Per-Seat vs. Per-Client Pricing

Run five people on your team, serve 40 clients, and pay per seat? That is the uncomfortable math behind most file-sharing platforms. SmartVault, ShareFile, Clinked -- they charge by the employee login, not by how many clients you actually serve. For a professional services firm, that is the wrong unit. Your revenue scales with the number of clients you take on, not the number of staff who log in to a portal.

This guide breaks down what per-seat pricing actually costs, explains the per-client-account alternative, and walks through real numbers so you can compare both models for your firm.

What Does Per-Seat Pricing Actually Cost You?

Per-seat pricing charges a flat monthly fee for every team member with a login, regardless of how many clients they serve. A firm with five employees at a platform charging $16 per seat per month pays $80 per month before a single client file moves. Scale up to ten staff and the bill doubles -- the number of clients you serve changes nothing.

At most platforms in this category, clients either do not get their own portal login -- they receive a shared link or upload to a generic URL -- or they count as additional users at extra cost. Some bundle a limited number of client logins into a team plan; others charge per external collaborator. The important question is always: does client access cost anything, and how does that change as your practice grows?

ShareFile, for example, charged approximately $82.50 per month for five users as of July 2026 (verify current pricing before publishing -- prices change). A 5-person firm serving 40 clients on that plan spends roughly $2.06 per client per month on the platform alone, before storage overages or add-ons.

For accounting and tax practices, the cost question is also a compliance question. The FTC Safeguards Rule requires non-bank financial institutions -- including many tax preparers and bookkeeping firms -- to implement a written information security plan and use secure systems when handling client financial data. A shared Drive folder or email attachment does not satisfy that requirement. A dedicated, auditable client portal does.

What Is the Per-Client-Account Model?

Per-client-account pricing charges based on the number of active client accounts in your portal, not the number of staff who use it. Each client you invite gets their own login and private file space. You are billed for open accounts. When work wraps up, archive the client -- they stop counting, and the slot opens for another.

ProjectSend Cloud uses this model. The three plans are built around this metric:

• Free -- 3 active client accounts, 2 GB storage, 1 workspace user. No credit card, no time limit.
• Pro ($19/mo) -- 25 active client accounts (then $0.40/account/mo), 100 GB storage, 3 workspace user seats (then $4/seat/mo).
• Business ($49/mo) -- Unlimited active client accounts, SSO (OIDC), enforced 2FA, audit log export, priority support.

Your team members log in as workspace users -- a separate category, counted and billed separately from client accounts. Workspace users invite clients, upload files, and manage permissions. Client accounts and workspace user seats do not cross-count.

Running the Numbers for a Small Accounting Firm

A 5-person firm serving 40 active clients year-round: on Pro ($19/mo), the 25 included accounts cover 25 clients; the remaining 15 add $6/mo ($0.40 x 15). Two workspace seats beyond the 3 included: $8/mo. Total: $33/month. At a per-seat platform charging $82.50/month for five team logins alone, the gap is nearly $50/month -- and that figure does not include client-access fees on the per-seat side.

The seasonal pattern matters too. During tax off-season, archive 20 of your 40 clients -- those with no pending work. They lose portal access, and their accounts stop counting toward your active total. Their files, upload history, and audit trail stay in the portal. Reactivate them when the next filing cycle opens. Per-seat pricing does not respond to seasonal patterns; the team bill stays the same whether your staff is managing 5 clients or 50.

ProjectSend Cloud is the hosted version of the open source ProjectSend project (GPLv2, 1,900+ GitHub stars). The same codebase powers the 4,000+ self-hosted instances worldwide with 4.8M+ downloads -- and the Cloud version adds hosting, daily backups, updates, and support on top.

What 'Active Client Account' Actually Means

An active client account is a client you have invited to your portal whose account is open -- not archived. The billing logic is binary: open or archived. You are charged for open accounts regardless of how often they log in. A client who has not logged in for two months is still active if you have not archived them.

Archive a client account and two things happen: their portal access ends, and the slot opens for another client. Their files, history, and permissions remain in the portal, accessible to you. When you re-invite them, they return to the same records -- nothing gets deleted on archive. Learn more about how the portal handles client access.

This differs from a named-user seat license, which is typically billed as long as the account exists -- active or dormant. With active client accounts, the meter runs when the account is open and stops when it is not. For firms with seasonal or project-based client relationships, that difference can represent a meaningful share of the annual tool cost.

Which Pricing Model Fits Your Firm?

Per-client-account pricing fits professional services firms better when client count grows faster than team size. Per-seat pricing fits better when the tool is used by employees only -- project management, internal wikis, team chat. When the platform is client-facing and the client side grows, per-client-account scales more cleanly.

Questions to ask when comparing platforms:

• How many staff need logins? (workspace users -- your team)
• How many clients will access the portal at peak? (active client accounts)
• Is your workload seasonal? If yes, a per-client model with archiving can meaningfully cut your off-peak bill.
• What does the platform call 'external users' or 'client logins'? Some per-seat platforms charge extra for every client who logs in -- clarify before committing.

If you are solo or have fewer than 3 active clients at a time, the Free plan covers you with no per-seat or per-client fees at all. Freelancers using the Free plan get a fully branded portal with 3 active client accounts and 2 GB of storage -- no time limit, no credit card.

Pricing is one dimension of the decision. If you want to understand what else a client portal gives your firm -- branded experience, granular permissions, upload and download audit trail -- this overview of white-label client portals covers the full picture.

Ready to see how it works for your firm? Start free -- 3 active client accounts, 2 GB storage, branded portal, no credit card and no time limit. When your client list grows past 3, Pro is $19/month.