The report is done and it is an HTML file: exported from a notebook, saved from a BI tool, or written by Claude from your numbers. Now it has to reach the client. Attached to an email it gets stripped or opens as a download; in Google Drive it shows source code; on a plain file host it opens, and then you know nothing: not whether it was opened, not whether they reached the number that matters.
This guide is about sharing an HTML report as a link, with no login for the client, and what you get back. Hostus is the option we put first, and the category matters: best if the report is HTML and you want to know what the client read. DocSend, Papermark, Netlify Drop or Tiiny, a PDF attachment and a Google Drive link each have a case and are covered below, with what their own sites said today.
What the client gets
Here is a monthly report, live: a fictional agency's performance report for a fictional client, with sections, a chart drawn in SVG and the month's numbers. The agency and the client do not exist and the numbers are illustrative. It opens from the link on a phone like any web page, and the JavaScript in it still runs: the chart is the chart, not a screenshot of one.
Two things on it are not on a PDF. The client can ask the report a question ("what changed in paid search?") and get an answer from what the report says, with the section cited, no account. And they can reply on a section ("this number does not match our dashboard"), which reaches you by email, anchored to that section, in a thread only the two of you see. Both are on by default on every published page.
Why the attachment and the Drive link fail
An .html attachment is the first thing many mail clients strip or block; the ones that let it through show a download prompt on a phone and a preview that runs no scripts, so the chart is blank. Google Drive stopped serving HTML files as web pages in 2016: a shared report there shows the source or a download button. A plain static host fixes the opening and nothing else: the client can read it, and you cannot tell whether they did. More on the hosting side in how to host an HTML file.
Three ways to put the report on a link
Each one ends with the same page at your-slug.hostus.page, with the JavaScript kept.
- Drop the file. Drag the HTML onto Hostus, type your email, copy the link. Images and fonts can come along as assets, or stay inlined in the file.
- Ask Claude. With the Hostus connector on, paste the report or point Claude at it and say "publish this". Claude uploads it, and later reads the questions and replies on it for you. The prompt is below.
- Call the API. For a report that is generated, not written. One case we can tell without names: a finance app's AI agent publishes its customers' monthly CFO report through the Hostus API, each report on its own link, with an expiry the agent sets.
The file counts toward 2 MB of storage on the free plan, media included, so a report with embedded screenshots fills it faster than one with an SVG chart. The paid plan is 200 MB.
The email gate: who opened it, and what they read
Every page is born private. In the dashboard, switch it to email-gated before you send the link. The client types an email and the report opens: no account, no password, no app. You see who opened it and when. From there:
- Reading by section. Which sections each reader opened and for how long: whether they reached the recommendations, where they stopped, what they came back to. The report needs headings or sections with ids for this; most exports have them, and Claude adds them if asked.
- Questions. Every question a reader asked the report is listed for you, and the ones it could not answer are the list of what next month's report should say.
- Replies. Each conversation is private between that reader and you. Two people at the client reading the same link do not see each other's notes. You answer from the dashboard or through Claude.
The gate identifies readers; it does not encrypt. It does not verify that the typed address belongs to the person: an allowlist, of addresses or of a domain, only limits which addresses can be typed in. If the report is for one person, restrict it to their address and treat the link itself as the credential.
Next week's report, same link
Upload the new file to the same document. The link the client bookmarked now shows this week's report, and last week's stays in the version history. Nothing to resend; the Thursday email becomes "it is up".
Two habits make the weekly version painless. Keep the section ids stable across weeks (summary, traffic, spend, next-steps) so reading by section lines up month to month. And put the date in the heading, not in the slug, because the slug is the link.
The prompt
Not a page-writing prompt this time; the report already exists. With the Hostus connector on, this uploads it as it is:
Here is my monthly report as an HTML file (attached, or pasted below). Publish it to Hostus as is, do not rewrite it. Keep the JavaScript and the chart. If the sections have no ids, add an id to each heading and change nothing else. Give me the link.
Next week I will send the new file and say "update the same page".The page is born private: switch it to email-gated in the Hostus dashboard before sharing the link. Ask and Reply are already on. To check what happened, ask Claude "who opened the report and what did they read" and "what did they ask it": the connector reads the reading-by-section data, the questions and the replies.
DocSend, Papermark, Netlify Drop, Tiiny, a PDF, a Drive link: pick it if
Hostus first, for the case this page is about: an HTML report on your link, with the gate and the reading signal, on a free plan. Prices were read on each vendor's own site on 2026-10-18; where a page did not load or did not say, this guide says "check their pricing page" rather than a number.
- DocSend. Pick it if the report is a PDF or a deck, not HTML, and you want per-visitor analytics on it. DocSend turns a file into a tracked link; it was built for PDFs and Office files. Its pricing page did not load for us today, so check their pricing page; our September reading is on the DocSend alternatives page.
- Papermark. Pick it if you want an open-source DocSend with a free plan for document files. The Free plan is listed at 0 euros with 1 team member, 50 documents and 50 links, unlimited visitors and page-by-page analytics; Pro is 24 euros a month billed yearly (29 monthly), Business 59 (79 monthly), Data Rooms from 99. The FAQ says it is open source and can be self-hosted. Check their site for which file formats it renders.
- Netlify Drop or Tiiny.host. Pick it if nobody important will open the report and you want a link in ten seconds. Netlify's free plan is "$0 forever" and Drop needs no account to publish; Tiiny.host has a free tier, check their pricing page for its limits. Host only: no gate, no sign of who read what.
- A PDF attachment. The baseline. Opens everywhere, needs nothing, and the chart is a picture. Keep it for the client who asks for one.
- A Google Drive link. Pick it if the client lives in Drive and the report is a PDF. For an HTML file it shows the source, not the page.
Side by side
| Tool | Client needs an account | You see who opened and what they read | Same link every week | Reader can ask the report | Free plan | Format |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hostus | No; the gate asks for an email | Yes: who, when, per section, plus questions and replies | Yes, history kept | Yes, on by default | Yes: 20 docs, 2 MB, no clock | HTML, with its JavaScript |
| DocSend | Check their site | Per-visitor analytics | Not stated | Not stated | Check their pricing page | PDF and Office files |
| Papermark | Not stated | Page-by-page analytics, unlimited visitors on Free | Not stated | Not stated | Yes: 0 euros, 50 documents, 50 links | Document files; check their site |
| Netlify Drop or Tiiny.host | No | No | Drop: no, you drop it again. Tiiny: check their page | No | Netlify: $0 forever. Tiiny: check their pricing page | HTML |
| PDF attachment | No | No | No, you resend | No | Free | PDF, the chart is a picture |
| Google Drive link | Depends on the share setting | No | Yes, replace the file | No | Free | Shows HTML as source |
The Format column is the split. If the report is a PDF and stays one, DocSend and Papermark are built for it. If it is HTML with a chart that moves, the page on your link keeps it alive and tells you what was read.
Good to know before you switch
Public pages on Hostus carry a noindex meta and do not show up in Google, which for a client report is what you want, but it means a public link is not a way to be found. There is no custom domain: the link is your-slug.hostus.page. The gate is by email, not by password; it identifies the reader and does not verify that the typed address belongs to the person; an allowlist of addresses or a domain only limits what can be typed in. If the report must not leave a named list, restrict it and send the link only to that list.
The free plan is 20 documents and 2 MB of storage in total, with images counting, so keep screenshots out of the file or move them to assets; 200 MB on the paid plan. One document is one page, and a folder groups the months. No card, no clock.