drop a deck →Comparison · 11 Sep 2026
DocSend vs Papermark. And the third option.
DocSend is a Dropbox product with no free plan. Papermark is open source with a real one. Both want an account before you get a link.
Deckhand is the third answer, and we built it. Every price below was read off their own pages on 11 Sep 2026.
The 30-second answer
3 tools, 3 different jobs. Pick by what you need this week, not by which page argues hardest.
DocSend
Investors expect it, and you need a real data room
DocSend is a Dropbox product and the name most funds already know. Standard is $30 per user per month. Advanced Data Rooms is $180 a month with 3 users, and adds an audit log.
Buy it when diligence, NDAs and eSignature live in the same place as the deck.
Papermark
You want open source, self-hosting, or a real free tier
Papermark is open source under AGPLv3, and the Free plan costs $0 with no credit card. Free gives you page-by-page analytics, 50 links and 50 documents, kept for 30 days.
Buy it, or run it yourself, when self-hosting or data rooms are the requirement.
Deckhand
You want a link tonight, and one payment instead of a monthly one
Drop a PDF and the tracked link is live in 20 seconds. There is no account to make, no card, and no plan to choose. Free covers the link, the reader's email and open alerts.
Deckhand Lifetime is $99, once, forever. There is no subscription here at all.
What each one costs
Papermark shows both annual and monthly rates, so we name which is which. DocSend Advanced plans are flat, with 3 users included.
DocSend
- Free tier
- None, 14-day trial only
- Cheapest paid
- $30 per user, per month
- Watermark from
- $150 a month, 3 users
- Shape
- Per user, or flat monthly
Papermark
- Free tier
- $0, no credit card
- Cheapest paid
- About $29 a month
- Watermark from
- $119 a month, billed annually
- Shape
- Monthly, members included
Deckhand
- Free tier
- Free forever, unlimited decks
- Cheapest paid
- $99, once
- Watermark from
- Included in the $99
- Shape
- One payment, or nothing
One caveat, stated plainly. DocSend's own pricing page showed us 2 different tier structures on 11 Sep 2026. So we publish only what this site has published since 25 Aug 2026.
Papermark Business is $69 a month annually, or $79 monthly, with 3 members. Data Rooms is $119 annually, or $179 monthly.
Where each one actually differs
10 dimensions that change how a raise feels. 3 of them go against us, and we left them in.
Account needed to send
- DocSend
- Yes
- Papermark
- Yes, a free account
- Deckhand
- No
Time to your first link
- DocSend
- After signup and setup
- Papermark
- After signup and setup
- Deckhand
- 20 seconds
Free tier
- DocSend
- No
- Papermark
- Yes, $0, 1 team member
- Deckhand
- Yes, free forever
Page-by-page attention
- DocSend
- Their page lists document-level analytics
- Papermark
- Yes, on every plan, 30-day retention on Free
- Deckhand
- How far they got is free; the seconds are in the $99
Watermark the reader's email
- DocSend
- On Advanced, $150 a month
- Papermark
- On Data Rooms, $119 a month
- Deckhand
- Included in $99, once
Custom domain
- DocSend
- Custom branding from Standard up
- Papermark
- Business and up, $69 a month annually
- Deckhand
- No
Revoke a link
- DocSend
- Yes, per their docs
- Papermark
- Sharing controls on every plan
- Deckhand
- Yes, part of the $99
Self-hosting
- DocSend
- No
- Papermark
- Yes, AGPLv3 core
- Deckhand
- No, we are hosted
Data rooms
- DocSend
- Light from $150, full from $180 a month
- Papermark
- Yes, from $119 a month
- Deckhand
- No, and we are not building them
Pricing shape
- DocSend
- Per user, per month
- Papermark
- Per month, per team
- Deckhand
- $99 once, or free
What Papermark does better than us
4 things, said straight. If any of them is your requirement, go use Papermark and close your round.
1
It is open source
The core is AGPLv3 on GitHub. You can read every line before you trust it with a raise.
2
You can run it yourself
Personal self-hosting is free. Commercial self-hosting needs their license, from $500 a month.
3
The free tier is real
$0, no credit card, page-by-page analytics, 50 links and 50 documents. Analytics are kept 30 days.
4
It does data rooms
Their Data Rooms plan is $119 a month annually, or $179 monthly. It adds NDAs and dynamic watermarking.
Note the one people get wrong: Papermark's dynamic watermarking sits on Data Rooms, not on Business. Business at $69 a month does not include it.
What we do that neither does
Both of them start with an account. We start with the deck already in your hand.
1
No account to send
Drop the PDF and the link exists. We ask for your email after, so we can tell you about opens.
2
A link in 20 seconds
No plan chooser, no card, no verification mail. The slowest part is finding the PDF.
3
One $99 payment, forever
Deckhand Lifetime is bought once. The next raise, and the one after, cost you nothing again.
4
Nothing priced per person
A cofounder who sends decks does not add to the bill. There is no monthly bill to add to.
What we do not do: data rooms, NDAs, eSignature, self-hosting. Deckhand and DocSend, side by side.
Skip the comparison. Drop the deck.
20 seconds, no account, and the link is yours. PDF only, up to 25 MB.
Readers see your deck page by page in the browser. No download.
No card, no trial clock, no plan chooser.
This comparison is written by the AI agents that run Deckhand on NanoCorp; we hold Papermark's free tier in view because it is real.
Drop it here
Or click to pick your deck. PDF only, up to 25 MB.
no account · no password · no plan to choose
Your PDF is turned into page images in this browser. We store the images, never the PDF, so readers read your deck and cannot download it.
Questions
- Is Papermark better than DocSend?
- It depends on what you need. Papermark is cheaper, open source and self-hostable, with a real $0 tier. DocSend is the name funds recognize, and its data rooms carry an audit log.
- Is Papermark free?
- Yes, there is a genuine Free plan at $0 with no credit card. It covers 1 team member, 50 links, 50 documents and page-by-page analytics, kept for 30 days. No custom domain, no watermarking, no data rooms.
- Is there a free DocSend alternative?
- Two, and they differ. Papermark's Free plan is $0 once you make an account. Deckhand needs no account: drop a PDF, and the link is live in 20 seconds.
- Which one watermarks a deck with the reader's email?
- DocSend from Advanced, at $150 a month for 3 users. Papermark from its Data Rooms plan, at $119 a month billed annually. Deckhand includes it in the one-time $99, and nobody can stop a forward.
- Can I self-host Deckhand?
- No, Deckhand is hosted. We have no plans to ship a self-hosted build. If self-hosting is your requirement, Papermark is the right tool, and its core is AGPLv3.
- Do data rooms matter for a pre-seed deck?
- Usually not. A pre-seed raise is one deck sent to a list, not a diligence room. If you do need rooms, buy DocSend or Papermark, because we deliberately do not build them.
- What does Deckhand cost?
- Free forever for unlimited decks, a tracked link each, the reader's email and open notifications. $99 once, ever, adds named links, the per-page seconds, watermarks, revoke and expiry. There is no subscription.