Admins vs Viewers: Who Pays, Who Doesn't

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.

The Comparison Table

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 — and 3 admins fit on Free (owner + 2). Each has their own sign-in. You only pay when you invite a 4th admin or need a paid feature. A 4th co-founder on a paid plan costs $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:

1. You are on Data Room ($52/admin/month).
2. A colleague joins and you want them to help.
3. You open the Settings menu (bottom-left of the home screen) > Invite admins and add them.
4. Peony pro-rates a $52 charge for the rest of the billing period.
5. 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:

1. Open Settings menu > Invite admins, hover over the person's name, and click the cross button to remove them
2. Contact support if the seat was already billed — we'll review it manually. (Peony doesn't offer refunds unless agreed in writing before purchase, so remove mistaken admins promptly.)

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

Workspace Settings > Invite admins (paid admin invite) Open the Settings menu at the bottom-left of the home screen, then choose Invite admins. It opens an Invite admins dialog where you enter their email. Triggers a seat charge past your free admins. Lives in workspace settings, not inside a data room. There is no separate "Team" page — the invite item is called Invite admins.

Data Room > Permissions tab (free visitor invite) Open a data room → Permissions tab. The Permissions tab lists your share links and visitor groups. To add a viewer, open an existing link (or click Create new group) and add their email in the link's Visitors step. Costs nothing. Lives inside a specific room. The app calls viewers Visitors — there is no standalone "Invite Viewer" button.

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). 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. Storage is unlimited and there are no file-size fees. 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? Up to 3 — the owner plus 2 more. Inviting a 4th admin requires upgrading to 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
• Workspaces, Data Rooms, Links, and Viewers
• Invite Viewers and Track Who Opened