Data room reviews
11 virtual data room providers, compared
Picking a data room usually means a dozen sales calls just to find out what something costs. We checked the price, the security and the features for 11 companies so you do not have to.
All 11, ranked
Ellty is one of the newer names on this list, launched in 2020 in Australia, but it already has the full set of tools a deal team expects: permissions, a Q&A box, watermarks and a log of who opened what. Best for: Fast setup, clear pricing.
Datasite is a name most people in investment banking already know. Best for: Investment banking deals.
Ansarada, out of Australia, built its name on helping companies get ready for a sale, not just hosting documents during one. Best for: Deal readiness, AI-assisted Q&A.
iDeals has been doing this since 2008 out of the UK and is one of the most established names in the business. Best for: Big deals, strict compliance.
Drooms is a German company that is especially popular in Europe for real estate deals, though it handles company sales too. Best for: European deals, real estate.
Intralinks has been in this business since 1996, making it one of the oldest names here. Best for: Capital markets, big companies.
Firmex, a Canadian company founded in 2006, is popular with mid-size companies and the law firms and accountants who work with them. Best for: Mid-market M&A, easy to learn.
SmartRoom, founded in 2004, is used a lot for M&A and real estate deals in the US. Best for: Responsive support during a live deal.
ShareVault has been around since 2003 and is especially known in life sciences and licensing deals, on top of regular M&A work. Best for: Life sciences, licensing deals.
DealRoom, based in the US, is a bit different from the others on this list: it is built to manage the whole deal process, not just hold documents. Best for: Managing the whole deal process.
Digify, out of Singapore, is not trying to be a full deal room the way the others on this list are. Best for: Simple document sharing on a budget.
What is a virtual data room?
A virtual data room is a locked-down website where a company puts the documents outside parties need to see during a deal: financials, contracts, cap tables, intellectual property. Everyone who gets access signs in with their own login, and the company controls exactly which folders each person can open, whether they can download a file or only view it, and whether a watermark with their name and the date shows up on every page.
It exists because email and a shared drive were never built for this. A data room logs who opened which file and when, lets a company answer questions from buyers or lawyers in one place instead of a scattered email thread, and can cut off access the moment a deal falls through or closes.
Who actually needs one
Not every document share needs a full data room. These are the deal types where one usually does.
M&A due diligence
Buying or selling a company. Outside lawyers and accountants need to get through thousands of documents fast, and you need a record of exactly who looked at what.
9 of our 11 are tagged for this · see them →
Fundraising
Raising a round. Investors expect an organized room before they send a term sheet, not a folder of attachments buried in an email thread.
1 of our 11 are tagged for this · see them →
Real estate
A property sale or a large commercial lease, where title documents, surveys and inspection reports go out to several bidders at the same time.
1 of our 11 are tagged for this · see them →
Life sciences
Licensing a drug or device, or a clinical trial partnership, where IP and trial data need tight, auditable access control.
1 of our 11 are tagged for this · see them →
Enterprise and audits
An internal audit, a board review, or getting a large organization ready for an eventual sale before you actually need to move fast.
3 of our 11 are tagged for this · see them →
General due diligence
Any process where one side has to hand over sensitive documents to another and prove, later, exactly who saw what and when.
2 of our 11 are tagged for this · see them →
How to choose one
List what you actually need
Figure out which of the core deal tools matter for your deal (a Q&A box, a document log, watermarks, redaction, fine-grained permissions, bulk upload) before you start comparing prices.
Check the certification, not just the marketing page
If your deal is regulated or enterprise-scale, confirm the current ISO 27001 or SOC 2 status directly with the vendor. A certification can lapse without the website updating.
Get a real number for your deal size
Most companies on this list will not post a price until you talk to someone. Use our cost calculator or ask for a quote scoped to your actual deal size and duration, not a generic plan page.
Try before you commit
A free trial, or at least a live demo, shows you how fast you can actually get a room running, which matters more than a features list once a deal clock is running.
Everything you need to pick one
Not just a list. A transparent score, a cost estimate for your deal, and a quiz if you would rather not read eleven reviews.
Scoring
One score, five criteria, published in full
Features, security, ease of use, pricing and technology, each weighted and combined into one number out of 10. No black box, and nobody can pay for a higher spot.
Calculator
See what it actually costs
Pick a deal size and duration, get a real number for all 11 at once.
Quiz
Matched in five questions
Tell us your deal type and budget, get three matches with reasons.
Sourcing
Built from real facts, not sales calls
Every claim traces back to a vendor's own site or a published certification, never a testing claim we made up.
Five things we check, no secrets
We do not hide how the score works. Every number on this site comes from the same formula, and we recheck it whenever a company changes its price or features. Features counts for the most because a data room that cannot handle its own questions and document log just pushes that work onto email, which is what a data room is supposed to replace.
How we weight the score
What most of them have, and what only a few do
Some things (watermarks, a document log) are close to standard across all 11. Others (AI tools, redaction built in) still separate the newer companies from the older ones.
Which features are common across the 11
We track 6 core deal tools out of 12 features in total: watermarks, document log, Q&A, redaction, access rights and bulk upload.
What will it actually cost you?
Pick a deal size, how many people need access, and how many months you will need the room. Most companies on this list will not tell you a price until you talk to someone, so this gives you a starting number for all 11, side by side.
Estimate the cost for all 11
| Provider | Pricing | Estimated cost |
|---|---|---|
| Ellty | Flat plan | $207 |
| Digify | Flat plan | $360 |
| Datasite | Estimate | ~$4,500–$13,500 |
| Ansarada | Estimate | ~$4,500–$13,500 |
| iDeals | Estimate | ~$4,500–$13,500 |
| Drooms | Estimate | ~$4,500–$13,500 |
| Intralinks | Estimate | ~$4,500–$13,500 |
| Firmex | Estimate | ~$4,500–$13,500 |
| SmartRoom | Estimate | ~$4,500–$13,500 |
| ShareVault | Estimate | ~$4,500–$13,500 |
| DealRoom | Estimate | ~$4,500–$13,500 |
Flat and per-user prices come from each provider's own published plan. Providers marked "Estimate" do not post a price; the number comes from the market band you picked above, never a number we made up for that specific company.
Compare two companies side by side
Five head-to-head matchups: price, security certification, features and which one wins on what.
Latest guides
Oct 12, 2026
Data room security: a checklist before you share documents
A checklist you run yourself before documents go in the room, not a claim about how secure a vendor says it is.
Oct 12, 2026
A data room for fundraising: what to check before you pick one
Fundraising rooms get judged on speed and investor experience first, deal controls second. Here is what to check in that order.
Oct 12, 2026
Choosing a virtual data room for M&A due diligence
The deal controls an M&A due-diligence room actually needs, and a shortlist checklist that goes beyond price.
Oct 12, 2026
AI features in a virtual data room, explained
Auto-indexing, document search and Q&A assistance: what these AI features actually do, and how to check a vendor's claim rather than take it on faith.
Oct 12, 2026
How to set up a virtual data room
Folder structure, permissions and a Q&A workflow, set up in the right order before anyone outside your team gets access.
Not sure which one is right for you?
Answer five quick questions about your deal and we will give you three matches, with the reasons why.
Find my matchWhy a short list instead of a long one
A lot of comparison sites in this space try to list every company that has ever called itself a data room. That just puts the work of narrowing it down back on you. We do that narrowing up front. A company only gets a spot on our list if it can run an actual deal, start to finish, with its own question box, document log, watermarks and access controls built in, not bolted on through some other tool.
The 11 are not ranked by how big the brand is or how long they have been around. Two well-known, long-established companies sit near the top of our list; a newer company sits at number one because its posted price, fast setup and feature set score better on our formula. A lighter document-tracking tool sits near the bottom because it was not built for a full deal process, even though it is a fine product for a smaller job. You can read the reasoning behind every spot on the full list, or see the formula itself on our scoring page.
Frequently asked questions
Why does this site only cover 11 companies?
We would rather keep a short list we actually check than a long one nobody can read all the way through. A company only gets on the list if it can run a full deal on its own. See how we pick the 11.
How do you come up with the score?
We score every company on five things: features, security, ease of use, pricing and technology. Each is out of 10, and we combine them into one number. Full formula on our scoring page.
Can a company pay for a better score?
No. The formula runs the same for every company, and nobody can pay us for a higher spot on the list.
Is a virtual data room the same thing as a shared drive?
No. A shared drive (Dropbox, Google Drive) does not give you a Q&A box, a log of who opened which file, watermarks by default, or per-folder access rights the way a data room does. For a formal deal, that matters.
How do I know which of the 11 fits my deal?
Start with our fit quiz, five questions about your deal type and budget, or read the full list and compare a couple directly on our comparison pages.
Do you make money from this site?
Yes, through affiliate deals with a few of the companies we cover, including Ellty. Our partner disclosure explains what that does and does not change about the scoring.
How current are the prices and facts on this site?
We recheck them when a company changes something we track; see the "last rechecked" date on the review page. Always confirm the current number on the company’s own site before budgeting.