Hey, I’m Deqian, founder of Peony. Today I’m going to show you why DocSend is one of the biggest SaaS ripoffs in tech.

We’ll walk through exactly what DocSend does, how long it actually takes to build something similar in 2025, what it costs (spoiler: not much), and why smarter founders are ditching it for modern tools that don’t drain your budget.

This isn’t a rant. It’s a teardown. Let’s go.

What Does DocSend Actually Do (Spoiler: Not Much)

Alright, here’s the pitch: DocSend lets you upload a file, turn it into a trackable link, and see who's viewing it. Pretty standard.

Add a few options like:

• Password protection

• NDA gating

• Expiry dates

• A basic data room folder setup they call “Spaces”

And that’s it. That’s the whole product. It’s widely used by founders and sales teams to send pitch decks, investor updates, and sales materials.

So what’s the problem?

DocSend charges up to $300/month for this.

Let that sink in.

A Real-World Walkthrough (And Why It’s Clunky)

To show how it works in real life scenario, I uploaded a pitch deck. DocSend made me wait while it “processed” it. Slow. Once it was ready, I could finally generate a tracking link, set a password, add an expiry date, write a welcome message… and boom. A shareable link.

When someone clicks that link, they see a prompt asking for their email. Once submitted, the file opens and looks like, well, a PDF. There’s even a DocSend logo slapped on at the end.

As the sender, I can see:

• Who opened it

• Where they’re from

• How long they spent

• Page-by-page analytics

Not bad. But not special. And certainly not $300 special.

Then comes the “data room” feature—aka “Spaces.” You drag files into a folder. You set permissions. You can hide certain files from certain viewers. But first, you have to upload everything into a content library. Then manually drag it into your space.

Honestly? It’s a bit clunky.

DocSend Pricing: Yikes

Here’s what they charge:

• Standard Plan: $65/month – no data rooms

• Advanced: $250/month – adds NDAs, gating, and watermarking

• Advanced Data Rooms: $300/month – folders, permissions, file management

So basically, you’re paying enterprise pricing for a slightly souped-up file viewer with tracking.

That’s wild. Especially when you realize…

The $300 Question: What Does It Actually Cost to Build?

This is the fun part. Let’s break down the actual components you need to build a modern DocSend alternative.

🔧 Core Features:

• Upload + store files

• Create shareable tracking links

• View docs in browser with per-page analytics

• Add password protection, email gating, expiration

• Track views in real-time

• Optional: organize files into branded folders (data rooms)

Here’s the stack I’d use to build it in 2025:

Total monthly infra cost: ~$110

That’s it. $110/month for a fully functional, scalable DocSend clone — and that’s being generous.

Even better, you don’t need a big team to ship it. One or two good engineers could launch this in 3–4 weeks. The stack is modern, modular, and fast to spin up.

Why DocSend Charges $300/Month

Because they can. Because people don’t realize how simple it is under the hood.

They’re not selling software. They’re selling inertia. You use it because everyone else uses it. It’s just… the default.

They charge startup founders enterprise pricing for the illusion of “security” and “professionalism.” But when you peel back the layers?

• It’s not real-time magic. Just page load tracking.

• The “data room” is a glorified folder.

• The viewer is a basic embedded PDF iframe.

• The storage cost is negligible.

There’s no reason this should cost more than $50/month. None.

So What Are Smarter Founders Doing?

This is exactly why I built Peony — a modern, AI-native alternative to DocSend for pitch decks, deal docs, and investor data rooms.

Peony gives you everything DocSend does but without the bloat or the $300 price tag:

• ✅ Trackable, shareable links

• ✅ Page-by-page view analytics

• ✅ Email gating, password protection, expiry dates

• ✅ Branded data rooms with granular permissions

It’s a full DocSend alternative but smarter.

And most importantly? No hidden fees — because we architected Peony as an AI-native file system and all these features come built-in. We’re not trying to rip people off. We built Peony to be the tool we wish we had: fast, beautiful, and priced like it’s 2025.

Oh and it starts at $20/month.

Because it’s AI-native, Peony also gives you:

• Automatic metadata extraction

• Smart tagging

• Searchable filenames and summaries

all out of the box.

The Bottom Line

If you’re still paying $300/month for DocSend, ask yourself:

What are you actually paying for?

Because in 2025:

• Hosting is cheap

• Infra is fast

• Founders are smart

There’s no reason to pay legacy pricing for a PDF tracker.

Peony is the best DocSend alternative for modern founders who want power without the markup.

👉 Try it here: https://peony.ink — get started in minutes.