Adding a teammate to help you manage data rooms costs money. Adding a counterparty to read a room does not. That one sentence is the whole rule. This article covers the full comparison, common persona examples, and the "why was I charged an extra seat?" scenario — the single biggest source of billing confusion in Peony.

Admins and seats are covered in three pages. Admins vs viewers explains who is an admin and who is a visitor, with persona examples and why you might be charged for an extra admin. Invite your team has the steps to invite an admin and fixes for invite problems. Add or remove admins covers removing an admin, changing the account email, moving the subscription and how the pro-rated charge works.

The Comparison Table

	Admin	Viewer (the app calls them Visitors)
Who are they?	Someone on your team (co-founder, analyst, assistant)	Your counterparty (investor, buyer, client, lender, lawyer)
Where do you invite them?	Workspace Settings menu (bottom-left) > Invite admins	Inside a data room: Permissions tab > open or create a link > Visitors step
Peony account?	Yes. Signs in with their own email + OTP.	No. Just opens the link.
What can they do?	Create rooms, upload files, invite visitors, see analytics, manage billing	Open the link, read files under your protections
Count toward seats?	Yes. Each admin is a paid seat.	No. Never affects billing.
Cost	Free: 1 admin (the owner). $30/admin/month on Business, $52/admin/month on Data Room, $64/admin/month on Deal Team	$0 on every plan
How many?	Free: 1 (the owner). Business/Data Room: pay per admin. Deal Team: min 4 admins. Enterprise: custom.	Unlimited on every plan

Persona Examples

Founder raising a seed round, sharing a deck with 30 angels and VCs. All 30 are viewers. Free. The free tier works. Upgrade to a paid plan only for paid features (allow/block visitor lists on Business, advanced screenshot protection, dynamic watermarks, and custom domains on Data Room), not because you have 30 investors.

M&A advisor. Junior associate helping manage the data room. Your junior is an admin — $30 on Business, $52 on Data Room. They will upload files, answer buyer Q&A, and manage links, so they need a paid admin seat.

Sell-side deal with 5 buyer firms, 3 reviewers each. All 15 buyer-side people are viewers. Bill unchanged. Create one link per buyer firm for per-firm analytics.

Solo consultant, one client. Your client is a viewer. You are the only admin. Free tier or Business ($30) covers it.

Startup with 3 co-founders co-managing rooms. All 3 are admins, each with their own sign-in. Free covers 1 admin, so three co-founders need a paid plan: $30/admin/month on Business or $52 on Data Room.

VC firm with 5 partners, 50 LPs on the receiving end. Depends on who manages. If one partner uploads and manages, you need 1 admin seat. The other 4 can be admins (if they manage content) or viewers (if they only read). The 50 LPs are all viewers — free.

The "Surprise Seat Charge" Scenario

The most common billing ticket Peony gets:

You are on Data Room ($52/admin/month).
A colleague joins and you want them to help.
You open the Settings menu (bottom-left of the home screen) > Invite admins and add them.
Peony pro-rates a $52 charge for the rest of the billing period.
You see an unexpected line item on your next invoice.

What happened: Data Room charges per admin seat. The pro-rated charge is for the remainder of the current period.

Fix: remove the extra admin promptly so the seat drops off your next cycle (steps: Remove an admin). Contact support if the seat was already billed — we'll review it manually.

It is not a trap, but it is a surprise if you did not know the pricing model. This article exists so you do not have to be surprised.

How to Prevent the Surprise

Before clicking any "Invite" button, ask:

Is this person on my team, or are they a counterparty?

On my team (co-founder, analyst, employee, assistant) → admin → paid seat
Counterparty (investor, buyer, client, lender, lawyer) → viewer → free

If unsure, default to viewer. You can promote to admin later. You cannot undo a paid seat for the period it was charged.

Where Each Invite Button Lives

Paid admins are invited from the workspace Settings menu > Invite admins (there is no separate "Team" page), and free visitors are added on a link's Visitors step inside a data room's Permissions tab, as the table above shows. Step by step: Invite an admin and Invite visitors.

Admin Roles

There are exactly two roles: Owner and Member. The Owner is whoever created the workspace; everyone you invite is a Member. There are no restricted-vs-full admin permission tiers — every admin (Owner or Member) can manage rooms, links, and content, and every admin counts as one paid seat.

If you need someone to help only in a limited way — for example, to answer or sign off on investor Q&A but not manage the whole workspace — you do not need to make them a paid admin. Add them as a visitor group in the Permissions tab instead (see the Common Questions below).

What Admins Can Do That Viewers Cannot

Create new data rooms
Upload files and rename folders
Generate and configure links (NDA gate, watermark, expiry, password)
Invite visitors (viewers) and manage the Permissions tab
See the Analytics tab
Edit branding and manage custom domains
Manage billing (if permitted)
Delete data rooms

Viewers can do none of the above. They only read files inside the link you gave them, under the rules you set, and optionally upload files back if you allowed it.

Common Mistakes

Admin count as a "viewer limit". No. Paid plans bill per admin seat (Deal Team requires a minimum of 4 admins), but viewers are unlimited on every plan.
Test admin left running. Still a paid seat. Remove after testing.
Inviting a counterparty as an admin because you want them to "see everything." Just give them a link with all permissions. They do not need admin access to your workspace.
Upgrade prompts during invite. If Peony prompts you to upgrade while inviting someone, you are in the Invite admins flow (workspace Settings menu) and have hit the Free plan's admin limit, not a viewer limit. If the person is a counterparty, cancel and add them as a Visitor inside a data room's Permissions tab instead.

Common Questions

Do external visitors, storage, or large files ever cost me money?

No. You are never charged by the number of visitors, clicks, files, or gigabytes. There are no per-file or per-gigabyte fees; storage is unlimited from the Data Room plan (Free 500 MB, Business 50 GB). Your cost is per admin seat only.

Some of my team should be paid admins, but others just need to answer investor Q&A. Do the Q&A helpers need paid seats?

Anyone who manages the workspace — creating rooms, uploading, configuring links — needs a paid admin seat. But you do not need to pay for people who only answer or sign off on investor Q&A. Add them as a visitor group in a room's Permissions tab, and a paid admin can assign Q&A questions to them. Investors answering questions need no account at all. Viewers (visitors) are always free.

How many admins can I have on the Free plan?

One, the owner. Inviting a second admin requires a paid plan. Viewers (visitors) remain unlimited and free on every plan, including Free.

Can I give one admin fewer permissions than another?

Not with per-admin permission tiers — every admin has the same management access (there is only Owner and Member, and both can manage rooms). If you want to scope someone down, add them as a visitor group in Permissions instead of making them a paid admin.

Next Steps

Invite Your Team (Admins vs Viewers) — how-to version
Add or Remove Admins — removing admins, moving the subscription, pro-rated charges
Workspaces, Data Rooms, Links, and Viewers
Invite Viewers and Track Who Opened