Sharing

Share markups with external stakeholders using secure, configurable share links.

Not everyone who needs to review a markup will have a Sitemarks account. Share links let you give clients, contractors, or other external stakeholders access to a specific markup without requiring them to sign up or join your organization.

Creating a Share Link

To share a markup, open it and click the Share button in the toolbar. You will be prompted to configure two settings before the link is generated:

  1. Permission level — choose between View only and Comment allowed.
  2. Password protection — optionally set a password that recipients must enter before they can see the markup.
  3. Expiration date — optionally set a date after which the link will stop working.

Once you confirm, Sitemarks generates a unique URL that you can copy and send to anyone.

Pro plan required

Creating share links is available on the Pro and Enterprise plans. Free-tier organizations can upgrade from the billing page in Settings.

Permission Levels

Share links support two permission levels:

  • View only — the recipient can see the markup, its versions, and all non-internal annotations and comments, but cannot add anything.
  • Comment allowed — the recipient can view everything above and also post comments on existing annotations.

Internal comments (those marked as team-only) are never visible through a share link, regardless of the permission level. This lets your team maintain private discussion threads alongside the shared review.

Password Protection

When you set a password on a share link, recipients must enter it before they can view the markup. Passwords are encrypted so securely that even Sitemarks cannot view them. If a recipient enters the wrong password, access is denied.

Passwords cannot be recovered

If you forget the password, there is no way to recover it. You will need to revoke the existing link and create a new one.

No Account Required

Recipients of a share link do not need a Sitemarks account. They simply open the URL in any modern browser, enter the password if one is required, and immediately see the markup with its annotations and comment threads. This makes share links ideal for collecting feedback from clients or stakeholders who are not part of your day-to-day workflow.

Revoking a Share Link

You can revoke a share link at any time. Open the markup, click Share, and you will see a list of all active share links for that markup. Click the delete action next to any link to revoke it immediately. Once revoked, anyone who tries to use that URL will see a "not found" error.

Revoking is permanent — the same URL cannot be reactivated. If you need to share the markup again, create a new link.

Expiration

Share links can be configured with an optional expiration date. After the expiration timestamp passes, the link automatically stops working and recipients will see an "expired" message. This is useful for time-boxed reviews where you want to ensure access is automatically cut off after a deadline.

Who Can Create and Manage Share Links

Any organization member with the Member role or higher (Member, Admin, or Owner) can create share links for markups they have access to. The same roles can view the list of active share links on a markup and revoke any of them — not just the ones they personally created.

Viewers cannot create or manage share links.

Security

Share links are designed with security in mind. The link token exists only in the URL you share and is never stored on our servers, so it cannot be leaked or reconstructed.

Combine protections for sensitive reviews

For sensitive markups, use both a password and an expiration date. This gives you layered protection — the link is time-limited and requires a secret only known to your intended recipients.

For real-time collaborative review with your internal team, see Real-Time Collaboration.