Deta Studio is a drawing and document workspace for AEC teams, and it overlaps Xenmark more closely than most products do. Redlines, callouts, highlights and comments, calibrated measurement in metric or imperial, takeoffs built from the markups, AI document comparison, version history and slip-sheeting — sold either as a $15 monthly cloud seat or as an $89 desktop licence you own outright and can run with no connection at all.
Xenmark runs one job end to end: a drawing set goes out for review, comments come back against the revision they were raised on, and the review finishes as two documents — a plan showing where each comment sits, and a spreadsheet saying what each one means, numbered to match.
On price, on measuring, on working offline and on how easily an outside reviewer can join, Deta matches or beats Xenmark. Where Xenmark separates is the end of the review: a comment number that holds, and a plan and a register that carry it together. Choose Xenmark when the review has to finish as a numbered handover someone outside your team can act on. A free Xenmark project takes a real drawing set from start to finish.
A Xenmark comment number is fixed: delete comment 5 and the gap stays, so item 12 still means item 12 in every email and every export — the number is the same in the review, in the comment plan PDF and in the Excel register.
One Xenmark comment can own several markers on the drawing while keeping one number and one reply thread, so it stays a single line in the register however many places it shows up.
A Xenmark review ends in a drawing with each comment numbered where it applies, and an Excel register numbered to match, produced from the same comments in one step. Deta publishes collaboration, signing and export capabilities without describing that pairing.
Every Deta Studio claim below is taken from Deta Studio's own published material and was last checked on 29 August 2026. Software changes; if something here is out of date, tell us and we will correct it.
Deta does most of what Xenmark does, and several rows below go its way. It is cheaper: a permanent licence at $89 paid once, or Cloud Pro at $15 per user per month, against a subscription on our side. Its free plan is real and permanent — one workspace, up to three members and five documents, no card — and its reviewers can comment without creating an account at all, which ours cannot.
It measures more than we do, and it works where we cannot. Calibrated length, area, perimeter and count in metric or imperial, and its August 2026 update adds takeoffs built from markups, tables that count and measure tagged marks, and libraries that price them — an estimating workflow Xenmark does not attempt. The permanent licence “runs locally on your computer — no internet required” and “works fully offline”. Xenmark runs in a browser and needs a connection throughout.
It also carries AI document comparison, QA and QC checks, signing and approvals, version history and slip-sheeting, and connections to Google Drive and Dropbox — none of which Xenmark has. What Xenmark adds is narrower and specific: a comment number that holds when an earlier comment is deleted, one comment owning several markers, and a numbered plan with a matching register as the standard handover.
| Xenmark | Deta Studio | |
|---|---|---|
| Starting a review | ||
| Can the person running the review start free? | Yes — the Free plan runs one active review at a time, start to finish | Yes, and permanently. Deta states that the free plan includes one workspace, up to three members and five documents, with no credit card required. |
| Do external reviewers need a paid subscription? | No — the people you invite read, reply and download the exports without paying | No, and they need no account either. Deta allows commenting without signing up, which is more open than Xenmark — our invited reviewers are free of charge, but they do sign in. |
| Available platforms | Any modern browser — nothing to install, and the people you invite join from a link | Browser, Mac, Windows and iPad, with the desktop licence running locally. Xenmark is browser only. |
| How the review is structured | ||
| What the review is built from | A numbered comment. Anything drawn on the page belongs to that comment rather than standing on its own. | A document inside a workspace, with real-time collaboration on it — comments, callouts, highlights and freehand redlines. |
| Replies | Threaded under the comment, each attributed and dated, with image attachments, and carried into the register | Yes — Deta documents comment threads on annotations, so a reply sits under the annotation it belongs to. |
| Status workflow | Open, In progress and Closed — three fixed states, and the status travels into the Excel register | QA and QC checks, signing and approvals are stated as workflow features. |
| Comment numbering | Numbers are stable — delete comment 5 and the gap stays, so item 12 still means item 12 in every email and every export | Comments are threaded on the annotation they were raised on. |
| One issue, several drawing locations | One comment can own several markers while keeping one number and one reply thread | A comment thread attaches to the annotation it was raised on, and comments can be pinned. |
| Activity history | Every action timestamped and attributed to the person who made it | Version history is stated for documents. |
| Revision handling | Comments stay tied to the revision they were raised against, in one workflow | Yes, and with more tools than ours. Version history, slip-sheeting and page replacement, and AI document comparison between two versions. |
| Measuring and markup | ||
| Measuring on the drawing | Length, polylength, perimeter and area, calibrated to the page scale | More than ours. Calibrated length, area, perimeter and count, in metric or imperial. |
| Setting the drawing scale | Pick a standard scale, type your own, name the sheet size, or calibrate from a distance you already know | Calibrated scale, metric or imperial. Deta states scale support across its measurement tools. |
| Building your own reusable symbols | Check, cross, attention, arrow and cloud — five fixed review symbols, not a custom library | Saved markup swatches — reusable appearance and style settings. |
| Measuring quantities for pricing a job | Not included — measurements are there to explain a comment, not to cost work | Yes — this is a real difference, and it runs their way. The August 2026 update describes takeoffs built from markups, tables that count and measure tagged marks, and libraries that price them. Xenmark does not do this at all. |
| What comes out of the review | ||
| What you send back | The two documents come out ready to send — there is nothing to set up first, because the review was structured that way from the start | Collaboration, signing and export are stated. |
| Comment plan PDF | The drawing with each comment numbered and shown where it applies | A printed PDF carrying the pinned notes, with a dated report appended at the back. |
| Spreadsheet output | An Excel file listing every comment, numbered to match the PDF | Deta documents a comment summary, and separately its takeoff tables for counted and measured marks. |
| Measurements in the export | Drawn on the comment plan PDF where they were placed, and listed on their own sheet in the Excel file, kept separate from the comments | The takeoff tables count and measure tagged marks, so measured values do become data. |
| What you keep when the project ends | A single zip file — every revision's exports, the attachments and the full activity log, downloaded and stored on your side | With the permanent licence, the files, and that is the point of it. They sit on your own machine and the licence does not expire. |
| Branded reports | Your company logo and text on both deliverables, inherited from Company Settings — Plus and Pro | The published output is a printed PDF with pinned notes and an appended dated report. |
| What else each one does | ||
| Batch operations across many PDFs | Not included — a review works on one drawing set at a time | What Deta publishes for working across a document set is AI document comparison and version handling. |
| Comparing two drawings against each other | Not included — differences get raised as comments by the people reviewing | Yes — AI document comparison is a published feature, alongside slip-sheeting and page replacement. Xenmark cannot compare two drawings at all. |
| Working offline | Browser only, so you need a connection | Yes, and completely. The permanent licence “runs locally on your computer — no internet required” and “works fully offline”. The cloud product also describes downloading, marking up and syncing afterwards. |
| Storing documents long term | Not what it is for. You download the exports and keep them wherever your project records already live. | The cloud workspace holds documents with version history, and connects to Google Drive and Dropbox. With the desktop licence the files stay wherever you keep them. |
| CAD integrations and creating PDFs from CAD | None — a review starts from a PDF that has already been produced | Like Xenmark, Deta starts from a document that has already been produced. |
| Connecting to a document management system | No integrations yet — the closing archive is a single zip you file wherever your records already live | Google Drive and Dropbox are stated, as places to hold and open files from. Xenmark has no integrations yet. |
Deta is inexpensive for one paid user, and its permanent licence is unusually cheap. A Permanent License is $89 paid once per licence, runs locally with no connection needed, includes the markup and dimension tools and comes with a fifteen-day trial. Cloud Pro is $15 per user per month. Xenmark is €14.99 – €59.99 / month, with a Free plan that runs a complete review.
The two free plans are close enough to compare directly, and they trade off against each other. Deta’s allows one workspace, three members and five documents. Xenmark’s allows one active review with up to five project members, three drawings in it and three revisions of each. Deta gives you more documents; Xenmark gives you more people.
| Xenmark | Deta Studio | |
|---|---|---|
| Billing unit | Per project capacity, monthly | Two shapes: a one-off perpetual licence, or a monthly per-user cloud subscription |
| Entry point | Free — one active review, start to finish, no card | Free — one workspace, up to three members and five documents, no card |
| To run a review yourself | Free | Free within the workspace limits; $15 per user per month on Cloud Pro, or $89 once for the desktop licence |
| Paid range | €14.99 – €59.99 / month | $15 per user per month, or $89 paid once |
| Invited reviewers | Free — no per-user charge; 5–30 project members depending on plan, and the person running the review is one of them | Free, and no account needed to comment. The free plan counts three workspace members |
| Tax basis | Including VAT | USD · tax basis not stated |
Xenmark — current as of 29 August 2026. Deta Studio — checked 27 August 2026. Deta sells through two delivery models that do not compare to each other, let alone to a subscription: a perpetual desktop licence, or cloud plans — Free, Pro and Studio. Which is cheaper depends on how long you keep using it and how many people need it. The page states no tax basis; Xenmark prices include VAT. Nothing here is converted or adjusted — a currency rate and a tax rate both depend on the buyer.
Yes, a permanent one. Deta states that the free plan includes one workspace, up to three members and five documents, with no credit card required.
The Xenmark Free plan is shaped differently: one active review at a time, taken from start to finish with the comment plan and the Excel register included, with up to five project members, three drawings and three revisions of each. Deta’s allows more documents; ours allows more people.
It sells through two delivery models. A Permanent License at $89, paid once per licence, which runs locally, works offline and includes all the markup and dimension tools, with a fifteen-day trial. And cloud plans — Free at $0, Pro at $15 per user per month, and Studio billed per seat to the workspace owner.
Xenmark is €14.99 – €59.99 / month. Deta charges per user and Xenmark charges per project, so which one costs less depends on how many people need to be in the review. Its figures are in US dollars with no tax basis stated; ours are in euro including VAT, and nothing here is converted.
No. Deta allows commenting without signing up, which is more open than Xenmark. Our invited reviewers are free of charge, but they do create an account and they count against the plan’s member limit — five on Free, thirty on Pro.
What that buys in Xenmark is a role: the Project Manager decides whether each invited person is a Participant, who replies and downloads exports, or an Editor, who creates comments and pins. That choice is available on every plan, including Free.
Yes, and further than Xenmark does. Calibrated length, area, perimeter and count in metric or imperial, and its August 2026 update describes takeoffs built from markups, tables that count and measure tagged marks, and libraries that price them.
Worth confirming which plan carries the takeoff tables before relying on them, since Deta’s public pages describe the capability without pinning it to a tier. Xenmark measures length, polylength, perimeter and area to explain a comment, and is not a takeoff or estimating product at all.
Deta publishes document collaboration, signing and export capabilities, and separately describes takeoff tables that count and measure tagged marks.
That is a gap in the published material rather than a demonstrated absence, and it is the kind of thing worth checking in a free workspace before choosing on it. In Xenmark the Excel register lists every comment numbered to match the plan, with the measurements on their own sheet in the same file.
Both, yes. The $89 permanent licence “runs locally on your computer — no internet required” and “works fully offline”, and the cloud product also describes downloading a document, marking it up and syncing afterwards. On versions it carries history, slip-sheeting and page replacement, plus AI document comparison between two versions.
Xenmark does neither. It runs in a browser and needs a connection throughout, and it has no drawing comparison — differences get raised as comments by the people reviewing.
For one paid user, no. Cloud Pro is $15 per user per month and the permanent licence is $89 paid once; Xenmark is €14.99 – €59.99 / month. Cloud Pro is charged per user and Xenmark per project, so once several people need to be in the same review the comparison turns on the seat count. Both products also run a real free tier, so for a small first review the answer is nothing either way.
The shapes differ enough that a straight comparison misleads past a certain size: Xenmark charges for the project rather than for each person, so a large group on a single review is priced very differently by the two. Deta’s figures are in US dollars with no tax basis stated; ours are in euro including VAT.
When you need to measure and price the work, which its takeoff tables and pricing libraries do and Xenmark does not attempt. When the work has to run offline. When you would rather buy a licence once than rent a seat. When comparing two versions matters. And when the reviewers must be able to comment without ever creating an account.
We sell Xenmark, so this is not an independent review. We have tried to describe Deta Studio accurately, and every Deta Studio claim on this page rests on Deta’s own published pages and documentation. The documents are named below. Capabilities and pricing change. Deta Studio feature information was last checked on 29 August 2026, and the pricing on 27 August 2026.
Deta’s documentation and feature pages are linked, so the claims here can be checked against the source each one rests on. The prices sit on the front page and are named rather than linked. Deta publishes a great deal about markup, measurement and comparison.
The Free plan takes a real drawing set end to end. No card, no time limit.
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