Two EU portals, so the usual argument does not apply here

Published by Droplana, one of the products compared. Alkmist's scope checked on its own pages on September 21, 2026. The trial and screenshot below use fictional data and are not customer results.

The EU argument is a draw, so set it aside

Many comparisons on this site end with hosting. Droplana is an EU company with files in Germany, the other product is American, and for a firm whose client asked where their documents sit, that settles it.

That does not work here. Alkmist states on its EU-hosted portal page that client data is stored and processed on EU infrastructure, and it states ISO 27001 certification. Droplana has no security certification. If you hoped this page would say the EU option is the one on the right, it is not that simple.

The one honest difference here is disclosure, not location. Droplana names the provider and the country: files, comments and metadata sit on Hetzner infrastructure in Germany, encrypted at rest with a key per file, and a Data Processing Agreement is available on every plan. Alkmist's public pages say "EU infrastructure" and send you to its Trust Center for sub-processor details. That is a normal way for a B2B company to publish. If the exact region matters to your client's data protection officer, ask for the Trust Center page.

So the decision rests on three other things.

One: the product is sized for a different kind of work

Alkmist is built for engagement teams. Its pages describe structured request lists with assigned owners, eight permission roles, party isolation between counterparties and an immutable activity trail, for audit, advisory and M&A work. That shape makes sense when several people on your side, and sometimes several parties on the other side, work the same engagement, and someone later has to show who saw what and when.

Droplana is built around the client relationship instead of the engagement. Each client has one private, persistent portal that holds what moved in both directions. Team size is 1 on Free and Solo, 5 on Practice and unlimited on Studio, including the owner. Every team member can open every client; there are seats, not roles.

If you run a five-person accounting practice with 120 recurring clients, audit machinery is weight you carry and never use. If you run an audit team with a real PBC process, the missing roles and owners are not a simplification. They are a missing product.

Requirement	Alkmist	Droplana
Built for	Audit, advisory and M&A engagement teams	Practices with recurring client document exchange
Organising unit	The engagement	The client relationship
Requests	Structured request lists with assigned owners	Per-client checklist with optional due dates; no assignees
Permissions	Eight roles and party isolation	Every team member can access every client
Activity record	Vendor describes an immutable activity trail	Owner can view and export activity as CSV; not immutable, not multi-party
Branding	Branded portal; confirm domain and email scope in the quote	Your logo in the portal header on every plan; no custom domain or branded email
Hosting	Vendor states EU infrastructure	Hetzner in Germany, named; operated by an EU company in Croatia
Certification	Vendor states ISO 27001	None
Client access	No account for ShareSpace uploads; login for engagement portals	No account; Strict verifies email on a new device
PDF signing	Not described on the pages checked	In-browser signing with a public verification page
Integrations and API	Not detailed on the pages checked	MCP server for AI assistants and automation tools; signed webhooks
Pricing	Tailored quote; free ShareSpace tier	Published; Free plan for 3 clients

Alkmist's features, certifications and sub-processors are on its own site and Trust Center, which are better sources than this page.

Two: what the client has to do

Alkmist does not use open links. Its FAQ distinguishes two modes: one-off uploads through the free ShareSpace tier need no account, while engagement portals use a lightweight account login.

Droplana has one mode. The client opens their portal and never creates an account or a password. What they confirm depends on the security level you choose. Strict, the default, verifies their email on each new device and remembers the browser for 90 days. Controlled allows one-time or email magic links only. Relaxed also allows permanent links for less sensitive work. A client can also sign in with a Google or Microsoft account linked to their email. Signing a PDF needs an email-identified session, so a client holding only a link can view, comment and upload but must verify once before signing.

Neither approach is a security failure. They are different bets on the same problem: clients drop tools that ask them to learn something. Alkmist bets that a light account is worth it for the control it enables. Droplana bets that the account is what clients give up on, and gives up roles and full branding to avoid it.

The phone matters too. Droplana's portal has a Take photo button next to the upload button, so a client can photograph a paper payslip or a signed page straight into the checklist item it belongs to.

Real desktop portal with fictional Ledger & Oak Accounting and Maple & Vine Bistro data. Two requested files are supplied; the equipment receipts are still missing. It shows the client controls, not a completed customer engagement. Open the full-size portal view.

Three: whether you can buy it without a call

Alkmist does not publish prices. Its FAQ sends buyers to a tailored quote. For a firm with a procurement process, that is normal and sometimes preferred.

Droplana publishes every price, and you can start on Free without speaking to anyone. For an illustrative five-person practice, Practice is EUR49/month or EUR490/year plus tax, with five seats, 250 GB and files up to 2 GB. Ask Alkmist to quote the same five staff, client count and annual term. We have no verified Alkmist quote, so this page makes no savings claim.

To test the fit, put one recurring client in a Free portal. Request payroll, a bank statement and equipment receipts. The client verifies their email, uploads each file against its checklist item, and you comment on an unreadable upload and send a prepared report back through the same portal. If separate advisers must see different evidence, stop the trial there: Droplana does not provide that permission structure.

What Alkmist has that Droplana does not

Stated plainly, because some readers of this page should buy the other product.

• Certification. Alkmist states ISO 27001. When a client questionnaire asks for a certificate, "our files are in Germany" does not answer it.
• Branding. Alkmist brands the client-facing portal as yours. Droplana puts your logo in the portal header, free on every plan, but has no custom domain, no accent colour and no branded email sender.
• Roles and party isolation. Eight permission roles and separation between parties on one engagement. Droplana has seats that share access.
• An immutable, multi-party record. Droplana records signatures in detail, and the business owner can view and export activity (logins, portal visits, uploads, downloads, deletions, comments, approvals), but that record is not immutable or shared across parties.
• Request owners. Droplana checklist items can carry a due date, but not an assignee.

What Droplana does not do

• No native connectors. Documents stay in the portal until someone downloads them; an AI assistant connected through the MCP server works on metadata, not on the documents' contents.
• No permission roles. Team members on Practice and Studio can all access all clients.
• Not multi-party. One portal per client, with no counterparties sharing a workspace.
• Due dates, not workflow. Checklist items can have optional due dates. A due-date reminder is prepared two days before and on the date, and reaches the client with their next email, which can be later that day or the next day. Separately, an unfinished checklist can nudge the client after 7 days of inactivity and escalate to you after 14. Neither is configurable routing.
• Not a qualified e-signature. In-browser signing records who signed, when and from what IP, saves the signed PDF as a new file next to the original, and gives each signature a public verification page with a file-hash check. It is not certificate-based or qualified.
• Not an archive. Free keeps each file for up to 180 days after upload. Active paid plans have no plan-imposed retention limit, but a portal is not long-term archival storage.

Who should pick which

Pick Alkmist if you run audits, M&A processes or other work where several parties share one engagement; you need permission roles, request owners and an immutable audit trail; a client questionnaire asks for ISO 27001; or you want the portal to carry your own domain and brand.

Pick Droplana if you work with recurring clients rather than discrete engagements; you want clients never to create an account or a password; you want the same private portal to carry your work to the client as well as their documents to you, with comments and signing on the file; or you want to see the price, start free and test it with a real client today. A large team can use Studio, so team size alone does not decide it.

The accounting practices page and the insurance brokers page show the per-client structure day to day, and the client portal guide covers wider buying criteria. For request lists in an audit context, Suralink is the closer comparison; for pure intake, see Content Snare. For the hosting question underneath all of this, what EU hosted actually means explains where data sits versus who has legal reach over it.

Questions before you choose

Is Droplana an alternative to Alkmist?

For a practice that needs a private portal per client, collects documents against a checklist and sends work back, yes. For an audit or M&A engagement that needs assigned owners, permission roles, party isolation and an immutable audit trail, no. Droplana has none of those, so the two rarely stay on the same shortlist once the type of work is clear.

Are both Droplana and Alkmist hosted in the EU?

Both say so. Alkmist states that client data is stored and processed on EU infrastructure and points buyers to its Trust Center for sub-processor details. Droplana is operated by Ubique d.o.o. in Croatia and names its provider and country: files, comments and metadata sit on Hetzner infrastructure in Germany, with a Data Processing Agreement on every plan. The difference is what each publishes, not whether the data is in Europe.

What must an Alkmist client do that a Droplana client does not?

Alkmist's FAQ says one-off uploads through its free ShareSpace tier need no account, while engagement portals use a lightweight account login. Droplana clients never create an account or password. Strict mode, the default, verifies their email on a new device and remembers the browser for 90 days; they can also sign in with a Google or Microsoft account linked to their address.

What does Alkmist do that Droplana does not?

Alkmist states ISO 27001 certification; Droplana holds no security certification. Alkmist brands the portal as yours, while Droplana only puts your logo in the portal header, with no custom domain or branded email. Alkmist describes permission roles, party isolation, request owners and an immutable audit trail. Droplana team members all see all clients, and the owner's activity trail is exportable but not immutable or shared across parties.

Can I see Alkmist's price before a sales call?

Alkmist does not publish prices; its FAQ points buyers to a tailored quote, and a free ShareSpace tier exists for file sharing. Droplana publishes every price: Solo 19 EUR, Practice 49 EUR and Studio 99 EUR per month plus tax, unlimited clients on paid plans, annual billing at ten months' price, and a Free plan for 3 clients and 2 GB.

Plans and limits

Paid plans include unlimited clients: Solo EUR19/month or EUR190/year, Practice EUR49/month or EUR490/year, Studio EUR99/month or EUR990/year, plus tax. Free covers 3 clients, 2 GB and files up to 100 MB. Each paid storage add-on costs EUR15/month or EUR150/year plus tax, adds 500 GB and raises the file limit to 5 GB.

On Free, each file expires 180 days after upload. Your clients and their access stay active, so you can keep sharing new files. Active paid plans have no plan-imposed retention limit. Expiry settings, deletion and cancellation rules still apply; a persistent portal address does not guarantee permanent file availability. Team sizes include you. No setup fees or automatic overage charges. Prices exclude applicable tax.

Compare plan details

Plan limits and services. Team sizes include the owner.

Included	Free	Solo	Practice	Studio
Team size	Just you	Just you	5	Unlimited
Clients	3	Unlimited	Unlimited	Unlimited
Storage	2 GB	50 GB	250 GB	1 TB
Maximum file size	100 MB	1 GB	2 GB	5 GB
File retention	180 days from upload	No limit	No limit	No limit
Your Droplana address	Includes a random suffix	Your chosen name	Your chosen name	Your chosen name
Data Processing Agreement	Standard	Standard	Countersigned available	Countersigned available
Support	Email	Email	Priority	Priority
Personal setup call	Not included	Not included	Not included	Included

Need more storage?

Add 500 GB for €15/month + tax, or €150/year + tax. Each storage add-on also raises your maximum file size to 5 GB.

Available on all paid plans from your billing page. Add more than one for another 500 GB each. Your team size stays the same.

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