Buyer’s guide

DocSend is built for the pitch. This is for what you deliver after.

DocSend’s job is to tell you how a prospect read your deck. That is a good job, and it is the wrong one once the deal is signed. Handing over the work needs the opposite instincts: a live page instead of an uploaded file, your domain instead of theirs, and a client who reads it without proving who they are.

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What is the best DocSend alternative for client delivery?

For agencies, studios and consultancies handing finished work to clients who have already signed, the best DocSend alternative is a hosted page rather than a tracked document: each deliverable published as a live web page on your own domain, gated with a passcode or the client’s company email, updated in place at the same URL as the work evolves, and collected under one address per client. DocSend remains the better tool when the artifact is a deck, the reader is a prospect, and per-slide attention data is the product you are buying. Fundraising above all.

Two different jobs wearing the same clothes

Both tools take something you made and put it behind a link you can send. That surface similarity is why people compare them, and it hides the fact that they are aimed at opposite ends of the same relationship.

DocSend was built for the moment before someone becomes a client. You send the deck, and DocSend tells you who opened it, how long they spent on each slide, where they stopped, and who they forwarded it to. Every one of its serious features points the same way: visitor email authentication, allow and block lists, NDAs and gating agreements, dynamic watermarking. The product exists to identify and measure the reader, because when you are pitching, the reader is the thing you are trying to learn about.

Now move three weeks forward. They signed. You are sending the audit, the strategy deck, the monthly report, the migration plan. The person opening it is not a lead to be scored, they are a client who paid for this. Asking them to authenticate before they can read their own deliverable is friction that buys you nothing and costs you a little dignity. And the artifact itself has changed shape: it is not a static PDF you exported once, it is work that will be revised, and it should live at a URL that stays correct rather than becoming report_v3_FINAL.pdf.

Where the differences actually bite

The artifact is a page, not an upload. Publish HTML and it is a live document: charts that work, links that go somewhere, revisions that replace it in place at the same URL. The link in your client’s inbox always opens the current version. Nothing to re-export, nothing to re-send.
Your domain, not a subdomain of theirs. From the Standard plan DocSend puts your name in front of their domain, giving you yourstudio.docsend.com. Stacktree serves from a domain you own: work.yourstudio.com, or a whole address for one client at acme.youragency.com. Our name appears nowhere on the page from Solo upward.
Your agent can publish it. Stacktree is an MCP server. Claude, Codex or Cursor can generate the report and publish it privately, gated and filed under the client, in the same breath. There is a REST API, a GitHub Action and an n8n node too. DocSend is a place you upload finished files to by hand. If your deliverables are generated, this is the difference that compounds weekly.
Flat, not per seat. DocSend’s Standard plan is $45 per user per month at the yearly rate. A four-person studio is paying for four seats before anyone has looked at anything. Stacktree is one flat price and your clients are never seats.
Gate the client, not the document. Set one passcode on a client space and it covers every deliverable for that client, inherited by pages you publish later. They type it once and stay in for thirty days. No email harvested, no account, no per-document setup.

What DocSend does that we do not

This is the honest part, and it is not short.

Documents, decks and video. DocSend hosts PDFs, slides, spreadsheets and video with a viewer built for them. Stacktree hosts HTML pages. If your deliverable is genuinely a PowerPoint and you want it tracked as slides, DocSend is purpose-built and we are not competing.
Per-slide analytics on a document. From Solo a page reports opens and unique viewers, and Studio adds time on page, scroll depth and an attention heatmap. For a deck, DocSend’s slide-by-slide breakdown is more useful and more granular.
eSignature. Built in on every DocSend plan. We have none.
NDA gates and dynamic watermarking. Real features for real situations, on DocSend’s Advanced plan. We have no equivalent to either.
Data-room machinery. Due diligence tracking, audit logs, group visitor permissions, automatic file indexing. If you are running a raise or a transaction, that is the tool.

If two or more of those describe what you are doing, stay where you are, or run both: DocSend for the raise, a client space for the work you deliver afterwards.

Pitching a prospect, or delivering to a client

DocSend facts read from docsend.com/pricing on 17 August 2026, at the yearly rate their page shows by default.

What matters	DocSend	Stacktree
Built for	The pitch. Knowing how a prospect read it	The handover. Work a client already paid for
What you send	An uploaded document, deck or video	A live web page, revised in place at the same URL
Pricing shape	Per user: $10 and $45 per user per month, then $150 and $180 for three users	Flat: $0, $19, $79, $249. Clients are never seats
Your own domain	A subdomain of theirs, `yourstudio.docsend.com`, from Standard	A domain you own, `acme.youragency.com`, from Solo
Email gate on the viewer	Visitor email authentication on Advanced, $150 a month	Company-email gate on Solo, $19 a month
One address per client	Spaces, their data rooms, from Advanced at $150 a month	Client spaces. Filing free on every plan; one address on Solo, ten on Studio, unlimited on Firm
Published by an AI agent	No agent surface. Upload by hand	MCP server, REST API, GitHub Action, n8n node
eSignature, NDA gate, watermarking	Yes. eSignature on every plan, the rest on Advanced	No. None of the three
Decks, PDFs and video	Yes, with a viewer built for them and per-slide analytics	No. HTML pages only

The last two rows are not throat-clearing. If you are raising a round, DocSend wins this table outright and you should stop reading. The case for switching only holds when the thing you send is finished work rather than a proposal, and when you would rather your client simply opened it than told you who they were first.

What moving actually looks like

There is no import, because there is nothing to import: the shape of the artifact changes. Instead of exporting a deliverable to PDF and uploading it, you publish it as a page. Ask your agent for it in HTML, or hand Stacktree an existing file, and you get a private link straight back. Add a passcode if it needs one, point your domain at it once, and from then on publishing with a client name files each deliverable into that client’s space automatically.

Most studios do not move everything. The fundraising deck stays in DocSend, where the tracking earns its keep. The client work moves, because that is where per-seat billing and a docsend.com address were never quite right.

What it costs

Flat, in USD, and your clients are never seats. Free is $0: three pages in total, each expiring after seven days, which is enough to see the shape of it and not a place to keep client work. Solo is $19 a month and is where this becomes a real tool: passcodes, company-email gates, viewer numbers, a custom domain and your first client space, with our name gone from every page. Studio is $79 with ten domains, ten client spaces and the deeper read analytics: time on page, scroll depth, attention. Firm is $249 with unlimited spaces. Details on the pricing page.

FAQ

Frequent questions

What is the best DocSend alternative for an agency or studio? +

It depends which half of the job you are doing. DocSend is purpose-built for the pitch: you are sending a deck to someone who has not paid you yet, and knowing they reached slide 14 and stopped is the whole point. If the deal is already signed and you are handing over the work, the shape you want is different. The deliverable should be a live page rather than an uploaded file, it should sit at an address you own, it should update in place when the work changes, and your client should not be asked to identify themselves to read something they commissioned. That is what Stacktree client spaces do.

How much does DocSend cost compared with Stacktree? +

DocSend charges per user. On the yearly rate shown on their pricing page, Personal is $10 per user per month and Standard $45 per user per month, both including one user; Advanced is $150 a month with three users included, and Advanced Data Rooms $180. Stacktree is flat and clients are never seats: Free at $0, Solo $19, Studio $79, Firm $249. The comparison that matters is not the headline number but where each one puts the features you actually need. Visitor email verification sits on DocSend Advanced at $150 a month; on Stacktree an email-domain gate is Solo, at $19.

Does DocSend let me use my own domain? +

Not quite in the sense agencies usually mean. From the Standard plan, DocSend lets you put your own subdomain on the front of your links, which produces something like yourstudio.docsend.com, along with your logo on the viewer. It is their domain with your name on it. A Stacktree custom domain is your own: work.yourstudio.com, or a whole address for one client at acme.youragency.com, with no reference to us anywhere on the page. That starts at Solo.

Can my agent publish to it? Can I put it in CI? +

Yes, and this is the part DocSend has no answer to. Stacktree is an MCP server, so Claude, Codex, Cursor or anything else that speaks MCP can publish a page, gate it, file it under a client and hand you back the link, without you leaving the conversation. There is also a REST API, a CLI-friendly script, a GitHub Action and an n8n node. DocSend is a place you upload finished documents to by hand. If your reports are generated rather than typed, that difference compounds every single week.

When should I stay on DocSend? +

When the artifact is genuinely a document and the tracking is genuinely the product. Fundraising is the clearest case: you are sending a deck to investors, you want per-slide attention, you want to revoke access after the round, and a data room with an NDA gate and dynamic watermarking is a real requirement. DocSend does all of that and Stacktree does none of it. Sales teams qualifying inbound have a similar case. Buy DocSend for those without guilt.

Does my client have to create an account or hand over their email? +

On Stacktree, no on both counts. The link is unguessable and opens in any browser. If you want a second layer you can add a passcode, which collects nothing about the person who types it, or an email-domain gate when you specifically want the check. DocSend viewers do not need an account either, but its gating is built around identifying them, because on a pitch that identification is the point. On a deliverable your client already paid for, asking them to prove who they are is friction with no upside for them.

Can several deliverables for one client live at one address? +

Yes. Publish with a client name and each page files into a client space for that client; the space is created the first time you use it, and filing is free on every plan. Bind a hostname like acme.youragency.com to the space and it serves a portal page at the root with each deliverable underneath, newest first, and one passcode covering all of it. The hostname and the portal start on Solo, which includes one space, with ten on Studio and unlimited on Firm. DocSend has an equivalent idea and confusingly also calls them Spaces, but theirs are data rooms and they start on the Advanced plan at $150 a month.

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