A Shared Space is a team workspace in pdf.net where your entire team can store and access documents together. Documents belong to the Space, not the person who uploaded them, so they stay put no matter who comes or goes.
It solves the "where is the PDF" problem: no more digging through email attachments or hoping the right person still has the file.
Here's how Shared Spaces work and how to set one up in a few minutes.
Bring your team's PDFs into one place
Create a Shared Space, invite everyone by email, and organize your documents together — free, with no member limit.
Key Takeaways
- A Shared Space is a team workspace in pdf.net, a shared home for documents with its own members, roles, and plan, separate from your Personal Space.
- Documents belong to the Space, not a person, and remain in the Space when someone leaves the team.
- Team folders hold shared work, while your Private zone is yours alone; nobody, not even a Space Owner, can see the documents in your Private zone.
- Simple access comes with three roles: Owners run the Space, Members work in it, and Guests see only what you share with them.
- The Free plan has no member limit, so the entire team can view and edit documents together at no cost.
Why Team PDF Work Gets Messy
Working with a PDF on your own is straightforward: edit the file, download it, and move on. The trouble starts when someone else needs to review, update, or sign it.
Sending an attachment feels natural, but each attachment creates another copy. One teammate edits an older version. Someone else signs a different one. Soon you have files called contract_final_v3_FINAL.pdf, and nobody’s sure which one to use.
Access gets messy too. Once an attachment has been sent, you can’t pull it back. And when documents live in personal accounts, the team depends on the person who owns them. If they leave, the files disappear with them, along with their edit history and sharing links.
A shared workspace gives the team one working place for those documents. Instead of passing new copies between inboxes and chat threads, everyone returns to the same file.
What Is a Shared Space?
A Shared Space sits inside your pdf.net account, next to your Personal Space. It has its own documents, members, permissions, settings, and subscription.
Your Personal Space doesn't change. Switch between Personal and Shared Spaces from the Space Switcher at the top of the sidebar. If something new happens in a Space, like a new file uploaded or an invitation, you’ll see an indicator on the Switcher.
The difference is in ownership. Documents in a Shared Space's team zone belong to the Space itself, not to whoever uploaded them. You can still see who created the doc, but the files stay with the team, so a teammate leaving no longer means documents are lost.
You can belong to as many Shared Spaces as you need, one for your company, one for a side project, one for a client, and each shows up in the same Switcher.
How a Shared Space Looks
A Shared Space is split into two zones, and this is exactly what makes teamwork comfortable.
#1. Team Folders for Shared Work
Team folders are top-level folders with rules controlling who can view or edit them. When you create one, you decide who can access it:
- Everyone in the Space. All current and future Owners and Members get the access level you set — Can view or Can edit.
- Specific people only. Only the members you choose can open the folder. Each person can have their own access level.
That access applies to everything inside the folder, including subfolders and documents. You set it once instead of managing every file separately. A folder for contracts, a folder for HR forms, a restricted folder for the leadership team: the structure mirrors how your team already thinks.
#2. Private zone for Drafts Nobody Else Sees
Alongside Team folders, every Owner and Member gets a Private zone, a personal work-in-progress area inside the Space. Documents there are visible to you and no one else, including other Members and Space Owners.
When a draft is ready, move it to a Team folder, and it becomes visible to the team, with the folder's access rules applied. So, draft privately, publish to the team when you’re done.
If you want feedback before publishing, you can share a Private document with a specific teammate. It stays in your Private zone; they see it in their Shared With Me section inside the Space.
Owners, Members, and Guests: Who Can Do What
Every person in a Shared Space has one of the three roles.
Role | Who it's for | What they can do | Billed on Team plans? |
|---|---|---|---|
Owner | Whoever runs the Space | Everything: manage members, settings, and billing, plus access to all Team folders. A Space can have several Owners. | Yes |
Member | Your teammates | Work in the Team folders they have access to, create Team folders, and keep drafts in their own Private zone. | Yes |
Guest | Clients, contractors, outside reviewers | View exactly what's been shared with them — nothing else. | No, guests are free on every plan. |
Members join by email invitation. You choose the role, Member or Owner, when you send the invite, and it's tied to that exact email address.
Guests work differently. Share a document or folder with someone outside the team, and pdf.net adds them as a Guest. They see that item in the Shared Space, but nothing else. There’s no limit on Guests, and they cost nothing on any plan.
Who Shared Spaces Are For
Shared Spaces aren't only for big companies, especially nowadays when one in five workers are working remotely. They earn their keep anywhere documents pass through more than one pair of hands, including:
Teams That Review and Approve Documents
Contracts, invoices, offers, proposals, or anything that goes through drafts and sign-off. A Member drafts in their Private zone, moves the document to a Team folder for review, and everyone works on the same file instead of emailing copies back and forth.
Teams That Need a Shared Document Library
Agreement templates, HR forms, NDAs, branded PDFs. Kept in Team folders, they belong to the Space: a new hire gets access on day one, and nothing disappears when someone leaves. One current version of every template, in a place the whole team can find.
Anyone Who Shares Documents with Clients
Agencies, lawyers, recruiters, accountants, or anyone who sends documents outside the team. Share a deliverable with a client, and they become a free Guest with view-only access. No stray copies in inboxes, and you can change or revoke access at any time.
Solo Users Ready to Bring In a Second Person
A Personal Space is single-player by design. The moment you need anyone else in your document workflow — an assistant, a co-founder, an accountant — a Shared Space is the way to do it. Since the Free plan has no member limit, starting small costs nothing.
How to Create a Shared Space in 4 Steps
You need a couple of minutes from start to finish to set up a Shared Space in pdf.net, and here’s how to do it:
Step 1. Name Your Space
Give the Space a name and, if you like, upload an image to replace the default icon. As soon as you continue, the Space appears in your Space Switcher. If you get interrupted, you can pick the setup back up later.
Step 2. Introduce Yourself
Add your name and an optional profile photo so teammates can recognize you in the Space. If your profile is already filled in, this step is prefilled for you.
Step 3. Invite Your Team
Enter the email addresses of the people you want to work with. You can type them in or paste a whole list, separated by commas, spaces, or line breaks. This step is optional; you can skip it and invite people later. Invitations aren't sent yet; they go out once setup is complete.
Step 4. Pick a Plan
Stay on Free or start a Team plan with a 14-day trial. Once you choose Free or complete payment for Team, pdf.net sends the invitations from the previous step.
How to Share Files Beyond the Team
Any document or folder in a Shared Space can be shared in four ways:
- With everyone in the Space: all Owners and Members get the same access level.
- With specific people by email: individual access levels per person, and the only way to give a Guest access.
- With a public link: view-only access for anyone who has the shareable link.
- With an email domain: access for everyone with an address at your chosen domain, handy for company-wide documents.
Access levels today are Can view and Can edit, and commenting is coming soon. You can change or revoke access at any time. Once revoked, the item disappears from the other person's view.
One deliberate boundary. A Team folder itself can be opened to the whole Space or restricted to specific members, but it can't be shared by public link or domain. Team folders are your team's internal structure, so for sharing outward, share the documents inside them.
Free and Team Plans: Here’s How They Work
A Shared Space is either on Free or on a Team plan, and here’s how they work:
- Team Free. Invite 2 people or 20, and it costs nothing. Everyone can view and edit shared documents, keep drafts in their Private zone, and organize Team folders. The trade-off: premium features are locked. While a Space is on Free, you can't export finished PDFs, sign them, or merge files.
- Team Monthly and Team Annual. Paid plans unlock the full pdf.net toolkit for everyone in the Space — exporting, signing, merging, and the rest of the premium features. Both plans start with a 14-day trial with full access.
The billing model is built to not punish growth:
- You pay only for people who actually join. Pending invitations cost nothing until they're accepted.
- Guests never count. Share with as many clients and reviewers as you like, on any plan.
- Trial members are free. People who join during the 14-day trial aren't billed until the trial ends.
- The Space's subscription is its own. It's fully separate from anyone's personal pdf.net plan, including the Owner's.
Start free, upgrade when it matters
Create your Shared Space on the Free plan, bring the whole team, and unlock premium features whenever you're ready.
Start with one real project
Shared Spaces don't ask your team to learn a new way of working; they take the way teams already work with PDFs and give it one home. Draft privately, publish to a Team folder, share outward with control, and stop wondering which attachment was final.
The easiest way to see the fit is to try it with real work: create a Space, move one live project into a Team folder, and invite the people who touch it. The Free plan puts no limit on who you can bring, and when your team needs to merge, sign, or export, Team plans are one upgrade away.
Shared Spaces FAQs
#1. Can Space Owners see my Private documents?
No, your Private zone is visible only to you, Owners included. A Private document becomes visible to others only when you share it or move it to a Team folder yourself.
#2. Is the Free plan really unlimited?
Yes, since there's no member limit and no time limit. Your whole team can view and edit shared documents on Free plan for as long as you like. A Team plan is only needed for premium features such as exporting, signing, and merging.
#3. What's the difference between a Member and a Guest?
A Member is part of the team: they have a Private zone, work in the Team folders they've been given access to, and on Team plans they take up a paid Member slot. A Guest is someone outside the team with whom a specific document or folder was shared. They see only that, view-only, and they're free on every plan.
#4. What happens to someone's documents when they leave a Shared Space?
Documents in Team folders belong to the Space, so they stay with the team. Documents in the person's Private zone aren't handed over to anyone; they're kept for 30 days in case the person returns to the Space, then deleted permanently.
#5. What happens if we cancel a Team subscription?
The Space switches to the Free plan once the paid period ends. Nothing is deleted; every member, Guest, folder, and document stays in place. Premium features lock until you upgrade again, and upgrading brings them straight back. If you encounter any issues, contact us via support@pdf.net.