PaperCut Hive and PaperCut Pocket are PaperCut’s cloud-native print management products. Both run as PaperCut-hosted services with no on-premises application server, but they are licensed and sold differently. According to PaperCut’s documentation, the subscriptions overview “explains the differences between Hive’s entitlement-based recurring model and Pocket’s monthly user-based subscription”.[3]
Pocket covers print enablement and visibility: driver and queue deployment, Find-Me printing and release from a mobile phone. Hive “includes everything in PaperCut Pocket, plus complete control over your Multi-Function Devices (MFDs)” through embedded software on the device touchscreen.[1]
Editions
| PaperCut Hive | PaperCut Pocket | |
|---|---|---|
| Sold by | Accredited Resellers and Authorized Partners | Directly on papercut.com, or by MSPs |
| Metric | Printer / device entitlements | Unique active user per calendar month |
| Term | Annual; minimum 12 months | Monthly, auto-renewing when bought directly |
| Price | Via reseller | From USD 1.90 per active user per month |
| Catalog row | Hive subscription | Pocket subscription |
Sources: Hive and Pocket product pages and the subscriptions overview.[1][2][3]
Metrics
Hive device entitlements
“PaperCut Hive is sold as an annual subscription licensed per printer. Pricing scales with the size of your fleet and the feature set you need.”[1] The purchasing FAQ describes the model as based on “the number of MFDs set up with PaperCut Hive at your location(s)”.[6] Hive uses no licence keys: “your organization is granted entitlements that live in your cloud environment”. The common entitlements are:[3]
- Printers (“Device with basic functionality”): print queue deployment, secure mobile printing and print tracking.
- Lite Release app: Secure Print Release at the device.
- Full Embedded app: adds copy, scan and fax tracking, card authentication and Integrated Scanning.
- Cloud Services: power-ups such as Cloud OCR.
Free add-ons can be switched on in the admin console. Paid add-ons and extra devices are ordered through the reseller, and the new entitlements then appear automatically.[3] The catalog row is Hive device entitlement.
Pocket unique active users
Pocket “is a monthly subscription that starts at $1.90 USD per Unique Active User”. Customers pay only for people who used the system in the billing period, not for the whole company or per printer.[2]
| Active users per month | Price per active user (USD) |
|---|---|
| 1-50 | 1.90 |
| 51-100 | 1.81 |
| 101-200 | 1.77 |
| 200+ | Speak with PaperCut |
Source: Pocket pricing table, retrieved 2026-10-02.[2]
A user counts as active and billable if, within a calendar month, they do any of the following:[2]
- run an authenticated print client on Windows, Mac or ChromeOS;
- open the Pocket or Hive mobile app;
- log into the User Portal or admin console.
See Unique Active User.
Counting / floors
Hive term. Hive is “sold as a flexible subscription (minimum 12-month term) by Accredited Resellers”.[3] PaperCut recommends tying the Hive subscription to the copier lease, so that entitlements end with the old fleet and fresh entitlements come with the new one. For general businesses it suggests terms of 12 to 36 months, to keep the option of reducing the device count at renewal.[3] See PaperCut Hive is an annual per-printer subscription with a 12-month minimum.
Hive across sites and brands. One Hive subscription can activate the embedded app on MFDs “across multiple locations”. The subscription is vendor-neutral, so devices can be swapped for another brand and the embedded apps moved to the new devices.[6]
Pocket suspensions. A user active in a month “but is set to ‘suspended’ at some point in that month” is still billable for that month. A user who stays suspended for a whole following month is not billable for it.[3] Because billing depends on activity, opening the mobile app or logging into the portal is enough to make a user billable, even without printing.[2] See Suspended Pocket users are billable for the month they were active.
Trials, renewal and expiry
- Trials. Pocket starts with a 40-day free trial with all features. The administrator adds card details to move to the monthly subscription without interruption.[2] Hive trials are set up by an Accredited Reseller. When the customer subscribes, the configuration carries over.[1]
- Activation. For Hive, the reseller buys the subscription and provisions the environment. The customer registers the organization and accepts the PaperCut Terms of Service, and PaperCut applies the entitlements automatically.[3]
- Renewal. Banners and emails start 30 days before expiry, with another email at 15 days. A Pocket subscription bought directly “will automatically renew every month”. Hive renewals go through the reseller, and Pocket renewals bought through an MSP go through the MSP.[3]
- Expiry. When the last subscription expires, “end-users will not be able to securely release their print jobs”. They can still print via USB, use native copy and scan, and use Integrated Scanning.[4] Settings and users from an expired trial are kept until a subscription is set up.[3]
For refunds, PaperCut’s policy states that subscription “activation keys expire after 90 days”.[8]
End-user licence
The Hive and Pocket client and mobile software come with a short licence between PaperCut Software Pty Ltd and the individual user. It lets the user install “one instance of the Software on your main work computer, and one instance on the phone”.[5] The licence says the organization’s own terms are separate: “this is the license between us and you as an individual - if your organization suffers any issues then we’ll handle those under our separate agreement(s) with them”.[5] Trial users must not use the software after the communicated trial period. Copying, reverse engineering and working around technical restrictions are prohibited.[5] See Hive and Pocket client EULA allows one computer and one phone per user.
Support and upgrades
Support for the Hive embedded apps is included in the recurring subscription. As a cloud service, Hive is always on the latest version.[6] Pocket is a “DIY” product: support covers consultation and troubleshooting but not hands-on installation. Hive customers can get installation help from partners offering Professional Services, for an additional fee.[9]
Virtualization & partitioning
Neither product licenses servers. Hive counts printers and embedded apps, and Pocket counts active users.[1][2]
Cloud / BYOL
Hive shares unified subscription pricing with the PaperCut MF subscription introduced in MF 24.0.[7] No public document offers a BYOL or credit mechanism between Pocket, Hive and the self-hosted products.
Out of scope
This article does not cover reseller and MSP pricing for Hive and Pocket, the PaperCut Terms of Service accepted at Hive registration (not reviewed here), Mobility Print (a free tool), or PaperCut NG and MF.