# Base vs Papermark

Papermark is an open-source alternative to DocSend: document sharing and data rooms with page-by-page analytics, watermarks, NDA gating, a Q&A module and an audit log, which you can also host yourself. Base is built around what is inside the documents. It reads documents and spreadsheets into facts with quotes, a timeline and figures that disagree, keeps that current as new material arrives, and lets each reader's own AI query it. Choose Papermark for deal controls and analytics. Choose Base when readers need to understand and question the material.

Updated October 7, 2026. Canonical page: https://createbases.com/compare/papermark

## At a glance

|  | Base | Papermark |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Built for | Turning documents and data into a cited knowledge base for people and their AI | Sharing documents and running data rooms with tracking and controls |
| Reader analytics | Opens and AI connections on every plan; who opened, on Pro | Page-by-page analytics for each viewer |
| Controls | Link, invite or paid access; downloads, AI access and expiry; per-file access on Pro | Folder and file permissions, dynamic watermarking, NDA gating, and an append-only audit log |
| Questions | Readers ask the Base, in the browser or from their own AI; every fact quotes its file | A Q&A module, and an AI assistant that organizes, searches and summarizes data room documents |
| For agents | An MCP server for reading, building and sharing Bases, plus skills for coding agents | A REST API, a CLI and an MCP server |
| Hosting | Hosted | Hosted, or self-hosted from the open-source code |
| Price | Free for 2 Bases with 500 credits; Pro is $29 a month | A free plan; data rooms from €99 or $119 a month |

## What Base does with the material

- Reads it. Every document becomes an overview, key facts with the quote behind each one, a timeline, and the people and organizations involved.
- Reads data as well as prose. Spreadsheets and CSVs are read row by row, so a fact can cite the rows it came from, and a figure that disagrees with another file is flagged with both quotes.
- Keeps itself current. When a document arrives, Base reads it, rebuilds what it touched and rechecks the questions it used to answer. When a newer document updates a figure, Base can mark the older claim as superseded instead of showing both as current.
- Learns what it is missing. Deeper answers are graded afterwards, and an intention check tests the Base against what it is for and proposes the documents and notes that would close the gaps.
- Works beyond deals: client handoffs, onboarding, research packages, anything a reader needs to understand rather than just receive.

## When Papermark is the better choice

- You need per-page engagement data, watermarks, an NDA before viewing, or an append-only audit log.
- You want to host the software yourself for data residency, or build on open-source code.
- Your process runs on a data room Q&A module between buyers and sellers.

## When Base is the better choice

- Readers have to make sense of a lot of material, including spreadsheets, rather than just open it.
- The material keeps changing and you want what readers see to stay right without re-curating it by hand.
- The reader will work in Claude, ChatGPT or another AI and needs answers they can trace to a sentence.
- The job is not a deal: a handoff, an onboarding pack, a research brief.

## Questions

### Is Base open source?

No. Base is a hosted service. If you need to run the software yourself, Papermark is open source and self-hostable.

### Does Base have page-by-page analytics?

No. Base counts opens and AI connections on every plan and shows who opened a Base on Pro. It does not record time spent on each page.

### What does it mean that a Base keeps itself current?

When new material arrives, Base reads it, rebuilds the parts of the knowledge it affects and rechecks the questions it could answer before, so what readers see follows the newest documents rather than the first ones you uploaded.

## Sources checked on October 7, 2026

- [Papermark: llms.txt (product summary, plans, API and MCP)](https://www.papermark.com/llms.txt)