Data Room Providers Comparison for 2024

Necessary Virtual Data Room Features

Document Control

Virtual data rooms allow for the ability to organize, secure, and share sensitive document/files with internal teams, external teams, and third parties.

Content Organization and Presentation

Virtual data rooms enable enhanced document organization in the form of folder structures or tags. Organized folder structures help teams efficiently locate and access documents as well as control who has access to what.

User Activity Monitoring

Virtual data rooms provide real-time updates and detailed analytics about who made what changes. They can also be used to provide insight into the document review process.

Accelerated Document Preparation and Review

When dealing with compressed timelines, room admins can easily set up and maintain file permissions, administrative setups, and diligence tasks. Admins can also make bulk changes to permissions, policies, and room structures.

What to Consider When Choosing a Virtual Data Room

Define your VDR needs by considering the following questions:

• How much storage do you need?
• What kind of files and documents will you be storing?
• What is your budget?
• Which team members will be using the data room?
• Will the entire company be using the data room?
• Will the VDR simply be used to store documents or will it serve other purposes?
• Will the use of the data room affect work streams?

Identify desired features

1. Security

Security is of the utmost importance when selecting a VDR.

When considering avirtual data room provider, look for options that are ISO 27081 compliant. Similarly, eliminate options that do not have two-factor authentication (to reduce password theft), strong encryption methods (to keep documents safe), and digital watermarking abilities (to prevent illegal copying).

2. Document management features

Some virtual data rooms, such as FirmRoom,  allow teams to not only store documents and files, but also include in-text search, built-in document and excel viewers, and various document filters.

3. Permission settings

‍Permission settings are critical to explore when shopping for a VDR. Important settings to look for are view-only, view with a watermark, download with a watermark, and download original. The specificity of permission settings varies, and can have an impact on your collaboration and document safety.

4. Analytics

A data room should provide data on all users, activity, files, and documents within the room. This is not only useful from a security point of view, but also from a project management perspective as it allows admins to identify potential roadblocks, measure users’ levels of interaction, and avoid redundant work.

5. Customer support

The best virtual data room providers offer 24/7 live customer support. Chat online with customer service or call the customer service line to gauge the provider's responsiveness.

6. Consider your budget

Pricing will be discussed further along in this guide; however, this is an important factor to consider when selecting a VDR. Read reviews (with a grain of salt) and contact providers to ask for a free trial so you can check out if the platform meets your needs. Pay attention to the interface, ease of use, and efficiency.

Virtual Data Rooms by Use Cases

Below are some typical examples of virtual data rooms cases besides the most obvious, data storage. If you find yourself in one of these positions, a virtual data room may be worth considering

M&A

‍Virtual deal rooms are often used during the due diligence stage of M&A, as a place to house and share thousands of documents with different teams, such as potential buyers and sellers.

Pipeline document management

A deal pipeline is the visual illustration or representation of all current deals, arranged by stages and potential that exists with each stage. Virtual data rooms can be used to organize the files needed for each stage of the deal pipeline to provide fast and effective access to the most up-to-date data available.

VDRs help ensure uninterrupted distribution of information and eliminating any potential loss of information. Data rooms can be used to assist in folder preparation, managing user access, uploading updated documents, exchanging information, sharing notes from prospects, compiling sources of information, and controlling data distribution.

Due diligence

With the use of a data room with Q&A functionality, it is possible to synchronize all processes involved with due diligence, including diligence requests, communication, and document management, in one place - tailored for both buyers and sellers.

Many data rooms, like FirmRoom, have pre-made diligence folder structure templates that outline all of the information required. Teams can upload the template and the room will be structured accordingly.

IPO

Companies preparing for an initial public offering, or IPO, find data rooms extremely useful. Virtual data rooms allow for management of the whole documentation process while sharing company information securely with shareholders, underwriters, and all third parties involved.

Partnerships

Similar to M&A, partnerships entail forming an agreement with another business to start a venture together while not entirely merging.These are mutually beneficial agreements and, as in M&A, require a great deal of data sharing. This data can be shared in a virtual data room, so both companies have access to all of the information at the same time in a secure setting.

Conducting Audits

While audits are no one’s favourite thing, they’re a necessary evil. Virtual data rooms can make the process of being audited a bit less painful; all company policies, procedures, accounts, and other documentation can be shared with external auditors on a view-only basis through a data room with specific permissions.

Raising Capital

Increasing funding is an extremely important part of sustaining a new business. To do so, private financial details about your business must be shared with investors as you try to convince them that your product or service is the best. Virtual data rooms are used during fundraising to facilitate this information sharing with stakeholders and prospects.

Consultancy

Confidentiality and privacy are top priorities of consultancy businesses that require a controlled environment, which a VDR provides.

Manufacturing

Manufacturing industries use VDRs to share new designs or project data.

Any type of Document Sharing

If your company finds themselves losing documents or struggling to find files, a virtual data room might be for you.

A global survey of workers and IT professionals in 2012 by IDC revealed that document challenges account for 21.3 percent of productivity loss. To eliminate that, store them all in a virtual data room where everyone in the company will be able to access what they need, when they need it.

Industry Applications

Not only do virtual data rooms have a large amount of uses, but they also apply to a variety of industries.

Technology

Virtual data rooms allow tech firms to share information among teams spread across the globe to facilitate the spread of ideas within the companies.

Investment Banking

Investment banking processes like IPOs, capital raising, and M&A can demand huge amounts of information sharing for which the virtual data room is ideally suited.

Corporate Development

With the use of a virtual data room, companies can identify trends in data that they otherwise may have missed to determine corporate strategy.

Private Equity & Venture Capital

Private Equity and venture capital firms usually analyze several deals at once, and depend on virtual data rooms to securely organize all of this data to ensure that every deal in their pipeline is managed efficiently.

Legal Industry

Virtual data rooms can eliminate the typical mountains of paperwork by introducing electronic document sharing. This streamlines the process for every manner of legal proceedings.

Life Sciences

Life science firms use virtual data rooms for everything from clinical trial results andHIPAA compliance to licensing IP and storages of patient files.

Startups

When startups are talking with prospective investors, data rooms help them analyze interest.Virtual data rooms allow startups to see which investors are spending the most time reviewing specific company documents and how much time they spent in a room to get a better idea of their engagement level.‍

Business agents

A virtual data room provides an accessible means to share information on deals and closures, no matter what industry or how much paperwork may be involved.

Virtual Data Room Pricing

How much does a virtual data room cost?

Not all data room pricing is made equal.  A per-page structure, as the name states, charges per page. The cost is generally $0.50 - $0.60  per page.

A per-user structure covers a set number of user licenses in the monthly cost, typically between $100-$250, and charges extra for each user. Certain providers base their pricing on storage size, and allow a certain number of GBs or a range of GBs.  And still others charge a flat fee, including a specific amount of data, unlimited pages, and unlimited users for a set price per month. This is the option utilized by FirmRoom.  

What makes them different?

VDR pricing is affected by a variety of factors, including the presence of features such as security, data management, project management, functionality, analytics, and software integrations. Find a balance between what you are looking for in terms of features and cost.  

Best Price to Feature Ratios

From our research, these data room providers have the best price to feature ratios.

1. FirmRoom
2. Securedocs
3. Sharefile
4. Firmex
5. Ansarada
6. Intralinks
7. Merrill Datasite

But, you’ll have to see for yourself - keep our guide in mind when you’re evaluating your options!

What is the best data room for startups?

Fair, Transparent Pricing

The best virtual data rooms for startups are those with flat, rate transparent pricing structures. For start ups, every penny counts. Startups should avoid using expensive, per page data rooms such as Intralinks and Datasite, and chose a flat-rate provider, such as FirmRoom.

Short Adoption Curve

Typically in startups, employees are wearing many different hats, and do not have time to learn complicated platforms or use a clunky interface. Startups need to select a VDR provider that is easy to learn, with a very short adoption curve, and equipped with 24/7 customer service if needed.

What is the best data room for M&A?

Reliable Data Storage and In-platform Viewing

Deals are unpredictable, and so is the amount of data storage they require. M&A teams need to choose a virtual data room provider that can store significant amounts of data, support a variety of file types, and comes equipped with in-platform viewings. If teams can confidently storage and access their files in one place, they will not have to juggle multiple platforms and can focus on the deal.

High Security Standards and Customizable Permissions

‍

Deal documents need to be securely accessible to multiple parties, but not everyone should have the same access level. M&A teams should select a virtual data room platform that not only meet industry standards, but that goes above and beyond to keep their data safe. They also need to be able to control what type of permissions each user has, down to each individual file.

What to Consider When Choosing a Virtual Data Room

Define needs and abilities

Consider the following questions:

• How much storage do you need?
• What kind of files and documents will you be storing?
• What is your budget?
• Which team members will be using the data room?
• Will the entire company be using the data room?
• Will the VDR simply be used to store documents or will it serve other purposes?
• Will the use of the data room affect work streams?

Identify desired features

1. Security

Security is of the utmost importance when selecting a VDR.

When considering virtual data rooms, you should be looking for only options that are ISO 27081 compliant. Similarly, eliminate options that do not have two-factor authentication to reduce password theft, strong encryption methods to keep documents safe, and digital watermarking abilities to prevent illegal copying.

2. Document management features

Some virtual data rooms, such as FirmRoom,  allow teams to not only store documents and files, but also include in-text search, built-in document and excel viewer, and various filters. .

3. Permission settings

‍Permission settings are critical to explore when shopping for a VDR. Important things to look for are “view only” options and specific, or partial,  document sharing and restriction. The specificity of permission settings varies, and can have an impact on your collaboration and document safety.

4. Analytics

Your data room should provide data on all users, activity, files, and documents within the room. This is not only useful from a security point of view, but also from a project management perspective as it allows you to identify potential roadblocks, gauge users’ levels of interaction, and avoid redundant work.

5. Customer support

The best virtual data room providers offer 24/7 live customer support. Chat online with customer service or call the customer service line to gauge the level of responsiveness and your experience, as this will inevitably be useful down the line.  

6. Consider your budget

Pricing will be discussed further along in this guide; however, this is an important factor to consider going into the process of obtaining aVDR. Read reviews (with a grain of salt) and contact the providers to ask for a free trial so you can be sure that it is a good fit. Pay attention to interface, ease of use, and efficiency.

Virtual Data Rooms by Use Cases

Below are some typical examples of use cases for virtual data rooms besides the most obvious, data storage. If you find yourself in one of these positions, a virtual data room may be worth considering

M&A

‍Virtual deal rooms are often used during the due diligence stage of M&A as a place to house and share thousands of documents with different teams, such as potential buyers and sellers.

Pipeline document management

A deal pipeline is the visual illustration or representation of all current deals, arranged by stages and potential that exists with each stage. Virtual data rooms can be used to organize the files needed for each stage of the deal pipeline to provide fast and effective access to the most up-to-date data available.

VDRs help ensure uninterrupted distribution of information and eliminating any potential loss of information. Data rooms can be used to assist in folder preparation, managing user access, uploading updated documents, exchanging information, sharing notes from prospects, compiling sources of information, and controlling data distribution.

Due diligence

With the use of a data room with Q&A functionality, it is possible to synchronize all processes involved with due diligence, including diligence requests, communication, and document management, in one place - tailored for both buyers and sellers.

Many data rooms, like FirmRoom, have pre-made diligence folder structure templates that outline all of the information required. Teams can upload the template and the room will be structured accordingly.

IPO

Companies preparing for an initial public offering, or IPO, find data rooms extremely useful. Virtual data rooms allow for management of the whole documentation process while sharing company information securely with shareholders, underwriters, and all third parties involved.

Partnerships

Similar to M&A, partnerships entail forming an agreement with another business to start a venture together while not entirely merging.These are mutually beneficial agreements and, as in M&A, require a great deal of data sharing. This data can be shared in a virtual data room, so both companies have access to all of the information at the same time in a secure setting.

Conducting Audits

While audits are no one’s favourite thing, they’re a necessary evil. Virtual data rooms can make the process of being audited a bit less painful; all company policies, procedures, accounts, and other documentation can be shared with external auditors on a view-only basis through a data room with specific permissions.

Raising Capital

Increasing funding is an extremely important part of sustaining a new business. To do so, private financial details about your business must be shared with investors as you try to convince them that your product or service is the best. Virtual data rooms are used during fundraising to facilitate this information sharing with stakeholders and prospects.

Consultancy

Confidentiality and privacy are top priorities of consultancy businesses that require a controlled environment, which a VDR provides.

Manufacturing

Manufacturing industries use VDRs to share new designs or project data.

Any type of Document Sharing

If your company finds themselves losing documents or struggling to find files, a virtual data room might be for you.

A global survey of workers and IT professionals in 2012 by IDC revealed that document challenges account for 21.3 percent of productivity loss. To eliminate that, store them all in a virtual data room where everyone in the company will be able to access what they need, when they need it.

Industry Applications

Not only do virtual data rooms have a large amount of uses, but they also apply to a variety of industries.

Technology

Virtual data rooms allow tech firms to share information among teams spread across the globe to facilitate the spread of ideas within the companies.

Investment Banking

Investment banking processes like IPOs, capital raising, and M&A can demand huge amounts of information sharing for which the virtual data room is ideally suited.

Corporate Development

With the use of a virtual data room, companies can identify trends in data that they otherwise may have missed to determine corporate strategy.

Private Equity & Venture Capital

Private Equity and venture capital firms usually analyze several deals at once, and depend on virtual data rooms to securely organize all of this data to ensure that every deal in their pipeline is managed efficiently.

Legal Industry

Virtual data rooms can eliminate the typical mountains of paperwork by introducing electronic document sharing. This streamlines the process for every manner of legal proceedings.

Life Sciences

Life science firms use virtual data rooms for everything from clinical trial results andHIPAA compliance to licensing IP and storages of patient files.

Startups

When startups are talking with prospective investors, data rooms help them analyze interest.Virtual data rooms allow startups to see which investors are spending the most time reviewing specific company documents and how much time they spent in a room to get a better idea of their engagement level.‍

Business agents

A virtual data room provides an accessible means to share information on deals and closures, no matter what industry or how much paperwork may be involved.

Virtual Data Room Pricing

How much does a virtual data room cost?

Not all data room pricing is made equal.  A per-page structure, as the name states, charges per page. The cost is generally $0.50 - $0.60  per page.

A per-user structure covers a set number of user licenses in the monthly cost, typically between $100-$250, and charges extra for each user. Certain providers base their pricing on storage size, and allow a certain number of GBs or a range of GBs.  And still others charge a flat fee, including a specific amount of data, unlimited pages, and unlimited users for a set price per month. This is the option utilized by FirmRoom.  

What makes them different?

VDR pricing is affected by a variety of factors, including the presence of features such as security, data management, project management, functionality, analytics, and software integrations. It is important to find a balance between what you are looking for in terms of features and cost.  

Best Price to Feature Ratios

From our research, these data room providers have the best price to feature ratios.

1. FirmRoom
2. Securedocs
3. Sharefile
4. Firmex
5. Ansarada
6. Intralinks
7. Merrill Datasite

But, you’ll have to see for yourself - keep our guide in mind when you’re evaluating your options!