What is Papermark? A document-sharing and data room tool explained, with how it runs and what it leaves to others

What is Papermark? A document-sharing tool with data rooms

Papermark is software for sharing confidential documents and tracking how they are read. A founder uploads a pitch deck, creates a link and sees which pages each investor opened and for how long. A deal team can go further and build a virtual data room, a secure online folder where each viewer sees only the files meant for them.

The company is Papermark, Inc., and its code is public on GitHub. The pricing page describes four hosted plans, Free, Pro, Business and Data Rooms, and the repository describes a version you can host yourself. This page reads those sources as of October 31, 2026.

Papermark's home page says more than 70,000 companies trust it and that dealmakers, founders and finance teams use it to host data rooms and share confidential documents. That figure is the vendor's own claim, so read it as marketing and not as a measure of fit.

How Papermark works, from upload to analytics

• Upload: add PDFs, slides, spreadsheets and Word files to your document library. The Pro plan adds video and more file types.
• Set the rules: a link can ask for an email address, and higher plans add email verification, allow and block lists, screenshot protection and watermarks.
• Share: send the link, or invite viewers into a data room, where groups can be given file-level or folder-level access.
• Watch: the analytics show visits, time spent on each page and viewer location, and you can exclude your own team's visits.
• Versions: the pricing page lists document versioning tracking among its analytics features.

What a data room is, and where Papermark fits

A data room is a secure online repository for the documents an investor, buyer or partner needs to review a deal. The point is control: one link instead of emailed attachments, permissions by viewer and a record of who opened what. Papermark covers that with a data room plan, and it also covers lighter use, such as sending one deck.

Where it sits among other tools is a pricing question as much as a feature one. Per-user plans, flat plans and quote-based enterprise rooms suit different deals, which the small-business shortlist sorts out.

Hosted or self-hosted: the two ways to run it

• Hosted: sign up at papermark.com and choose a plan. The Free plan asks for no credit card.
• Self-hosted: the repository README lists Node.js 18.17 or newer, a PostgreSQL database, blob storage on AWS S3 or Vercel Blob and the Resend email service.
• License: the license file puts code outside its enterprise folders under AGPLv3 and code inside them under a commercial license.
• Enterprise: the pricing page lists single sign-on and support with self-hosting in its enterprise column and points to GitHub for the self-hosted version.

What this site covers and what it leaves to other tools

Doc Room Desk covers sharing and tracking documents for a raise or a sale. Contract signing, proposals, investor relationship software and general file storage are separate tools and sit outside these guides. Papermark's own pages name pitch deck sharing, fundraising, due diligence, M&A and investor relations among its main uses.

Where to go next

Start with the Papermark pricing guide to see how the plans are built, then read the review for limits and fit. If you are preparing a raise, the startup data room checklist lists what to put in the room.