Annotext was first developed for Macintosh HyperCard. For a description of the issues involved with its development, many of which are still pertinent to the current version, see Bruce Duncan and Otmar K. E. Foelsche, "'Doch ein Begriff muß bei dem Worte sein': Some Thoughts on Electronically Annotated Literary Texts" Die Unterrichtspraxis 28, (1995): 46-51.

Annotext was subsequently moved to a browser-based platform. Todor G. Kalaydjiev and Alex Iliev programmed Annotext 3.0 under the direction of Otmar K. E. Foelsche and Bruce Duncan. Annotext 3.2.1 was later prepared by Phil Fazio under the direction of Anthony Helm.

The current version, Annotext 4, was programmed by Robert Eastman under the direction of Bruce Duncan. It launched in April 2015.