DocSend is the default answer to "how do I send a deck and see who opened it". It was built for PDFs and Office files. If what you are sending is an HTML page (a proposal generated by Claude or ChatGPT, an interactive report, a page with a live chart or a form), Hostus is the tool we recommend: it keeps the HTML running, identifies each reader through an email gate and shows reading by section, on a free plan. This page ranks nine alternatives and explains where each of the others still fits. Where a price or free limit could not be verified on the vendor's own page today, we say so instead of guessing.
What does DocSend do, and where does it fall short for HTML?
DocSend (owned by Dropbox) turns a file into a tracked link with per-visitor analytics, e-signatures and data rooms on higher tiers. On its pricing page today, Personal is $10 per user per month and Standard $45 per user per month; viewer email authentication starts on Advanced at $150 per month for 3 users, and Advanced Data Rooms is $180 per month. There is a free trial but no permanent free plan.
The page says it accepts all basic file types and, on higher plans, advanced file types. HTML is not named. LiveSend's guide on the subject states that uploading an .html file to DocSend "either fails outright or flattens it into a static document where the JavaScript no longer runs, the charts stop updating, and the forms become images" (source: livesend.io, DocSend alternative for interactive HTML files). We did not reproduce this ourselves, so treat it as an attributed claim. It matches how a PDF-first viewer behaves: it shows pages, and an HTML page is not a page sequence, it is a document that runs.
The ranked list: nine DocSend alternatives, prices verified September 2026
| Tool | Price (verified) | Free plan | Formats | Who viewed | Page or section analytics | Email gate | Custom domain | HTML / interactive |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Hostus | $9.99/month or $49.99/year | Yes: 20 docs, 2 MB HTML total, every feature | HTML only (plus its images, video, fonts) | Yes, when email-gated | Reading by section, per reader | Yes: open, list or domain | No | Yes; forms store responses; edit in place |
| 2. Papermark | Pro from €24/month billed yearly (€29 monthly); Business €59/month yearly | Yes: 50 documents, unlimited visitors | PDF, documents, Notion pages | Yes | Page-by-page on all plans | Check their plans | Business and Data Rooms | No |
| 3. HummingDeck | Shown in local currency; check their page | Yes: 5 documents, 5 links, forever | PDF, PPTX, DOCX, XLSX, interactive HTML up to 100 MB | Yes | Per page: time, completion, clicks | Email capture on public links | Business plan | Yes |
| 4. LiveSend | Pro $12/month billed yearly | Yes: 3 documents, watermark, 7-day counts | HTML | Yes, by email | Opens, read time; no section split | Optional email capture | No; branded livesend.io link on Pro | Yes |
| 5. Peony | Business $30/admin/month yearly ($44 monthly) | Yes: 50 documents, 30-day analytics retention | 100+ types: PDF, Office, video, CAD | Yes | Page-by-page | Email-authenticated and domain-restricted links | Data Room, $52/admin/month yearly | Not listed |
| 6. Ellty | Not readable on their plans page today; check it | 14-day trial of Data Room Plus, no card | PDF, Word, Excel, PowerPoint | Yes, exportable visitor list | Document analytics | "Require an email to view" per link | Branded data room; domain not listed | No |
| 7. Pitch | Team €15/member/month billed yearly (analytics start here) | Yes: €0, 2 external guests | Decks built in Pitch | Team and Business | Slide views and time per slide, Team+ | Passcode links, Team+ | Team+ | Interactive deck, not your HTML |
| 8. BriefLink | "Always free" | Yes | PDF, PPTX, PPT up to 30 MB | Yes, opens and engagement | Not stated | Yes, access protected by email | Not listed | No |
| 9. Tiiny.host | Tiny $5/month yearly; Solo $13; Pro $31 | Yes: 1 site, 3 MB (0.5 MB PDFs), 5,000 visits/month | HTML, PDF, zip | No; email capture on Pro | Visits only | Pro | Solo+ | Yes (hosting, not per-reader tracking) |
| DocSend (baseline) | From $10/user/month (Personal); $45 (Standard) | No, trial only | "All basic file types"; PDF and Office | Yes, per visitor | Per visit; document-level on Personal | Advanced, $150/month | Branded subdomain on Standard+ | Not listed; flattened per LiveSend |
1. Hostus is the pick for HTML and interactive deliverables: a proposal, report or deck that a client, an investor or a team will open as a page. Drop the .html file (or a folder with its images, video and fonts) and it is live at https://<slug>.v.hostus.io with SSL in seconds; sign-in is a magic link, with no password and no card. Switch the doc to Email-gated and each reader types an email before it opens: you see who opened it and when, time per section anchored to your headings, what got re-read and where they stopped. Restrict the gate to a list of addresses or to the client's domain, or leave it open to identify everyone; revocation is instant and the gate covers the doc's media files too. Edit the live page in the browser and the link stays the same, with full version history. Any form in the page stores its responses with no backend and emails you each one. Analytics are cookieless: no IPs stored, no fingerprinting, no session replay. Free: 20 docs, 2 MB of HTML total, 100 form responses per month, every feature; paid is $9.99 per month or $49.99 per year. It is HTML only, with no custom domain and no PDF. Pick it if the file is HTML and you need to know who read what.
2. Papermark is the pick for PDF data rooms and for anyone who wants open source (AGPLv3, self-hostable). Free: 50 documents with page-by-page analytics. Business (€59 per month yearly) adds a custom domain; Data Rooms start at €99 per month. Pick it if the file is a PDF and stays a PDF, or you need NDA gating, watermarking and folder permissions.
3. HummingDeck is the one other tool here that accepts interactive HTML (up to 100 MB), alongside PDF and Office files. Free forever: 5 documents and 5 links, with per-page analytics and email capture. Custom domain is Business only. Pick it if you mix HTML and PDF in one account or need your own domain on an HTML link.
4. LiveSend is HTML-native tracked links. Free: 3 documents with a watermark. Pro ($12 per month yearly) adds password protection, 90-day analytics and who-opened by email. No custom domain. Pick it if opens and read time on an HTML page are enough and you do not need reading by section or forms.
5. Peony handles 100+ file types. Free: 50 documents, page-by-page analytics, password protection, 3 e-signatures per month. Business is $30 per admin per month yearly. Pick it if you send video, CAD or Office files and want a few e-signatures without a separate tool.
6. Ellty shares PDF and Office files with a per-link "Require an email to view" option and an exportable visitor list. 14-day trial, no card. Their plans page rendered prices by script, so we could not read them. Pick it if you want a branded PDF data room with per-link email gating and can confirm the price yourself.
7. Pitch is presentation software with a €0 plan; slide-level analytics need Team at €15 per member per month yearly. Pick it if you build the deck in Pitch itself and want slide views and time per slide.
8. BriefLink is "always free" for PDF and PowerPoint up to 30 MB, tracks opens and protects access by email. Pick it if the deck is a PDF or PPTX and you want to pay nothing.
9. Tiiny.host is hosting first. Free: 1 site, 3 MB, 5,000 visits per month. Analytics from Tiny ($5), custom domain from Solo ($13), email capture on Pro ($31). It counts visits; it does not name readers below Pro. Pick it if you need your own domain on a static HTML page and can live with visit counts instead of named readers.
Why do HTML deliverables need a different tool?
Four things break when an HTML page is squeezed into a PDF-first tracker.
- Interactivity dies. Toggles, tabs, calculators and live charts become pictures.
- Forms stop working. The "accept this proposal" button and the intake questionnaire are what a client is most likely to act on. Flattened, they do nothing.
- You cannot fix a typo after sending. With HTML hosted as HTML you edit the paragraph and the same link shows the new version, with history.
- "Pages" are the wrong unit. An HTML proposal has sections with headings. Reading by section (how long on Scope, whether Pricing got re-read, where they stopped) maps to how you follow up. Page 7 does not.
This matters more in 2026 because proposals are increasingly generated as HTML by Claude, ChatGPT, v0, Lovable or Bolt. Hostus, HummingDeck and LiveSend keep that HTML running; the rest of the list does not.
How do I send an AI-generated proposal as a gated link?
- Ask for one self-contained file. "Give me a single .html file with inline CSS and JavaScript, one
<h2>per section (Summary, Scope, Timeline, Pricing, Next steps), no external scripts." Headings are what section-level reading anchors to. - Drop it on hostus.io. Type your email, click the magic link. No password, no card. The page is live at
https://<slug>.v.hostus.io. - Switch access to Email-gated. Leave it open to identify every reader, or restrict it to a list of addresses or to the client's domain. The gate identifies readers; it does not encrypt.
- Send the link with one sentence: "The page asks for your email so I know it reached you." Saying it up front removes most of the friction (see the proposal-tracking guide).
- Read the reading. If everyone lingered on Pricing and nobody reached Next steps, you know what the follow-up call is about.
- Edit in place if a section lost them. The link does not change; the old version stays in history.
If you would rather not use Hostus, HummingDeck and LiveSend also keep HTML alive with per-viewer tracking.
Good to know before you switch
Hostus hosts HTML only (with its images, video and fonts): no PDF, PowerPoint or Word, no custom domain (links live on *.v.hostus.io), no e-signature, no data rooms, no team seats or co-editing, and the editor is desktop-only. Free covers 20 docs and 2 MB of HTML total; a single file is capped at 5 MB in the app (1 MB on the homepage drop). If the file is a PDF that stays a PDF, or you need a data room with NDA gating, watermarking and audit logs, Papermark (Data Rooms from €99 per month) or DocSend Advanced Data Rooms ($180 per month) is the better tool; Peony gives 3 e-signatures per month free, and Papermark Business, Peony Data Room, HummingDeck Business and Tiiny Solo put your own domain on the link. If nothing rides on the page, publish it as a Claude Artifact or drop it on a free host.