The gap we built MaiPDF for
PDF tools today fall into two camps.
On one side, you have Google Docs, Notion, and Dropbox Paper — built for collaboration. They assume the people on the other end of your document are teammates. You trust them. You want them to edit.
On the other side, you have DocSend, Papermark, and PandaDoc — built for distribution. They assume the people on the other end are not your teammates. They might be investors, clients, buyers — people you want to show something to but don't fully trust yet. These tools cost $45 to $150 a month.
If you're a freelancer sending a proposal, a founder sharing a pitch deck, a teacher distributing a handout, or a lawyer sending a redlined contract — you don't need real-time collaboration. But you also don't have $45 a month to spend on enterprise sales software.
You just want to send a PDF, know who opened it, make casual forwarding less useful, and take access back when you need to.
That's what MaiPDF is.
Where MaiPDF sits in the landscape
| Tool category | What it's for | Typical price |
|---|---|---|
| Google Docs / Notion | Collaborative editing with trusted teammates | Free – $18/mo |
| Dropbox / Google Drive | Generic cloud file storage | $10 – $20/mo |
| DocSend / Papermark / PandaDoc | Sending finished docs to external parties, with tracking | $45 – $150/mo |
| MaiPDF | Same job as DocSend — tracking, access control, revocation | Free |
What MaiPDF is (and isn't)
MaiPDF is not a document editor. It's not a replacement for Google Docs or Microsoft Word. You can't write in it.
MaiPDF is a one-way document delivery tool. You upload a finished PDF. You get a link or QR code. And from that moment on, you control everything that happens to that file:
- Who can open it — limit by email, password, or view count
- How long it lives — set an expiration, or revoke access any time
- What they can do with it — reduce casual download and print, and discourage leaks with dynamic watermarks
- When they opened it — real-time read alerts, optionally sent straight to your Telegram
- What's in it — replace the PDF later without changing the link, so a single URL stays fresh forever
None of that requires the reader to sign up. None of it requires you to sign up either.
.maipdf files, device binding, license checks, revocation after distribution, or screenshot-aware controls, use MaiPDF App DRM.
Why we're free
The honest answer: we think the paid document-tracking space is wildly overpriced for what most people actually need.
If you're a sales team closing enterprise deals, DocSend's $45 a month is worth it. If you're a solo founder sending a deck to five investors, it isn't. We built MaiPDF for that second group — the long tail that enterprise tools price out.
We keep it free by keeping it simple. No accounts. No sales calls. No "talk to our team." You upload, you share, you move on.
If MaiPDF becomes mission-critical to your workflow and you want more — larger file sizes, custom domains, team features — we'll have a paid tier when the time is right. Until then, everything on maipdf.com works with no credit card.
What we're not trying to be
We're not trying to beat Google Docs at collaboration. We won't.
We're not trying to beat Dropbox at cloud storage. We won't.
We're not even trying to beat Adobe at PDF editing. We won't.
We're trying to be the tool you reach for when you've finished writing, exporting, or designing a PDF — and now you need to get it into someone else's hands, safely, without losing control of it.
Who's behind this
MaiPDF is built and maintained by a small independent team. We run three sites, all pointing to the same free service:
- maipdf.com — the product itself
- article.maipdf.com — long-form guides and tutorials
- sendpdfonline.com — use cases, how-tos, and feature walkthroughs
Questions, feedback, or feature requests? Email [email protected]. We read everything.