Hints are requested by the student by explicitly clicking on the hint button. Hint texts should be short, explanatory, informative texts that describe the next possible step for the student to get to the answer.
Feedback is (automatically) given to the student as a reply to input submitted by the student. Feedback texts are focussing on the input given and describing the mistake made.
More generic: hints are forward-driven, feedback is backward-driven. AlgebraKiT tries to give formative feedback where possible.