when you want Jam’s replay, not Chromatic’s Storybook changeset.
• OpenReplay — session replay you can self-host when you do not want Chromatic’s hosted snapshot tiles.

Official tutorial

Official Chromatic channel video: How to Test UI AUTOMATICALLY — Storybook and Chromatic (oEmbed author: Chromatic). First-party Storybook walkthrough; the PR Activity still is the cover. Builds on the video are a second desk, not generate-on-Reviews.

Written path: chromatic.com/pricing plus the PR Activity still.

Website

https://www.chromatic.com

Repository

https://github.com/chromaui

Source

Catalog row curated for AI Tools Nav. Cover is the official Chromatic PR Activity still from the docs CDN. Dollars checked on chromatic.com/pricing (Free $0; Starter $179/mo; Pro $399/mo; extra snapshots $0.008). Tutorial oEmbed author: Chromatic.

Last verified

2026-10-23 (Asia/Shanghai) editorial check.