# Showly alternative: private after publish, not only before · Stacktree

Source: https://stacktr.ee/showly-alternative

[Skip to content](#main)   [stacktr.ee](/)  [Examples](/#proof) [How it works](/#how) [Pricing](/pricing) [Security](/security) [Log in](https://app.stacktr.ee) [Publish one](https://app.stacktr.ee/?join=1)     By [Steve Smith](/about) · Founder, Stacktree Last updated September 19, 2026          alternative

#  The Showly alternative that stays private after you publish.

   Showly puts the privacy in the preview. The thing you actually send is the live site.  Showly keeps an agent's build private until a human approves it, then promotes it to a production URL. Stacktree puts the gate on the page you send: an unguessable link on every plan, a passcode on every plan, an email-domain gate from Solo, and a client space on your own domain.

  [ Publish a page free ](https://app.stacktr.ee/?join=1&from=seo_showly_alternative)   install npx stacktree-install
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##  What is the best Showly alternative?

Stacktree, when the work has to stay private after it goes live. Showly keeps previews private and approves them into a public production URL. Stacktree publishes straight to an unguessable link you can lock with a passcode or an email-domain gate, on your own domain, for a client who never signs in.

## What Showly is

Showly describes itself as website hosting for AI-created sites. An agent connects over MCP, stages edits
      into a Showly workspace, builds a private preview, and a person promotes that preview to production. The
      docs list nineteen tools across read, plan, build, ship and inspect groups, including
`create_preview`, `request_publish`, `publish_site` and
`rollback_to_version`. It is a deployment pipeline with a review gate, aimed at agents, and it
      is a good one.

It is run by Cubo World Inc., registered in Lewes, Delaware. Pricing is credit-metered: Free gives 300
      credits a month, Pro 3,000 at $12 a month or $10 billed yearly, Enterprise is by contract and adds
      single sign-on across an organisation, deployment into your own cloud, and publish approval workflows.

## Where the two products actually differ

Both let an agent publish. The difference is what happens to the page after that, and it is a bigger
      difference than the feature lists suggest.

Showly’s privacy model is pre-publication. A preview is private by default, carries a short
      sharing code or a password you set between 6 and 128 characters, is served with a noindex header, and on
      Pro can be restricted to signed-in members of the workspace. That is a careful review surface. Once the
      preview is promoted, it becomes a live site reachable by anyone holding the URL, which is the right
      default when the output is a marketing page or a demo.

Stacktree’s privacy model is post-publication, because the published page is
the deliverable. Every page starts on an unguessable link that acts as the credential. Any plan can add a
      shared passcode, and from Solo a page can be restricted to one client’s email domain with magic-link
      verification. Nothing is listed and nothing is indexed. There is no separate preview stage, because there
      is nothing to promote the page into.

## Where Showly is the better choice

Three cases, and they are real rather than polite.

  -  You want a human approval step in the pipeline. Showly is built around it: the agent
        stages, a person ships. Stacktree has no approval workflow. An agent with a connection publishes, and
        the control you have is the gate on the page and the ability to replace or delete it.

 -  The output is meant to be public. If the end state is a site anyone should be able to
        open, Showly’s defaults match your job and its credit model is cheap. Entry price is $12 a month
        against our $19, and its free plan is a monthly credit allowance rather than a three-page lifetime cap.

 -  You need several hostnames on one site. Showly allows up to five custom hostnames per
        live site on every plan, including Free. Stacktree starts custom domains at Solo, with one on Solo, ten
        on Studio and twenty-five on Firm.

## Where Stacktree wins

  -  The gate is on the live page. Passcode on every plan, including the free one and
        anonymous publishes. Email-domain gate with magic-link verification from Solo. You can also read a
        passcode back when a client loses it.

 -  A client layer, not a site list. A [client space](/client-spaces) gives one
        client a permanent address on your domain, a portal at the root listing every deliverable newest first,
        and a gate set once on the space that every page filed under it inherits, including the one you publish
        next month. The client never makes an account.

 -  You can tell whether it was read. From Solo: opens, unique viewers, and when the page
        was last opened. From Studio: aggregate time on page, scroll depth and an attention heatmap. Separate
        labelled share links per recipient carry their own expiry, use limit and revoke, so you can tell which
        link was used. Showly puts visitor analytics on Pro and above.

 -  The page answers questions. [Ask this page](/ask-this-page) puts a question
        box on a deliverable. Answers come from that page only, cite the passage they used and light it up, and
        a question the page cannot answer comes back to you as the brief for the next version. On every plan,
        off by default.

 -  A Markdown twin of every page. Send Accept: text/markdown to a page
        address, or add /_page.md, and you get the page with headings, lists, tables and links
        intact. Your client’s agent can read the proposal you sent, not only your client. Gates apply to
        the Markdown exactly as they do to the HTML.

 -  Where the agent already lives. MCP over OAuth for Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, OpenCode
        and Amp with one npx stacktree-install, a [Claude.ai
        connector](/claude-ai-connector), a [Slack app](/slack), and an anonymous HTTP publish that needs no key at all,
        which is how browser-and-VM assistants such as [Meta Muse](/muse) reach it today.

## Version history exists on both

Worth being precise, because it is the row people assume we lose. Showly keeps site versions with
`list_site_versions` and `diff_site_versions`, and rollback swaps the route pointer
      back. Stacktree shipped the same shape on 17 September 2026: every update keeps the version it replaced,
      the page screen has a Versions section, and agents get `list_versions` and
`restore_version` over MCP. Free keeps the last five, paid plans the last fifty. A restore is
      itself an update, so the copy you restored over is kept too.

## Pricing, side by side

Showly meters credits. Stacktree charges one flat price per workspace and never per seat. Showly’s
      free plan gives 300 credits a month with unlimited sites and previews that never expire. Ours gives three
      pages in total, 25 MB each, live for seven days, on unguessable links with a small Made with Stacktree
      footer. Theirs is the more generous free plan for volume. Ours is a trial you can send to a real client
      before you pay.

Above that: Pro at $12 a month, or $10 billed yearly, with 3,000 credits, visitor analytics, permanent
      audit history and one seat included. Stacktree Solo is $19 for twenty-five pages that never expire, one
      custom domain, one client space, passcodes and email gates on all of them, viewer numbers, and no footer.
      Studio at $79 adds unlimited pages, ten domains, ten client spaces and engagement analytics. Full numbers
      on [pricing](/pricing).

## Switching

  - What transfers: the built HTML and your domains. Publish with publish_html, the dashboard, or a single unauthenticated curl -X POST https://api.stacktr.ee/sites -F file=@page.html, then point DNS at Stacktree from Solo up.
 - What you gain: a gate on the live page, client spaces on your own domain, Ask this page, the Markdown twin, and flat pricing with no credit balance to watch.
 - What you give up: the stage-then-approve workflow, the credit-metered free allowance, five hostnames per site on a free plan, and Showly’s build logs and deployment diagnostics.

##  Stacktree vs. Showly

     Criterion Showly Stacktree     Agent connection  MCP. npx @showly/mcp-server install --to claude-code or --to codex, then a browser sign-in mints a scoped token.   MCP over OAuth. npx stacktree-install covers Claude Code, Cursor, Codex, OpenCode and Amp.   Publish flow  Agent stages a private preview; a person promotes it to production.   Agent publishes straight to a private link; you change the gate afterwards.   Private preview  Yes. Private by default, sharing code or a 6 to 128 character password, noindex.   No separate preview stage. Every published page is already unlisted and unguessable.   Gate on the live page  Live sites are reachable by anyone holding the URL.   Unguessable link on every plan, plus a shared passcode on every plan.   Email-domain gate  Not offered. Pro can restrict a preview to signed-in workspace members.   Yes, magic-link verified, from Solo.   Client portal  Not offered.   Client spaces: one address per client, inherited gate, portal at the root.   Version history  Yes. list_site_versions, diff_site_versions, one-click rollback.   Yes. Last 5 on Free, last 50 on paid, list_versions and restore_version over MCP.   Viewer analytics  Visitor analytics on Pro and above.   Opens and unique viewers from Solo; time, scroll depth and attention heatmap on Studio.   Questions answered by the page  Not offered.   Ask this page, on every plan, answered from that page only with cited passages.   Markdown twin  Not documented.   Every page readable as Markdown at its own address, behind the same gate.   Custom domains  Up to 5 hostnames per live site on every plan, including Free.   From Solo: 1 on Solo, 10 on Studio, 25 on Firm.   Free plan  300 credits a month, unlimited sites, previews never expire.   3 pages in total, 25 MB each, live for 7 days, with a small footer.   Entry paid price  $12 a month, or $10 billed yearly, with 3,000 credits.   $19 a month, flat per workspace, never per seat.   No-account first publish  Trial drop: 16 MiB, expires in about an hour unless claimed.   Anonymous HTTP publish, no key, no account, 24 hours.   Enterprise controls  SSO across the organisation, deploy to your own cloud, publish approval workflows.   Enterprise runs in your own cloud. No approval workflow.
FAQ

## Frequent questions

     Are Showly sites private? +  Previews are. Showly states previews are private by default with a short sharing code or a password of 6 to 128 characters, and Pro can limit one to signed-in members of the workspace. A published live site is a different thing: it is reachable by anyone holding the URL. Stacktree applies the gate to the published page.   Is Showly free? +  There is a free plan: 300 credits a month, unlimited sites, previews that never expire and a showly.site address. Credits are spent creating and updating previews and publishing live sites, so the free plan is a monthly budget rather than a page count. Pro is $12 a month, or $10 billed yearly, with 3,000 credits.   Does Showly work with Claude Code? +  Yes. Their quickstart installs an MCP server with `npx @showly/mcp-server install --to claude-code` or `--to codex`, and the first tool call opens a browser to sign in and approve a scoped token. Stacktree installs the same way with `npx stacktree-install`, which also covers Cursor, OpenCode and Amp.   Can I password-protect a published Showly site? +  Their documented password and members-only controls sit on previews, not on live sites, and their no-account trial page describes a dropped site as reachable by anyone with the URL. Every Stacktree page can carry a shared passcode on every plan including Free, and from Solo an email-domain gate verified by magic link.   Showly or Stacktree for client work? +  Showly if the job ends at a polished public site and you want a human approval step before anything ships. Stacktree if the reader is one named client who should not see anyone else’s work: a passcode or email gate on the live page, your own domain, and a client space that lists every deliverable for that client at one address.   How do I move a site from Showly to Stacktree? +  Export the built HTML and publish it with `publish_html`, the dashboard, or one `curl` to the API. Point the domain at Stacktree from Solo up. You keep version history and gain passcodes, email gates and a client portal. You give up Showly’s preview-then-approve workflow and its credit model.
Keep reading

## Related guides

   -  [ here.now alternative The other agent-first host, compared on access and storage. ](/here-now-alternative)
-  [ Client spaces One address per client, one gate, a portal at the root. ](/client-spaces)
-  [ Ask this page A question box on a deliverable, answered from the page. ](/ask-this-page)
-  [ Private HTML hosting Unguessable URLs, passcodes, email-domain gates, encryption. ](/private-html-hosting)
-  [ All Stacktree comparisons How Stacktree sits against the rest of the market. ](/alternatives)

References

## Sources and further reading

   -  [ Showly ↗ The product this page compares against: positioning, supported agents and feature list. ](https://showly.ai)
-  [ Showly pricing ↗ Credit allowances, tier prices, custom hostnames per site, analytics and audit history by plan. ](https://showly.ai/pricing)
-  [ Showly MCP docs ↗ Scoped MCP tokens, token lifetime, and the nineteen tools grouped by read, plan, build, ship and inspect. ](https://showly.ai/docs/mcp)
-  [ Showly quickstart ↗ The install command, the browser sign-in that mints the token, and the stage-then-promote flow. ](https://showly.ai/docs/getting-started/quickstart)
-  [ Showly no-account trial ↗ The tokenless trial: 16 MiB, about an hour before it needs claiming, and access by URL possession. ](https://showly.ai/drop)
-  [ Showly terms of service ↗ The operating entity, Cubo World Inc. of Lewes, Delaware. ](https://showly.ai/legal/terms)

##  Put the gate on the page you actually send.

 Publish free in about a minute. Passcodes on every plan, your own domain and a client portal from $19 a month.

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Sign up free →
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