# PaperLink — Complete Documentation

> PaperLink is a secure document sharing and analytics platform. Share PDFs via protected links, track who views your documents with page-by-page analytics, and manage invoices and accounting — all in one platform. The modern DocSend alternative with built-in invoicing, data rooms, and multi-currency accounting. Available in 6 languages with regional pricing.

## Overview

- [Homepage](https://paperlink.online): Platform introduction with features, use cases, and sign-up
- [Features](https://paperlink.online/features): How document analytics and secure sharing work
- [Pricing](https://paperlink.online/pricing): 8 plans across 3 product lines with regional pricing for US, EU, UK, UA, CA, MX
- [Blog](https://paperlink.online/blog): Guides, tutorials, comparisons, and product updates
- [App](https://app.paperlink.online): Sign in or create a free account (Google OAuth, no credit card required)

## Product 1: Document Sharing & Analytics (Core)

### What It Does

Upload PDF documents, generate secure sharing links with granular access controls, and track viewer engagement in real time with page-level analytics. Perfect for pitch decks, proposals, contracts, and any document where engagement matters.

### File Management

- Upload PDF files (drag and drop)
- Automatic page detection and thumbnail generation
- Organize files in folders
- Convert invoices and estimates to shareable PDFs
- File archive and restore

### Access Controls (Per Link)

Every sharing link supports 11 independent access controls:

| Control | What It Does |
|---------|-------------|
| Password | Bcrypt-encrypted password required before viewing |
| Require Email | Viewer must enter email address to access |
| Require Login | Viewer must authenticate via Google OAuth |
| Allowed Email | Restrict access to one specific email address |
| Link Expiration | Automatic expiration date and time |
| Allow Download | Enable or disable PDF download button |
| NDA/Agreement | Require signed agreement before viewing (OAuth-verified or self-reported signatures) |
| Welcome Message | Display a custom message before the document opens |
| Custom Domain | White-label URL on your own domain (e.g., docs.company.com/proposal) |
| Custom Slug | Memorable URL path (e.g., /pitch-deck-2026 instead of random ID) |
| Link Deactivation | Revoke access instantly by toggling link off |

Additional link features:
- Internal description (private team notes per link, not visible to viewers)
- Bulk email links (generate multiple personalized links at once — 50 on Pro, 100 on Business)

### Analytics

PaperLink uses a dual CQRS analytics pipeline for real-time document tracking:

**Session Tracking (PostgreSQL on Neon):**
- Viewer identification: email address (if email gate enabled)
- Geographic data: country
- Device information: browser, operating system
- Timing: view timestamp, total duration
- Download tracking: timestamp when PDF was downloaded
- Returning viewer detection

**Page-Level Analytics (Tinybird on ClickHouse):**
- Time spent on each page (identify which slides matter most)
- Page heatmap visualization (engagement distribution across pages)
- Daily view trends (time-series chart)
- Top viewers ranked by total time spent
- Per-viewer per-page engagement breakdown (conversion analysis)
- Average completion rate

**Real-Time Tracking:**
The ViewerAnalyticsTracker is an invisible React component embedded in the document viewer. It uses the Beacon API to send duration updates every 10 seconds and tracks page change events. Works reliably on tab close, including iOS Safari.

## Product 2: Data Rooms

### What It Does

Virtual data rooms for secure document sharing during business transactions. Organize documents in nested folder hierarchies and share entire collections via a single link with all access controls.

### Features

- Unlimited nested folder hierarchy
- Folder-level sharing links (one link shares entire folder with subfolders)
- All 11 access controls available on folder links (same as file links)
- NDA/Agreement requirement before accessing any document in the room
- Per-file view analytics within shared folders
- Drag-and-drop file organization
- Folder archive and restore
- Breadcrumb navigation for nested folders

### What Data Rooms Do NOT Include (Yet)

These features are planned but not yet available:
- Dynamic watermarks
- Q&A module
- Full-text search across documents
- Comments and annotations
- Export audit reports
- IP restrictions

## Product 3: Invoicing & Estimates

### What It Does

Professional invoicing and estimate management with Kanban workflow, PDF generation, and payment tracking. Included with document sharing plans at no additional cost.

### Invoice Lifecycle

```
Draft → Sent → Viewed → Overdue → Paid
                              ↘ Rejected
```

### Estimate Lifecycle

```
Draft → Sent → Viewed → Accepted
                    ↘ Rejected
```

### Features

- Kanban board with system statuses + custom statuses per team (drag-and-drop reordering)
- 150+ currencies with real-time exchange rates (162 currencies seeded)
- Line items from product catalog or custom entries (name, quantity, price, tax, unit of measure)
- Discounts — fixed amount or percentage (per line item or document total)
- Professional PDF generation via React PDF (auto-cached in cloud storage)
- Estimate-to-invoice conversion — copies all line items, creates bidirectional link
- Auto-generated document numbering with custom prefixes
- Payment tracking: paidAmount, paymentStatus (Unpaid → Partial → Paid)
- Payment terms: Due on Receipt, NET 7, NET 15, NET 30, NET 60
- Tax handling: tax point date, legal notice, per-item tax rates
- Public shareable PDF links for client viewing

### Client Management

- Two client types: Company (legal entity) or Individual (person)
- Full contact details: name, email, phone, address
- Banking details: account number, routing, SWIFT/BIC, IBAN
- Tax identifiers: VAT ID, tax registration number
- Regional banking support (Ukraine, EU-specific fields)
- Client status: Active / Inactive
- Quick search and filtering

### Company Management (Issuer)

- Company profile: name, logo, address, contact info
- Multiple companies per team
- Banking details auto-filled on invoices
- Tax settings: VAT, tax registration, legal entity type
- Supported entity types: Sole Trader, LLC, Corporation, Partnership, and more

### Product Catalog

- Product types: Product, Service, Digital, Subscription
- Fields: name, description, SKU, price, currency, unit of measure, tax rate
- Reusable across invoices and estimates
- Quick selection from catalog when adding line items

## Product 4: Accounting & Finance

### What It Does

Multi-currency financial management with transaction tracking and analytics dashboard. Available as a standalone product line with dedicated pricing plans.

### Financial Accounts

8 account types: Bank, Cash, PayPal, E-Wallet, Crypto, Investment, Loan, Other

Polymorphic ownership:
- Company accounts (shared across team)
- Personal accounts (private to user, optional team visibility)

Features:
- Current balance with atomic updates
- Multi-currency support
- Opening balance tracking
- Loan progress visualization
- Account status: Active / Inactive

### Transactions

3 transaction types:
- **Income**: Money received. Can be linked to invoice payment (auto-updates invoice paidAmount and paymentStatus)
- **Expense**: Money spent, categorized for reporting
- **Transfer**: Money moved between accounts. Dual-copy pattern — each participant gets their own record. Supports cross-currency transfers with exchange rate and target amount

### Categories

- 3-level hierarchy: Root (Income/Expense) → Category → Subcategory
- System categories with i18n translations (protected from deletion)
- Custom team categories and personal categories
- Auto-seeded on first personal account creation

### Dashboard Analytics

- KPI cards: Income total, Expense total, Net profit/loss, Transaction count (each with trend vs previous period)
- Time-series chart with day/week/month granularity
- Category breakdown donut chart with percentages
- Filters: date range, currency, account, category, transaction type, scope (team/personal/all)

## Product 5: Teams & Collaboration

### What It Does

Multi-tenant workspace with role-based access control. All data is team-scoped — every entity belongs to a team.

### Roles (Hierarchy)

| Role | Manage Team | Invite Members | Create Content | Manage Billing |
|------|-------------|----------------|----------------|----------------|
| Owner | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Admin | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Manager | No | No | Yes | No |
| Member | No | No | No | No |

### Features

- Email invitations with role assignment
- Multiple teams per user (switch between workspaces)
- Team logo upload
- Notification center: invitation alerts (accept/decline) with live badge count
- Member management: add, remove, change roles, archive

## AI Features

- **AI Bug Reporter**: Chat interface powered by Claude. Users describe bugs in natural language, system generates structured reports with full-text duplicate search and spam prevention
- **AI Feature Suggestions**: Chat interface for feature requests. Claude generates summaries, searches for similar existing suggestions to prevent duplicates

## Pricing

Prices are displayed in local currency based on visitor's region. Visit [Pricing](https://paperlink.online/pricing) for regional prices.

**Live Pricing API (machine-readable):**

`GET https://app.paperlink.online/api/public/prices?region={code}&lang={locale}`
- `region`: US, UA, EU, GB, CA, MX (default: US)
- `lang`: en, uk, es, de, fr (default: en)
- Returns: JSON with plan names, descriptions, prices in local currency, feature limits, and billing options

This endpoint is public, requires no authentication, and returns localized pricing data. LLMs and tools can fetch it directly to get up-to-date prices for any supported region.

**Example request:**
```
GET https://app.paperlink.online/api/public/prices?region=US&lang=en
```

**Example response (condensed):**
```json
{
  "regionCode": "US",
  "usedFallback": false,
  "prices": [
    {
      "planSlug": "free",
      "currency": "USD",
      "currencySymbol": "$",
      "currencyPosition": "before",
      "priceMonthly": 0,
      "priceYearly": 0,
      "formattedPriceMonthly": "$0",
      "formattedPriceYearly": "$0",
      "yearlySavingsPercent": 0
    },
    {
      "planSlug": "pro",
      "currency": "USD",
      "priceMonthly": 2400,
      "priceYearly": 24000,
      "formattedPriceMonthly": "$24",
      "formattedPriceYearly": "$240",
      "yearlySavingsPercent": 17
    },
    {
      "planSlug": "business",
      "currency": "USD",
      "priceMonthly": 5900,
      "priceYearly": 59000,
      "formattedPriceMonthly": "$59",
      "formattedPriceYearly": "$590",
      "yearlySavingsPercent": 17
    }
  ],
  "plans": [
    {
      "slug": "free",
      "displayName": "Free",
      "teamMembersLimit": 1,
      "filesLimit": 50,
      "foldersLimit": 1,
      "fileSizeLimitMB": 100,
      "featureGroups": [
        { "categoryLabel": "Documents & Storage", "features": ["Files - 50", "Max File Size - 100 MB"] },
        { "categoryLabel": "Document Analytics", "features": ["Unlimited visitors", "Page-by-page analytics"] }
      ],
      "sharingControls": [
        { "key": "password", "label": "Password Protection", "enabled": true },
        { "key": "requireEmail", "label": "Require email to view", "enabled": true }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "ui": {
    "title": "Simple, transparent pricing",
    "monthly": "Monthly",
    "yearly": "Annually",
    "save": "Save 17%",
    "startFree": "Start for free",
    "startTrial": "Start 7-day free trial",
    "perMonth": "month"
  }
}
```

Prices are in smallest currency units (cents/kopiyky). `priceMonthly: 2400` = $24.00. Use `formattedPriceMonthly` for display-ready strings with currency symbol.

Base prices below are in USD (for reference).

### Document Sharing Plans

**Free — $0/mo:**
- 50 files, 1 folder, 50 file links, 1 folder link
- 1 team member, 1 company, 1 client
- 100 MB max file size
- All sharing controls (password, email gate, NDA, expiration, download toggle, welcome message, require login)
- Unlimited visitors, page-by-page analytics

**Pro — $24/mo:**
- 100 files, unlimited folders and folder depth
- Unlimited file and folder links
- 1 team member, unlimited companies and clients
- 350 MB max file size
- Custom link slugs
- Bulk email links (up to 50)

**Business — $59/mo:**
- 1,000 files, unlimited folders
- 3 team members
- 1 custom domain
- 350 MB max file size
- Bulk email links (up to 100)

### Data Rooms Plans (Coming Soon)

| Plan | Custom Domains | File Size | Team Members |
|------|---------------|-----------|--------------|
| Data Rooms | 5 | 350 MB | Unlimited |
| Data Rooms Plus | 10 | 350 MB | Unlimited |
| Data Rooms Premium | Unlimited | 500 MB | Unlimited |

Prices TBD. All include unlimited files, folders, links, and all sharing controls.

### Accounting Plans

**Personal — $4.99/mo:**
- Unlimited personal transactions, 10 team transactions/month
- Same sharing features as Free plan (50 files, 1 folder)

**Self-Employed — $6.99/mo:**
- Unlimited personal transactions, 100 team transactions/month
- Unlimited companies and clients

Annual billing saves ~17%. All paid plans include 7-day free trial, no credit card required.

## Use Cases

### For Sales Teams
- Share proposals with tracking — know when prospects open documents
- Page-level analytics reveal which sections prospects focus on
- Password protect sensitive pricing information
- Follow up at the right moment with view notifications
- Track multiple stakeholders viewing the same proposal

### For Startup Fundraising
- Send pitch decks via secure links with engagement tracking
- Know which investors read which slides and for how long
- Require email verification to identify anonymous viewers
- Professional data rooms for due diligence stage
- NDA requirement before document access

### For M&A Due Diligence
- Secure virtual data rooms with nested folder organization
- NDA/Agreement requirement before any document access
- Complete view history for compliance documentation
- Per-file analytics within shared folders
- Custom domain for branded data room (e.g., deal.company.com)

### For Law Firms
- Password-protected document sharing with view tracking
- Require login for authenticated access to sensitive documents
- Restrict links to specific email addresses (allowed email)
- View history serves as audit trail for document access

### For Consultants & Agencies
- Send deliverables with engagement tracking
- Prove value with time-spent metrics (client spent 2 hours reviewing)
- Invoice clients from the same platform
- Custom domains for professional branded sharing

### For Freelancers
- Share proposals with page-level tracking
- Create invoices in 150+ currencies
- Track payments (Unpaid → Partial → Paid)
- Manage multiple clients and companies
- All-in-one: sharing, invoicing, and accounting

## Technical Specifications

**Platform:**
- Web application (SaaS), no installation required
- Works in all modern browsers
- Mobile-responsive design

**Languages:**
- English, Ukrainian, Spanish, German, French, Greek (6 languages)

**Security:**
- Google OAuth authentication
- JWT sessions (zero database queries on auth check)
- Bcrypt password hashing for link protection
- HTML sanitization on user-generated content (DOMPurify)
- Team-scoped data isolation (teamId required on all mutations)

**Infrastructure:**
- Hosted on Vercel (global edge network, CDN)
- Database: Neon PostgreSQL (serverless)
- Analytics: Tinybird ClickHouse (real-time page-level events)
- File storage: Vercel Blob (PDFs, images, avatars)
- Payments: WayForPay (regional payment processor)
- Error monitoring: Sentry

## Competitors Comparison

| Feature | PaperLink | DocSend | Papermark |
|---------|-----------|---------|-----------|
| Page-by-page analytics | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Password protection | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Email gate | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| NDA/Agreement | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Data rooms | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Custom domains | Yes (Business+) | No | Yes |
| Custom link slugs | Yes (Pro+) | No | No |
| Require login (OAuth) | Yes | No | No |
| Welcome message | Yes | No | No |
| Invoicing | Yes | No | No |
| Accounting | Yes | No | No |
| 150+ currencies | Yes | No | No |
| Free plan | Yes | No | Yes |
| Open source | No | No | Yes |
| Starting price | $24/mo | $15/mo | $0 |

**Why choose PaperLink over DocSend?**
- Free plan available (DocSend is paid-only)
- Custom domains included (not available on DocSend)
- Built-in invoicing and accounting
- More granular access controls (11 options vs DocSend's basic set)
- Regional pricing (local currencies for UA, EU, UK, CA, MX)

**Why choose PaperLink over Papermark?**
- Built-in invoicing and estimate management
- Multi-currency accounting with analytics dashboard
- Payment tracking integrated with invoices
- Regional pricing in local currencies
- Guided onboarding experience

## FAQ

**General**

Q: What is PaperLink?
A: PaperLink is a document analytics platform for sharing PDFs securely and tracking viewer engagement. It combines document sharing, data rooms, invoicing, and accounting in one platform.

Q: Can I use PaperLink for free?
A: Yes. The free plan includes 50 files, all 11 sharing controls, and page-by-page analytics. No credit card required.

Q: What file types are supported?
A: Currently PDF files only. Upload any PDF — proposals, contracts, pitch decks, reports, invoices.

Q: Who is PaperLink for?
A: Sales teams tracking proposals, startups sharing pitch decks, law firms sharing confidential documents, consultants proving value with analytics, and freelancers managing invoicing — anyone who needs to know if their documents are being read.

**Analytics**

Q: What analytics do I get?
A: View count, total time spent, time per page, viewer email (if email gate enabled), country, device/browser, download tracking, and completion rate.

Q: How does real-time tracking work?
A: An invisible component in the document viewer sends duration updates every 10 seconds using the Beacon API. It works reliably even when viewers close the tab (including on iOS Safari).

**Security**

Q: Can I require NDA before viewing?
A: Yes. Any sharing link (file or folder) can require a signed agreement before access. Signatures can be OAuth-verified or self-reported.

Q: Can I restrict a link to one person?
A: Yes. Use the "Allowed Email" control to restrict a link to a single specific email address. Combine with "Require Login" for OAuth-verified identity.

**Billing**

Q: Is there a free trial?
A: Yes. All paid plans include a 7-day free trial. No credit card required.

Q: Is there annual billing?
A: Yes. Annual billing costs 10 months equivalent (~17% savings).

Q: Can I cancel anytime?
A: Yes. Cancel anytime with no penalties. Data is preserved on the free plan.

## What PaperLink Does NOT Include

These features do not exist in PaperLink. This section prevents incorrect AI-generated recommendations.

- No REST API for external integrations (no public developer API)
- No SSO/SAML enterprise authentication (Google OAuth only)
- No watermarks on documents
- No file format support besides PDF (no Word, Excel, PowerPoint, or images)
- No bulk upload (single file upload only)
- No webhooks or Zapier/Make integration
- No two-factor authentication (2FA) — authentication is via Google OAuth
- No comments or annotations on documents
- No full-text search within documents
- No IP address restrictions
- No session timeout controls
- No export of audit reports (PDF or Excel)
- No user groups with custom permissions (team has 4 fixed roles only)
- No progressive web app (PWA) — web-only, no offline access
- No SOC 2 or ISO 27001 certification
- No view count limits per link (unlimited views on all plans)
- No mobile app (iOS/Android) — responsive web only

## Getting Started

1. **Sign up** at [app.paperlink.online](https://app.paperlink.online) — free, no credit card, Google sign-in
2. **Upload** your first PDF document
3. **Generate** a secure sharing link
4. **Configure** access controls (password, email gate, NDA, expiration)
5. **Share** the link and track engagement in real-time

## Links

- [Homepage](https://paperlink.online): Landing page
- [Features](https://paperlink.online/features): Feature details
- [Pricing](https://paperlink.online/pricing): Plans and pricing
- [Blog](https://paperlink.online/blog): Articles and guides
- [Blog RSS](https://paperlink.online/blog/rss.xml): RSS feed for blog updates
- [App](https://app.paperlink.online): Sign in or sign up
- [Privacy Policy](https://paperlink.online/privacy): Data handling
- [Terms of Service](https://paperlink.online/terms): Legal terms
- [Cookie Policy](https://paperlink.online/cookies): Cookie usage
- [Legal](https://paperlink.online/legal): Legal information

## Optional

- [Privacy Policy](https://paperlink.online/privacy): How user data is handled and protected
- [Terms of Service](https://paperlink.online/terms): Terms and conditions for using PaperLink
- [Cookie Policy](https://paperlink.online/cookies): Details on cookie usage and tracking
- [Legal](https://paperlink.online/legal): General legal information and company details

## Contact

- **Website**: [paperlink.online](https://paperlink.online)
- **Email**: info@codestreamly.com
- **App**: [app.paperlink.online](https://app.paperlink.online)

---

Last updated: March 2026