# Outbox vs Derive: keep your agents' work, or send it to people

> Derive is a self-hostable workspace for AI artifacts with deep review. Outbox sends agent work to specific people with per-person links, open alerts and flat pricing.

Derive keeps and reviews your agents' work inside your team; Outbox sends it to specific people and tells you who opened it. Derive is the more complete workspace for technical teams, with self-hosting, more formats and SSO. Outbox is built for the moment work leaves the company: a link per recipient, an email when they open it, expiry, and one flat price for the team.

## Key differences

| What we compare | Outbox | Derive |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Publish from agents | Remote and local MCP, CLI, skill and API | Remote and local MCP, CLI, skill and API |
| Publish without an account | No, the agent needs an Outbox account | Yes: one curl call creates a draft that lives 72 hours and can be claimed |
| Formats | HTML and Markdown | HTML, Markdown, LaTeX, decks and whole sites |
| One link per person | Yes: each link carries a recipient name and opens are recorded under it | Not documented: sharing is by invitation, workspace or one link for anyone |
| Alert when someone opens | Email to whoever created the link, plus a reminder if it's still unopened | Not found in the docs or public repo |
| Link expiry | 1 to 365 days (7 by default), optional renew-on-open | Not documented for shared links |
| Password on links | Every plan, Free included | Team plan and up |
| Versions and review | Every publish is a version, diff and rollback; anchored comments and suggestions | Versions with diff and restore; anchored comments and review rounds |
| Self-hosting | No | Yes, a single container (Fair Source license) |
| Custom domain and SSO | No | Custom domain from Team; OIDC SSO and audit log on Business |
| Pricing | Free, Pro $5/mo, Pro+ $12/mo, Unlimited $24/mo; Team $49/mo per team (early access) | Free up to 3 editors; Team $15/editor/mo ($12 annual); Business $30/editor/mo |

Derive details checked on 2026-10-11 against their public sources (listed below). If something changed, email us at hello@out-box.dev.

## When Derive is the better fit

- You need to self-host, or you need SSO and a custom domain.
- Your agents produce LaTeX papers, decks or multi-file sites, not just pages.
- You want a technical team workspace with review rounds, Slack and GitHub integrations, and agents that run on a schedule.
- Three or fewer people publish and you don't need password-protected links: Derive's free plan covers that.

## When Outbox is the better fit

- You send agent-made proposals, reports and decks to people outside the company and need to know who opened them.
- You want password and expiry on every link without moving to a per-seat plan.
- Many people on your team publish and you want one predictable price.
- The buyer isn't technical and needs a product that explains itself in one sentence.

## Sources

- [Derive · pricing (official)](https://derive.to/pricing)
- [Derive docs · access and sharing](https://docs.derive.to/concepts/access/)
- [Derive docs · home (anonymous drafts)](https://docs.derive.to/)
- [Derive docs · licensing](https://docs.derive.to/reference/licensing/)
- [Derive · README on GitHub](https://github.com/derive-to/derive)

---

Updated 2026-10-11. HTML version: https://out-box.dev/en/guides/vs/derive